From President Kleniewski
To All Faculty and Staff
August 26, 2009
I look forward to collaborating with you on another productive
academic year. Your work on behalf of our students and our college
distinguishes SUNY Oneonta as a unique campus community where students,
faculty, and staff can accomplish extraordinary things. You exemplify
our commitments to quality, diversity, sustainability, and community.
Your commitment to SUNY Oneonta has helped us earn even more
recognition. Recently, our college has moved up to 45th
in the top tier of "universities master's--north" in the 2010 rankings
of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News and World Report.
We have climbed steadily from 83rd three years ago, 57th
two years ago, and 49th last year. This year for the
first time, we have
also made the U.S. News Top 10 list among public colleges in the
North.
In the 2009-2010 academic year, we will learn about ourselves and our
world, serve our local and global communities, face new challenges, and
plan the exciting future of SUNY Oneonta. Several key factors will be
significant in the coming year.
Campus Budget
Through a combination of efficiencies and effective use of
resources, the college overcame a substantial decrease in state
financial support in 2009 without significant impacts to positions or
programs. I appreciate your personal efforts to conserve resources and
limit expenditures as we will again face an uncertain state budget in
2010. Your strong advocacy on behalf of SUNY Oneonta has helped and will
continue to help our cause. Through careful planning and fiscal
responsibility, we will meet budgetary challenges and continue to
strengthen our college.
Academic Quality
The popularity of SUNY Oneonta continues to grow. For this year’s
freshman class, we received an all-time record 12,571 applications and
maintained a highly selective acceptance rate under 39%. Our freshman
class will include approximately 1,050 students. The mean combined SAT
score in this year’s freshman profile is 1134 and mean high school GPA
is 90.3. We have clearly established SUNY Oneonta as a top choice in
SUNY. I look forward to the excitement generated by the collaborations
among our highly motivated students and exceptional faculty. My
congratulations in particular go to Dr. James Ebert of our Earth
Sciences Department, who was recently promoted by SUNY to the rank of
Distinguished Teaching Professor.
Building a Better Campus
Furthering our reputation as a signature campus within SUNY, we
celebrate the re-opening of Tobey Hall, which has been beautifully
rehabilitated and now houses 46 additional students and a new fitness
center. Wilber Hall will be offline this year, and its complete
rehabilitation has already begun. The renovation of the Fine Arts
Building, which will be completed later in the fall, includes the
construction of a new music wing, the renovation of the visual arts
wing, and the rehabilitation of the wardrobe and costume areas in the
theater wing. We now have a new entrance from Ravine Parkway to the
Physical Science and Human Ecology parking lots. Because the city’s
rebuilding of Bugbee Road will limit access to the campus from East
Street, the new entrance will be especially convenient with more traffic
using West Street to reach campus.
College Advancement
Despite global economic challenges, the college continues to receive
outstanding support from both internal and external communities.
Visions Solutions: The Fund for Science and Technology has made
significant progress towards its goal of $4 million by June 2010. We
have re-affirmed our commitment to providing scholarships to our
students, and we will offer over 1,000 awards this year with a total
value of more than $1.75 million. The College Foundation received our
largest gift ever from an alumnus--$2 million from the estate of Dorothy
Anderson Wemple ’36--which will fund more than 40 scholarships for
English and Adolescence Education--English majors.
I appreciate all that you do as a member of the campus community to
make SUNY Oneonta the wonderful college that it is. I look forward to
working together with you to make the college even better in 2009-2010.
Sincerely,
Nancy Kleniewski |
