Academic excellence

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Faculty contributions

Our professors earned significant recognition in 2015-16 – a year highlighted by many contributions and academic offerings. Here is a sampling:

Distinguished Service Professor of Education Alfred Frederick received the International Center of Syracuse’s 2015 Outstanding International Educator Award. The award recognizes and honors an outstanding individual whose lifetime achievement has deepened Central New York’s connections to the rest of the world and has had a lasting global impact, according to the center. Frederick was recognized for his efforts in creating meaningful ties between Central New York and the communities of Benin and Brazil through effective educational projects.

SUNY Oswego management and marketing professor Barry A. Friedman, an accomplished researcher specializing in business organizational behavior and human resource management, earned a Fulbright Specialist grant to teach a business ethics and corporate social responsibility seminar at the Hamburg School of Business Administration in Germany.

Jaclyn Schildkraut of Oswego’s public justice faculty co-authored a book — “Mass Shootings: Media, Myths, and Realities” — that probes myths and hysteria provoked by mass shootings, and puts into context the statements often heard and read in the media about the prevalence and frequency of these deadly attacks in the United States.

From domestic violence, concussions and on-field assaults to video gaming, fantasy sports and online gambling, SUNY Oswego’s Tim Delaney, professor and chair of the sociology department, and co-author Tim Madigan of St. John Fisher College teamed to update “The Sociology of Sports: An Introduction” for the latest generation of students and fans.

The Eastern Communication Association (ECA) honored communication studies department chair Mary C. Toale as an ECA Teaching Fellow at its 2016 annual conference in Baltimore. The designation recognizes a distinguished career of teaching excellence in the field of communication.

Helen J. Knowles, political science faculty member, co-edited and helped write “Judging Free Speech,” a new book exploring the First Amendment opinions of nine key justices over the course of 100 years of Supreme Court decisions.

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Innovative fields of study

SUNY Oswego’s School of Education unveiled a new master of science degree in education this past year to fill a demonstrated workforce need—regionally, across the state and nationally—for teachers of special education in grades 7 to 12. The new master’s degree will lead to initial state certification for generalist special-education teachers—those who can co-teach in a variety of subject areas—in middle and high schools.

A graduate degree in strategic communication launched in 2015-16, adding a master’s-level program that will encompass many potential career paths across multiple disciplines. Candidates completing the degree in strategic communication will gain heightened knowledge and a sharpened skill set in producing effective and appropriate messages to create change, solve problems, influence others, highlight important issues within specific environments or strategically communicate with individuals at all levels of an organization.

We also added a new minor in graphic design in the fall 2015, providing the tools for visual communication, visual literacy and problem solving to students in disciplines across campus. Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the art department added the new minor to equip students to identify methods, tools and strategies for design planning, production, publication and distribution; develop technical, typographic, perceptual and visual organization skills; and evaluate design solutions using the elements and principles of design.

The state approved a new online graduate certificate program at SUNY Oswego in behavioral forensics, a multidisciplinary field that relates human behavior to the criminal justice system. The post-baccalaureate certificate program provides opportunities for law enforcement, court, corrections, mental health counseling and other professionals to advance their knowledge about the signs and motivators of behavior in those within or headed toward the criminal justice system.

Connecting academics to the workforce

The college earned three SUNY High Needs grants—a competitive grant program that funds academic programs that connect directly to specific workforce needs of New York state—to expand programs in human development, health services administration, and biomedical and health informatics.

The master of business administration in health services administration received a grant for promotion and marketing to “develop tomorrow’s health care leaders.” SUNY Oswego’s master of business administration (MBA) in health services administration targets mid-career health care professionals as well as people in other sectors wishing to make the switch to health care. The program meets the increased need for the efficient and effective delivery of services in the health care sector, a large and growing industry and is timely for Central New York -- a region that has a concentration of health care-related organizations.

Two additional grants were awarded to expand the undergraduate human development program “to meet the need for community and social service workers” and a second year of support for Oswego’s proposed new biomedical and health informatics master’s degree program.