Counseling at the Student Services fair
Collaboration is, in many ways, the glue that holds the college community together.
It can give birth to new degree programs, such as the New Media Design Certificate, an effort that united Art and Design and Business Information Technologies. A recently proposed A.S. degree in Computer Science Game Programming would also bring together different fields for a creative end.
Individual classes, too, can cross the boundaries set by field. SOS 186: Food in History and Society, for example, combines history with hospitality. The Health for Haiti global service learning course draws students and faculty members from diverse fields, as do undergraduate research efforts, art exhibits and more.
Tables at the Student Services Fair before the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
Theater students work with the Nursing Department to act as patients for student training. The Mock Environmental Disaster Drill draws participants from 18 different departments as they learn essential skills.
Examples abound, and Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Francis Battisti admits that he can’t name them all at one go. And collaboration doesn’t always occur without hiccups, bumps and even heated disagreements.
“It’s fine to disagree. That’s part of it,” Dr. Battisti said. “That’s how we come up with great ideas.”
Tables at the Student Services Fair before the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
Collaboration was one of the main themes at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly, which marks the start of the new semester. This spring saw a changed format and a shifted venue: The event was held in the Baldwin Gym, and was preceded by a student services fair. Tables lined the gym, with information ranging from diversity efforts to Broome County HEARS, Counseling Services, the college’s natural areas and more.
As is tradition, the event also showcased student talent. A display of art photography by student Alexis Vesey lined the hall, and Music Education and Performance major Brian Tyneway performed a classical guitar piece. Last semester, he traveled with Professor Paul Sweeny to the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York and gave a performance, said Music coordinator Brenda Dawe. The other performers were all students of four-year and graduate institutions around the state.
Professor Kennie Leet strikes a pose at the Natural Areas table
Fighting for community colleges
Collaboration is also deeply important in a challenging environment for community colleges, according to SUNY Broome President Kevin E. Drumm, now in his eighth year at the helm.
Seamless transfer options, while benefitting students, also transferred thousands of full-time equivalents (FTE) to state-operated colleges and universities. The Excelsior Scholarship program also favors state operations, perhaps an inevitable consequence of the population it targets: freshmen leaving the state for college, and thus interested primarily in residential four-year schools, Dr. Drumm said.
Executive Vice President Francis Battisti at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
“We’ve been doing as good a job as anybody,” he said.
Better than anybody, it turns out. While SUNY Broome’s enrollment has remained largely flat, it hasn’t faced the precipitous declines of other community colleges. He shared communications from peer institutions, which are considering layoffs and furloughs to address enrollment declines – scenarios SUNY Broome hasn’t had to face.
Some of the problem resides in the loss of population in Upstate New York. The only communities to see population growth in recent years are Ithaca and Saratoga Springs. “We’re fighting an uphill battle demographically until at least 2023,” President Drumm said.
Music coordinator Brenda Dawe at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
Still, he added: “We’re not in the situation some of our colleagues are in and we won’t be.”
To lay a better path for the future, Dr. Drumm encouraged the college community to reach out to their state legislators in support of the new community college funding formula being proposed by the SUNY system. The proposal would provide for maintenance of effort funding – a block grant, essentially – as well as additional funds for students with high needs, and for high-cost, high-demand programs.
If you would like to contact legislators, their contact information is below:
Student Brian Tyneway performs
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo
District Office
State Office Building, 17th Floor
44 Hawley St.
Binghamton, NY 13901
607-723-9047
Assemblyman Clifford Crouch
SUNY Broome President Kevin E. Drumm at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
District Office
1 Kattelville Road
Suite 1
Binghamton, NY 13901
607-648-6080
SUNY Broome President Kevin E. Drumm at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
Senator Fred Akshar
DISTRICT OFFICE
44 Hawley Street
Room 1607
Binghamton , NY 13901
Phone: (607) 773-8771
Fax: (607) 773-3688
Vice President for Student Development and Chief Diversity Officer Carol Ross also touched on the theme of collaboration, in the effort to make a campus environment that’s both welcoming and conducive to growth. This spring, the college is going to host a Student Affairs Award Night to give students recognition for their accomplishments outside the classroom. The college is also continuing to focus on diversity and inclusion, and looking at ways to have the faculty and staff reflect the diverse population of students they serve.
Vice President for Student Development and Chief Diversity Officer Carol Ross at the Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly
“I fully realize that students are not easy,” Dr. Ross said. “Our students deserve an opportunity to learn, even if it’s learning from their mistakes, especially because we invited them to join the Broome family.”
On a lighter note, Dr. Ross – who spent 13 years in Kuwait – is learning all about Upstate New York weather, including how to layer for the cold. She’s come to think of snow as “God’s fairy dust,” she joked.
Familiar faces – but changes, too
The Spring 2018 Faculty Staff Assembly also marked the last time for Dr. Battisti to take the main stage. Next semester, he will return to the classroom as a professor after six years in the Administration.
Replacing Dr. Battisti as Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer will be Dr. Kelli Ligeikis, who left last year to become provost at SUNY Delhi. President Drumm reached out to multiple campus consistencies to discuss the idea, and made an offer to Dr. Ligeikis, formerly the Dean of STEM.
She accepted and will be returning to campus on Aug. 1, after serving 18 months as SUNY Delhi’s provost. She told Dr. Drumm that she really misses the college’s diverse mix of students, as well as the level of academics at SUNY Broome.
“I’ve been here a long time and I plan to be here a lot longer,” Dr. Battisti said. “We have a lot of great students and we need to continue to impact their lives.”
Director of Facilities Dave Ligeikis discusses the SUNY Broome Culinary Arts Center project
Project updates
The Paul and Mary Calice & Mildred Barton Advanced Manufacturing Center is taking shape in the former Mechanical Building. Roof trusses haven risen between the Mechanical and Business buildings, evidence of the enclosed atrium that is under construction there.
The $9.4 million construction project is half-complete, with a finish date of Aug. 1, 2018, said Director of Facilities Dave Ligeikis. Bench seating and workspaces will replace the ubiquitous lockers, and an elevator will make the building accessible. Once complete, the facility will include a fermentation science lab, food processing lab, advanced manufacturing lab, simulated gowning and clean room, welding and soldering lab and sustainability sandbox, along with refurbished offices, a terrazzo floor bearing the SUNY Broome seal and more.
Bids are slated to be opened for the SUNY Broome Culinary Arts Center on Feb. 13, with construction beginning on April 2 and an estimated completion date of August 2019. The $11.7 million construction project would transform the historic Carnegie Library in downtown Binghamton.
Projects for future consideration include a turf soccer and lacrosse field, the reconstruction of Student Services and the old Science Building for student support needs, and a Controlled Environment Agriculture Building.
“I think we have a lot of good things going on and I’m looking forward to the next two, three, four years,” Ligeikis said.
