September 1, 2026
Dear SUNY Broome Community,
At last Thursday’s Faculty Staff Assembly, I had the opportunity to talk about the Center for Thought and Action and what I believe it can become at SUNY Broome. First introduced at Convocation last spring, the Center grew from a simple but ambitious idea: a college should be a place where curiosity is encouraged, difficult questions can be explored, ideas can be challenged, and thoughtful dialogue can lead to meaningful action.
As I shared last week, the Center is not simply a collection of programs or events. The Center is us. Its success will depend upon faculty, staff, students, and members of our community bringing their ideas, expertise, experiences, and curiosity to the work.
During this inaugural year, the Center will create opportunities for intellectual engagement and civic discourse across the College. Our work will include Convocation, deliberative dialogues, Getting to Yes conversations, and emerging programming around critical thinking, artificial intelligence, civic engagement, public dialogue, and other issues that invite us to think more deeply about ourselves and the world around us.
Now, we invite you to help us shape what comes next.
We are looking for members of the College community who are curious, thoughtful, and willing to engage—people who want to help develop programs, suggest ideas, facilitate conversations, or simply lend their perspective to what the Center might become.
You do not need to be an expert in any particular field. In fact, we hope the Center will bring together people from across disciplines, departments, and roles. Critical thinking does not belong to one academic discipline, and meaningful dialogue should not belong to one part of our institution.
At its best, the Center will be a place where we ask better questions, listen seriously to one another, encounter ideas different from our own, and consider how thought can lead to action.
Ideas shape institutions. Institutions shape communities. Communities shape the future.
If this work interests you, I hope you will join us. Please take a few minutes to complete our Center for Thought and Action Interest Form. Whether you would like to help plan programs, facilitate conversations, recommend speakers or topics, participate in a working group, or simply attend and engage, we want to hear from you.
This is our opportunity to create something meaningful together.
The Center is us.
Dr. Tony D. Hawkins
President
Co-Lead, Center for Thought and Action
Dr. Jeff Anderson
AVP/Dean of Liberal Arts and Business
Co-Lead, Center for Thought and Action
Submitted by: Dr. Tony D. Hawkins
