the Racquette
SUNY Potsdam’s Student-run Newspaper since 1927
Relay for Life Raises Maurice Kenny, AwardWinning Native Writer and $59,000 to Fight Cancer Professor Emeritus, Dead at 86 Kirsten Meehan Editor
Marcus Wolf Editor
Dr. Maurice Kenny, a faculty emeritus of the Department of English and Communication at SUNY Potsdam, died on Saturday, April 16, at the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. He was 86. The legacy Kenny left on the campus through his writing and teaching has remained strong among his friends, colleagues and former students. Kenny was a writer-in-residence for the college. Kenny taught at the college from 2000 to 2011. He taught two courses in either literature or creative writing every semester. “He was a passionate mentor to his many students and colleagues alike,” said Dr. Donald McNutt, an associate professor and the current department chair for English and COmmunication, said in an email he sent out on Monday. Before Potsdam, Kenny taught at Paul Smith’s College and North Country Community College in New York as well as the University of Oklahoma and the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said Dr. Derek Maus, an associate professor in the Department of English and Communication, in an obituary he wrote for Kenny. Teaching hosted opportunities for students to develop as writers both inside and outside of the classroom. Maus said that Kenny would invite students over for dinner and organize student poetry readings. McNutt said that he would have his playwriting students showcase their work through short-play performances he organized. “I had the pleasure to direct two of these plays back in 2006 and 2007,” McNutt said. Maus said that Kenny collaborated with Dr. Richard Henry, a professor of the Department of English and Communication;
SUNY Potsdam misses the talented and inspirational writer Dr. Maurice Kenny. Photo provided by the Department of English and Communication
Dr. Alan Steinberg, a professor in the department; Professor Stephanie Coyne DeGhett, a lecturer for the department; Professor Nancy Berbrich, a lecturer for the department; and Dr. Victoria Levitt, an associate professor for the department, to push creative writing as a serious discipline for students. “[He] did a lot to convince students to not write for the drawer, but to share their work,” Maus said. As a writer, Kenny was renowned and admired, publishing numerous works and winning multiple awards for them. Maus said that Kenny wrote more than 30 volumes of work in six decades, including poetry, fiction, prose and drama. A few of his acclaimed works include“Blackrobe: Isaac Jogues,” published in 1982, “The Mama Poems,” published in 1984 and “Between Two Rivers,” published in 1987. Both “Blackrobe” and “Between Two Rivers” were nominated for Pulitzer Prizes, and “The Mama Poems” earned an American Book Award.
Maus also said that Kenny was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in 2014. “Maurice’s contributions to Potsdam and to contemporary literature were indeed extensive and deep,” McNutt said. Kenny was not only an influential voice in the writing community, but also in the Native American Community. Maus said that Kenny, descended from both Mohawk and Seneca Native Americans, explored Native culture through his writing and Native issues by participating in activist movements. Kenny also ran Strawberry Press, and independent publishing company that predominantly published Native American writing. In honor of his contributions, Kenny had an award named after him called the “Maurice Kenny Creative Writing Award,” which is presented annually to an outstanding creative writing student. A graveside service for Dr. Kenny was held on Tuesday.
On Friday, April 15, SUNY Potsdam held a Relay for Life in Maxcy Hall from 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Together, the college and local community came together to raise $59,000 for the American Cancer Society. This money will go toward cancer research, housing for cancer patients and programs to help make patients’ lives easier and brighter. Relay for Life is a fundraising walk created by the American Cancer Society. It is unique for being an all-night event with people from teams taking shifts so people are walking the track at all times. According to their official website, the event strives to be an event at which “communities across the globe come together to honor cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against a disease that has already taken too much.” This year’s event mark the 10th year that SUNY Potsdam
has participated in the walk. 2016 marks the first time it was organized without Campus Life taking the lead on it. This year, Colleges Against Cancer took over running it entirely. “I’ll admit I was a little nervous as to how it would go, but I couldn’t have been happier with how it went,” said Juliana Badalucco, the president of Colleges Against Cancer and a junior at SUNY Potsdam. On top of Colleges Against Cancer, other organizations around campus helped set up and run the event, particularly Greek Life, the Potsdam Rugby teams, the Musical Theater Organization and Chemistry Club. However, during some points throughout the night when the event became understaffed, the number of people who stepped up at the last minute to offer assistance was both surprising and heartening. — Continued on page 4 —
SUNY Potsdam Welcomes New Chief Diversity Officer Marcus Wolf Editor
SUNY Potsdam will welcome Dr. Bernadette Tiapo as its new Chief Diversity Officer on June 1, 2016. In an email she sent out to the campus community, Dr. Kristin Esterberg, the president of SUNY Potsdam, said that Tiapo’s current position is the Director for the Office of Institutional Diversity at the University of Saint Francis in Joliet, Illinois. According to their official website, she also helped meet the needs of students and stakeholders as a member of the Quality Improvement Initiative. Before that, she was the director of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at
SUNY Oneonta from 2008 to 2014, said Alexandra JacobsWilke, the director of Public Relations. According to the “The Daily Star,” she helped develop the Diversity Peer Education Program and the Annual Multicultural Student Leadership Conference during her time at Oneonta. She received the Tapestry of Diversity Award. Jacobs said that she has a Ph.D in education from the North Dakota State Universty. “Please join me in welcoming Bernadette to our community,” Esterberg said. Tiapo will introduce herself to various members of the campus community in May, Esterberg said.
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