The campus community is invited to a retirement celebration in honor of Andy Michaelis' 33 years at SUNY Oswego, his achievements, contributions and lasting impact on the SUNY Oswego community. The event will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, in 215 Penfield Library.
After a remarkable 33-year career at SUNY Oswego, the university's database administrator and enterprise architect -- widely known as "the guy in the hat" -- will retire on July 31.
His impact extends beyond transforming the technology landscape at SUNY Oswego, as he has also played a pivotal role in advancing technology across the entire SUNY system. Michaelis' expertise, visionary technical leadership and unwavering dedication to collaboration have left an indelible mark on Oswego and all SUNY institutions. Through his creative problem-solving, Michaelis has consistently elevated the capabilities of SUNY’s technology infrastructure, ensuring long-term benefits for students, faculty and staff alike.
Throughout his tenure at Oswego, Michaelis has been a trailblazer, spearheading numerous pioneering initiatives that made SUNY Oswego the first campus to adopt key technological advancements. These include implementing the new Ellucian User Interface, Oracle 11g, Fusion Middleware, Single Sign-on using CAS and Federated log-on. He also led the charge in going live with Banner Faculty Grade Entry and the new Student Advisor Profile, as well as providing student-related data on mobile devices via a locally written system.
These innovative implementations not only modernized Oswego’s operations but also acted as blueprints for other campuses. Michaelis always shares his shortcuts and lessons learned with other SUNY campuses, saving time, resources and improving system efficiencies across the network. As Bill Grau, executive director of SUNY SICAS (Student Information and Campus Administrative Systems), noted, "Everyone in SUNY, who supports or uses Banner or its related technologies, has benefited from Andy’s contributions — whether they know it or not."
Michaelis' deep knowledge across various technology stacks — application, database, middleware and OS — has been instrumental in establishing stable operating environments for Banner and related systems at Oswego for decades. He is renowned for his tenacious problem-solving approach, never stopping until a solution is found.
Beyond his technical prowess, Michaelis is celebrated for his willingness to assist others, offering support, advice and even code to anyone in need. He is a go-to person within SUNY when people have questions about Banner and Oracle, always ready to share his knowledge and wisdom. His most recent achievement was leading the successful transition of Oswego’s Banner implementation from an on-premise system to the SUNY cloud. The project was executed seamlessly, thanks to the strong collaboration among Oswego, ITEC (Information Technology Exchange Center) and SICAS.
Recognized for his outstanding contributions, Michaelis received the Chancellor’s Excellence award for Professional Services at Oswego in 2015 and was an original recipient of the SUNY SICAS partner award in 2014. He also recently received the 2025 SUNY Tech Conference Lifetime Achievement award.
"As Andy prepares for retirement, his absence will undoubtedly be felt by all in Oswego and the SUNY system, "said SUNY Oswego Chief Technology Officer Sean Moriarty. "He is not just a technical leader but an innovator who kept Oswego and SUNY at the cutting edge of technology, a problem-solver, and a mentor whose influence has shaped the landscape of our technology infrastructure. His vision, collaboration, and pioneering efforts have set a standard that will continue to guide SUNY’s technological advancements into the future."
-- Submitted by Campus Technology Services