F. Javier Cevallos, president at Kutztown Universityand chair of the team that evaluated SUNY Oswego for accreditation, delivers the team’s “very positive” report to the campus community April 4.

A team appointed by the commission to examine SUNY Oswego and how it fulfills its mission conducted a campus visit in April and praised the college in a report to the campus community.

“You should be really proud,” said Dr. F. Javier Cevallos, president at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and chair of the team of external evaluators. Calling the result of the four-day visit “a clean audit,” he said, “You’re doing a great job.”

Cevallos said the team found no grounds to issue recommendations or requirements, the two categories of findings that would oblige the college to follow up with corrective action. At the same time, Cevallos reported more than a dozen areas in which the team commended the college.

College President Deborah F. Stanley praised the college community, the campus reaccreditation steering committee and especially its co-chairs, Dr. Julie Pretzat and Dr. Elizabeth Dunne Schmitt, for the successful conclusion of the multiyear preparations for the college’s reaccreditation.

“This is certainly the most positive 10-year review our campus has had, and it testifies to the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff and students in all that we do as a community of learners and teachers,” said Stanley, who has been president at Oswego since 1997.

“You care about student success, and it shows,” Cevallos said.

Accreditation by one of the regional accrediting bodies ensures that a college is offering an education of sound quality that adheres to recognized standards as well as making the institution eligible for federal funding.

Every 10 years, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Higher Education reaccredits SUNY Oswego. Prominent in the reaccreditation process are the campus self-study and the external review. The entire reaccreditation process helps evaluate SUNY Oswego’s progress over the past 10 years and inform plans for the future.

Lewis, a multilingual teacher-scholar for nearly three decades and a pre-eminent expert on the literature of Paraguay, has taught Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish literature and more with patience, humor and creativity.

Belt, a teacher of technology design for 37 years at Oswego, has earned lifelong admiration among students in many fields for his groundbreaking and rigorous teaching methods in pursuit of making the world a more livable, sustainable place.

Tracy K. Lewis, Professor of Modern Languages and Literature

John Belt, Associate Professor of Technology

Howard Gordon ’74, M ’78

Gordon is a member of the NAPAHE board. He was recognized for enhancing the presence of the organization in the higher education community, contributing to the association’s development and overall progress and serving as a role model and mentor to new presidential assistants.

He has been executive assistant to President Stanley since 1996. Gordon is also the college’s special assistant for social equity and senior Title IX coordinator. Previously, he served SUNY Oswego as an assistant dean of arts and sciences and a counselor in the Office of Special Programs, now the Office of Learning Services.

He received a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service in 1991.

At the recent national Beta Alpha Psi conference in Denver, SUNY Oswego students, from left, Michael Kohn ’12, Gary Gregory ’12, Bryant Tyler ’12 and Lindsay Martell ’11 accepted a $5,000 ethics award on behalf of the college’s chapter of Beta Alpha Psi in the School of Business.

The focus of the competition was the practice of ethical behavior in the accounting, finance and information technology professions.

SUNY Oswego students Michael Kohn ’12, Gary Gregory ’12, Bryant Tyler ’12 and Lindsay Martell ’11 attended the national Beta Alpha Psi conference in August in Denver and accepted the award, which recognized the work of an ethics committee established last semester.

The competition was offered to all 300 international chapters of Beta Alpha Psi, an international honorary organization for financial information professionals. Participants were challenged to create a project that spread the ideals of ethical behavior to the campus and community.

The awards recognize exceptional service in contributions to the central mission of the college and exemplary models of what it takes to make SUNY Oswego a community of excellence.

Marcia Burrell

Michelle Massaro Bandla '93

Bandla has played a significant role in improving the retention rate of Oswego’s first-year students. She was one of just 10 educators honored as an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina.

Bandla has made presentations at the national First Year Experience Conference and National Academic Advisement Association conference and shared her experience with other higher education professionals in a webinar.

An associate professor and chair of curriculum and instruction, Burrell has an extensive record of service to the campus as well as her community, SUNY, national organizations, and students and colleagues in other nations.

She helped establish the college’s first study-abroad course in Africa, in Benin.

The Carnegie Foundation has awarded SUNY Oswego a prestigious Community Engagement Classification, recognizing that the college has deeply intertwined community engagement in its leadership, curriculum, outreach programs, strategic planning and community partnerships.

The Carnegie Foundation named 115 colleges and universities for the community service distinction this year among 305 that applied. Another 196 institutions have received the classification since the program began in 2006. Applications are now closed until 2015.

Helping at Harborfest are Marquise Rochester '13, left, and Andrew Magnemi '13.

Nine New York colleges and universities received the classification in 2010. The others are Cornell University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, St. John’s University, Skidmore College, Jefferson Community College, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

“We are honored that SUNY Oswego has been designated an ‘engaged campus’ by the Carnegie Foundation,” President Deborah F. Stanley said.

“Starting with our Engagement 2000 strategic plan, our college has magnified its efforts to put community service, outreach and partnerships at the very center of what we do. The Community Engagement Classification recognizes the energetic, generous and diverse efforts across the campus — and among our many community partners — to make this goal come to life. More and more, our faculty, staff and students are engaging community needs in the classroom, through research and as volunteers,” Stanley added.

Oswego has a wealth of community service initiatives, from alternative break projects in New Orleans and Jamaica, to student-driven Adopt-a-Grandparent and Miss-a-Meal programs.

Central to mission

But the designation goes beyond service programs, requiring that successful applicants demonstrate the importance
of community engagement to the institution, from faculty to students to staff, across the curriculum and campus.

“This is absolutely a campus-wide honor,” said Christy Harrison Huynh ’98, M ’08, associate director of the Compass and part of the team that completed the rigorous application process for the designation.

Among the findings:

In 2009-10, more than 1,500 student volunteers and 700 unpaid interns logged 110,000 community service hours. Upon graduation, 72 percent of Oswego students report they engaged in community service.

Through student, faculty and staff organizations and departmental efforts, the campus has sought to engage and serve through the Benin Calculator Project, Adopt-a-School, Leadership Oswego County, the Oswego Children’s Project, Sustainability Fair and community service components for at least 30 courses.

SUNY Oswego has been a founding member since 2001 of the New York Campus Compact to encourage community service and civic engagement, and has been on the national President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since its inception in 2007.

Next steps

Now that Oswego has received the designation, what’s next? Huynh said it provides an impetus to continue weaving community engagement into the college’s fabric.

“It recognizes—and I think it provides almost an obligation to invest in and to continue to develop—those programs,”
she said. l

— Jeff Rea ’71

The college’s communications—including an alumni Reunion invitation and a fundraising solicitation as well as the college’s biweekly e-newsletter for its faculty and staff, Campus Update — earned recognition in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education 2010 Accolades Awards District II competition.

Alumni and development staff received two silver awards in the category for targeted mail. The end-of-year Adobe© Flash® video e-mail “Time is running out . . .” won in the subcategory for e-solicitations. Loyola University received gold in this category, and Johns Hopkins University earned bronze. The video e-mail invitation for Reunion 2010 won silver in the invitations subcategory, where Lebanon Valley College took gold.

Reunion 2010 postcard

Campus Update, new in its online version in 2009-10 with 18 biweekly issues, earned an honorable mention. The recognition was the highest awarded in CASE’s electronic newsletters category. The Public Affairs Office produces Campus Update, and faculty and staff across campus contribute some of the news items and photos for each issue.

The recognitions come in a district with 700 institutions among seven states, two U.S. territories and Canada — the largest in CASE.

Civic Ventures honored Virginia “Ginny” Donohue ’88, executive director and founder of On Point for College, as a 2010 Purpose Prize Fellow at a November ceremony in Philadelphia. Purpose Prizes honor Americans over age 60 for making an extraordinary impact in their encore careers.

Donohue was named a Purpose Prize Fellow based on her founding On Point for College, which has enrolled 2,723 inner-city youth in more than 200 colleges and universities.

Virginia “Ginny” Donohue ’88 of Syracuse, at right, executive director and founder of On Point for College, was honored as a 2010 Purpose Prize Fellow.

“I am grateful to the Purpose Prize for this honor,” said Donohue. “On Point for College has never turned away a single student.”

“I never knew what tenacity meant, what courage meant or what loyalty meant until I met our students,” she said. “If we can make the road easier for these amazing young adults, it is an honor.”

In July 2009, SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley honored Donohue for her work with On Point for College by awarding her a Presidential Medal, calling her an “inspirational activist.”

In April 1999, after eight years of helping students from a local homeless shelter to enroll in college, she left the corporate world and her position as chief financial officer in order to launch On Point for College out of the trunk of her car.

On Point for College has expanded to 13 staff members and 160 mentors and volunteers, and has enrolled 2,723 teens from inner-city Syracuse in more than 200 colleges and universities. The not-for-profit boasts more than 350 college graduates in addition to several young people who have obtained or are pursuing post-baccalaureate degrees.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education recognized the Oswego Alumni Association in its 2010 “Outstanding External Program” category for the day college unity is most prominently on display.

Green and Gold Day has come a long way in the short time it’s been around, said Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Relations Laura Pavlus ’09, and the additions and improvements made to last year’s event made the day worthy of the recognition.

“Last year we added an ice cream social, as well as a roller skating party held by SAPB [Student Association Planning Board],” Pavlus said. “We also added a Flickr account for alumni to upload photos. These additions really set it apart from previous years.”

Oswego is one of only three schools nationwide to earn recognition by CASE Affiliated Student Advancement Programs. Associate Director for Stewardship Michelle Tackett-Spinner ’98 said the honor “helps put Oswego on the map.”

“Oswego is competing against schools across the country that have bigger sizes and budgets, and more members,” Tackett-Spinner said. “It’s pretty exciting to know Oswego won a national award.”

The 2010 Green and Gold Day saw an even more impressive showing among the Oswego community, with almost 650 showing up for the ice cream social, more than twice the 300 who participated in 2009, and an enthusiastic group participating in the Oswego family photo, above.

CASE is the professional organization for advancement professionals at all levels who work in alumni relations, communications, fundraising, marketing and other areas. Membership includes more than 3,400 colleges, universities, independent elementary and secondary schools, and educational associates in 68 countries around the world.

— Kyle C. Gargan ’11