April 28, 2024
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President's Quarterly Report

Winter 2019

It’s been a remarkable past few months for Binghamton University, made especially memorable by news that Binghamton University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry M. Stanley Whittingham was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work on lithium-ion batteries. This is a great honor for Stan and is a real boost to the University’s research profile.

Professor Whittingham was in Germany at a conference when the news broke, and graciously spent time working with us, especially our communications and marketing folks, to arrange press interviews and field questions. The day the announcement was made we were able to hold a short press conference via the internet where some of his colleagues in different departments across campus gathered to congratulate him on his success. Throughout these interviews Stan was very complimentary regarding our campus and the research we do.

After he returned from Germany, we held a big celebration for Stan at the Anderson Center —more than 1,300 students, faculty and staff were on hand to cheer his accomplishments; even the SUNY Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Merryl Tisch, and SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson came to campus to help celebrate. Then, in early December, Whittingham and I, along with a small contingent of Binghamton colleagues and family, traveled to Sweden for the official awarding of the prize. It was a whirlwind of press events and meetings for Whittingham and his fellow prize winners, including a chat with the crew of the International Space Station and an audience with the King and Queen of Sweden.

The honor bestowed on Whittingham has resulted in an avalanche of attention for the campus, with the University’s Facebook post — read by over 111,000 people — garnering over 27,400 likes, comments and shares; it also was the biggest Instagram post ever for the campus. In the print media, we estimate that the announcement put the name of our University in more than 5,500 publications in 132 countries with a combined readership of over 30 billion people, meaning that this event has helped more people learn about Binghamton University than any other event in our history. This is especially rewarding as one of our strategic priorities is to enhance our global impact — clearly, having one of our faculty receive the Nobel Prize goes a long way in helping us reach that goal!

Several other Binghamton faculty have also recently received recognition for their work. For example, C.J. Zhong, professor of chemistry, has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors. Zhong was elected based on his 19 patents in the area of nanomaterials, sensors and catalysts, as well as his more than 300 published articles. He shares this recognition with three other Binghamton faculty, including Professor of Computer Science Khanad Ghose, who just this month received news that SUNY has promoted him to the rank of distinguished professor. SUNY recognized Ghose for his contributions to his discipline, including his theoretical and practical work developing energy-efficient computing systems, enhanced security systems and biometric sensors. Ghose holds 25 patents and has generated millions of dollars in research grants during his more than 30 years in the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Some of this research was highlighted at October’s Southern Tier Technology Symposium, hosted by the University. Whittingham, just after learning of his Nobel, provided a keynote address, as did Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power & Energy Society Distinguished Lecturer Qing-Chang Zhong from Illinois Institute of Technology, and Binghamton University alumnus Steven Medwin, MBA ’05, former director of energy solutions at the Raymond Corporation. Medwin is recognized as one of the first to develop fuel cells for forklifts and other industrial fleets. Session topics included energy storage, clean transportation, power systems, industrial control systems and avionics. There also were sessions addressing student career development, clean-energy opportunities and energy-related small businesses. The symposium showcased the region’s technological expertise and provided opportunities for students to network with local and national firms.

Campus celebrations

Several campus units are celebrating milestone events this year. 2019 marks Harpur College’s 70th anniversary as well as the 50th anniversaries of the founding of both the School of Management and the Decker School of Nursing. All three schools are holding celebratory events this year to recognize their accomplishments and to generate support from donors for future endeavors.

One of these, the School of Management’s SOM Gala, was held at New York City’s Grand Hyatt Hotel in early November. Over 200 people attended the event, which featured Broadway producer, lyricist and composer Neil Berg ’86 providing the evening’s entertainment. Attendees included both former Dean Tom Kelly and Assistant Dean Vince Pasquale, current and former faculty members, as well as alumni from each of the school’s five decades. A number of current students also attended, so the event really represented the school’s past, present and future. The event raised over $200,000 for the Dean’s Excellence Fund that supports professional development activities for students and faculty, equips the school with databases and analytical tools, and helps the school hire top-notch faculty.

Also celebrating an anniversary this year is the University’s Confucius Institute for Chines Opera (CICO), which is marking its 10th year on campus. Over the past decade, more than 4,000 Binghamton students have benefitted from participation in the institute’s academic offerings in language, performance and cultural understanding. CICO offers performances and lectures here on campus, but also travels across New York state as well as across the country, from Louisiana to Las Vegas. CICO is the only performance group in the United States that focuses on the entire production of Beijing Opera in an educational setting — from stage performances to ritualized sword and fan displays to costumes — and I urge everyone to see one of their shows.

At the end of October, the University took time to recognize our most outstanding faculty and staff at the annual Excellence Awards Dinner. Two dozen of the University’s most dedicated and respected faculty and staff were recognized for their contributions to their scientific and scholarly disciplines, for their roles as teachers, and for their efforts to internationalize the University and serve the campus community.

State of the University

The annual State of the University Address was held in mid-October this year. While the address in recent years has been held in September, we decided it would be better to delay it slightly so that we would have firm enrollment and revenue numbers, as these would be an important part of the presentation. The main theme of the address was “Celebration” — for Whittingham’s Nobel Prize and the recognition it has brought the University, as well as for the anniversaries celebrated by Harpur, Decker and SOM.

Another reason for celebration was the announcement prior to the address that the University’s hiring hold in place since November 2018 had been lifted due to the campus successfully reaching its enrollment and revenue targets. We are now moving forward with searches for the five leadership positions that were put on hold last year: the vice president for advancement; the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion; the dean of the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science; the dean of students; and the director of the Educational Opportunity Program.

Several things have come together to help us achieve fiscal stability so quickly. These include:

• First and foremost, the commitment of our departments and divisions in making some hard choices and working to reduce costs;

• extraordinary recruiting by our Undergraduate Admissions Office of highly qualified, new undergraduate students;

• growth in graduate enrollment in almost every graduate program in each of our schools and colleges;

• support from the SUNY Administration and SUNY Board of Trustees that approved our 2019-20 budget parameters, including fees and tuition rates;

• as well as support from the New York State Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who approved funding to cover a portion of our retroactive faculty and staff raises

We aren’t completely out of the woods yet, however. We will continue to need to increase revenues, both by being mindful of costs and by working to increase our recruiting of students, particularly graduate students, both domestic and international. In addition, New York state faces a looming fiscal crisis with a structural deficit of $6 billion dollars or more in the coming year; what impact this will have on funding for SUNY is yet to be determined as we enter the annual budget cycle .

Perhaps the most newsworthy item in my talk was the announcement of a new name for the Decker School — it’s now the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. This change recognizes the continuing support for the school provided by the G. Clifford and Florence B. Decker Foundation, as well as the expanding educational and research vision of the college. Decker College will now be comprised of the Decker School of Nursing, as well as the School of Applied Health Sciences and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences, with programs in occupational, physical and speech therapy.

This is a good time for Decker’s expansion, as the school is rapidly moving upward in the ranks of the nation’s best nursing programs. For example, College Factual, an online organization that ranks college programs to assist students in choosing a college, recently ranked the Decker School of Nursing the 40th best program in the nation out of over 500 programs, and #6 in New York. In addition, Decker graduates earn significantly above the national average, suggesting that they are taking leadership positions in healthcare. With a new home at the Health Sciences Campus in Johnson City next year, the college will be starting a new chapter, with a greater role in community healthcare, as well as more students, more faculty and more research.

Free speech on campus

In November, two incidents took place on campus that highlighted the challenging role that colleges and universities play as institutions of higher education at a time when debates are contentious and our politics are polarized. Because our key role is to educate, we must find ways to ensure that all voices are heard, and encourage thoughtful and respectful consideration of opposing viewpoints.

I have sent out statements on these events and won’t repeat them here (they can be found on my page binghamton.edu/president).

But let me repeat here that at Binghamton University, we will not tolerate efforts to disrupt or shut down gatherings where academic and personal freedoms are being exercised. As president of Binghamton University, I am incredibly disappointed with the incidents that unfolded at these events, and I know that most of the University’s faculty and students share my concerns. In light of these events, I want to firmly state that Binghamton University is absolutely committed to free speech and that we want to be part of the national conversation about the exchange of ideas on college campuses.

Amid all of this, I am impressed as well by the response of our faculty and students, many of whom convened productive discussion groups to weigh what free speech means in the college context. For example: How do we ensure that all groups have the capacity and opportunity — and equality — to speak and have influence? I have great faith that our students and their teachers will find answers to these problems we face. As we look to the coming semester, we are also in conversations about what type of programming and ways we can facilitate additional campus dialogues, particularly in the context of the upcoming 2020 national election. Ensuring and protecting free speech on campus is a key challenge that we will resolve — even as we reaffirm our commitment to diversity and inclusion. These are not mutually exclusive propositions.

Snow days

As the campus took time off for the Thanksgiving break, a winter storm moved across the Northeast, dropping up to two feet of snow and significantly disrupting students’ travel back to campus. In anticipation of the storm, the University sent out a B-ALERT informing students and their families that the residence halls would open a day earlier than planned and encouraged students to return before the storm set in. We also canceled classes for Monday, and later, suspended Tuesday morning classes. Still, a number of students were unable to return early — particularly students who had arranged to take either commercial buses or student-organized Escape buses that opted not to run on Sunday or Monday. We encouraged faculty to be considerate of students’ concerns as they finished up classwork at the end of the semester.

Administrative transitions

The end of the semester often sees administrative changes as people transition into other roles or retirement. In December, Binghamton congratulated long-time Associate Vice President for Facilities Management, Larry Roma. Roma served the campus for more than 40 years, overseeing the expansion of the University’s physical plant, the beautification of its grounds, and incorporating sustainability into building design and construction. The campus will miss his vision and dedication, and we wish him well in his retirement.

We also will have a new vice provost for international education and global affairs, effective June 1, 2020. In December, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Nieman announced that Madhusudhan “Madhu” Govindaraju, professor, associate chair and graduate director for the Department of Computer Science, has been appointed to the position formerly held by Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari, who has served in the position as executive vice provost since it was established in June 2015. In this role, Govindaraju will continue our efforts to internationalize our campus, particularly through the recruitment of qualified graduate students.

50th anniversary for women’s sports

In a year of anniversaries, I also want to take time to recognize another milestone — 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of women’s athletics at Binghamton, and our women’s basketball team is celebrating in style. The Bearcats started the season winning their first 10 games (including one exhibition game), second only to the 1998-99 team that won 12 games in a row. Congratulations to them and to their coach, Bethann Shapiro Ord.

This has been a long and eventful semester, and students, faculty and staff are due a well-earned winter break. Holiday wishes to all, and I hope that everyone returns to campus reenergized for the spring semester.

Sincerely,

Binghamton University President Harvey G. Stenger signature

Harvey G. Stenger
President

Academics

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to M. Stanley Whittingham, distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Advancement

Giving Tuesday Dec. 3 (the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving each year) kicked off the Binghamton Fund’s end-of-calendar-year fundraising initiatives to support Binghamton University. This year’s theme was “Bring on the Bright.”

Research

A Binghamton graduate student has found new ways for doctors to detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms set in.

Student Affairs

Healthy Campus Summit, winter 2019