August 25, 2025
Dear Students,
Welcome back, and happy first day of classes! To all our new students, welcome to Fredonia, and thank you for choosing SUNY Fredonia for your education. I am very pleased to have met many of you during the various activities last week and over the weekend.
I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are ready for another school year.
Let me share a few exciting things that I did over the summer that will be very meaningful for our institution:
- I joined several university presidents from across the country to attend a “Presidential Experience Lab” in New York City on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its applications. This professional development opportunity was organized by EAB (the Education Advisory Board). I have a few words to describe my experience – opportunity; challenge; awesome; scary; exciting. Certainly, as a campus, you can expect that we will be having conversations about AI in the months ahead.
- I, along with David Stringham, Dean of the School of Music, Wende Persons (‘73), William Tappan, Assistant Piano Technician, and Tim Smeal, Major Gifts Officer, visited the Steinway factory in New York City, a few miles from LaGuardia Airport. As someone with a forestry background and the president of an institution with an outstanding music program, it was a wonderful experience. So, what does forestry have to do with Steinway piano manufacturing? Wood. And, not just any wood. It reminded me of my classes in silviculture, forest management, forest ecology, wood physics, and forest products, where we learned about the type of forest that produces such wood, the age at which the trees are felled (harvested), and how the trees are processed before being made into a piano. I also recalled the skills, other materials, and technology that are involved in manufacturing the pianos. Remarkable! I have added some photos that I hope will help in describing my experience.
- I had the honor of representing SUNY Fredonia on a SUNY Africa Initiative, which included meetings with high-level government officials and university chancellors in Kenya and Rwanda. What an amazing opportunity for our campus! We discussed opportunities for study abroad, faculty exchanges, and collaborations in teaching and research. As an ever-growing, increasingly connected, and complex world, SUNY Fredonia will be looking at how we approach internationalization going forward. I look forward to engaging more with SUNY to see how we can partner to continue these endeavors.
Selected Summer Activities on Campus
Renovations for the new food pantry were completed over the summer, and you will be seeing more information about this soon. “Freddy’s Locker” will reopen on September 2, and students can use an app to order food and basic needs. This new location will offer students better access and will be able to stay open for longer hours.
The campus was thriving this summer, and I wanted to mention a few highlights that we enjoyed. We hosted a Summer Music Festival, with 105 middle and high school students who focused on composition, songwriting, band, choral, piano, and strings activities. The prestigious New York State Summer School for the Arts continued its annual resident-in-training program on our campus, which hosted 180 middle and high school students from all over New York State to study media, visual arts, and theatre arts. This program helps young artists from diverse backgrounds have equitable access to world-class training and mentorship in the arts on SUNY Fredonia’s campus. We also hosted the Special Olympics, with over 400 people attending from local school districts and BOCES (the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, which oversee shared educational programs and services among school districts).
Strategic Initiative Highlights
Last week, I presented at the annual All-Fredonia Faculty and Staff Conference, which invites all faculty and staff, College Council members, and Student Association leaders to recognize special awards, hear about highlights, and learn about upcoming initiatives for the academic year. In addition to many other topics, we also hosted a special panel on shared governance. The goal of the panel was to enhance dialogue on shared governance and hear perspectives on best practices. The panelists also provided different insights about shared governance in today’s evolving higher education landscape – characterized by rapid technological advancements, shifting demographics, and enrollment and financial challenges that necessitate urgency and adaptability.
The School of Music received its reaccreditation. Congratulations to the faculty, staff, and students for this achievement! This reaffirms that Fredonia’s music offerings align with the highest of standards to ensure our students’ success. The School of Music also requested a name change to better reflect all of its programs and its status at SUNY Fredonia. It was my privilege to provide the final approval this summer. Hence, the new name of the School of Music is the College of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
We are continuing to strengthen our partnership with JCC (Jamestown Community College), by identifying space on SUNY Fredonia’s campus where JCC can operate some of their workforce development programs, identifying certificate and degree programs that our campuses can share, and continuing the momentum we developed last year with the preferred partnership status to offer streamlined transfer opportunities and inclusion of JCC students in campus activities.
We have also been exploring the feasibility of a forensic crime lab in partnership with Chautauqua County. We are still in an exploratory phase and expect a feasibility study to be completed in the Fall semester. If a lab were to be established on SUNY Fredonia’s campus, it would assist the county with services related to the processing of evidence that requires biotechnology and computer/electronic forensics. Such a resource on our campus would offer opportunities, including internships, to students in biology, computer sciences, sociology, and criminal justice. Please note that this is just the exploratory phase of what would be a longer-term, but positively impactful project for our campus. With all these incredible initiatives underway, students, I encourage you to engage and be involved where you can.
Student Association Leadership
I had the honor of meeting the incoming Student Association leaders last week, and I wanted to take a moment to recognize them here as one of your resources for involvement and staying connected. This is an outstanding group of SUNY Fredonia students, representing the student body. I encourage you to engage with them and learn more about how the Student Association can help support you, or how you can also get involved in a leadership position. I will meet regularly with this group, in addition to your elected student class presidents, throughout the academic year to provide updates, listen to concerns, and address matters important to the student body.
- SA President: Jordan Stephens
- SA Vice President: Belle Price
- SA Comptroller: Morgan Martin
- SA Speaker: Melissa Bonilla
- SA Chief Justice: Chris Smith
- SA Chief of Staff: Giulianna Lalomio
Students, it is exciting to have all of you back on campus. I hope to see you around campus at as many of your events as I am able to attend. My office is at Fenton 138 should you wish to stop by and say hello. I wish you all a wonderful year.
September 8, 2025
Dear campus community:
Welcome to the new school year everyone. I hope this communication finds you well and this academic year is off to a wonderful start. I have been energized by the return of students, faculty, and staff to campus.
As I have done previously, I will continue to share with you a summary of presentations that I make to the University Senate. It is within this spirit again that I am communicating with you directly about my presentation at today’s senate meeting. Let me also add that should you ever wish to, you can find all my post-senate communication summaries here.
Below I provide some specific details from my presentation to the Senate today.
Encouraging Developments
I began my presentation to the Senate with thanks and appreciation to our campus community for its work in moving Fredonia forward notwithstanding the financial challenges that we have been working to address. I noted some encouraging developments:
- Our enrollment has stabilized year-over-year, halting a decade of rapid declines. This was not a problem for Fredonia alone, but something that has happened across higher education, and I appreciate the hard work and dedication from Dr. Kathryn Kendall, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Services, and our enrollment and retention teams for leading the effort. I also want to acknowledge the work of departments across campus who collaborated with our enrollment teams or otherwise helped bring students to Fredonia. I believe that enrollment is impacted by the collective work of many individuals across our campus. Hence, I want to also thank everyone across our campus for the role they play in making our campus welcoming, clean, safe, and appealing to students and families.
- We ended the fiscal year ‘24 - ‘25 with a total deficit of about $6.9 million, with $126,330 over our planned financial expenditures on our way to eliminate the structural deficit that has characterized our finances over the past dozen years. For an enterprise with direct tuition and fees revenue of about $57.2 million, this outcome was encouraging and was the result of our work together, sacrifices made, and the direct additional financial support of SUNY.
Financial Sustainability Plan
Stabilizing and growing enrollment is one of the key elements in our financial sustainability plan, which provides the roadmap to our stability that we review and update with SUNY on a regular basis. As you will recall, Fredonia’s structural deficit was over $12 million just two years ago. We have cut the annual operating deficit nearly in half, to a projected value of $6.1 million for fiscal year '25-’26. Our current plan submitted to SUNY has Fredonia eliminating the structural deficit by the 2028-29 academic year.
The significant progress we have made is a testament to shared work across campus, as well as the investments made by Governor Hochul, the State Legislature, Chancellor King, and the SUNY Board of Trustees. Direct state tax support has increased $5.5 million, up nearly 50% since 2022-23. I want to thank many members of our campus community for working diligently to advocate for these resources.
Unfortunately, however, our work is not done. While we will never waver in our commitment to deliver high-quality programs and services to our students, we must and will continue to take actions in the three key areas we first identified in 2023. I have referred to these key areas as our three pillars for the elimination of the structural deficit:
- Revenue generation and growth
- Savings through enhanced efficiency initiatives
- Strategic reductions in expenditures
Revenue Generation Initiatives
The first area of focus is revenue generation through increased enrollment and retention. The recently approved Academic Master Plan is our roadmap for both elevating current programs and creating new in-demand offerings. We already have seen success driven by new sought-after graduate offerings. Several recently launched programs helped increase overall graduate enrollment by almost 50% from three years ago. We have also invested in student recruitment strategies and support services to improve enrollment and retention rates, including the launch of ACE, which this year has been expanded to support 250 students. Let me note that the increase in the participation of the ACE program brought additional resources to our campus.
While the increase in graduate students is positive, this trend also results in a different mix of students that we are serving, which will lead to a further examination of the services we provide going forward.
Savings through Enhanced Efficiency Initiatives
The second pillar of our work revolves around increased and improved efficiency, accountability, and performance across all departments. Successes include redesigned ITS systems and services that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Through other initiatives, you may see changes in internal business operations, services, and processes. We are continuing to explore shared services opportunities with other SUNY institutions. Shared services will not only aid in our operations but also allow us to focus more on student offerings and experience, and a stronger Fredonia. I have asked Mr. Wayne Lynch, Vice President for Administration and Finance, to expeditiously explore such opportunities with SUNY universities within a strategic radius of our campus. I have also asked Dr. Judy Horowitz, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, to explore the sharing of resources among select SUNY institutions in the offering of certain degree programs.
Strategic Reduction in Expenditures Measures
The third pillar involves reducing expenditures in strategic and deliberate ways, and in a transparent manner. We have identified and reduced non-essential costs while safeguarding core academic and operational functions. Over 80 percent of our campus expenses are in personnel, which is why we have taken steps like offering multiple voluntary separation incentive programs, discontinuing low-enrolled programs, and pausing hiring, which allows us to continuously review the critical nature of each position, while making exceptions for high-demand academic programs, safety and health-related roles, and externally funded positions.
All of these efforts, while painful and difficult, are making a difference, but they will not eliminate the rest of our deficit. More action is needed this year. Here are the next actions we will be taking.
- Workforce Realignment
We are continuing the difficult process of realigning staffing with current and projected enrollment. Even with the recent work to stabilize enrollment, our student population is still 45 percent lower than it was in Fall 2012. During that time, our workforce has not declined proportionately (down 19% in the same time frame). Based on demographic projections for New York State, including the number of high school graduates, we project that Fredonia’s enrollment during the next three years will be between 3,100 and 3,300 students. While we are making every effort to attract a larger number of students, we must at the same time align our workforce with this current reality.
This is not a step we take lightly, but it is one we must take. We will first identify the area and/or job functions that must be reduced to align with programming and service needs and enrollment projections. We will consult, as appropriate, with shared governance and labor management, and we will comply with all collective bargaining agreements. We are committed to making these decisions during the fall semester. - Academic Program Review
The process of reducing expenditures will also include the continued examination of academic programs to identify areas that are underenrolled. We must ensure that we are not over-extending our resources at the expense of being able to invest in programs that students are seeking. I have spoken on campus about this several times over the past two years; it’s a process that should be a regular practice, but it has not been consistently in place. Follow-up communication from Interim Provost Horowitz will be forthcoming for opportunities to offer input. We will also have consultation from the shared governance process. We will have decisions made by the end of the fall semester.
Conclusion
Again, these steps are not being taken lightly, but we cannot delay this work. If we don’t take these actions now, Fredonia's deficit will continue well into the next decade, which is unsustainable for any university.
Friends and colleagues, I know how hard this is for everyone. Fredonia has lived under the cloud of this structural deficit for more than a decade. We must get to the other side of this. At a recent meeting on campus, I heard someone say (paraphrasing), “if we are going to become a 3,200-student university, let’s strive to be the best at that size.” I agree, and this is why our financial challenges must be addressed.
I will continue to share information about these processes as we go along this semester, balancing our shared desire for full transparency with the need to follow collective bargaining processes and respect the privacy of impacted colleagues.