SUNY Opens Doors; Students’ Success Most Gratifying, President Avows

By JIM KEVLIN

Asked to recall a memorable story as she begins her seventh year as SUNY Oneonta’s president, Nancy Kleniewski told about a student – let’s call her Kate – who entered under the EOP program. (That stands for Educational Opportunity Program.)

Kate planned to study fashion, but during her first semester “she took a chemistry class. The chemistry professor” – Bill Vining – “realized how smart she was and, second, that she was very interested in chemistry.”

Today, after graduating from SUNY Oneonta as a chemistry major, Kate is studying for an advanced degree at a University of California campus. “She’s such an interesting, confident, successful kid,” said Kleniewski.
Amid budgets and buildings and negotiations, it’s students like Kate who give SUNY Oneonta’s seventh president the most satisfaction.

“It’s the opportunity students get to change over the course of their years here that’s so important,” she said with some emotion. “The faculty they work with care about them and help them take advantage of opportunity – at least they open the door to opportunity.”

In an interview to mark the state of the 2014-15 academic year, Kleniewski could have talked about the college’s reorganization into five logical divisions under five deans, just now complete. She could have talked about the $24 million redo of Fitzelle Hall – ribbon cutting is Monday, Aug. 25. She could have talked about the dozen sites on and around campus identified as prospects for Governor Cuomo’s Start-Up NY economic-development program.

But it would come as no surprise to anyone who has worked with her over the past six academic years that she told a story about a student transformed by the SUNY Oneonta experience.

When she talks to faculty, administrators and staff in the next few days about the second strategic planning process about to begin, it’s no surprise she intends it to be “very student focused,” in particular on making the SUNY Oneonta experience ever more affordable.

She calls that “The Debt Piece.”

“We’ve always done well in graduating our students with low debt,” she said during an hour-long discussion in her corner office on the top floor of the Netzer Administration Building. “I think we should be trying to push it even lower.”

Part of that formula will involve Vice President Paul Adamo’s Division of College Advancement, which already has built up the largest endowment of any of the equivalent SUNY campuses and is expected to cross the $50 million mark as the “Possibilities Full of Promise” campaign – it is seeking to raise another $12.5 million to mark the campus’ 125th anniversary this academic year – is completed this fall.

“Aid used to go mostly to the top students,” said Kleniewski. Now, “it is also
channeled to students” – like Kate – “who need it more.” Financially needy students will also be sought out for campus jobs.

Another strategy to keeping costs down is to double-down on ensuring students finish in four years. “The sooner you can get them out, the less they have to spend on their education,” president said.

And it is a strategy: “If you want to keep them on track to graduate,” she said, “you have to get them on track early. You need to get them focused on graduating, instead of just on the next semester.” They need to understand their requirements and understand the time from to achieve them.

This requires “better advocacy” by faculty on students’ behalf. And there’s an administrative piece, too: To make sure classes are available when students need them.

Then there’s The Efficiency Piece of the strategic planning process.

“In the old days,” she said, “we had across-the-board cuts. (But) you can’t cut your way to greatness.” A better path is to “align resources with strategic priorities.”

One example of that to date was eliminating the campus radio station, WUOW, 104.7 FM, in the 2012-13 year. “We liked the radio station, but we didn’t think it was a high priority.” Its potential contribution to students’ education was limited, and there was little opportunity to generate revenues.

“It was nice, but it wasn’t essential,” the president said, adding, “When you pay attention to detail, you find you’re spending a lot of dollars and cents on things that aren’t your priority.”

She didn’t say if there’s another “radio station” out there, but short of that there are efficiencies to be had. Identifying under-enrolled classes and offering them less often. Installing energy-efficient windows, as was done at the Milne Library over the summer.

In particular, she cited Sustainability Coordinator Hannah Morgan’s campus-garbage analysis, resulting in shifting to a single-stream recycling program and significant savings. That’s the type of thinking the president hopes to see more of.

And all of this circles back to the student, making college affordable so students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend can do so and thrive.

She ended with another story, that of Marvin Rodriguez, now a senior, who arrived from Central America without even full command of English.

In his first semester at SUNY Oneonta, Rodriguez earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and was one of 180 students to receive the Susan Sutton Smith Student Award for Academic Excellence, according to a press release issued at the time.

He also got involved in a variety of student activities, including intramural soccer, the Diversity Peer Education Program, the AALANA Mentoring Program and the EOP Student Opportunities and Leadership Committee, for which he served as vice president.

By the summer after his freshman year, he was a White House intern. Today, a senior, he is the student representative on the board of Adamo’s College Foundation.

“He’s just a very successful, competent kid,” she said.