Campus Report
News, Calendar & Events

“We are extremely happy to declare the 2008 fall term closed, as we prepare to welcome the biggest class —and the strongest, academically, in terms of both standardized test scores and high school averages — the Fredonia campus has ever experienced,” said President Dennis L. Hefner.

A landmark new graduate program will now allow students with a bachelor’s degree in a natural science area of study to more quickly complete requirements for both the initial and professional teaching certifications needed to teach within New York State public schools.

Mathematical Sciences Professor H. Joseph Straight has been named among this year’s recipients of the Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Faculty Service. This award is a statewide honor conferred to acknowledge and provide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement.

The naming of the Reed Library addition as the Carnahan-Jackson Center for Learning and Scholarship recognizes the longstanding financial and volunteer support given by the Carnahan-Jackson Foundation to the SUNY Fredonia community over the years, as well as the personal philanthropy and leadership provided by its Board Chairman, David H. Carnahan (in photo), President Dennis L. Hefner announced in May.

A key component of a comprehensive public relations plan designed by senior public relations majors to help the 1891 Fredonia Opera House expand its membership and attract younger audiences has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation

Seventy-two Fredonia State student-athletes were cited by the State University of New York Athletic Conference for their academic achievement during the Spring 2008 semester. Among the honorees were 39 student-athletes named to the Commissioner’s List, for varsity athletes who completed their entire season and maintained a GPA of 3.3 for three semesters.

Six undergraduates have just finished the first annual six-week study-abroad program in Mexico this summer at the Ollin Tlahtoalli Centro de Lenguas y Cultura Mexicana. Located in Oaxaca, the center is dedicated to preserving endangered Mexican indigenous languages, the teaching of Spanish within a Mexican cultural framework, and the promotion of Mexican culture and traditions.

SUNY Fredonia welcomed approximately 500 students from more than 20 Western and Central New York high schools on Thursday, May 22, as it played host to its eighth annual High School Mathematics and Science Challenge.The day-long event combined students into teams which competed in seven different competitions that incorporate everything from classic childhood toys like Legos, Big Wheels and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots to TV shows such as “The Amazing Race” and “MacGyver.”

Dr. Clark M. Zlotchew was one of just nine individuals across the SUNY system to be promoted to the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor recently. For 33 years a professor of Spanish at Fredonia, he is an expert scholar of the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges, has written 14 books, and published translations of the works of two Nobel Laureates: Pablo Neruda and Juan Ramón Jiménez.

New poems written by SUNY Fredonia English Professor Aimee Nezhukumatathil and published by Tupelo Press have reaped two prestigious awards. The Balcones Center for Creative Writing at Austin (Texas) Community College selected her book, "At the Drive-In Volcano," as the winner of its 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize.  One poem in the book, "Love in the Orangery," has won the Pushcart Prize.

For the first time ever, a team of SUNY Fredonia students reached the semifinals of the annual Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) USA National Exposition. They competed among 3,200 students from 143 schools at the event held May 13-15 in Chicago. To put this year’s exceptional ranking into perspective, Fredonia is firmly lodged in the top 2 percent of some 950 SIFE teams sponsored by schools across the United States.

The annual Fredonia Woodwind Quintet Camp will be held from Sunday, July 6 through Saturday, July 12. It is open to students who play the flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon in grades 9-12 (including those that will be entering grade 9 this fall, as well as those who will have just graduated).

The Fredonia School of Music faculty now uses ANGEL Learning System technology to examine a large body of incoming students in an accurate and efficient manner and place students in the correct class based on placement exam results. Its innovative use of the ANGEL technology won the school and several individuals honors from the software company.

A total of 12 SUNY Fredonia theatre arts majors under the tutelage of Professor Ted Sharon passed national Skills Proficiency Testing by the Society of American Fight Directors in the broad sword and small sword recently.

Approximately 1,300 students crossed the stage in Steele Hall on Saturday, as President Dennis L. Hefner conferred Fredonia’s 2008 undergraduate and graduate degree candidates. The day was filled with speeches and performances, friends and family, handshakes and hugs, which together produced an atmosphere of tremendous pride and lifelong memories.