Geneseo Scene Fall 2015 by SUNY Geneseo

Fall 2015

geneseo scene

A magazine for alumni, parents and friends of SUNY Geneseo

We welcome our 13th president

The stadium opens Lights, camera, Riviera!

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geneseo Fall 2015

scene CONTENTS

FEATURES 8

Our 13th president Geneseo installed Denise A. Battles as our leader this fall. She shares with us her philosophy, formative experiences so far, and what’s next.

14 Under the big lights The grass is always greener at Geneseo, but our fields were always a bit of a challenge. Athletics gets a boost with turf — and extra shine.

Lights, camera, rebirth Once a favorite landmark, The Riviera movie house screen went dark for years. The new owners give us a look at its new life.

20 Our own place of wild Right on campus but far from the everyday hustle, the Roemer Arboretum is an oasis of nature and a unique classroom.

DEPARTMENTS 3 13 25 32

One College Circle: Campus News A world-champion cup stacker Alumni News Class Notes

COLUMNS 2 23 36

President’s Message Perspectives Random Profile

Cover Photo by Keith Walters ’11. Table of contents: Students are reflected in a puddle as they walk in front of Sturges Hall on a warm fall morning. Photo by Keith Walters ’11

Postmaster: Please address changes to the Office of Alumni Relations, Doty Hall, SUNY Geneseo, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, NY 14454-1484. Standard-class postage paid at Lebanon Junction, KY 40150

geneseo scene

Vol. 40, No. 3 Fall 2015

Geneseo Scene is published by SUNY Geneseo, Division of College Advancement, Office of College Communications. Denise A. Battles, President Jon A.L. Hysell, Interim Vice President for College Advancement David Irwin, Interim Assistant Vice President for College Communications Kris Dreessen, Editor Carole Smith Volpe ’91, Creative Director Contributing writers: Chelsea Butkowski ’15 Kris Dreessen Lydia Fernandez Maya Lucyshyn ’17 Jim Memmott Megan Tomaszewski ’17

Contributing photographers: Kris Dreessen Keith Walters ’11 Alumni Relations Office Ronna Bosko-Gillam, Director of Alumni Relations Michelle Walton Worden ’92, Associate Director of Alumni Relations Amanda McCarthy, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations for Regional Events Tracy Young Gagnier ’93, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Alumni Relations Office: Doty Hall SUNY Geneseo 1 College Circle Geneseo, NY 14454-1484 Phone: (585) 245-5506 Fax: (585) 245-5514 alumni@geneseo.edu Contact the Scene at scene@geneseo.edu. Visit the website at www.geneseo.edu/geneseo_scene Phone: (585) 245-5516

FROM THE PRESIDENT

SANKOFA: Wisdom of the past, and a healthy dialogue, will guide Geneseo’s strategic plan

“S

ankofa” is a word derived from Ghana’s Akan language that translates literally “to go back and get it.” It is often symbolically represented as a mythical bird flying forward with its head turned back to pick an egg off its back. The egg symbolizes an element of wisdom from the past and references the future generations who will be served by that knowledge. The bird is looking back while still moving forward, reminding us that progress relies on understanding the past as it informs the way ahead. This symbol is an apt representation of what is vital as we look to the future of Geneseo as we gain a comprehensive understanding of who we are, where we are going, and what we want and need to become. To support my own understanding of the college’s history, I have engaged in a “deep learning” initiative since my July arrival. My goal was to become knowledgeable about the college’s people, programs, places and position as a premier public liberal arts college. We conducted multiple Listening Tour sessions — one-hour conversations scheduled at various times and locations on campus — at which we asked faculty, staff and students to respond to questions such as “Why do you choose to be here at Geneseo?” We also organized several Locating the College short courses, in which we examined Geneseo’s position among our peer colleges, within the SUNY system, and in higher education overall. Those schola brevis sessions were organized around distinct themes: student access, recruitment and achievement; the colstakeholders who are invested in our lege’s financial sustainability; integrative learnsuccess and that of our students.” ing at the institution; and engagement at our institution. On Page 12, I share the perspectives I often heard about Geneseo in these Listening Tour and Locating the College sessions. It is imperative that we develop a strategic plan for Geneseo’s future. What we have learned and continue to learn provides the foundation for that plan and for broader discussions on what it means to be an exemplary public liberal arts college in the 21st century. I have gained valuable insights from those who treasure Geneseo and make it what it is — our students, faculty, staff, emeriti faculty and staff, alumni, parents, community members and other stakeholders who are invested in our success and that of our students. We intend to have a strategic plan in place by the end of the academic year. We will focus on our foremost priorities for moving Geneseo forward, informed by our core values. This process will mean choices, as an effective strategic plan cannot promise everything. In this way, we will draw on the diverse and devoted stakeholders of the college to build on the solid foundation of the past to create and implement a vision for our future.

“I have gained valuable insights from those who treasure Geneseo and make it what it is —

Denise A. Battles president

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PHOTO BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

One College Circle

CAMPUS NEWS

The Elixir of Love Cast members of the “Elixir of Love” perform at the second annual Finger Lakes Opera Performances, last summer.

4 4 5 5 6

Treasures revealed A world of preservation New international programs Assisting families with autism Not your mom’s Letchworth Fall 2015

ONE COLLEGE CIRCLE

CAMPUS NEWS

What is this? Geneseo treasures, revealed.

The terra-cotta soldier ay back in 246 B.C., Chinese emperor Ying Zheng had more than half a million laborers begin creating an elaborate mausoleum for his body when he died. In 1974, workers digging a well outside the city of Xi’an stumbled upon a life-size soldier in the ground — and thousands of others of the Terra-Cotta Army, one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world. We have a replica here in Geneseo, thanks to Professor Emeritus Ellen Kintz, who had it shipped from China in 2006. Our Geneseo soldier went largely unnoticed in the anthropology office in Sturges 13 until the college built a lit display case in the new Bailey Hall. Hundreds of people walk by the 445-pound warrior each day, often stopping to say, “What is that?”

PHOTO BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

Professor of Art History Lynette Bosch leads Museum Studies students in a class discussion.

New Museum Studies minor opens the world of preservation

PHOTO BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

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o creatively search an underrated aspect of the job market — museums — a professor and the career development office partnered to launch Museum Studies, which combines knowledge of the art world with job training, politics and administration to create a practical yet artistic minor. “Museums employ everybody. It’s not just artists and art curators,” says Professor of Art History Lynette Bosch. Business administrators, scientists, librarians, writers and advertisers are all a part of the museum industry. In the new program, interested students learn how such a career reaches past the usual, and has theoretical applications, critical thinking and practical aspects in terms of what it’s like to work in all types of museums. They also start to envision a museum in a different way. Students complete an internship during the program to learn how to work with artifacts and records in an immersive way. Many of the internships are within walking distance of Geneseo to make it accessible for every student — the Livingston County Historical Society, Wadsworth Library or Livingston County Historian’s office, as well as

on campus in Milne Library or digitizing records in Brodie Hall. They can also intern with a regional furniture restorer. Robert DiCarlo, associate director for internship opportunities, hopes to expand opportunities to Rochester museums. “Every single thing we teach here has museums for it,” Bosch said. “... The idea of integrating the museum into daily life is very important, and that’s what I would like to see in this minor.” She sees nature as art as well as historical structures, institutions, animals and buildings, and hopes to inspire museum studies minors to learn about preserving all of it. “Everything that belongs to the environment is also part of the larger construct,” she said. “The museum is the world, the world is the museum.” — By Maya Lucyshyn ’17

Hong Kong, Puerto Rico programs challenge traditional thought wanted something different.” That’s why Gurnaina Chawla ’16 chose to spend her summer in Hong Kong. Seeing Christian monks singing in Chinese on Lantau Island and a visit to a Confucian temple gave her insight into how the Chinese value certain things in life such as water and nature, and their devotion to spiritiuality. The month-long Hong Kong course is Geneseo’s newest addition to humanities, core courses taken by all students, which explore Western history and thought — and not always through a Western lens. Always adding studyabroad options, the college recently launched a summer humanities class in Berlin and a geography and political science course in Puerto Rico. They all challenge the way students see and interact with the world. “There is really no place on this planet where you can’t teach humanities,” study

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TZE-KI HON

“I

A Shue Yan University professor, Chi-kin Au, left, briefs students before a visit to the Kowloon Chamber of Commerce during the Humanities II course in Hong Kong. abroad office faculty fellow Wes Kennison said. Hong Kong, he says, is about “going to see where the Western tradition was pushing back against other cultures, and seeing how texts behave out in that environment. You can learn a whole lot of new things from the texts out there where they are bumping into other legiti-

mate traditions.” Diverse international experiences are a focus at the college, with 35 to 40 percent of Geneseo’s student body participating in a study abroad experience during the course of their careers at Geneseo. Last academic year, almost 500 students did so; nearly three quarters, like Chawla, chose a summer program.

Students in Vieques, Puerto Rico, spent one month focusing on environments and sustainable development in that new class. Geography chair and Associate Professor David Robertson chose the location for its unique history. “It’s very, very beautiful and it’s very troubled, not just from an environmental perspective but socioeconomically,” he said. In the 1940s, the U.S. Navy used the island of Vieques to test war technology, including a variety of bombs, for more than 60 years until operations were shut down in 2001, leaving Vieques with a stunted tourism industry and a variety of environmental issues. Geneseo students had the opportunity to explore the scientific and cultural consequences of this occupation, and did field work such as building offices and tending organic gardens. — By Maya Lucyshyn ’17

Student start-up helps families with autistic kids with a practical problem tudent entrepreneurs have won a statewide competition to develop and market a special diaper pad to help families with autistic children more easily bathroom train. “This product is for a great cause and can help many families solve a vexing problem,” says team member Logan Calvey ’16. The biotech team TrainSmart — which is also the name of their product — collaborated with scientists at the University of Rochester to create their business plan. The TrainSmart team recently took first place in the New York State Business Plan Competition, winning $10,000 in prize money to further develop the training diaper pads and examine

the product’s viability as a business, including manufacturing 3,000 diaper pads for beta testing of its efficiency and comfort at several universities and hospitals. “By working with the lead scientist and industrial designers, the students gain the experience of taking a product from the prototype stage to the point where it’s a sophisticated, marketable product,” says Judith Albers, Geneseo’s VanArsdale professor of entrepreneurship. The students were part of an upper-level entrepreneurship course, Idea2Venture, which focuses on student-led business ventures. Students are partnering with Stephen McAleavy, a U of R associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Daniel Mruzek, an associate professor of pedi-

atrics at the U of R Medical Center. The diaper pads utilize a sensor, transmitter and iPhone app. The sensor in the diaper pad features an alarm that triggers when there is a wetting event, while also sending an alert to the parent’s phone app so they can take their child to the bathroom. This helps the child establish a mental connection between the wetting event, the sound and the action taken. “It’s an amazing feeling to know that all our hard work is paying off and we will be able to use the money to continue to help push this product forward,” says Calvey. — By Megan Tomaszewski ’17

Fall 2015

ONE COLLEGE CIRCLE

Benjamin Laabs, middle, chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, works with Jenelle

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

Letchworth is reborn Cooking classes. Kosher options. Artfully plated meals. A pastry chef.

This is not your mother’s dining hall. (She wouldn’t even recognize it.) he best part of the old Letchworth Dining Hall was always the basement — the bar, in fact — where you could get subs and suds with your meal coupon on Saturday nights. Upstairs, Lisa Robinson Schmitt ’82 used to walk past a line of stainless steel fixtures, buffet style, and into a massive dining hall— bench seats, rows and rows. What she remembers was “plain and utilitarian.” “The food was OK,” she says, “but the atmosphere? Not so great. This is really awesome to see.” Lisa barely recognized the new Letchworth Dining Complex, fresh after a two-year complete renovation, as she dipped truffles into semi-dark at a chocolate-making class during reunion. Alums in the next room sipped full-bodied reds crafted from local grapes in a wine-tasting workshop. Letchworth is that kind of place now. On the second floor of Letchworth is Food Studio North, a payone-price restaurant with grilling, dessert, Italian, kosher, glutenfree and vegetarian stations, with meals plated a la Iron Chef masterpiece. Downstairs, students can grab a sandwich, or a fruit tart

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handmade by the pastry chef. Right — a pastry chef. It’s indicative of Geneseo dining now as a whole. There’s a commitment to culinary arts and serving what students seek — from kosher to local foods and a good place to spend the time, all served up by 10 professionally trained chefs. Geneseo has received two national recognitions — for residential dining and for glutenfree options. Sometimes dancers leap in for an Indianinspired number, or you might see a flamenco dancer. You can watch the cooks and chefs prepare your food, all fresh. Have it in a booth behind the grill bar. Have it while you’re wired, so you can work or surf. “When I first visited campus, Letchworth had just opened,” says freshman Rebecca Hoppy. “When I walked in and saw all the fancy, gourmet options, I was so excited ... I knew there would always be something interesting and healthy for me to eat.” — By Kris Dreessen

Not your mom’s dining hall. The top things about the new Letchworth, serving some 1,000 students a day: • Pastry chef Andrew Zalar bakes fresh tarts and other confections in Max Market. • Tired but gotta work? Put your legs up in the cozy seating designed for laptop use. • The Arugula station features all vegetarian and vegan cuisine. • Wanna travel the world? Dine at Roma’s for allItalian creations, or the Lemongrass Asian station. • Cooking classes teach kitchen skills and tips like boosting flavor without adding fat. • Head chef Chris Mejia’s Asian-inspired flank steak recipe won second in a national competition. • Nabali Kosher Kitchen offers non-dairy meals, with methods overseen by a rabbi. • Need it gluten-free? Visit Kasha Gluten-free. • Pizza and pasta sauce is made only with tomatoes from New York. • Got milk? Ours comes from Upstate Milk, a cooperative of 360 family-owned farms in New York. • Have your green and eat it too: Letchworth is certified for its sustainability for energy use, water efficiency, building materials and other features. • Turn up the heat! The hot-pepper tasting event with a flamenco dancer for entertainment is one of several “in-house” impromptu shows and events. • Food Studio North, the pay-one-price upstairs restaurant, was awarded the Gold Medal for residential dining by the National Association of College and University Food Services. • Geneseo is ranked No. 2 in the country for glutenfree options by Boulder Brands, a maker of gluten-free foods.

Fall 2015

Geneseo President Denise A. Battles, center, is congratulated by SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher and SUNY Board of Trustees member Marshall Lichtman.

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Geneseo welcomes our 13th president Immersed in listening and learning about the college from those who know it best, Denise A. Battles takes over as leader.

By Kris Dreessen

Fall 2015

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

n Oct. 22, Geneseo formally welcomed its 13th president, Denise A. Battles, in an inauguration ceremony following two weeks of special events, including concerts, lectures, and the opening of the new athletic stadium. “It is with profound gratitude and deep humility that I accept the presidency of this fine institution,” said Battles. “I pledge to do my utmost to advance the college and fulfill its abundant potential.” In her inaugural address, Battles discussed the mission that has guided Geneseo’s success and the college’s past, opportunities and challenges, signaling how she intends to lead, as well as continue to learn about the college and what’s most important to it. Hundreds of students, faculty, staff, government representatives, alumni, area college delegates, and members of the community welcomed her in Wadsworth Auditorium. As Geneseo’s leader, Battles is charged with setting strategic directions for the future, and maintaining and strengthening the institution’s reputation as an outstanding public liberal arts college. Since her arrival in July, Battles has met with students, alumni, community leaders, and other stakeholders and conducted both Listening Tour and Locating the College short course sessions to learn about Geneseo from the people who know it best. That keen interest in listening and understanding what built the Geneseo of today to guide decision-making is one trait that stands out in her leadership, say alumni and college leaders.

Inauguration speakers and distinguished guests listen to the Chambers Singers perform.

“What struck me about Denise is her very thorough analytical ability to gather the facts and data and viewpoints — including opposing viewpoints — and understand where people are coming from and the heart of issues to make informed, solid decisions,” said Kevin Gavagan ’75, chair of the Geneseo Foundation Board of Directors, who was among the many distinguished speakers at the inauguration. Such an ability to examine issues from many perspectives is paramount, say Gavagan and Gidget Hopf ’72, who served on the presidential search committee and served as host at the inauguration ceremony. Being a visionary is also important, as is pragmatism and serving as an ambassador for the college to the outside world. Battles stands out for possessing all of these, Hopf said, as she is also able to relate to all sorts of people and groups. Inauguration events included a 5K charity run, a roof-raising of the Henry David Thoreau cabin on campus, and student team-building activities and ice-

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breakers in the student union. Battles fired the starting gun for the race, took part in the ceremonial shoveling of dirt at the cabin, and tested her agility in a game of Twister with students on a giant inflatable game board. Believing that student voices and opinions need to be heard, her Listening Tour sessions also included students. “She’s a doer ... She made herself accessible to the students and participated in everything,” said Hopf. “It’s like she’s home.” Battles is not too far from it. She grew up in Oswego County before starting a 25-year career as a geologist, professor, and higher education administrator that included positions at Georgia Southern University, University of Northern Colorado, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In her inaugural address, Battles remarked that Geneseo embodies the best attributes of her own educational experiences, as she obtained her degrees at a

small private liberal arts college and later a large public institution: affordability, excellence, and a student-centered environment that promotes personal relationships with faculty and staff. In her speech, Battles said it is imperative that Geneseo address several key questions as it creates a strategic plan. Those key questions include making an education more accessible and relevant to a digital generation of learners; maximizing affordability and cost-effectiveness while offering outstanding education; enhancing diversity and equity; internationalizing education for all students; and boosting our community engagement and visibility. As we look forward, Battles said, there will be challenges, but “we have the indisputable strengths of character, passion, and intellect to move forward with optimism and perseverance. I am privileged and humbled to serve as your new president and am excited to undertake that journey.”

At left, President Battles speaks with a guest at the Geneseo Sports Hall of Fame dinner, at which the college recognizes outstanding alumni athletes.

President Battles, above center, places a ceremonial shovel of dirt at the site of the Henry David Thoreau cabin on campus.

Members of Korye Geneseo: Ghanaian Dance and Drum Ensemble perform.

President Battles plays a game of inflatable Twister with students.

President Battles greets a student in the union during inaugural activities.

Fall 2015

President Battles:

Since becoming president, I have conducted multiple Listening Tour sessions to better understand where we as a campus came from, who we are, and who we will be in the future. This “deep learning” is designed to prepare me to be the best leader I can for Geneseo. Several themes have emerged from my conversations with students, faculty, staff, alumni and community residents. The strongest is how important Geneseo was, and is, to those who chose to attend and teach and work here. Those individuals are drawn to Geneseo and keep it close. These women and men loved their experiences and time at Geneseo, and then moved on thinking those years were a chapter in their lives — yet find themselves drawn back by a desire to keep Geneseo in their lives. This impulse speaks to how Geneseo becomes an integral part of who we are. Here are a few other themes that have emerged from my Listening Tour sessions: Shouting it from the rooftops There is a strong desire among our Geneseo family to tell our story more effectively to the wider world. We know who we are and what we do; we need to celebrate widely the treasure that is our institution. Belief in the mission What we do here is so important — offering an affordable, accessible education of exceptional quality. Our faculty, students, and staff choose to come here — and then stay — because they identify with the talented students we attract as well as the culture and values embraced at the college. That mission resonates with our alumni — it is heart-felt. There is a deep commitment here to the social good that is promoted in public higher education. That philosophy is why I find the opportunity to lead a public liberal arts college so compelling.

geneseo scene

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

What I’ve learned ...

President Denise A. Battles poses for a selfie with students in a residence hall following a group discussion with them.

Support of transformative learning There is a dedication to the transformative applied learning that is at the heart of a Geneseo education. Those experiences include international study, facultymentored undergraduate research and creative activities, internships, servicelearning and the like. The desire is strong among our community to give back and there is a tradition of valuing and rewarding those faculty and staff who enable those transformative educational experiences. That culture results in positive outcomes for our students.

Watch the president’s inauguration and read her address —

go.geneseo.edu/ battlesvideo Get to know the president (last Scene article)

bit.do/battlesstory See the best of the inguration events and photos

go.geneseo.edu/ inaugurationgallery

For example, nearly 40 percent of all Geneseo students will complete a study abroad experience before graduation. That is an outstanding number relative to institutions of our type. As another example, our Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement and Talent (GREAT) Day each year attracts greater numbers of student participants and presentations. These undergraduate researchers and performers gain a depth and quality of experience that is rarely achieved by their peers at other institutions. When I was a presidential candidate, I read the in-depth profile of the position and the college, which painted a picture of an outstanding campus and community. Developing these profiles is standard practice when recruiting senior campus leaders; they convey information about the campus, its accomplishments and daily life. In generating them, institutions of course put their best foot forward, and sometimes when the candidate gets on the ground in that place, he or she finds a different reality. Since my arrival, I have been asked what my biggest surprise has been about Geneseo. That’s an easy question to answer. While the profile I read communicated an extremely positive view of Geneseo, I have discovered that description may have been an understatement.

Lightning fast hands Kailey Diedrick ’16 is one of the fastest stackers of cups — in the world. By Kris Dreessen

PHOTO BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

uinness World Record holder Kailey Diedrick ’16 slaps the timer and it’s a flurry as she slides plastic cups from three individual piles and stacks them into formation — and apart again — so quick you can’t really see what her fingers are doing. “Sport stacking is a really fast sport,” she says. Kailey, a business administration major, and her three teammates hold the Guinness World Record for sport stacking relay. They each stacked three formations, running to and from the table and timer, in less than 40 seconds to earn the title on national Tru TV in a Los Angeles live taping. “It was such an experience,” she says. “It was so cool. We got to lift the Guinness World Record certificate.” Sport stacking originated in the 1980s but took some time to gain its popularity, especially among elementary school students and school clubs. Competitors build and break down stacks of cups in increasingly difficult and complex formations. You don’t have to have power, be agile on a field, or fast at running to stack, says Kailey. The sport develops eye-hand coordination, muscle memory, concentration and nimbleness. “On Team USA, we have kids that are 3 years old, all the way through age 60,” she says. “It’s really for anybody.” Kailey started stacking when she was 16, using her brother’s set. She got hooked and took it over. She went to her first tournaments the first year and beat all the state records. “Then, I set out to beat myself,” she says. Kailey has been a member of Team USA for sport stacking since 2011. Her lightning-fast hands earned her a gold medal at the Junior Olympics in 2012. “I’m good under pressure. I don’t like it,” she says, “but it motivates me and I’ve learned to cope with it and handle it.”

Kailey Diedrick ’16 holds the Guinness World Record for the sport stacking relay, and has taught students at her elementary school the sport of cup stacking.

To give back, Kailey partnered with a former phys ed teacher, Janet DiLascio, to conduct a week-long workshop at her former grade school, Brinckerhoff Elementary School in Fishkill, N.Y. The workshop finished with a big fourth-grade tournament. “I could tell they felt confident in their abilities to do something different and something that is out of the ordinary,” says Kailey of her time at the school. “The main thing for me was seeing how much these kids felt confident after.”

DiLascio says Kailey single-handedly turned the school into a stacking frenzy. Because of her, every year, stacking is taught in the school, and the school hosts a mass stacking event with all 600 students. “The kids begged her for her autograph and to pose for pictures, and she stayed as long as it took until the last kid got what they needed. Kailey was and continues to be a hero to us,” says DiLascio. “This is a perfect example of how one simple selfless act by one person can positively impact thousands of lives.”

: WATCH IT:

Watch Kailey show our Scene editor how to stack Watch Kailey clinch the world record

bit.do/cupstacker

bit.do/kaileycup

Fall 2015

Under the BIG By Jim Memmott

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

geneseo scene

LIGHTS

Geneseo’s new stadiu

um is a home for student-athletes that showcases their commitment, and brings new opportunities for play.

Fall 2015

n October afternoon sun shone briefly on the official dedication ceremonies for the college’s new stadium complex. Same day, different weather, a cold rain fell later in the afternoon as Geneseo took on Cortland in field hockey. They played in the main or East Field stadium area that features a synthetic turf field and 2,000 seats for spectators. On the adjoining West Field, the women’s soccer team finished a practice on the turf, as men’s lacrosse players began to arrive for their time on the field. Open to heavy use in any kind of weather, and just about any time of day or night — yes, both fields have lights — the state-of-the-art athletic facility was already fulfilling its mission. “It’s absolutely wonderful, this time of year especially,” says women’s soccer coach Nate Wiley ’99. “As we deal with weather-related issues, it makes a world of difference. The old field was a good field, but drainage was an issue.” Playing on a grass field did have challenges, says field hockey player Kailey Suhr ’16, who spoke at the stadium opening and cut the entryway ribbon. “It meant our teams had to train harder and give our best effort every single time. Ultimately, that extra effort and dedication it took to make our passes and shots harder made us stronger as a team.” Poor drainage, lack of seating, natural grass that couldn’t take a beating, no lights — that was the short list of issues with the college athletic fields. And that’s the reason college officials began planning the new facility for athletes like Suhr 10 years ago, assisted in part by alumni who contributed funds for schematic drawings. Plans called for a complex to be situated on land cleared by the demolition of the Holcomb building across from the Merritt Athletic Center. State approval of a project of this size takes time, and work didn’t begin until three years ago. The total cost, including that of demolishing the Holcomb building, was

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$18.2 million. Work was completed by this September, and the facility was in use even before its official dedication. In addition to the two all-weather lighted fields, the complex features digital scoreboards, a press box, team rooms, showers, public toilets, a concession stand, a concourse and promenade, additional parking, and storage and maintenance space. About 500 students will utilize the fields, every school year. In the fall, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and field hockey played games and practiced in the stadium; men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse will play in the spring. Out-of-season teams also practice as well. Intramural championships will also be held on the fields. Athletic director Michael Mooney says that with the new complex the college now meets the NCAA’s requirements to stage its championships. The facilities should help attract teams from other areas of the country to compete in tournaments hosted by the college. “All of this exhibits the level of commitment the college has made to having successful athletic teams,” Mooney says, “while also illustrating how important the student-athlete experience is to the overall co-curricular nature of a Geneseo education.” Suhr sees that commitment and knows what it means for future students. “We view this stadium as a reward for all our hard work. We were the ones who made it to the championships, earned the awards and set the records,” Suhr says. “And now we have a new arena to display all our talent. In my eyes, this turf stadium is a window to the next generation of Geneseo athletics. The heightened team morale that comes from having a stadium to call your own helps fuel the fire we already have inside.”

The new stadium by the numbers

1 Concession stand.

Regulation, synthetic turf fields, one known as the East Field is designed for inter-collegiate contests; the West Field will be used more for practices.

Team rooms in the East Field stadium.

15 Maximum capacity of the East Field VIP suite. 26 Lights on each light pole. 100 Height in feet of each light pole.

Light poles, four for each field.

Seating capacity of the West Field bleachers.

200

150

Parking spaces around the stadium. Chair-back seats in the East Field grandstand.

1,500

500

Geneseo student athletes who will make use of the new fields during the school year.

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS â&#x20AC;&#x2122;11

2,000

Square feet of the East Field press box.

$18.2 million

Seating in the East Field grandstand.

Cost of the entire project, including demolition of Holcomb Building.

infinite Spectacular sunsets to be viewed from the West Field seats. Fall 2015

Lights, camera, Riviera . Downtownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old-fashioned theater returns for a sequel.

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... again By Jim Memmott ilms get sequels, and in Geneseo, a movie theater is getting a second run as well. The Geneseo Riviera on Center Street downtown, open for business from 1914 to 1995, is staging a glorious comeback, all spiffed up as it journeys back in time. Credit Geneseo property developers Don Livingston and Jim Sullivan, who bought the building in 2013 and spent two years bringing it back to life. They first redid the second-floor apartments, the one part of the building that would predictably generate income. Then they turned their attention to cleaning out and restoring the downstairs theater, creating an elegant place to watch a movie, with room as well for dancing and dining. “We decided that if we were going to do it, we weren’t going to do it halfway,” Livingston says. In taking on the task, they joined what is said to be a movement in city neighborhoods and small towns to bring back or keep alive the small onescreen theaters that thrived in the days before the arrival of multiplex theaters and cable television. The business plan for the Riviera was to make it a movie theater/party house/community gathering spot. But the theater had fallen into disrepair long before it closed, and it took months to clear out the junk left behind after the Riviera went dark.

“We decided that if we were going to do it, we weren’t going to do it halfway.” — Don Livingston Ronald Herzman, the State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor of English who joined the faculty at Geneseo in 1969, fell victim himself to that disrepair during a screening of “The Story of Adele H,” a 1975 French film directed by François Truffaut. “Without any warning, my chair collapsed,” he recalls. “Suddenly I was watching with my chin on the seat in front of me.” There were other surprises at the old Riviera. “Once, I was watching a film and a delivery guy knocked on the side door,” Herzman recalls. “He stuck his head in and asked, ‘Who ordered the pizza?’” Patrons of the new Riviera need not fear collapsing chairs, as the new seats are state-of-the-art recliners with cup holders. Not everything is new, however. The movie screen, still up to the task, may have come to the theater in the 1970s. The popcorn machine, which started popping in 1947, has been overhauled and is working just fine. Many Geneseo residents got their first look at the restored theater this year on Valentine’s Day when there was a benefit dinner and a screening of the 1957 film “An Affair to Remember.” Since then, there have been showings of different vintage films, as well as parties and other events. Livingston says there will be a gathering for Geneseo alumni this fall, and he also plans to screen Buffalo Bills games.

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

Fall 2015

Take a walk ... on the wild side The college celebrates 25 years of the Roemer Arboretum, an outdoor classroom and oasis â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and an ecosystem with war and peace played out on a tiny scale.

geneseo scene

By Kris Dreessen

alk to the meadow on a clear summer night, and the skies above the Roemer Arboretum can reward your sleepy shuffle at 1 a.m. with bands of wavy white flowing across the Milky Way. On a morning stroll, if you look closely, there’s a civilization — and a war — playing out beneath your feet. Rare slave-making ants with dozens of colonies in the campus preserve raid less-fortunate Formica glacialis, stealing and hauling their young back to their nest, where they spend their lives foraging for food for their captors, assuming they are their own kind. Milkweeds planted to attract monarchs to Geneseo are nurseries for the larvae, whose sole food is this one type of plant. You can find the plants at the entrance and next to the gazebo for some weeks each summer. “There are so many interesting things in there, if you look deeper,” says arboretum director and Associate Professor of Biology Jennifer Apple. “It’s a complete ecosystem — with life and death cycles and patterns and changes of these seemingly small things like bees and ants. The ecosystem reveals answers to how nature works and provides us with more questions.” For 25 years, the Roemer Arboretum has provided an oasis of green on the campus, where nature is both nurtured and runs its own course. “In addition to being a really neat place to explore, the arboretum is our natural biology classroom,” says Professor of Biology Gregg Hartvigsen, who served as arboretum director from 1999 to 2013. “I continue to take my ecology students, rain or shine, heat or cold, to the arboretum.” In this outdoor classroom, students have sought the answers to dozens of questions about the natural world of the arboretum: here, there are 70 species of shrubs, trees and plants, a complete ecosystem of plants and animals, some of which we often overlook.

PHOTO BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

Fall 2015

created an endowment to make sure the land is never developed. In addition to having added a gazebo, they maintain trails, offer tours for the community, and keep it pristine for another 25 years. “Throughout the arboretum are large black walnut and red and white oak trees, remnants of a time more than 250 years ago when the Seneca lived in these lands,” says Hartvigsen. “These trees spread their broad branches, casting shade widely, and offer opportunities for visitors to reflect on the beauty and value of preserving areas like the arboretum for years to come.”

Find out more ...

arboretum.geneseo.edu See more photos ...

bit.do/25roemer

geneseo scene

Meet Roemer’s alumni caretaker If the arboretum’s trees, wildflowers and native greenery get unruly, John Wolf ’73 makes it pristine. He drives an hour to mow, so summer visitors can better enjoy the sanctuary. He does it in honor of his mother, Ruth Wolf ’44, who inspired him to consider choosing Geneseo. It takes the better part of a day, pushing his 50-year-old beloved Gravely through high grass and around the arboretum’s massive oak trees. “It’s fun. It’s kind of a privilege. There were Native Americans walking around here when those things were just tiny little oak trees,” says John. “That was 250 years ago. Think about that.”

The gazebo in fall.

A monarch larva feasts on a milkweed plant.

PHOTO BY KRIS DREESSEN

Students and faculty monitor bird songs to study how human impacts on their habitat affect their behavior; they learn about the decomposition by micro-organisms and discover which bees call SUNY Geneseo home, important now that world bee populations are plummeting. There are also surprises. A specific species of spider moves its front legs to mimic movements of ant antennae to trick predators into thinking they are less tasty. Tiny treehopper insects suck plant juices from goldenrods and excrete a sugary waste product that ants use as food. The ants protect the treehoppers — which are their food source. The treehoppers even communicate threats to the ants through vibrations. Student workers and volunteers maintain the grounds. In 1990, the late Spencer J. Roemer, emeritus dean of admissions,

The student outdoor club by the white oak.

PHOTOS BY KEITH WALTERS ’11

“I use my experience to motivate my teammates. What I tell them is my belief for life now: You never know if you’re going to get this opportunity again to be with these people, to play this game again. We are never guaranteed each new day. Give it your all, every time.”

Near death, she found new life Lea Sobieraski ’15 lost her stepfather when she was a teen. His body saved others. At 21, a donated liver from another family gave her second life. On her journey back, she has found a mission to encourage organ donation. By Lea Sobieraski ’15

had just started my junior season of basketball at Geneseo. I was in the prime of my athletic career, as I was a starter and captain, relishing the excitement of a new season. I never knew my liver was killing me — I just didn’t feel like myself. I had been healthy my whole life. Initially, doctors thought it was indigestion, but a few days later I was still so uncomfortable. I followed my instinct, and went to urgent care, where they gave me an ultrasound. Hours later, life changed. I was taking my Spanish final. In a few hours, I would be on the bus for an away game. My phone kept ringing off the hook and I asked the professor if I could take it. It was the hospital: “You have free-flowing fluid in your abdomen. You need to get to the hospital as soon as you can.”

Fall 2015

PERSPECTIVES I didn’t finish the test — I left. I went home to Lockport, near Buffalo, to be with my family. Doctors quickly discovered I had cirrhosis of the liver. My liver looked like that of a 60-yearold alcoholic. They drained seven pounds of fluid from my abdomen. It was such a surprise. Blood tests confirmed I have Wilson’s disease — a rare inherited disorder that causes copper to accumulate in the liver, brain and other organs because the body doesn’t eliminate it as it should. It affects 1 in 30,000 people worldwide.

LEA’S NEW LIFE MISSION

hen I was in high school, my stepfather fell down our stairs and hit his head and died of brain damage. My mom and his kids donated his organs so others could live. I have come full circle. We have been on both sides of it. There’s a reason I went through this — to help others. I spend a lot of time talking about organ donation. It can be a very uncomfortable conversation to have. I speak at my high school, with Western New York athletic teams, at blood drives, and have interned at Unyts, a Buffalo-based organ transplant center. I helped develop the Unyts street team, fostering high school volunteers. I want people to know the effect one person can have on others. This is my life’s work now. I wrote a letter to my donor family, whose gift gave me a second chance of life. I want them to know that a part of their loved one is living on, through me.

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••• “You need a liver transplant.” I will never forget how it was to hear those words. Because Wilson’s disease progresses very quickly, they advised me it could be two years, months, or weeks, but I would need one. Three months later, I would be so sick I was catapulted to the top of the donor list. In the meantime, I tried to keep living. I came back to Geneseo to support my team at games. My immune system was so weak that I wore gloves. I lost 40 pounds. I was in and out of the hospital. From the start, the doctors said I could not play basketball. That was a huge adjustment for me, but I took it day by day. I’ve always been taught to have a positive attitude. It never crossed my mind that I was not going to make it. Sports have especially taught me that if you work hard, it’s going to work out. That was my mindset. But after three months, I couldn’t get out of bed or even lift my head. My eyes were jaundiced. One day, I stood and opened my eyes, but everything went white. There was no more waiting. My specialist saved my life. He advocated for me and saw that I needed a transplant, quickly. Within two days, I was on the surgery table. If I had not gotten it within those two days, I would not be here. It happened so quickly that I didn’t realize how scary it was. That’s a blessing. As they wheeled me to surgery, I put my arms out. I can see myself coasting

down the hall, my entire family standing over me. I gave them each a hug and kiss and told them I would see them soon. There was never a doubt that I would see them again. In surgery, a nurse asked me, “What kind of music do you listen to?” I said, “Anything I can dance to. I love dancing.” ••• During my first time back on campus, I shared my story with people and was so happy to see friends. On the way home, I started crying. I don’t know what it was about being here, or what exactly hit me, but I had a very emphatic feeling: You have someone’s liver in you. It’s not yours. You are alive because of someone else. This epiphany strikes me — every day. My whole perspective on life has changed. I had to grow up quickly. Weather. Being hot. Cold. Those are things I used to complain about. Not now. We’re here. I’m alive. I worked hard to play basketball again. Before, some days I dreaded hauling myself to practice. If I didn’t get playing time, I would get really mad and frustrated. Now, I was happy to be on the bench and part of the team. I had taken it all for granted — simple things that can go away so easily. As crazy as it sounds, I wouldn’t change going through what I went through. It has made me a better person. I enjoy life so much more. Geneseo professors were so supportive. My coaches and teammates visited me in the hospital. On Halloween, they brought pumpkins for us to carve. My teammates’ parents got me a Kindle, and my family food gift certificates. I am so thankful for this school and everyone I have in my life at Geneseo. As a captain now, I use my experience to motivate my teammates. What I tell them is my belief for life now: You never know if you’re going to get this opportunity again to be with these people, to play this game again. We are never guaranteed each new day. Give it your all, every time.

Alumni News AT U O Y SEE N 2016! IO N U E R 3-4

JUNE

ALUMNI NEWS Our first Reunion block party! Hundreds of alumni celebrated coming home to Geneseo at the first block party off Main Street which featured a photo booth. This year, the reunion revels in all things â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70s, so dig out your bell bottoms, tie-dye tees and psychedelic LPs and join us. *Find out more about reunion at www.geneseo.edu/reunion.

26 30 31 32 33

Alumni event photos Writing thrillers Fighting youth obesity Class Notes Scene Around the World Fall 2015 25

Geneseo unveils a new unified alumni organization

uring my time on campus, I have been struck by the exceptional degree of alumni loyalty and affection for the college. That is a tribute to the quality of teaching over the years, a vibrant campus life that leads to enduring friendships, and the realization that Geneseo is superb preparation for the world. How do we extend that advantage to future generations of students? For more than one year, people with deep knowledge of Geneseo’s history and culture have explored how we can better serve alumni, examining how alumni relations is organized, how it functions and what we might do to achieve new success. I am pleased to announce that for the first time in the history of Geneseo, we will have a unified mission and vision for alumni relations as we create a new alumni association, the SUNY Geneseo Alumni Association, or SGAA. It will be our sole official alumni association and our partner as we work to expand alumni participation in the life of the college, and allow for more alumni to become involved in the life of the college. A team of volunteers will recommend a plan and schedule for launching the SGAA in early 2016. We are so fortunate that Geneseo enjoyed almost 75 years of talented and dedicated alumni service to the college, starting with the original Geneseo Alumni Association formed in 1942. We are grateful to the GAA for its lengthy and distinguished service. More recently, the Alumni Council has added importantly to this tradition of volunteer leadership and service. The many virtues of these organizations will be incorporated into the SGAA. Geneseo owes our extraordinary corps of alumni leaders past, present and future a huge thank-you. And I want to remind students and young alumni how important you are to our future. I’m excited about this opportunity. There is much to do.

Reunion — 25th Anniversary

Reunion — Clios

Reunion — AGOs

Denise A. Battles President

Questions? Suggestions? Visit the SGAA website at www.geneseo.edu/alumni/sgaa or contact Ronna Bosko-Gillam, director of alumni relations, at bosko@geneseo.edu or (585)-245-5596. Reunion — Sig Eps 26

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Alumni Events — Reunion

Reunion — AOPis

Reunion — Class of 1965 50th Anniversary

Reunion — Sigma Kappas

Reunion — DKs Fall 2015

Upcoming

Alumni Events The Office of Alumni Relations is always looking for regional event ideas. Contact the office at alumni@geneseo.edu if you would like to work with us to plan an event in your area.

Chemistry and Biochemistry Mixer MARCH 26, 2016 (on campus)

Great Knight APRIL 19, 2016 Simultaneous events in all regions (worldwide)

Fall Sports Alumni Games & Gathering

Rochester, N.Y., Presidential reception

APRIL 23, 2016 (field hockey, men’s soccer, volleyball and women’s soccer)

Alumni Weekend/Springfest APRIL 29-30, 2016 (men’s and women’s rugby alumni games and gathering)

Reunion -— Weekend Theme “Celebrating the ’70s” JUNE 3-4, 2016 Groups celebrating special reunions: • OA (Orientation Advisors) 50th Anniversary: 1966-2016 • UAA (Undergraduate Alumni Association) 40th Anniversary: 1976-2016 Geneseo Men’s Lacrosse — campus Contact Tracy Young Gagnier ’93, assistant director of alumni relations (gagniert@geneseo.edu) if you are interested in learning more about either of these reunions. Make sure we have your email so we can invite you to join us! We are always planning events on campus and throughout Geneseo’s 18 alumni regions across the country. Most of our event invitations are sent by email to reduce cost and conserve resources.

Visit alumni.geneseo.edu for events in your area! Buffalo alumni painting event

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Alumni Events

Geneseo Alumni baseball game

Reunion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Chocolate class â&#x20AC;&#x201D; campus

Washington, D.C., Presidential reception

Geneseo 25th Crew Club Anniversary Fall 2015

Real-life becomes thrillers By Lydia Fernandez

ometimes finding what you’re meant to do in life takes a while. For James Sheehan ’71, it took about 30 years. “I was doing what I wanted to do,” he says, looking back on his career as a trial attorney, “but now I’m doing the two things I was meant to do — teaching and writing. It can happen to you at any age.” Sheehan had always wanted to be a writer, but as a young man and father of three, he didn’t have the confidence or the time to pursue it. From Geneseo, he went on to Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., and

class of ’71 James Sheehan

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three decades in and out of courtrooms. Along the way, he saw lawyers like John Grisham become successful authors, and one day, as he sought a distraction from his work, Sheehan started writing. That’s when he began to find a place for all the characters he’s met over the years. “The characters in my books — they’re composites of people you’ve met throughout life, and sometimes you don’t even realize it,” he says. They include his wife, Linda, older brother, a childhood friend, a former Geneseo hotel owner, and PHOTO PROVIDED

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI PROFILE

Peter Keciorius ’71, whom he met playing touch football their first day at Geneseo. Sheehan also finds his stories in his life’s experiences. His law career has included work as an assistant city attorney in Tampa, an insurance defense litigator and a sole practitioner representing people who faced discrimination and other hardships. Sheehan’s legal thrillers give human dimension to complicated issues like capital punishment, and feature trial attorneys fighting for the underdog. His fourth book, “The Alligator Man” (2013), introduces flawed but legendary trial lawyer Tom Wylie, who agrees to represent a man accused of murdering his boss. The success of his first book

opened the door to teaching for Sheehan. As “The Mayor of Lexington Avenue” gained national acclaim, Sheehan continued practicing law. He recalls representing a group of monks in federal court in Albany when Stetson’s law school dean called to invite him to speak at an event. That appearance led to an adjunct position and eventually a professorship. Sheehan now teaches courses on negotiation and mediation and pretrial practice. He also directs the Tampa Law Center, which houses Stetson law classrooms as well as the Tampa branch of Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals. “It’s amazing how things work out,” says Sheehan, who has just completed his latest book, expected out next year. This work explores the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder and was inspired by one of Sheehan’s students, a Marine who organized a campus film screening to raise awareness of PTSD. Sheehan thinks back on the years that prepared him for what he was meant to do. His years at Geneseo helped form him, and the people he met there find their way into his novels decades later. He wants those he cares about most to have the same memorable moments. “I find myself telling my grandchildren that they’ve got to go away to school,” says Sheehan, who grew up in New York City. “It’s essential. It’s not just the academics that you learn from.”

ALUMNI PROFILE

By Jim Memmott

PHOTO PROVIDED

hen it came time to name his youth fitness initiative, it’s no surprise that Tarik Kitson ’08 settled upon Active Plus, as “active plus” aptly describes his life. “I have learned that 24 hours is not much time,” says Kitson, whose day often ends as the morning hours begin. Up at 6 a.m. and off to his job at a health-care administrator at Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York City, Kitson also finds the hours necessary to co-direct Active Plus, a nonprofit organization with an expanding set of programs to combat youth obesity. Kitson and other Active Plus volunteers go into New York City schools that have cut sports teams and physical education programs and work with young people. They coach them in sports and also mentor them on diet and on study skills. “Active Plus serves as a safe outlet for children where they learn the importance of responsibility, teamwork, accountability and other fundamentals tied to athletics,” Kitson says. “It gives many of our kids a purpose and plays a tremendous role on academics and conduct improvement. ” Kitson and Miguel Roxas, an Active Plus co-founder who also works at Memorial SloanKettering, fund these activities with a portion of the entrance fees charged to adults playing in basketball leagues organized through New York City hospitals by Active Plus. Kitson continues to play basketball, maintaining the skills

class of ’08 Tarik Kitson Tarik Kitson ’08, back right, co-directs Active Plus, a non-profit organization in New York City that combats youth obesity.

Defender of youth sports, fighting childhood obesity. that helped him become a four-year starter at Geneseo, playing in 98 games during his career, scoring 934 points and gathering 563 rebounds. Early on at Geneseo, Kitson developed a particular interest in health care and health care policy, and during the summer after his sophomore year in 2006, he participated in an Urban Fellows program run by the University of Rochester. One of his assignments was to conduct a health care survey in coordination with a local Rochester doctor’s office and present his findings at Rochester’s City Hall. He continued to work with Rochester government leaders and community leaders. During his senior year, Kitson conducted an independent study on AfricanAmerican health, presenting

his findings at the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference in Memphis and at Geneseo’s GREAT Day. He also had an intership in a Congressman’s office focused on health care. “I have always been intrigued by health and helping others,” says Kitson, who has a master’s in public health from Columbia University. “The health internships taught me a lot about health disparities in America.” The internships also gave Kitson the required work experience to land a position after graduation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering as a liaison between patients, families and clinical teams. Currently, he administers the breast-cancer chemotherapy unit, and is responsible for about 70 patients a day.

“Memorial Sloan-Kettering is the number-one cancer center in the country,” Kitson says, “and I have been blessed to work there. Some days can be rougher than others considering the situations I work with, but in the end I would not change it for the world.” Active Plus gives a purpose to his life outside of the hospital. The organization works with 100 young people and has sponsored players in five leagues. It continues to grow, allowing more and more young people to participate in sports and also in community service projects. “Working with youth and seeing the effect we have on their life means the world to us,” Kitson says. “We feel blessed to be in a position to help others.”

Fall 2015

ALUMNI NEWS

Class Notes 1950s Class of 1951 — celebrating their 65th reunion and Class of 1956 — celebrating their 60th reunion in 2016.

1960s Class of 1961 — celebrating their 55th reunion and Class of 1966 — celebrating their 50th reunion in 2016.

privately owned and publicly traded companies. Joan Burnett Luckhurst ’74 was recently promoted to associate professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia. She was also re-elected to serve another term as vice president for professional education and continuing education for the Pennsylvania Speech and Language Association. Mitchell Robinson ’74 received the Civilian Meritorious Service Medal upon his retirement as a U.S.

Ann Marie Hanson Stanton ’62

retired on June 30, 2015, after 30 years with the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She was a children’s specialist and branch manager. Douglas Brode ’65 recently published the books “Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll: The Evolution of an American Youth Culture” (Peter Lang), “Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures” and “The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier” (Rowman & Littlefield), and “Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents: The 100 Greatest Science-Fiction Films” (University of Texas Press). He can also be seen on TV in the PBS miniseries “The American Experience: Walt Disney,” which aired in September.

1970s Class of 1971 — celebrating their 45th reunion and Class of 1976 — celebrating their 40th reunion in 2016. Ronald C. Berger ’74, a business and corporate attorney who advises businesses on a variety of corporate, finance and commercial law matters, was selected by his peers for inclusion in “The Best Lawyers in America 2016.” His clients range from sole proprietorships to large

geneseo scene

Navy contracting officer on June 27, 2015. He was employed at various Department of Defense activities since 1990, including the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Detachment, Philadelphia, and the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. He most recently worked for the supervisor of shipbuilding, conversion and repair in Groton, Conn., for 14 years, where he supported the new construction and repairs to nuclear submarines. Robert Olmstead ’75 has been named the finance director of the Pinellas Realtor Organization in Clearwater, Fla.

1980s Class of 1981 — celebrating their 35th reunion and Class of 1986 — celebrating their 30th reunion in 2016. Joseph Colletti ’80 retired after 30 years in the field of procurement. Most of his time is spent enjoying his first grandbaby. Kenneth Hartman ’81 was awarded the U.S. Army’s highest medal for civilian service for his work with Our Community Salutes, an all-volunteer organization he founded in 2009, which recognizes graduating high school students who choose

to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Sharon Gavitt Morris ’81 was appointed as the area superintendent for the Hillsborough County School District in Tampa, Fla., the eighth largest school district in the United States. She will be the instructional leader in charge of the daily operations for more than 30 school sites. Robert Elmore ’84 recently accepted a position at Disney ABC-owned KABC-TV in Los Angeles as vice president and news director. He recently was employed at WTVD-TV as news director. Scott Deverell ’87 recently accepted a position at Sydor Instruments LLC as vice president of finance and administration. Renee Peppard Williams ’87 was honored on May 18, 2015, by the Genesee Valley Chapter of the Association of Supervision & Curriculum Development for her ability to lead administration, teachers, parents and students in curriculum work by clearly modeling the behaviors handiwork ethic she expects to see in others.

1990 Erin Healy Lyons joined Butler + Burke LLP in Winston-Salem, N.C., as associate accountant. Prior to joining Butler + Burke, Lyons spent five years as an industry accountant in manufacturing and health care areas.

1991 Celebrating their 25th reunion in 2016.

1993 Kelly Henderson recently accepted a position at Raymond James Financial Inc. as vice president, director of acquisitions. Benjamin Schecter recently accepted a posi-

tion at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Kentucky as chief of the civil division. The civil division represents the United States, its agencies, departments, and their officers in federal and state courts.

1995 Matthew Marshak released his own line of furniture called “Rhythm and Home.” Stephen Sharkey, a business and litigation lawyer with Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, has been recognized in the “2015 Upstate Lawyers Super Lawyers” list for attaining a high level of peer recognition and professional achievement.

1996 Celebrating their 20th reunion in 2016. David Kaplan recently accepted a position as a New York State Family Court judge in New York City, appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on June 2, 2015. Mark Kenjarski and Susan Strom Kenjarski ’99 are proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, John Robert, born on April 24, 2015, in Raleigh, N.C. Mark also earned a doctorate in educational administration from North Carolina State University and is an elementary school principal in Raleigh. Stuart Klein, a business and litigation lawyer with Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, has been recognized in the “2015 Upstate Lawyers Super Lawyers” list for attaining a high level of peer recognition and professional

Scene around the world Submit your images to scene@geneseo.edu with a subject line of “Scene Around the World.” See the complete photo gallery at go.geneseo.edu/goworld.

Spencer TenHagen ’80 and Jane at the 75th annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. last summer.

Ron Perry ’80, Sharon Misura Dunscombe ’78, Adrienne Yerkes Perry ’78, and Ed Dunscombe ’76. The four visited Mont St. Michel on their three-week tour of France in May 2015.

Sue Seltenreich Circillo ’86 and her sons Adam, Jeremy and Nicholas, 200 feet high in the Treehouse of Santa Clara in Costa Rica.

Kelly Brunscheen ’12 and Julie Dmochowski ’12 on the South Kaibab Trail of Arizona’s Grand Canyon.

Kate Ostroot ’11, top, and her sister, Joanna Ostroot ’15 at the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England.

Susan Blowers-Harbin '72 brought the Scene to Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument near the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

Robin Solomon ’85 on a duck boat tour in Jokulsarlon, Iceland.

Patrick Landy ’94, Kevin Sheff ’95 and Joe Landy ’96 celebrate Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Fall 2015

ALUMNI NEWS

CLASS NOTES

achievement. Alexandra Bull Odorizzi and Daniel Odorizzi are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Ashley Hayes, born on April 20, 2015. Ryan Steinberg recently accepted a position at Corning Community College in Corning, N.Y., as director of residence life.

1997 Jeremy Oczek, an intellectual

property litigator with Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, has been recognized in the “2015 Upstate New York Super Lawyers Rising Star” list.

1999 Susan Strom Kenjarski and Mark Kenjarski ’96 are proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, John Robert, born on April 24, 2015, in Raleigh, N.C.

2000 Amy Binkley Rybczynski and Craig Rybczynski are proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, Carter Garrett, born on Feb. 15, 2013, in Rochester, N.Y., weighing 6 lb., 4 oz. Amy recently accepted a position at the University of Rochester as assistant director, strategic marketing initiatives in annual giving. She was previously employed at DAC Group for nine years as a marketing research analyst.

2001 Celebrating their 15th reunion in 2016.

Park in Moncks Corner, S.C. They reside in Austin, Texas. Dana recently accepted a position at Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas School of Law located in Austin as a Web services librarian.

2004 Benjamin Rossi and Maryanne Heiman Rossi ’06 are happy to announce their marriage on July 26, 2014. There were over 60 Geneseo alumni in attendance, with graduates ranging from the Class of 1974 to the Class of 2014.

2005 Jennifer Bruno and Sidharth Nakappan are happy to announce their marriage on Nov. 29, 2014, in Albany, N.Y. Danielle Higgins and Jeffrey Green are happy to announce their marriage on Oct. 4, 2014, in New York City.

2006 Celebrating their 10th reunion in 2016. Andrew Guignon and Katherine Hinman Guignon ’07 are proud to announce the birth of their second child, Ava Phebe Guignon, on June 25, 2014. Maryanne Heiman Rossi and Benjamin Rossi ’04 are happy to announce their marriage on July 26, 2014. There were over 60 Geneseo alumni in attendance, with graduates ranging from the Class of 1974 to the Class of 2014.

2007 Katherine Hinman Guignon ’07

and Andrew Guignon ’06 are proud to announce the birth of their second child, Ava Phebe Guignon, on June 25, 2014.

2009

2003

Angela Ruggiero McGee and Dean McGee are happy to

Dana DeFebbo and Mark Johnson II are happy to announce their marriage on Oct. 11, 2014, at Old Santee Canal

announce their marriage on June 18, 2015, in New York City. Many Geneseo alumni attended. Dean recently began a clerkship with

geneseo scene

Geneseo newlyweds

Danielle Hunt Novara ’09 and her new husband, Eddie Novara ’12 celebrated their marriage — with several generations of friends from the Geneseo Cross Country and Track and Field teams, as well as their coach and mentor Mike Woods. Represent! Judge William H. Pauley III in the Southern District of New York. Arunima Ray received a doctorate in mathematics from Rice University in May 2014.

2010 Jolie Menendez MacPhee and Jeff MacPhee are happy to

announce their marriage on June 13, 2015, on the Menendez Dairy Farm in Walden, N.Y. They reside in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Eight Geneseo alumni were in the wedding party and the master of ceremonies and the officiant were Geneseo alumni. Eighteen Ice Knights alumni were in attendance to help celebrate. Caitlin Ryan earned a doctorate in environmental toxicology at Texas Tech University and has accepted a position at Second Genome in San Francisco as a molecular microbial ecologist.

2011

and accepted a position at Novant Health-Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., as a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit. Callie Eidler received a master of business administration in marketing management from Pace University in New York in May 2015. Maiah Lawson graduated from law school, passed the bar, and started a new position as in-house counsel for the U.S. and Caribbean regions at the Western Union corporate headquarters in Denver. Matthew Siegenthaler and his twin brother Michael

Siegenthaler graduated from the

Celebrating their 5th reunion in 2016. Meghan Brill

received a bachelor’s of science in nursing from Binghamton University in New York on May 16, 2015,

State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., in May 2015. They will continue their career path together as they do their residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse.

2013 Melissa Graham recently accept-

ed a position at Hilbert College in Hamburg, N.Y., as the women’s basketball coach. She is a 2013 SUNYAC women’s basketball player of the year.

Sharon Goodale Appleton ’67,

April 20, 2015 Alice Privitera Cleary ’68, July

Jeff Ross ’73, August 25, 2015 Alan McManis ’74, Aug. 4, 2015 John Shaloiko ’74, March 29,

Jocelyn Levner Nissenbaum ’96, May 4, 2015 David Nguyen ’97, May 6, 2014

2, 2014

2015 Jeffrey Ross ’75, Aug. 25, 2015 Lynne Schwarzmueller ’75,

FACULTY/STAFF/FRIENDS Arthur Lutes, a lecturer of edu-

June 21, 2015

cation from 1995 to 1997, died on May 13, 2015.

2015

Marion Phipps Dobbin Davidson ’68, Nov. 22, 2014 Jean Wells ’68, Jan. 14, 2015 Jack Deane ’70, July 14, 2015 Peter Mitchell ’70, May 19, 2015 Nancy Morris ’71, Jan. 26, 2015 Thomas Pollack ’71, July 16,

Florence Herthum Morse ’36,

2015

IN MEMORIAM ALUMNI Elizabeth Chase ’30, June 8,

John Nicolazzo ’77, March 24,

2014 Elaine Maslar ’86, Aug. 14, 2015 Kerri Goodman Saunders ’94,

Aug. 25, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015 Arline McCowan McCauley ’38,

Aug. 14, 2015 Velma Simpson ’40, May 30,

2014

Scene around the world

Mary Elder Spencer ’42, April 9,

2015 Jean Downing Batzing ’43, June

18, 2015 H. Dawn Willink Ellstrom ’44,

Submit your images to scene@geneseo.edu with a subject line of “Scene Around the World.” See the complete photo gallery at go.geneseo.edu/goworld.

April 2, 2015 Joseph Anzalone ’48, June 26,

2015 Anthony Barraco ’48, July 8,

2015 Charlotte Maxson Hartupee ’48,

March 23, 2015 Angelo Branciforte ’50, Dec. 23,

2014 Frances Miller Schirra ’50,

March 26, 2015 Joanne Keller Long ’51, April 12,

2015 Mary Tammaro Fero ’52, Aug. 7,

2015 Donald Rizzi ’52, March 30, 2015 Alice Zahler Corkill ’55, Aug. 27,

2015 Geraldine Demay McClurg ’55,

April 6, 2015 Eleanor Fries Morgan ’55, July

Girls weekend reunion in Camden, Maine, from the Class of 1977: Katie Garey Chambers, Susan Manzo, Janet Shramek Hadley, and Barb Porter O’Flynn.

Thomas K. Brown ’76 and Mary Sue Gage Brown ’72 in Berlin, Germany.

12, 2015 Mary Lou Allgeier Aepelbacher ’57, June 19, 2015 Robert Long ’59, Oct. 3, 2014 Joan Ruppersberger Ash ’60,

May 20, 2015 Elizabeth Shaw Hogan ’61, June

17, 2014 Barbara Bingham Burdick ’62,

Jan. 1, 2015 Ronald Gillette ’62, May 22, 2015 Hildreth Price Knapp ’63, July 8,

2015 Carole Buth Brox ’64, Nov. 19,

2014 Marian Wilson Ciccariella ’65,

April 15, 2015 Lawrence Shinebarger ’65, Jan.

8, 2014

Jillian Gueli ’17, left, Sam Gueli ’88, Vicki Brofcak Gueli ’89 and Sam J. Gueli ’20 in Pompeii, Italy, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

Members of this year’s Geneseo alumni travel trip stopped in Athlone, Ireland, to take a photo with the Scene.

Sally Bohner Anderson ’66,

Sept. 24, 2014

Fall 2015

RANDOM PROFILE

One Cup Mary Ann Upcraft Lennon ’66 PHOTO PROVIDED

On being a mentor as a librarian By Chelsea Butkowski ’15

ONE CUP Inspired by the idea that everyone has a story to share, we offer the “random profile.” Each issue, we don a blindfold and throw a dart at a map of the United States to choose our state, then take aim again to choose a lucky alum. We catch up, relive memories and share life insight, like we are talking over coffee. Up next ... Oklahoma Could it be you?

geneseo scene

QUICK FACTS Home: Summerfield, Fla. Graduation year: 1966 Degree: Library science Favorite place: The old Ben Franklin store and ‘the’ hotel. (I have good legs due to being in Monroe dorm at the bottom of the hill!) Best Geneseo memory: The friends I made in the dorm. Most rewarding experience since college: The career I ended up with in life. What has been a surprise to you?: That I took up golf. I never had any interest in the game until my husband started teaching my son, and I decided that I might as well go along. Now I enjoy the game. Advice to seniors: Live life to the fullest while you can. Don't put off anything — you can do it some way. Be positive, no matter what life throws at you! I speak from experience: I have survived cancer and the loss of both my daughter and my son in their 40s.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA LINDLEY

ary Ann Lennon ’66 built a career on knowing a little something about everything. She served as a gateway to information about history, culture and politics. At the cusp of the Internet era, she constantly studied new technologies and explained them to groups of late-adopters. Most importantly, Mary is always primed to recommend a good book. However, as a librarian at a Fulton, N.Y., high school from 1970 through the mid-1990s, her most memorable contributions were not always pulled from the card catalog. Mary was a mentor. She recalls one specific student, a boy with a difficult past who often found himself in detention. He worked at the library as an audio-visual technician, setting up TVs and VCRs in classrooms for movie screenings. “He felt, I think, that the library was a place that he could come to and not have to worry about all his problems,” Mary says. “He could come there, we’d talk to him, and he could talk to us. It was a place where he was appreciated.” Another student who volunteered in the library stayed in touch years after her high school graduation. Mary says a mentor inspired her own decision to pursue library science years before — Olive Bannister, her high school librarian. Mary takes after her English teacher mother in that she was always an avid reader, favoring murder mysteries and other unpredictable literature. When she volunteered at her high school library in Phoenix, N.Y., Olive helped her to make lasting connections between her love for stories and a career path. “I found that I enjoyed reading and I enjoyed helping find information for people,” she says. “That’s where I got my start.” Mary recalls Olive as “an old-school librarian,” a purist who stridently tallied book late-fees and scolded patrons to be quiet within the library’s sacred walls. Mary has a different view of the library. “It was a place for kids to come where they might not get in trouble,” she says. “They would have gotten in trouble somewhere else if they didn’t have anything to do.” Mary graduated from Geneseo in 1966, retired from the library in 1996 and moved to Florida with her husband to escape the blustery upstate New York weather. Despite being surrounded by books every day for years, Mary says she didn’t have much time to read. She’s making up for it now, voraciously reading the novels that she talked about in much more technical terms on the job. Her favorite part of her career was making life easier for young readers and learners. “Being a librarian, you have to know a little bit about a lot of things in order to give that information back to other people,” Mary says. “I think the biggest thing is the satisfaction that I got out of helping people, especially kids at the high school level.”

Making their mark:

Students give record amount to the college

heartfelt thanks to Geneseo’s students, who in 2015 contributed the largest amount in 10 years to the college. Nearly 1,000 students gave more than $10,850. “Geneseo is about a community where we all are inspired every day to do something amazing and be proud of it,” says Molly Costello ’15, coordinator of the Make Your Mark student-giving initiative. “It’s a group of people focused on becoming the best they can be and helping others reach their full potential. Geneseo is a home to every single student.” They chose where their gift goes, from fencing and Spanish clubs to research and athletic teams. “Students were genuinely excited to give back to something that has changed their lives,” says Molly. “We wanted to show that even college students can give back to a place that has given us all so much.”

To learn more about planned giving visit geneseo.edu/fund/ways-give or call (585) 245-5077.

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April 19, 2016 In the Big Apple? San Francisco or Dallas? Join in the second annual simultaneous celebration of Geneseo across the nation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and beyond â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with impromptu gatherings and via social media. Last year alumni hosted 22 events nationwide. Great Knight highlights our Geneseo alumni pride, the same day Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement & Talent (GREAT) Day on campus highlights student scholarly achievement. Start your own meet-up. Contact alumni@geneseo.edu to get started.

go.geneseo.edu/GreatKnight