Dwayne Murray, deputy director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA), discusses its impact on campus and around the world, explores what sets ���ϲ����� apart as a best place for veterans and shares his love for working with veterans and military-connected students.

���ϲ����� has a long, proud history of serving our veterans and military-connected students that dates back to World War I and the post-World War II era when thousands of veterans embarked on their journey to a college degree through the G.I. Bill.

One of the central organizations on campus that helps the University accomplish this mission is the (OVMA), which, for the last 10 years has played a critical role in helping veterans, military-connected students and their family members pursue their higher education dreams.

Dwayne Murray ’97 is living out his dream job as the OVMA’s deputy director, and he’s proud of the work the organization does through its programs and initiatives while serving as the University’s central hub for veteran and military-connected students.

Dwayne Murray

“The OVMA sets our veteran and military-connected students with an opportunity to go through the entire life cycle of being connected to ���ϲ�����, from being recruited to when they graduate with their degrees,” Murray says. “We provide student success opportunities, immersion trips, job readiness activities and an outstanding 100% job placement rate thanks to our career services office.”

Murray was a track and field student-athlete on campus and earned degrees in sociology ( and ) and information management and technology () before enlisting in the U.S. Army immediately after graduating.

Following a decorated 25-year active-duty career in the Army, both as an enlisted soldier and an officer, Murray returned to his alma mater in June 2022 to take on this latest career challenge, which blends his passion for his country with his drive to help veteran and military-connected students achieve their goals.

“To be at the intersection of where I’ve had some of the most formidable experiences of my life as a student, and then to combine that with the purpose, direction and motivation that comes from being in the Army, I had to take advantage of this opportunity,” Murray says. “It’s the only calling for me that was bigger than continuing to serve in the military because I could pay back my institution, I could pay back the students that walk these halls and I could share those lessons I’ve learned and experiences I’ve had with our campus community.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Murray discusses the impact the OVMA has had on campus and around the world, explores what sets ���ϲ����� apart as a best place for veterans and shares his love for working with veterans and military-connected students.

Check out . A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Global Impact as a Best Place for Veterans

Murray says the commitment to our veterans and military-connected students is “baked into our DNA as a University,” including the advent of the Student Army Training Corps, which was the forerunner to the Army ROTC. ���ϲ����� was also home to one of the first Air Force ROTC programs on a college campus in the nation.

Dwayne Murray (second from left) poses with attendees at the OVMA’s Stars & Stripes tailgate.

Among the many ways the OVMA and the University help facilitate the transition from active duty to student, Murray points to:

• a simplified, streamlined admissions process, including waiving application fees, which has led to a 300% increase in enrollment over the last 10 years;
• customized support services;
• innovative and creative programming under the leadership of Director of Veteran Career Services Jennifer Pluta G’15 that has yielded a 100% job placement rate for student veterans;
• a welcoming and inclusive environment, featuring various affinity groups;
• strong cross-campus relationships that lead to expanded opportunities for students; and
• significant scholarship opportunities that eliminate financial barriers to a degree.

Dwayne Murray enjoyed a decorated 25-year active-duty career in the U.S. Army, both as an enlisted soldier and an officer, before returning to ���ϲ����� in June 2022.

Add it all up and Murray says it’s easy to see why Military Times consistently ranks ���ϲ����� among the “best place for veterans” among private universities.

“We are fully committed to enhancing the opportunities for our students, and these efforts have led to a global impact,” Murray says. “We have close to 60 veterans enrolled in the fully interactive hybrid online juris doctorate program [known as JDinteractive], which gives our veterans and military-connected students the opportunity to earn their law degree completely online. We have students in the Defense Comptrollership program, that earn an MBA from the and a master’s degree in public administration through the Maxwell School. They go on to serve as leaders in their civilian agencies or their military branch of service.”

National Veterans and Military Families Month

While Murray has always seen ���ϲ����� as part of his identity—when he was 7 years old, his grandmother bought him a ���ϲ����� sweatshirt from the Salvation Army that became a cherished possession—the University is also ingrained in his family.

Dwayne’s wife, Alison Murray ’01, currently serves as the assistant dean for student assistance with Hendricks Chapel, where she is responsible for religious and spiritual outreach programs and services that assist students seeking holistic support. Alison, who earned a nursing degree on campus, served in the Army for more than 20 years.

With November being National Veterans and Military Families Month, the Murrays are an outstanding example of service to country and passion for giving back to students.

“Alison is a nurse by trade, and Hendricks Chapel is like a hospital in that she can diagnose folks and provide them with the type of support and assistance they need to grow, thrive and be successful,” Dwayne says. “It’s an amazing feeling knowing we share this strong connection with our alma mater.”

Alison and Dwayne Murray.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Jason Davis and Jenny Stromer-Galley offer up tips and tools you can use to help spot misinformation, share advice to help us be better-informed consumers of information and social media, and analyze the latest research on misinformation trends in the upcoming presidential election.

With the increase of misinformation and disinformation on the internet and social media, our brains struggle to process what we’re seeing and whether an image, a video clip or a story is real or not.

Faculty members and have studied the trends and created tools to help discern what’s real and what is synthetic when it comes to content posted online and on social media.

Stromer-Galley is an expert in political campaigns and misinformation and is a professor in the ; Davis is an expert on misinformation and disinformation detection. He is a research professor with the Office of Research and Creative Activity in the , and is also co-director of the .

“Depending on where people are getting their information, the quality and credibility of that information could be quite low,” Stromer-Galley says. “It leaves the public more vulnerable to state actors who are trying to engage in disinformation campaigns or U.S.-based malignant actors who are trying to manipulate the public for their own ends.”

“Our brains have not evolved as fast as the technology, and so we are still as vulnerable as we ever were to the same sorts of approaches at being deceived, intentionally or unintentionally,” Davis says. “With this new digital landscape and digital speed and scale, we need digital tools to help us protect ourselves from ourselves sometimes, and sometimes from that malicious information ecosystem.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Stromer-Galley and Davis offer up tips and tools you can use to help spot misinformation, share advice to help us be better-informed consumers of information and social media, and analyze the latest research on misinformation trends in the upcoming presidential election.

Check out featuring Davis and Stromer-Galley. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Semantic Forensics Helping Detect What’s Real and What’s Fake

Davis is involved with the Semantic Forensics program, whose work is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Through his efforts with DARPA, Davis is helping to advance research into the detection of disinformation and misinformation in the media.

Jason Davis

Semantic forensics is the understanding of not just whether something is real or fake, Davis says, but also delves into the why. What was the intent? Who was the target?

In its fourth year of concentrating on this research area, Davis has been developing digital tools that identify synthetic, manipulated media. The program evaluates the detectors being used, striving to understand what they can and can’t do when it comes to identifying synthetic media, as well as how effective they are at spotting real or synthetic content.

“We can say with confidence that this detector works for detecting these kinds of fake, synthetic images at a 98% accuracy, and it is capable of doing this but not being able to do that. They’re not a panacea, but here’s what they can do, so we learn how to use these detection devices properly and use them appropriately,” Davis says. “Then there’s the development of the tools and the modeling of the threat landscape. How do we create controlled versions of what we know is going on out there in the wild so that we can study, train and better understand our capabilities.”

Investigating Social Media Spending Trends and Messaging Behind Political Ads

Stromer-Galley, who leads the University’s  team, has studied misinformation trends in this presidential race and other top 2024 contests.

Jenny Stromer-Galley

After the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the summer, the ElectionGraph team explored the money being spent by the candidates, political action committees, political parties and unknown actors that mentioned presidential candidates in advertisements on both Facebook and Instagram.

The aim was to “visualize the firehose of information and misinformation coming at voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections,” Stromer-Galley says.

The findings showed that:

• negative social media advertising in the presidential race increased after the assassination attempt;
• nearly 3,500 Facebook pages from outside organizations spent $55 million over the past year in an effort to influence the public this election season; and
• there was a pattern of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” among some outside organizations, including a large network of Facebook pages running ads (costing an estimated $5 million) aimed at scamming the public under the guise of supporting a presidential candidate’s campaign that garnered roughly 234 million impressions.

“To our surprise, there was a large network of individuals and organizations that we didn’t know who was behind this that were running scam ads targeted to people who are activated and excited about the presidential election. They were capitalizing on their enthusiasm by turning over their credit cards and then they’re getting scammed,” Stromer-Galley says. “While Facebook is trying to take down those pages, the scammers continue to stay a step ahead.”

Tips to Ward Off Misinformation

When you find yourself aimlessly scrolling through social media without thinking about the validity of what you just saw, that act makes you fully engaged in the platform and susceptible to misinformation or disinformation.

Users are encouraged to embrace cognitive friction when scrolling, because, according to both Davis and Stromer-Galley, the social media apps are designed for you to absorb content at face value, without applying deeper thought to who was behind the post or what their intent might be. By increasing friction, you take the proactive step of slowing down and contemplating the legitimacy of a post.

Both Davis and Stromer-Galley say that the best defense to misinformation and disinformation campaigns is knowledge, urging people to get their news from a wide-range of diverse, traditional media outlets, and to not solely rely on social media as a reliable news source.

InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults and student Matthew Falanga discuss the life-changing opportunities InclusiveU affords its students, how InclusiveU has made a profound impact, how InclusiveU has become the standard-bearer for how colleges run an inclusive higher education program and how the benefits extend to the greater campus community.

The White House. Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The New York State Capitol building in Albany.

Matthew Falanga

These are just some of the places an enthusiastic delegation from ���ϲ�����’s InclusiveU program have traveled over the years, meeting with policymakers, politicians and higher education leaders to push for change to make higher education more accessible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

For more than a decade, InclusiveU, an initiative from the , has set the standard by which all other inclusive higher education programs are judged. Its model encompasses individualized and inclusive coursework, student-centered planning, internships, and social and extracurricular activities.

“I always wanted to go to college, and when I heard about ���ϲ����� and its InclusiveU program, I knew that was where I wanted to go to achieve my dreams,” says Matthew Falanga ’26, who was born with Down syndrome and is majoring in communications at ���ϲ�����. “The best part of coming to ���ϲ����� is making new friends and being involved on campus. It makes me feel very happy.”

Over the last 10 years, InclusiveU has experienced exponential growth and is now the largest program of its kind in the country. This year, 102 students are pursuing their academic dreams on campus, including 44 students who, like Falanga, live in residence halls.

Check out featuring Falanga and InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults G’20. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Recruiting Advocates, Reducing Stigmas

Over the years, InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults G’20 has led countless trips to bring current InclusiveU students and recent graduates to meet with elected officials. These trips serve to recruit new advocates, increase support and awareness of the program, and reduce the stigmas that still exist surrounding students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The opportunities InclusiveU affords aren’t readily available for many students like Falanga. According to , only 2% of school-age students with intellectual disability are likely to attend college after high school, and of the 472 colleges and universities in New York state, only 24 have inclusive postsecondary education programs.

Brianna Shults

“There was this cliff that many students with developmental and intellectual disabilities would drop off once they graduated high school. Some would find work or a program that filled time in their day, while some would do volunteer activities. Some just stayed home. By being able to take that next step in their development alongside their peers, continuing their educations while gaining skills to launch their careers, InclusiveU has given students the opportunity to define who they are and what they want to be. They get to have the same experiences their peers were afforded,” Shults says.

Now, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation, the School of Education’s  will provide technical assistance to schools and colleges in Western and Central New York to create and enhance inclusive college programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This is in addition to the technical assistance InclusiveU has already provided to colleges and universities in Arizona, Florida, Kansas, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee when representatives from those institutions visited campus in 2023. InclusiveU students led campus tours while sharing how their higher education experiences had changed their lives.

“There are not enough inclusive programs like ours and our field is very collaborative. We want all students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who want to go to college to have an opportunity that fits their needs,” Shults says. “The demand versus available opportunity and the capacity of these programs is something that needs support. We are thankful for the Golisano Foundation’s help to build out this program and provide the type of support and knowledge that other programs [at other institutions] are looking for.”

Celebrating People With Disabilities

For many adolescent students with developmental disabilities, the pursuit of higher education is filled with roadblocks and can be a daunting task for both aspiring students and their families. But thanks to InclusiveU, students of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities are empowered to come to campus and experience college life in a fully inclusive setting, learning the necessary skills to thrive in the classroom and find a job after graduation.

These experiences prove to be life-changing for students like Falanga, who over the summer interned with , where he worked on a project promoting voting rights for people with disabilities, and also represented InclusiveU as an inclusive higher education advocate at a Disability Pride Event in the White House.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for Falanga, who had a specific message for the government officials he met during his visit.

“Just because I was born with a disability, I want to celebrate my disability. I also want to help other people with disabilities feel better about themselves. Be proud of who you are. It is important for people with disabilities to learn about these programs [like InclusiveU] and know that they can go to college and start their new life,” says Falanga, who hopes to use his degree to land a job where he can help create more legislation that opens doors for people with disabilities.

Representing InclusiveU at a Disability Pride Event in the White House over the summer were (from left to right): Karly Grifasi, assistant director of operations and communications, Jennifer Quinn, internship and employment coordinator, Matthew Falanga and Shafreya Wilkins.

Opening Doors for All

���ϲ����� has a proud 154-year history of opening its doors to all students who are interested in receiving a college degree, regardless of their background or upbringing.

InclusiveU, which was founded in 2001 as a dual enrollment program with the ���ϲ����� City School District, has provided the necessary skills for students to both thrive in the classroom and find a job after graduation. By incorporating InclusiveU students in classes with the general ���ϲ����� student body, Shults says the entire campus community benefits.

“It helps make all ���ϲ����� students better friends, better classmates, better coworkers and better community members,” Shults says. “Having this experience and interaction with InclusiveU students helps our whole campus think inclusively. It helps our administration think differently and more inclusively. We’re able to adjust the way students access their classes or how they interact with faculty to make sure those experiences are inclusive for all.”

Equipped for Lifelong Success

The initiative’s work is evolving. InclusiveU students now participate in the University’s First Year Seminar course, and in May, InclusiveU is launching the first inclusive ���ϲ����� Abroad experience to Italy, with a goal of expanding opportunities for its students to study abroad.

Once they earn ���ϲ����� degrees, many InclusiveU students successfully find paid, competitive jobs, due in part to the strong relationships InclusiveU develops with its partners, both on campus and in the Central New York community. It’s also a result of the yearlong internships InclusiveU students participate in as part of their three years of academic education.

Matthew Falanga (left) and Shafreya Wilkins during a visit to Washington, D.C.

But there’s more work to be done when it comes to support and funding for InclusiveU, including thinking beyond the students’ time on campus.

“We want to ensure that students can lead the lives that they want to live afterwards, and that goes for employment, community involvement and living situations. We have advocated for ending subminimum wage and closing sheltered workshops. The Higher Education Opportunity Act hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008,” Shults says. “These are all really important things to help individuals with disabilities lead productive and meaningful lives beyond higher education.”

For now, Falanga is focusing on fine-tuning his public speaking skills, continuing to make new friends on campus and finding ways to get and stay involved with the University he loves so much.

“���ϲ����� makes me feel very happy and proud. InclusiveU has helped me to make new friends, take great classes and explore my career choices. This has changed my life,” Falanga says.

Head football coach Fran Brown uses the life lessons football teaches to transform his ���ϲ����� student-athletes into men who are invested in their community and put the needs of the team above their own needs.

The Fran Brown era got off to a fantastic start when the ���ϲ����� football team defeated Ohio University 38-22 Saturday afternoon before a raucous crowd of students, Central New York community members and alumni of the football program inside the JMA Wireless Dome.

Since his hiring as the program’s 31st head coach on Nov. 28, 2023, Brown has been busy making his mark, bringing in a slew of talented student-athletes and coaches while focusing on once again turning the Orange into national championship contenders.

But this job is about more than football for Brown, who came to ���ϲ����� as the nation’s top college football recruiter and a member of the 2022 College Football National Championship coaching staff with the University of Georgia. Brown uses the life lessons football teaches to transform his players into men who are invested in their community and put the needs of the team above their own needs.

Fran Brown

“Football has changed everything. It’s helped me be where I’m at today because of teamwork, because it’s bigger than just yourself. When you’re able to give it everything you’ve got, and it’s for us, not for I, then it becomes about everybody,” Brown says. “Now that I’m in the position I’m in, I can take football and I can help people literally change lives. I can be a blessing to others and to the community.”

Brown is a self-made man who came from humble beginnings in Camden, New Jersey, and football became an outlet for Brown. He excelled on the gridiron as Camden High School’s quarterback. After spending a year playing for Hudson Valley Community College, Brown was recruited to play for Western Carolina University by Matt Rhule, future head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Brown thrived at cornerback, earning first-team All-Southern Conference honors and serving as team captain en route to earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Brown credits his coaches for helping him reach his full potential as a football player and, more importantly, as a man focused on making a difference in his community.

“My coaches were good, positive men that were teaching me the right things and wanted to see me be successful,” says Brown. “That just poured into me and has been a big influence on my coaching career. You always take all the good that everyone gives you and you want to be able to give back, to help, to push young men to go be successful in life.”

With excitement building around the Orange football team—faculty and staff are encouraged to purchase their tickets to Saturday’s —Brown stopped by the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast to discuss how he’s making his mark on the program, why he’s all-in on ���ϲ����� football and how his upbringing shaped and molded him into the leader he is today.

Check out featuring Brown. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

How can you describe the emotions of this past weekend?

Fran Brown talks with his student-athletes during Saturday’s season-opening win over Ohio University. (Photo courtesy of ���ϲ����� Athletics)

It was cool. It was emotional, just because of my family and getting them to have the opportunity to see me become a head coach. It’s a milestone when it comes to the entire family, my wife, my children, my siblings, my aunts and uncles. I’m extremely happy for them, and more so I’m happy for all the buildup from this community and how, since day one, we’ve gotten buy-in from the community. Everyone, the community, the staff, the faculty, the students, the alumni, everyone has been behind us. Everybody’s been open arms wanting to see us be successful. This win was for them. We deserved to start this out the right way.

How nervous were you before kickoff?

There were uncontrollable nerves! I was extremely nervous, but at the same time, when you prepare like we have, it’s a little bit of anxiety and that’s a part of the game. But I knew we were prepared. I didn’t lack the preparation, so it was just about football. I’m just thankful and happy that everybody [in the JMA Dome] got to enjoy their Saturday with a win.

What did you learn about yourself after your first game as a head coach?

Fran Brown takes in the action during his first game as head coach at ���ϲ�����. (Photo courtesy of ���ϲ����� Athletics)

I’ve got to control my composure on certain things. I was still in a practice mindset. My coaching staff did a great job and I learned that I was able to trust them and let them do what they need to do. Keep the players involved, even if they’re not on the field. Just getting everyone to focus on the game. Be where your feet are. It’s mental toughness. This is bigger than just a football game. Football teaches us about life and teaches us how to take care of all those little things.

With our core values, we are DART (Detailed, Accountable, Relentless, Tough). We need to be able to live DART at all times. Are you being detailed? Accountable? Relentless? When things are going the wrong way, are you displaying toughness?

What is the thought process behind DART?

I figured out what I can give these young men, outside of trying to get them closer to their faith, that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. No matter the situation, this DART tool is going to get them in and out of some of the toughest situations in their lives. Anyone that is going to lead a business, lead a family or be successful needs to be detailed, be accountable and be able to hold others accountable and be comfortable with others holding you accountable. You’re going to have to be relentless going after what it is you want to be in life. And you should be tough. If you’re DART in everything you do, you’re probably going to be very successful.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

On this episode of the “‘Cuse Conversations” podcast, El-Baz Abdallah and Budoor Alsaadi discuss their experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they adjusted to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.

Each summer, the hosts a prestigious preparatory program that helps dozens of international Fulbright Scholars begin their journeys to graduate degrees and research opportunities.

It’s called the , and ���ϲ����� has served as a proud host site for the last 10 years, celebrating the power of both an international education and a cultural exchange.

This year, 44 master’s and Ph.D. students from 20 countries around the world are spending four weeks on campus discovering American culture, learning about life as a graduate student in the U.S. and developing necessary research skills.

The program is operated on campus by the (ELI), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Institute of International Education.

Each morning, the ELI offers English courses and lessons, including how to write a research paper as a graduate student. In the afternoons, cultural presentations and workshops are offered by ���ϲ����� faculty and staff.

These international scholars are connected to a facilitator, a graduate of the pre-academic program who offers advice, guidance and friendship while mentoring these aspiring researchers. On the weekends, participants can take advantage of social field trips to cultural destinations like Niagara Falls and Green Lakes State Park.

El-Baz Abdallah

Before departing for their graduate schools, the students give poster presentations on their research as a potential springboard to the research they will conduct for their capstone project.

“Through my research, I want to see how we can use technology and data information to better people’s lives,” says El-Baz Abdallah, a facilitator from the Comoro Islands who is entering his second year studying data analytics in the . “When I heard about the pre-academic program, I had been working for some time and hadn’t really thought about going back to school for my master’s degree, but the prestigiousness of the Fulbright program really stood out. There’s such a great impact, not just from the curriculum or the academics but the networking with your fellow scholars. This program was very rigorous, but it was really worth it.”

Budoor Alsaadi

“From how we should be writing up our research and our bibliographies to what it means to do research as a graduate student in the United States, I’ve been really happy with all of the information I’ve learned that helps us adapt to the educational system here,” says Budoor Alsaadi, a native of Iraq who is pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus in environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In this “’Cuse Conversation,” Abdallah and Alsaadi discuss their beneficial experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they acclimated to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.

Check out podcast featuring Abdallah and Alsaadi. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

How has this program helped with your academic transition to graduate school and your cultural adjustment?

El-Baz Abdallah: This program helped me tremendously. It was a big adjustment in terms of the food, the people, the culture and the language. Before I came here, I spoke English every day but had to think about what I wanted to say in French first and then express myself in English. But the College of Professional Studies made our transitions so easy. They set me up with a host family, which is a proud tradition here, and that host family became like a second family for me.

Academically, the program taught me how to directly interact with the professor if we have a question about a lecture or a topic. Back home, you would go to class and take notes, but here, we learned you can actually ask questions of your professor. We learned about office hours where you can go and discuss the topic if there’s something you didn’t understand. These are things I wouldn’t have known about being a master’s student in America were it not for the pre-academic program.

Budoor Alsaadi: There was a lot of new information to learn. There was so much harmony in the program because we’re all international students trying to figure things out while supporting each other. Everyone has been so kind, sweet and caring and willing to help each other out. We’re learning but we’re also having fun.

Another great thing is how many different cultures are in this program. There are students from more than 20 countries here, so we get to learn about their cultures, music, foods and languages. It’s great that Fulbright brings together these people from different backgrounds and experiences to learn from each other.

How do you plan on using your degree to make a difference in the world?

Alsaadi: I want to study water treatment and water pollution, which is a rising problem in my country and all over the world. It’s a problem that needs much more attention, because one day, we’re going to have very limited resources for water. Water technology is a broad field with a lot of opportunities, and I wanted to accelerate my knowledge on this topic at an early age so I can be well-equipped to make a difference in my career.

Most people in Iraq drink groundwater because the water in the rivers has high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), which is expensive to treat and turn into drinking water. I hope that, through my research, I can go back to Iraq and find new technologies and new chemicals that can help with treating TDS. I want to discover a solution that can improve the water quality in my country and help deal with this ongoing and increasing water shortage.

Abdallah: My studies combine data science and artificial intelligence (AI), how to actually build AI models to harness information or data. I’ve been involved with two projects I’m passionate about. One was analyzing the energy consumption trends of New Yorkers to study how low-income people can improve their energy consumption through incentives from the government. Another project was working with my mother, who is a gynecologist back home on Comoros Island, to enhance maternal health care and address the big problem of women losing their baby without knowing it. For my capstone research project, I’m building an AI model to analyze the mother’s and the baby’s heart rates, analyzing the existing data and looking at gaps in the data to ensure that when this happens, we can act so mothers don’t have to move from their rural home to the capital city, or from one island to another, to get medical attention.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Mike Tirico ’88, NBC’s voice of the Olympics, talks about getting ready for the games, his commitment to helping our young broadcast students and his love for ���ϲ�����.

When the Olympic Games begin later this month, one of the University’s best-known alums will be front and center. In many ways it’s a role Mike Tirico ’88 knew he wanted at an early age.

“My mom will tell you, even as a little kid, I was walking around pretending to be a sportscaster,” he says. “This is what I wanted to do in life.”

As the athletes prepare for competition, Tirico is preparing to anchor NBC’s daily Olympics coverage as he’s done since 2016. But as most broadcast fans know, Olympics studio host is only part of the Tirico portfolio, which includes “Sunday Night Football,” PGA golf, and thoroughbred and Indy racing among others. Those sports he knows well. This summer he’ll be put to the test with new Olympic sports, all while trying to avoid making waves.

“Surfing is happening in Tahiti at the Olympics, I put up my hand to volunteer to be the surfing correspondent,” says Tirico, who adds with a smile that “for some reason, they went with Colin Jost from ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I don’t know what I should read into that but it’s fine.”

Break dancing is another sport new to the games and according to Tirico a sign of the athletic times. “It does speak to what the Olympics does in trying to reach out to new generations and keep the youth of the world involved,” he says. “There was a time that snowboarding came in the Olympics and people were asking why. Now, snowboarding is one of the cornerstones of the Winter Olympics.”

In this “’Cuse Conversations” podcast, Tirico talks about getting ready for the games, his sleep schedule while in Paris (it’s rough), his commitment to helping our young broadcast students and, as a first-generation student who met and married his wife here, his love for ���ϲ�����.

Check out podcast featuring Tirico. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

What are your most memorable moments from the Games?

This would be the fifth Olympic Games I cover, the fourth as the primetime host and watching Americans win gold medals in person, those stick out for me. When we say the Olympics brings the world together, I don’t mean to be too Pollyanna about it because the Olympics are flawed in many ways, they are impacted by politics and corruption and all this stuff that’s happened, those stories have been well reported for years. But just the fact that there’s somebody in South Sudan who is training the same way somebody is training in South San Francisco for the same event and they get to meet in the middle and figure out who’s better, that’s still really freaking cool for me.

With 30 different Olympic sports and more than 10,000 athletes, and knowing your busy sports coverage schedule, how do you find the time to prepare?

Mike Tirico

If I’ve learned anything, it’s you can’t be prepared for everything at the Olympics. The key is to know how to access it and, oftentimes, that is our research team. The unheralded heroes of Olympic coverage for generations have been and continue to be the research teams who work year-round on the details of the competition.

In the lead up to it, it’s go over all the stuff so you know where it is but don’t memorize it because you can’t. You can’t know everything about each of the 10,000-plus athletes or every sport, all the 200-plus countries or delegations that will come down the river, in this case, the opening ceremony in France.

So, it is learn how to prepare for it and really focus in on the stuff we cover the most—swimming,  gymnastics, track and field, basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer. Know that and then know the big athletes, the 50 or so that will become somewhat familiar names to households around America.

In many ways you are not starting from scratch here, are you?

You’re not starting from zero, you’re starting from, “Okay, I remember this in Tokyo and let’s just build on that.” And I think, during the years now as well, maybe I wouldn’t have been paying attention to the world swimming championships that were on, but now that I know this is my job and I’m getting ready for this Olympics, which gets you ready for the next one, you pay more attention. The global athletes, international athletes are on my radar way before I open up a book and say, “Okay, today is swimming day, let’s start cramming for swimming.” It helps significantly to have some gray hair in the chair.

Mike, you and I have been friends for many years, having worked together at WTVH in ���ϲ�����. If we could go back, what would you say to young Mike, the sportscaster at TV5?

I wish I could tell younger Mike to have a little broader view and be adventurous more. I think being adventurous as a journalist is impactful and I think, over time, we start to feel that a bit more. I think you know you’ve done the job, you’ve established yourself. It’s so hard to fake confidence but that’s what you have to do at an early age. I’m 21, 22, here I am trying to ask Jim Boeheim a question. Jim Boeheim, at that point, knew a thousand times more about basketball than I did and I’m trying to ask an impactful question and make a difference and I wish I would’ve had a little more ability to fake my confidence and get through that stuff back then. And that, if you’re prepared, you’re going to be all right and you don’t have to doubt yourself.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

On this episode, Joey Gawrysiak discusses the evolution of the esports program on campus, the progress made in its first year, the expanded opportunities available to students and what’s planned for the future.

Beginning in the fall, ���ϲ�����’s will welcome admitted students to campus for classes.

This past academic year served as “Year Zero” for the esports degree program, which employs a holistic, experiential learning-based approach that will prepare students for career success in various industries, leveraging the largest collection of faculty and staff members of any esports program on a college campus.

It’s an all-encompassing venture, including both the academic degree program and the competitive teams that vie for national championships in their respective games.

Academically, students who embark on this first-of-its-kind esports communications and management program, offered jointly by the  and the , will pursue one of three tracks:

• esports business and management, covering such topics as sport promotion, sport venue management and finance for emerging enterprises;
• esports communications, including coursework in virtual reality storytelling, esports and advertising, public relations principles and sports in the metaverse; or
• esports media and design, focused on 3D animation, game experience design and virtual production.

Competitively, ���ϲ����� fielded its first varsity esports squad in January, with the Orange winning a national championship in the Counter-Strike game and experiencing plenty of success across other varsity and club sports teams.

Joey Gawrysiak, executive director of the esports degree program, was hired last August to bring his visionary research and skills to campus, helping ���ϲ����� capitalize on the tremendous popularity of esports while continuing to offer students innovative career options in emerging fields.

Joey Gawrysiak

“Students will get a world-class education from esports-specific faculty that are at the top of their field in researching and teaching esports, with industry connections that will help you find an experience, a capstone, an internship and a job. That’s part of your educational journey,” says Gawrysiak, who developed one of the first esports degrees in the country at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. He notes that the best-in-class esports facilities currently underway on campus will create standout opportunities for students to engage with esports and gaming.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Gawrysiak discusses the evolution of the esports program on campus, the progress made in its first year, the expanded opportunities available to students and what’s planned for the future.

Check out featuring Gawrysiak.  A transcript [PDF] is also available.

As the campus community celebrates Earth Month, Lydia Knox discusses the state of sustainability and explores how the University is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2032.

What does it mean for ���ϲ����� to invent and demonstrate cutting-edge sustainability initiatives?

It means reducing the University’s environmental impact responsibly by identifying, promoting and implementing practices that will meet our current needs without compromising the needs of future generations. And it includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions through wisely managing energy efficiency projects.

Projects like the recently completed improvements to the mechanical systems at the Center for Science and Technology, a multi-year initiative that resulted in a 25% reduction in steam use in 2023 and an annual emissions reduction of over 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e). Or the recent replacement of the Lally Athletics Complex arena lighting, an effort expected to reduce carbon emissions by 141 metric tons per year.

“Sustainability encompasses a lot, but I think in the most basic sense it’s trying to really have a positive impact on the community and on the environment, and to just make sure that the practices we’re putting forth each day are both benefiting us now at this current moment, but also will have a benefit to future generations of students, faculty and staff here at ���ϲ�����, and on a larger level, the whole ���ϲ����� community. This is not one fix-all. It’s going to take a lot of people,” says Lydia Knox G’22, the sustainability project manager in the .

During April, the campus community is coming together to celebrate Earth Month. On this ‘Cuse Conversation, Knox discusses the state of sustainability at ���ϲ�����, the wide range of Earth Month efforts occurring on campus, how the University is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2032, how you can get involved with these initiatives and why she left her career as a television meteorologist to pursue her passion for sustainability and preserving the Earth.

Check out episode 162 of the podcast featuring Knox. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Angelica Molina (left), Adya Parida (center) and Yajie (Lannie) Lan discuss their respective journeys to ���ϲ�����, how they found not only success but a welcoming community on campus, their advice for fellow international students and how they plan on making a difference in their communities once they graduate.

Finding out you were accepted into ���ϲ����� to pursue your academic dreams is a joyous time—and the start of a new adventure.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” three accomplished international students stopped by to discuss their respective journeys to ���ϲ�����, how they found not only success but a welcoming community on campus, their advice for fellow international students and how they plan on making a difference in their communities once they graduate.

Adya Parida ’25 traveled nearly 7,700 miles from her home in Ranchi, India, to study computer science in the (ECS).

Yajie (Lannie) Lan ’24 ventured more than 7,300 miles from her home in Chengdu, China, to earn an architecture degree from the .

Angelica Molina G’25 ventured more than 2,700 miles from her home in Cali, Colombia, to earn master’s degrees in public administration and international relations in the .

Check out episode 161 of the podcast featuring Parida, Molina and Lan. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

As imam and Muslim chaplain, Amir Durić fosters community and togetherness. His research focuses on supporting and enhancing the Muslim student experiences on college campuses across the country.

As a faith leader, an imam is the one who proceeds, the one who stands in front and leads the mosque’s worshippers as a role model.

A deeply religious man, Amir Durić knew he was meant to serve as a faith leader when he was a child and his grandfather called upon him to lead his family’s daily prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. It is a time when observant Muslims around the world come together in hopes of increasing their consciousness, self-awareness and empathy through fasting daily from dawn to sunset and worship that elevate their spirituality.

Durić gathered the courage to deliver the prayers, and soon after accepting the responsibility, he started noticing a newfound love and passion for the spiritual life. Durić had found his calling.

Amir Duric

“With faith, I am on the receiving end of timeless and divine wisdom that really broadens my horizons beyond this temporary world. My faith motivates me to be a better citizen of this world, because I have a role to play, and that role is not just about me, but about those around me as well,” says Durić, the imam at . In his role, he is responsible for fostering a sense of community and togetherness among the students who practice Islam on campus.

Since 2017, Durić has led efforts to enhance and improve the Muslim student experience on college campuses across the country. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in  through the .

With the holy month of Ramadan underway, Durić stopped by to share his thoughts on the role an Imam plays on campus, describe the core tenets of Islam and address the biggest misconceptions surrounding the religion. He also discusses his groundbreaking research on the Muslim student experiences on college campuses across the country and explains how an interfaith collaboration with Rabbi Ethan Bair brought together Muslim and Jewish students to learn more about each other’s beliefs and values.

Check out podcast featuring Durić. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Margaret Talev discusses the mission and vision for the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, how distrust in election results and politicians is at an all-time high and the challenges artificial intelligence poses.

can vividly recall the specific moment she knew journalism had failed to properly inform and educate a large portion of the American voting electorate.

It was Jan. 6, 2021. More than 1,000 citizens were protesting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Talev was working as managing editor at Axios, overseeing the outlet’s political coverage. During the events, one of her reporters became trapped in the chambers of the House of Representatives, while another was trapped in the Senate’s chambers.

A decorated and accomplished national political journalist, Talev prided herself on helping people understand the news, both in the short-term and big picture. Talev covered American politics and the White House for 30 years, including working the campaign trail for presidential elections in 2008, 2012 and 2016 as a White House correspondent for Bloomberg News and McClatchy Newspapers.

Talev watched the events unfold and was left wondering how thousands of her fellow citizens could stage a protest based on misinformation.

Unsure of her future in journalism, Talev wanted to focus her career efforts on the relationship between the news that was being produced and consumed by voters and how that was impacting their views on democracy and governance.

Margaret Talev

She was immediately interested in serving as the Kramer Director of the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC), a joint effort of the . Based in Washington, the institute promotes nonpartisan, evidence-based research and dialogue in the public interest, striving to create new knowledge, foster a more informed and engaged citizenry and better equip students for success.

“I cared about focusing on the governance and the information piece of this, which is, how is democracy working for people? What do people believe democracy is? And why are a segment of Americans so upset with the process that they’re willing to resort to violence or willing to believe conspiracy theories? That became the central question that I was interested in reporting on, and the chance to build an institute that would really be dedicated to looking at the connection between news and government, between journalism and politics, between how people perceive the way their country is working and the news they’re ingesting,” Talev says of the IDJC, which will formally open its headquarters in Washington later this spring.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Talev discusses the mission and vision for the IDJC, how distrust in election results and politicians is at an all-time high, the role citizens can play to address issues facing our democracy and the challenges artificial intelligence poses.

Check out episode 158 of the featuring Talev. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Student leaders Dylan France and Andi-Rose Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders, how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change and what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them.

���ϲ����� has a proud and storied tradition of honoring through a series of engaging and thought-provoking student-run programs, events and discussions occurring through March 3 on campus.

The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Existing Outside the Lines: The Colors of Resistance,” and through a lens of intersectionality as art, student organizers like Dylan France ’24 hope to express both the rich diversity present within the Black community, and the broad spectrum of color that Blackness holds.

Dylan France

“If you look across campus, there’s so many students from so many different backgrounds doing all these amazing things. To highlight that creativity and the different leadership efforts from students, that’s the goal: to showcase all these different avenues and outlets while demonstrating how we’re existing beyond the lines of what, traditionally, blackness is looked as,” says France, a dual major studying finance and real estate in the .

France and sophomore Andrea-Rose Oates ’26 are among the many passionate and talented Black student leaders who have become agents of change for their peers during their time on campus. And France and Oates are committed to helping train a new generation of student leaders.

France serves as the comptroller for the Student Association, is one of two undergraduate representatives to the , belongs to both the and the , and is a member of the Black History Month Committee.

Oates is an energetic leader of , a peer-to-peer mentoring program geared toward self-identified women of color. Ever since she was a child, Oates has been inspired to do good and make her community a better place. But that drive intensified in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Andi-Rose Oates

“That’s when I became passionate about my advocacy work, whether it was talking about the issues affecting the Black population within America and the world, really focusing on that and getting more involved with not only my advocacy, but my direct action to bring about change in these issues,” says Oates, who is studying both public relations in the and policy studies in the .

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” France and Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders and how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change, explore what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them, share how they found community on campus and offer up their highlights from the Black History Month celebrations.

Check out featuring France and Oates. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Despite growing up on Cayuga ancestral lands, one of the six nations that make up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Native Americans in New York, Lorna Rose ’11, G’21 never really identified with her Native heritage.

She was raised Italian American and always thought of her Italian roots when it came to her cultural heritage. But that perspective changed with the sudden passing of her older sister in 2020.

That loss sent Rose down a path that would lead to a spiritual reawakening, cultivating an affinity for both her Native culture and her Native heritage. From the depths of sadness, Rose immersed herself in her Cayuga culture, reacclimating and reacquainting herself with her Native roots. In the process, she rediscovered pride in belonging to the Cayuga Nation, the People of the Great Swamp.

Lorna Rose

“Being there with my sister’s kids and realizing they just lost their closest connection to their Native heritage, as one of their aunts it’s my job, my obligation and my responsibility to step up and reconnect with my heritage. Once I did, it was almost a visceral transformation. My body just felt so much more comfortable,” says Rose, who earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the and a master’s degree in communications from the .

“I started to overcome a lot of the mental health issues I’ve been battling, building and growing my connection and my awareness of my connection to who I am as a Native woman, and reconnecting with my family and getting back into that community that I’d been removed from so long, being raised away from it. It was really life-changing,” Rose says.

Lorna Rose (center) poses with Hall of Fame sportscaster Bob Costas ’74 (left) and Hall of Fame basketball coach Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73.

The University community has come together during Native Heritage Month to amplify Indigenous innovation, celebrate Native communities and educate people surrounding the contemporary issues Native Americans and Native communities face.

Rose stopped by the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast to discuss her spiritual reawakening, the pride she feels through her Native heritage and culture and how the ���ϲ����� community helped her overcome depression and mental health issues. She also shares how she launched her own communications consulting company, Rez Communications, and why she’s eternally proud to be a ���ϲ����� alumna.

Check out . A transcript [PDF] is also available.

It’s a term that’s often used to describe the culture found in a sports locker room, but in the case of the ���ϲ����� men’s basketball program, the student-athletes and coaches who make up the team truly feel like a family.

And beginning tonight when the Orange tip off the 2023-24 season at home against the University of New Hampshire, there will be a new yet very familiar face leading the Orange men’s basketball family.

, the former men’s basketball standout who served as Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim’s ’66, G’73 assistant and associate head coach for 12 years, begins his next great coaching challenge: leading his alma mater.

Adrian Autry

“This is a dream come true. For Coach Boeheim to stamp me [as his successor] and give me his blessings, it means the world to me and I don’t take that lightly,” says Autry, who earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from the .

“When I talk about our program and what it means to me … I love this place, I love Coach Boeheim and I love ���ϲ�����. This place was pivotal for me growing as a young man. Those years were important because I experienced everything there and I took everything I learned with me,” Autry says. “I especially learned about loyalty. The ���ϲ����� community, this University and our fans are loyal to the men’s basketball program, and that all comes back to the family part of it. I’ve always embraced that family atmosphere here.”

During a four-year playing career, Autry etched his name in the school’s record books as a prolific passer and tremendous defender. He still ranks fifth in program history in career assists and sixth in steals. Following a successful playing career that included stints in Europe and across North and South America, Autry embarked on his second act: as a basketball coach, learning the Xs and Os of coaching from his mentor, Boeheim.

Autry stopped by the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast to discuss this exciting opportunity, and why he’s ready to take over and make his mark on the men’s basketball program.

Autry also reveals the lessons he’s learned from Boeheim, explores why his team will be fast-paced on offense and tenacious on defense, recalls his favorite memories from his playing days and shares why, from his first day on campus, ���ϲ����� has always felt like home.

Check out featuring Autry. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Adrian Autry is the eighth head coach in ���ϲ����� men’s basketball program history.

The two sought comfort and community at , the spiritual heart of campus, mourning the tragic loss of life with the remaining students, faculty and staff members who hadn’t departed for winter break.

Friend would eventually become part of the first cohort of and the traditions surrounding Remembrance Week.

“Remembrance Week is such a wonderful way to pay tribute to the students and their families, and to instill the impact of the event on ���ϲ����� as an institution. ���ϲ����� could have decided to quietly give out scholarships and not acknowledge the incident, but I’m so proud of the institution for going the other way, embracing the people impacted by this tragedy and embracing the impact this had on our campus community. By making this a celebration of the lives lost means their memories will last forever,” says Friend, who represented .

“Look back. Act forward.”

Those words influence how ���ϲ�����’s Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars honor and celebrate the lives of the people who were killed during the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the bombing, which claimed the lives of 270 people, including 35 ���ϲ����� students who were on their way home following a semester abroad.

Julie Friend ’92

Each October, the University community comes together during Remembrance Week events and activities—planned by that year’s cohort of Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars—to memorialize the victims and further educate the campus community about terrorism.

The impact of being a Remembrance Scholar lives on in Friend and her fellow scholars.

Today, as director of global safety and security at Northwestern University, Friend developed a comprehensive, universitywide approach to international risk management, including for the university’s students who study abroad. She wrote the industry standard on how colleges and universities respond to the death of a student abroad.

“Absolutely there’s a tie between my work and my time as a Remembrance Scholar. I think about that whenever I’m dealing with a student in crisis abroad. Knowing the parents of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims experienced the ultimate tragedy a parent can experience when their student goes to college, I think about these family members too, and what they might be going through. It is important for me to put myself in the shoes of those parents so I can be the best I can at my job,” Friend says.

Luke ’16 and Hannah Rafferty ’16

Hannah (Visnosky) Rafferty ’16 and Luke Rafferty ’16 firmly believe they never would have met were it not for the Remembrance Scholars program. The encounter had life-changing ramifications for both Hannah, who earned a sport management degree from the , and Luke, who earned a photography degree from the .

Today, the two are happily married and co-run a video production company, Filmiamo Productions, that tells the stories of successful companies, brands and individuals. They’re also raising their Orange goldendoodle, “Waverly,” named for the street where their Remembrance Scholars meetings took place inside Bird Library.

“When terrorists perform acts of terror, their goal is to instill fear and terrorize a community. The students that we represent didn’t get their chance at love, they didn’t get their chance at having an adulthood. While the terrorists were trying to harm and hurt people, ���ϲ�����, in creating the Remembrance program, created something good out of this terrible situation. This allows us to talk about the victims of Pan Am 103 and honor their lives through us telling our story of how we met,” says Hannah, who represented .

“People of a certain generation remember Pan Am 103, but people of the newer generation don’t really know what happened that day. We get to provide that context and tell them that story to make sure those 35 ���ϲ����� students are always remembered and never forgotten. The student I represented [] wanted to be a photojournalist telling the types of stories Hannah and I do with our video production company. The Remembrance Scholar program gave me something powerful, and I’ve carried that with me well past graduation,” adds Luke.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” these alumni reflect on the significant impact the Remembrance Scholars program had on them, share their stories of why they wanted to become Remembrance Scholars, and explain how they continue to honor the lives of the University students who died on the flight.

Friend recalls what it was like on campus in the aftermath of the incident and how there was an empty feeling when students returned to campus to start the spring semester. She also describes how powerful and emotional it was when the University marked the 30-year anniversary of the incident in 2018.

Hannah and Luke share how being Remembrance Scholars helped their Orange love story blossom. They also discuss the personal significance of both the Place of Remembrance—where each year the ���ϲ����� community gathers for a candlelight vigil and rose-laying ceremony—and the Remembrance Wall—which features the names of the 35 ���ϲ����� students who died.

Check out episode 152 of the . A transcript [PDF] is also available.

One of the visible examples of how the University is leading the way in research excellence is the , an interdisciplinary institute whose members examine complex biological systems, developing and designing programmable smart materials to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation.

BioInspired serves as a framework for ���ϲ�����’s talented faculty and student researchers, supporting researchers from such disciplines as life sciences, engineering, physics and chemistry. It collaborates with both industry partners and other academic institutions, including , and others.

Helping the current and next generation of ���ϲ����� researchers achieve their goals fuels , who served as BioInspired’s founding director beginning in April 2019, and , who took over as director on July 1. The two have frequently collaborated to provide a roadmap for successful research endeavors on campus.

Lisa Manning

“BioInspired is at the intersection of materials and living systems. The idea is there’s types of materials called biomaterials that interact with living systems, and there are types of materials that are bioinspired, which means they have features or functions or can execute tasks like intelligent new types of materials that act like living systems,” says Manning, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. “There’s this idea that organisms are actually secretly a material. By thinking about living systems as materials or having mechanical interactions, we can come up with new hypotheses that might even someday drive treatments for a disease.”

Jay Henderson

“We’re trying to figure out ways to solve really big problems like antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics or how we can better treat injuries when they occur,” says Henderson, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “How can we use materials to try to do those things? Some of the biggest challenges facing our society might have solutions rooted in the materials we could use to address them, whether it’s treating an injury or a disease, or capturing energy in some way that it can’t currently be captured to address things like global warming or combating COVID. These are problems we’re going to continue to face in the future.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Henderson and Manning share how BioInspired embraces an interdisciplinary approach to research, discuss the importance of introducing students to research opportunities early in their academic careers and explain how BioInspired and ���ϲ����� are helping more women and students from underrepresented populations get involved in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

They also explore the Cluster Hires Initiative—a key part of the intended to significantly invest in faculty recruitment and retention in areas of distinction for the University—preview the second annual BioInspired Symposium, scheduled for Oct. 19-20, and explain how they became passionate about research.

Check out featuring Henderson and Manning. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Jay Henderson and Lisa Manning discuss BioInspired’s interdisciplinary approach to research, the importance of introducing students to research opportunities early in their academic careers and what BioInspired and ���ϲ����� are doing to get more women and students from underrepresented populations into STEM fields.

On top of that, a recent report from the annual shows that rates of social anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among U.S.-based college students are at an all-time high, with 44% of students reporting symptoms of depression, 37% reporting anxiety disorders and 15% reporting seriously considering suicide in the past year, the highest recorded rates in the 15-year history of the survey.

There was some positive data to come out of the survey of more than 96,000 students: the number of college students receiving therapy or counseling rose from 30% to 37% in the last year, the highest recorded rates.

The mental health and well-being of ���ϲ�����’s students is a top priority for Carrie Brown, the counseling director at the Barnes Center at The Arch who also serves on the Sexual and Relationship Violence Response Team.

Carrie Brown, the counseling director at the Barnes Center at The Arch, on the importance of students working on their mental health and well-being.

“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in social anxiety. Students are saying the number one thing they’re worried about is how other people perceive them. When we think of social anxiety, sometimes we think of people being introverted, and certainly that can be a part of it,” Brown says. “But what was really interesting is our students are more worried about how their peers perceive them. Social media plays a role in that. There’s this expectation that everybody is living an extraordinary life and everybody is doing everything the right way and looks great all the time. I think that distorts the reality. Most of us just want to connect with people and be happy.”

On this “‘Cuse Conversation,” Brown explores the topics of social anxiety, mental wellness, making new friends and finding community on campus.

Brown discusses the University’s integrated health and wellness model for addressing mental health concerns, shares how the University focuses on a student’s holistic development while remaining empathetic to their concerns, offers up tips for finding community and shares common mistakes students make when trying to make friends and develop their social circle.

Check out featuring Brown. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

As the University’s vice president for diversity and inclusion, was paying close attention to the Supreme Court rulings that were issued towards the end of the court’s term in June. In particular, Almandrez and her colleagues were anxious to see how the court would rule on the issue of race-based admissions and how the outcome would impact colleges and universities across the country, including ���ϲ�����.

The court decided to undo decades of judicial precedent by reversing rulings that allowed race-conscious admissions programs, preventing colleges and universities from considering race as one of many factors in deciding which qualified applicants are admitted.

Almandrez says that the court’s rulings align with recent national trends where issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) are coming under attack, and she wasn’t surprised when the decisions were announced.

Check out featuring Almandrez. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

While Almandrez was deeply disappointed by the rulings, she pointed to the University’s long track record of fostering an environment where all students feel welcomed and supported as proof that ���ϲ����� will not waver in its commitment to DEIA issues.

Mary Grace Almandrez, vice president for diversity and inclusion.

“It’s important to note that the decisions have to do with the consideration of race in the admissions process. That does not mean that we need to back down from our recruitment strategies. In fact, this is a moment when we have to enhance and expand. We’re thinking about other ways we can diversify our applicant pool, doing concerted and targeted outreach in areas where there is great diversity, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic status diversity, for example,” says Almandrez, who facilitates critical programs and initiatives, and partners with key constituencies to achieve the priorities outlined in our university’s DEIA’s strategic plan and academic strategic plan.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Almandrez discusses the Supreme Court’s rulings and their impact on current and prospective students, shares how the University remains committed to being a national leader in DEIA efforts, and highlights what the campus community can expect from the inaugural D.E.I.A. Symposium on Oct. 3.

Students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the Symposium, which will showcase the breadth of DEIA efforts across the University. The .

It’s also a place students can learn, thrive and develop into leaders.

, the University’s new assistant vice president for student living, is excited to lead a team responsible for helping students find their community and realize their potential through their housing experiences.

In January, Herndon came to ���ϲ����� from the University of Dayton with a reputation as a respected leader in residential education, housing and student development, combining the valuable ways residential living both builds a strong community and impacts a student’s holistic development.

Steve Herndon, assistant vice president for student living, discusses how his team helps students reach their full potential and the profound role residential living plays on campus.

“My job is essentially creating a structure that clearly defines our contributions and approach to how we’re going to partner with students in their learning and development, around community engagement, around identity and belonging and around health and safety,” Herndon says. “These are all critical experiences and values for our students’ success at the University.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Herndon discusses how his team helps students reach their full potential, why ���ϲ����� was the perfect fit for the next chapter in his career as a leader in higher education and the profound role residential living plays on campus.

Check out podcast featuring Herndon. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

���ϲ����� Welcome represents the first steps in a student’s ���ϲ����� journey, an odyssey that can feel overwhelming to students and family members alike, with changes to many facets of their daily life.

Luckily for everyone participating, as soon as last year’s orientation program concluded, and her team started preparing for this year’s welcome events. Abbott serves as the director of , and this will be her 20th consecutive year helping with ���ϲ����� Welcome.

“It’s a joy and an honor to be a partner in the student’s experience when they arrive on campus. To be there for the new students, for their families and their supporters is really a magical moment,” Abbott says. “My team and all of the University colleagues who volunteer for move-in do such a wonderful job greeting these students and truly welcoming them to the Orange family. It’s remarkable how the campus comes together to welcome and support our new students.”

For 20 years, Carrie Grogan Abbott G’03 has been assisting with ���ϲ����� Welcome, the University’s new student orientation program.

At some point during the summer, many of these students attended a new student send-off in their hometown, a unique opportunity to meet fellow incoming students and network with both current students and recent alumni from their area.

Once they arrive in ���ϲ�����, the weeklong orientation is filled with programs designed to make new students and their family members feel at home through engaging academic and social events, including , a key component of ���ϲ����� Welcome. The end goal? Helping students feel a sense of belonging to the ���ϲ����� community from their first day on campus.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Abbott shares why ���ϲ����� Welcome is the perfect way to introduce new students to campus, reflects on the pivotal role the Goon Squad plays during move-in and offers up advice to ensure the earliest days on campus run smoothly.

Check out episode 145 of the featuring Abbott. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

The topic is near and dear to Coleman’s heart. As she was escorted through the House of Lords, Coleman found herself feeling a deep appreciation for the life-altering experiences afforded to her as a recipient of a Fulbright postgraduate award.

Gretchen Coleman ’22

“I’m so grateful every day. Sometimes it’s hard to process that I’m actually here and have this amazing research opportunity,” says Coleman, who earned bachelor’s degrees in both and in the and the .

“This has allowed me to really focus on my research and focus on the things I’m passionate about, with the luxury of being able to think about my big research questions while traveling and exploring the U.K. That’s something I will never take for granted because it’s really so meaningful to me.”

Coleman, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in political science, democracy and elections at the University of Manchester, has researched voter ID laws in the U.S. Now, she’s shifting her focus to the U.K., which is about to hold the country’s first elections where voters are required to show ID when they vote. The reason behind the policy change is a growing mistrust in the election process, and the new laws closely follow those in the U.S.

Coleman’s research will analyze materials sent to voters informing them of the policy change to examine how well-informed voters were about the policy shift. Afterwards, Coleman’s findings will be used for a report on how the U.K. can improve its elections.

On this ’Cuse Conversation, Coleman discusses her research, compares voter ID laws in the U.S. with the U.K., reveals how she became interested in politics and elections, addresses the growing concern in the U.S. over voters not trusting election results, and shares how she wants to use this research to make election laws less discriminatory and more representative.

Check out episode 138 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Gretchen Coleman ’22. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Elizabeth Carter, assistant professor

, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, is a leading expert on disaster mitigation and climate risk management. She is passionate about finding solutions that will help communities become more resilient to climate change and views the climate crisis from both an environmental and societal aspect.

“I study natural disasters that happen at the intersection of where bad weather meets the water cycle,” Carter says. “Any event that results in a flood or a drought would be the impacts that we’re trying to ameliorate.”

Floods and droughts have increased in the last 10 years, according to the and a recently published study in the journal . Scientists have found that the number of flood and drought events has increased by 50% since 2010, and the intensity of these events has also increased.

Recent findings attribute the increase in floods and droughts to climate change. Rising global temperatures are causing more extreme weather events, including heavier rains and longer dry spells. These extreme weather events are having a devastating impact on people and communities around the world.

Carter, like many climate scientists, is working to help communities become more resilient to climate change by developing tools and strategies that can help them prepare for and respond to extreme weather events.

On this climate-focused “’Cuse Conversation,” Professor Carter discusses why the work around disaster prevention, mitigation and prediction is a necessary focus for the global health of our world. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

MaryKate Keevins and Lia Margolis were involved in planning this month’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrations on campus.

April is a time for the ���ϲ����� community to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.

Celebrated nationally in May, the University hosts its annual AAPI Heritage Month in April so all campus members can join in honoring the histories, cultural diversity, identities and contributions of AAPI communities.

This year’s theme is “Community Coming Together: Strength in Unity,” representing the University’s diverse AAPI community uniting across differences to demonstrate a strong voice that can face challenges together. It’s an important and timely theme, especially following the challenges of the last three years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a troubling rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents.

MaryKate Keevins ’24

MaryKate Keevins ’24 and Lia Margolis ’23, two of the AAPI Planning Committee members, share why they were passionate about planning this year’s events and what they hope the campus community takes away from the celebrations.

“Being a part of the AAPI community on campus has given me so much opportunity to reflect on how much I appreciate my heritage in all the different ways it manifests. I really find that cultural celebrations like what we do with AAPI Heritage Month is important, because it not only allows for us, on the committee, to create events that reflect us, it also allows for other people to get in touch with either their own heritage or heritages of people that they don’t know too much about and they can learn,” says Keevins, who is studying television, radio and film in the  and political science in the .

Lia Margolis ’23

“I’m very passionate about the activist social justice side of AAPI Heritage Month. And so from that perspective, there’s been, I think, denial of a lot of the struggles that the AAPI community has been through in the U.S. and of course people are paying more attention to it with the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes,” says Margolis, a student in the . “But I hope people want to learn more about the AAPI stories and experiences and enjoy all of the fun activities we have planned.”

AAPI Heritage Month began with a celebration kickoff on March 31 and includes speakers, exhibitions, performances and student organization events. Some of the highlights include (April 13), (April 18), (April 20), and (April 21).

On this student-centric “’Cuse Conversation,” we hear from Keevins and Margolis to discuss this year’s celebrations, what their cultural heritage means to them and how their time at ���ϲ����� helped them discover more about their identities.

Check out episode 136 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring MaryKate Keevins ’24 and Lia Margolis ’23. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Tessa Murphy, associate professor of history in the Maxwell School, and Michael Fudge, professor of practice in the School of Information Studies, collaborated on a project to create a publicly accessible, searchable database of more than 16,000 former enslaved people in St. Lucia in 1815.

Beginning as early as the 15th century, the lives of more than 12.5 million men, women and children of African descent were forever altered as they were forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade, uprooted from their homes and brought against their wills to territories around the world, including the British Crown colonies and the colonies in the United States.

When these slaves were brought to former British Crown colonies in the Caribbean, territories including St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica and Grenada, oftentimes their arrivals were marked with entries into detailed registries that documented their first and last names, their ages, occupations, specific places of origin and even familial connections to others enslaved on the same plantation or in the same household.

Tessa Murphy

is an associate professor of in whose research and teaching interests concentrate on the history of the colonial Americas, including the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Wanting to capture the important details found in these registries, to both broaden our understanding of slavery and explain the experiences of people who rarely had the opportunity to leave a record of their lives, Murphy collaborated with , a professor of practice in the , and student research assistants on a unique, interdisciplinary research project to create a publicly accessible, searchable database of more than 16,000 former enslaved people in St. Lucia in 1815.

“” reconstructs the life histories and genealogies of people enslaved on the expanding frontiers of the British Empire in what is commonly referred to as the age of abolition.

“The database is going to be such a powerful research and teaching tool. I used examples from the database in an upper-level history seminar that I’m teaching right now, where I distributed examples to different students and had them analyze these as primary documents. I asked them ‘What do you get from looking at this sheet that you didn’t know before about the realities of slavery?’ There are multi-generational family trees that you can derive from these. They’re quite bureaucratic documents, and when you look at them, they might seem to be just listing facts, but when you really engage with what they’re telling you, they’re testifying to the violence that underlay this system. And that really informed the daily lives of the people whose names are being recorded here,” says Murphy, who recently was awarded a in support of her work.

Michael Fudge

“This was a really unique opportunity to practice what we really talk about in the School, which is being interdisciplinary and being transdisciplinary, where we crossover and help work with other disciplines that need to have their data and their information made more accessible and easier to interpret and understand. What’s really fascinating about this particular project is the amount of data. The traditional inaccessibility of the data from a search perspective and the effort that we put into making it much more accessible and searchable. It’s going to be transformative for a lot of people,” adds Fudge, who is also the program director for the iSchool’s Information Systems master’s program.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Murphy and Fudge discuss how the project came to be, the arduous task of compiling their database, the challenges of digitally capturing historical records from more than 200 years ago, how this database can serve as a teaching tool for the descendants of these former slaves, and how the project provided students in both Maxwell and the iSchool with valuable real-life experience.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 135 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Tessa Murphy and Michael Fudge. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Bob Costas ’74

grew up idolizing New York Yankees’ Hall of Fame outfielder Mickey Mantle during the Golden Age of Major League Baseball, when New York City, with Mantle’s Yankees, Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers and Willie Mays’ New York Giants, was at the epicenter of the sport.

Costas loved listening to baseball on the radio, and he became enamored with the melodic voices and creative storytellers of the day. Hall of Famers like Mel Allen, Red Barber and Vin Scully.

When he arrived at ���ϲ����� in the fall of 1970 as an aspiring broadcast journalist, Costas just wanted to one day land a radio play-by-play job in baseball. Little did Costas know he would one day wind up in Cooperstown as a alongside Mantle and his childhood heroes.

“If I was throwing the rubber ball off a wall and imagining a game in my head as all kids did, I heard Mel Allen or Red Barber or Vin Scully. If I was shooting baskets, I heard Marty Glickman and then his protege, Marv Albert. And part of the reason why, a big part why I went to ���ϲ�����, is because Marty Glickman and Marv Albert had gone to ���ϲ�����. And so, too by then had Dick Stockton and Len Berman and others,” says Costas, the only person in television history to have won Emmys for sports, news and entertainment.

Bob Costas ’74 delivers remarks during his 2018 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

“Since then, it’s become a list too long to count. It’s Sportscaster U. To me, a game wasn’t a game without those great and often melodic voices that gave the game lyrics and melody almost that quintessential example of that is Vin Scully with the great lyrics and this melodic and rhythmic case and delivery that he had that was perfectly suited to baseball. That wasn’t a partial influence. It was a major influence in my wanting to become a sports broadcaster,” Costas adds.

Costas’ broadcasting career has included winning 28 Emmy Awards, calling 12 Olympics, and covering multiple World Series, Super Bowls and NBA Finals. The WAER Hall of Famer still calls baseball games and makes appearances on MLB Network and CNN, and hosts “Back On the Record with Bob Costas” on HBO.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Costas discusses his love for baseball and the new rule changes meant to speed up the pace of play, reveals which broadcasters inspired him, remembers thinking his career was doomed to fail after hearing his first sportscast, shares how and the helped him develop his voice and his style, and relives his most memorable sportscasting moments.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 134 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Bob Costas ’74. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Helping celebrate the best of ���ϲ�����, Costas will be among the many participants in Thursday’s —a day to come together to support ���ϲ����� and show what it means to be Forever Orange.

Brianna Sclafani

As a student in the joint J.D./M.P.A. degree program, Brianna Sclafani L’23, G’23 doesn’t find herself with a lot of free time for extracurricular activities.

But when she found out about the University’s (CRB), an independent advisory council comprising students, faculty, staff and administrators that provides community oversight of the , she knew she wanted to serve her fellow students and the campus at large by getting involved in its work.

As the board got off the ground in fall 2021, Sclafani was nominated as the law student representative, then voted in by the board as its inaugural chair, playing a key leadership role during the first two years of the board’s operation.

The CRB is tasked with reviewing appeals of civilian complaints regarding DPS officer conduct; reviewing and commenting on any new prospective DPS policies, procedures and trainings; and issuing an annual public report of findings and recommendations to the University community.

“What the CRB is and what it really boils down to is an independent body focused on making sure that our community members feel like their voices are heard when it comes to dealing with the Department of Public Safety,” Sclafani says.

University community members can do just that with two upcoming opportunities to get involved:

• The CRB will host its annual open forum on March 22 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Underground in Schine Student Center. Board members will give a brief overview of the CRB and its work to date, then allow time for students, faculty and staff to share their experiences with DPS and ask thoughtful questions.
• Several board positions are vacant for the upcoming (2023-24) academic year. Students (undergraduate, graduate and law), faculty, staff and administrators interested in serving on the board can apply this spring. More information will be shared via email.

Check out episode 133 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast, where Sclafani discusses her experiences as a law and graduate student, her work with the CRB and how community members can get involved in this work. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

“I would recommend anyone who’s interested in serving their community at large apply,” Sclafani says, noting that no prior experience or interest in law enforcement, criminal justice or community policing is required. “All you need to have is an interest in serving your community, in serving the ���ϲ����� members who potentially come forth in front of this board unhappy with something that has happened.”

Those with questions about the CRB are invited to email CRB@syr.edu.

Today, Wilson is fulfilling his dreams through the , which, thanks to an initiative from the brings students of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities to campus to experience college life in a fully inclusive setting.

Thomas Wilson ’23

Wilson, a senior studying broadcast and digital journalism in the and political science in the , recently was named one of this year’s recipients of the Unsung Hero Award in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was honored for embodying Dr. King’s legacy through his love and support for the ���ϲ����� community.

Wilson is well-known on campus. He works at the Schine Student Center, and is highly involved with the ���ϲ����� Catholic Center.

A news anchor on Citrus TV, Wilson is also the executive producer and show creator of “Thomas on the Town,” a show where Wilson interviews University community members for the Orange Television Network.

“Some of my peers in our news organization look up to me. That makes me feel very good about myself because that means I’m doing my job right, and I’m very thankful for the opportunity to tell the news to our campus,” says Wilson, who proudly wears his own “Thomas on the Town” socks to go with a tie depicting his likeness.

A leader who inspires colleagues and community members to be better, Wilson stops by to discuss how he fell in love with the news at an early age, why InclusiveU is like his second family, why he’s motivated to prove all those who doubted him wrong and why earning his degree this May will be his proudest accomplishment.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 132 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Thomas Wilson ’23. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Coughlin had entered the season on thin ice after his Giants stumbled to the finish line the year before, and after this inauspicious start to the season, the calls for Coughlin to be fired grew louder. But Coughlin knew he had a talented team, and the Giants’ front office stuck with their veteran head coach.

Good thing they did. Never one for giving in to his critics, Coughlin grew resolute in his determination to lead the Giants to success. His team responded, rallying around their embattled coach to win six straight games and qualify for the playoffs with a 10-6 record.

The Giants became the third team to advance to the Super Bowl after winning three straight road playoff games, and their reward was a date with Tom Brady and the previously undefeated New England Patriots. In one of the greatest Super Bowls ever played, Coughlin’s Giants shocked the football world, rallying late for a 17-14 victory in part thanks to an improbable completion from quarterback Eli Manning to on third down that would come to be known as “.”

Tom Coughlin ’68, G’69 won two Super Bowls as the head coach of the New York Giants.

Now, Coughlin has a new book out, “,” describing how, against all odds, the Giants pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in Super Bowl history. The book is a lesson in how to overcome adversity and how to respond when life hands you a setback.

“Our game was the greatest upset in the history of football, and of all the Super Bowls for sure. There’s a theme that goes on in the book, which is, ‘Go ahead. Tell me I can’t do something,’ that was always a great motivator for me,” says Coughlin, who won 170 games as a head coach and received the Arents Award, ���ϲ�����’s highest alumni honor, in 2017.

Coughlin, a three-year letter-winner on the football team under legendary Hall of Fame coach Ben Schwartzwalder, stops by to relive his coaching career, reminisce on those Super Bowl championships, and share why ���ϲ����� was his dream school.

He shares his memories of playing alongside Orange football legends like and , explains why the No. 44 is the most special number at ���ϲ�����, and discusses why he and his late wife, Judy, became passionate about helping families tackle childhood cancer through the .

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 129 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Tom Coughlin ’68, G’69. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

But despite those lean early times, from the moment he assumed the role of head coach, McIntyre was focused on building up the Orange’s men’s soccer program, and on Dec. 12, his team reached the pinnacle.

When senior Amferny Sinclair buried his penalty kick shot high over the outstretched arms of Indiana University’s goalie, the Orange (19-2-4) claimed their first national championship, outlasting Indiana 7-6 in penalty kicks to win the College Cup.

The seeds for this successful postseason run were planted last year, and with many returning student-athletes who endured the growing pains of losing six one-goal games, McIntyre’s team won 11 more matches than it did last year, including sweeping the Atlantic Coast Conference’s (ACC) regular and postseason championships.

Ian McIntyre coached the ���ϲ����� men’s soccer team to its first national championship, outlasting Indiana University 7-6 in penalty kicks to win the College Cup.

“We really started thinking about doing something not just magical, but legendary when we drove back from Clemson as ACC champions. It’s been a lot of fun to watch video and have videos shared with us of how much enjoyment there was on the field,” McIntyre says. “The drama and emotions that went with securing a national championship via a penalty shootout—it’s been a whirlwind the last few weeks. Very humbling to see just how everyone has embraced this terrific group of young men. And it was very special to bring a national championship back to ���ϲ�����.”

McIntyre relives the night ���ϲ����� was crowned champions of the collegiate soccer world, shares how his student-athletes and coaches celebrated their national title, recounts when he felt his team was capable of making a deep run in the postseason, discusses the vital role support from the campus community and alumni played in the team’s postseason run, and more!

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 128 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Ian McIntyre. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

It’s an immersive, semester-long guided student teaching experience where students entering their senior year are placed in partner schools in urban neighborhoods to learn under the watchful eye of cooperating teachers.

Created in 1998, Bridge to the City was established to tap into some of the best practices that were occurring in schools in New York City, providing an opportunity for School of Education students to participate in a hands-on student teaching opportunity while learning from talented teachers in school environments throughout the city.

Occurring each fall semester, interested students need to apply for and be accepted into the program, with cohort sizes ranging from eight to 14 student teachers per semester.

Tom Bull, assistant teaching professor and director of field relations in the School of Education, directs the Bridge to the City program.

Not only do these student teachers receive valuable teaching experiences through the Bridge to the City program, but they also get to live in New York City with their fellow teachers, creating a supportive environment where they can learn from each other and offer up support to their fellow student teachers. And, more often than not, program graduates will earn a full-time teaching job once they graduate from Bridge to the City.

Tom Bull, assistant teaching professor and director of field relations in the School of Education, directs Bridge to the City, while Abby Horton ’19, a Bridge to the City alumna, landed her job teaching kindergarten and first grade at Midtown West School thanks in large part to her experiences with Bridge to the City.

“I remembered feeling really, really empowered and excited to be there on my first day. I got to do more than I expected to be able to do, and the educators were really open to trying new things and open to handing their classrooms over,” says Horton, who earned a bachelor’s degree in inclusive elementary and special education.

Abby Horton ’19, a Bridge to the City alumna, landed her job teaching kindergarten and first grade at Midtown West School thanks in large part to her experiences with Bridge to the City.

“That’s been a hallmark of the program throughout, the opportunity for our students to connect with schools that are doing some really innovative instructional approaches to teaching, creating inclusive spaces for teaching and also for student learning,” Bull says.

Bull and Horton stopped by to discuss the program, how it helps train and prepare the next generation of inclusive education teachers, the valuable role the School of Education and ���ϲ����� have played in their lives, and more.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 126 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Tom Bull and Abby Horton ’19. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Each December, students in the  in the  entertain the University community with live musical performances, and this year, there are two sold-out, in-person concerts on Dec. 4—4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.—along with a on Dec. 11.

Hosted by , these performances are free and open to the public. Celebrating the sounds of the season, Holidays at Hendricks is anchored by the  and its director , associate professor of applied music and performance and assistant director of choral activities in the Setnor School.

José “Peppie” Calvar is director of the Hendricks Chapel Choir and artistic director of Holidays at Hendricks. He spends 18 months organizing and orchestrating the student-centric performance that has become a holiday tradition in Central New York.

“The amount the show has grown since my arrival here in 2013 is incredible,” says Calvar, who spends 18 months organizing each year’s musical celebration.

“We’re showing institutionally what we as the Setnor School of Music do best, and we get to do it all at once in this one big moment. It’s tremendously fulfilling for us and for our students, and we hope that our audience feels the same way.”

Calvar stops by to discuss Holidays at Hendricks and what the student-centric concerts mean to the University community, why Holidays at Hendricks is such a special celebration and what people can expect from this year’s performances.

Calvar also shares the challenges of producing the first virtual Holidays at Hendricks during the COVID-19 pandemic, how he went from being an engineering student to pursuing a career in music and his passion for spreading choral music around the world through a series of international residencies.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 125 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring José “Peppie” Calvar, director of the Hendricks Chapel Choir and artistic director of Holidays at Hendricks. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

But that all changed when Flanagan retired at the end of last season and the Orange hired as the program’s second head coach.

As she looks to make her mark on the women’s ice hockey team, Smith is relying on a key principle that helped ���ϲ����� soar to new heights in recent seasons, including a second trip to the NCAA tournament after capturing both the College Hockey America (CHA) regular season and tournament championships for the first time in history during the 2021-22 season: No one will outwork the Orange.

Smith comes to ���ϲ����� with a decorated resume, excelling as both a defenseman with St. Lawrence University—Smith was a Top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as a defenseman during her senior year—and an accomplished assistant coach at Clarkson University and with Hockey Canada.

Britni Smith, the second head coach in the history of ���ϲ����� women’s ice hockey, says no one will outwork her student-athletes.

“I think ���ϲ����� is a place that provides the complete package for the student-athlete experience and that’s important to me, because that’s something I got at St. Lawrence,” Smith says. “So I think as I’m getting into my first head coach role here, that’s something that’s very important to me, to provide that student-athlete experience that then when they graduate, they are proud to have been a part of this program. And if they could pick all over again that they would be picking ���ϲ�����.”

Smith discusses why she wanted to become the Orange’s next head coach, how she relates to her student-athletes and what makes ���ϲ����� a special place. Smith also shares her coaching philosophy, what it was like to earn her first win with the Orange and how she fell in love with hockey while playing on a homemade rink in her hometown of Port Perry, Ontario.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 124 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Britni Smith, head women’s ice hockey coach. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Diane Schenandoah

Firmly rooted in her Haudenosaunee heritage—her mother was a clan mother of Oneida Nation’s wolf clan; her father an Onondaga Nation chief—Schenandoah brings teachings of gratitude, faith, peace and inner resilience to students who meet with her. A wide range of healing modalities, including energy work and acupressure, art therapy, dream interpretation, tuning forks, and ritualistic smudging with sage and tobacco, are included in the toolkit she uses to help students find their center in today’s hectic world.

Schenandoah has also brought various Haudenosaunee ceremonies, customs, learning opportunities and events to campus since joining the staff—including a monthly full moon ceremony (the next one is on  ), monthly and the introduction of sage and print copies of the Thanksgiving address in the Barnes Center pharmacy.

With November marking the celebration of Native Heritage Month, we invited Schenandoah to join the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast, where she shares about her life growing up on Oneida Nation lands with her close-knit family; her spiritual principles and practices; her role as faithkeeper; her art and singing careers; and her experience at ���ϲ����� since joining the team at the Barnes Center.

Students interested in scheduling an appointment with Schenandoah are encouraged to call the Barnes Center at 315.443.8000 or send her an email.

Check out episode 123 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Schenandoah. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

The United Way of Central New York has been providing residents with access to essential resources for 100 years, and the University community has supported the United Way’s employee giving campaign for the last 50 years.

With a little more than two weeks remaining in this year’s campaign, there’s still time for University employees to make a gift of any size to support their fellow Central New Yorkers in need. The campaign kicked off on Oct. 14 and runs through Dec. 16.

Mike Frasciello

Given the current state of the economy, including paying more to fill up our cars, heat our homes and put food on the table, , dean of the , understands that employees could hesitate when asked to open up their wallets and give back to a charity like the United Way. 

Frasciello, one of three co-chairs of the University’s campaign, urges all University employees to make a gift of any size to help their neighbors in need this holiday season, as all of the proceeds go directly back into the community.

“���ϲ����� has been directly involved with supporting the United Way since 1972 through our annual employee giving. That employee giving has a direct and powerful impact on helping the local community right here in the Central New York region, and is really designed to address the community’s most pressing issues. This is the community we live and work in, and so when we talk about an obligation and responsibility to the community it’s actually, these are our neighbors, these people are us. This includes individuals within the University that benefit from these programs. So I think the commitment to the United Way, if it’s not seamless, it’s almost symbiotic,” Frasciello says.

Frasciello shares why it’s important for University employees to give what they can to help their neighbors, spotlights some of the fun and creative ways employees are supporting this effort, and how all gifts benefit the Central New York community through more than 70 unique and impactful programs and projects offered by the United Way’s 28 nonprofit partners.

Check out episode 122 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Michael Frasciello, dean of the College of Professional Studies. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

But she also realized her work wasn’t impacting an often overlooked segment of the population when it comes to mental wellness and holistic health: Black people. A big reason for that? Traditional mental health and wellness services were not always easily (or affordably) available to those seeking help.

Johnson founded Half Hood Half Holistic in ���ϲ�����, a holistic wellness business that allows Black individuals, couples and families to have the space to heal and work on their mental, physical and spiritual health.

Wanting to make a difference in her adopted home of ���ϲ�����, Johnson founded  out of a desire to help Black people work on their mental, physical and spiritual well-being. The wellness business curates and centers Black individuals, families and couples, allowing them space to heal and work on treating their holistic, or whole, person.

“The overall goal of Half Hood Half Holistic is to create what we call accessible healing, services that are either low- or no-cost and are relevant to our community and accessible in different ways and on different platforms. Really, this was born out of the fact that in my work with Black and brown folks as a therapist, therapy itself didn’t seem very accessible. It didn’t feel very relevant and in my own practice, I wasn’t serving the community that I felt so close to. I wanted to create something that was very much relevant to that community, while also being culturally sensitive and accessible. Half Hood Half Holistic has been the culmination of that dream and that vision, and it definitely keeps me busy,” Johnson says.

Johnson, a native of Buffalo, New York, earned bachelor’s degrees in and and master’s degrees in and social work from , attended ���ϲ����� on a full-ride scholarship, thanks to a program called Say Yes to Education.

The author of the “,” Johnson discusses what holistic health means to her, what healing looks like for Black people and why it’s important to debunk the stigmas and stereotypes associated with seeking mental health services. She also shares how she helps make holistic healing accessible for all who seek it and the important role holistic healing plays in helping communities heal from racial harm.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 121 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Rachel Johnson ’17, G’19. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, and Jamie Winders, associate provost for faculty affairs, discuss revamping the University’s Academic Strategic Plan and how it can set ���ϲ����� up for sustained success.

The ���ϲ����� campus community is embarking on an important five-year journey of self-discovery and self-improvement, to position itself as a leading global institution that attracts the best students and accomplished faculty who are respected thought leaders.

The goals are ambitious: creating an unsurpassed student experience that is guided and informed by extraordinary scholarship, research and discovery. The stakes are high: determining how ���ϲ����� can improve its academic excellence at every level while fostering a sense of welcome and belonging and ensuring the distinctive excellence, accessibility and collective success for all members of the campus community.

The impact of this revised ASP will be far-reaching. Besides setting the course for where the University is headed, the ASP will also be responsive to the cultural, economic, societal and governmental changes that impact the University and our world.

The ASP will set the course for the future of the University by addressing three key questions:

1. Where is the institution currently, what is ���ϲ����� really good at and in what areas could we improve to get even more proficient?
2. Where does the University want to go, and what values does it want to embody in the future?
3. How does the institution achieve that future state of academia, allowing students, faculty and staff to flourish and thrive on campus?

Check out episode 119 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, and Jamie Winders, associate provost for faculty affairs. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

The ASP is guided by three core pillars, with working groups dedicated to each:

• Research and Creative Excellence
• Educational Excellence and Student Success
• Public Impact

Additionally, four working groups formed to shape the process of implementing our shared and cross-cutting values:

1. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA)
2. Global Engagement
3. Enrollment Strategy
4. Resource Sustainability and Budgeting

Recognizing the need to have all voices heard, the University’s students, faculty, staff and alumni are invited to . Between Wednesday, Oct. 12, and Nov. 1, there are also a , valuable opportunities for members of the campus community to get involved and give their feedback on the plan.

Wanting to both educate the campus community and drum up excitement for the far-reaching impact of the ASP, , and , stopped by the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast to discuss the thought process behind the Academic Strategic Plan, how an ASP can set ���ϲ����� up for sustained success, why members of the campus community should get involved in deciding the future of the University and how this ASP differs from other higher education institutions.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Aubourg admits she had career tunnel vision and was focused on becoming a chef…but as she readily admits now, life never goes according to plan. So it was during an internship in high school that Aubourg first realized just how big of a problem food justice was in this country, and that she wanted to dedicate her career to addressing these inequalities.

Ashia Aubourg ’18 is a food justice advocate who helps empower communities through food.

“It was really cool that I was working in this restaurant, but no one in my family can afford to ever come and eat here. None of my friends and none of the members of the community, even though it was nestled within our community, could afford to come and enjoy these delicious foods that we offered. That just got me thinking about what food inequality and food justice looks like. Here I had this super tunnel vision of going down this culinary path of wanting to become a chef, but the culinary curriculum was very much focused on the technique and history of food, but we never dug deep into the societal impact that food has on us,” Aubourg says.

Following a spontaneous and inspirational conversation with an admissions counselor from ���ϲ�����, Aubourg decided to become one of the first students enrolled in a new academic offering from Falk College, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School: food studies and policy studies.

After earning dual bachelor’s degrees in food studies and policy studies in 2018, Aubourg launched her career as a food justice advocate, entrepreneur, journalist, podcaster and creator of healthy recipes. Today, she serves as the global culinary program lead for the San Francisco, California-based company, Asana, empowering communities through the power of food.

Aubourg discusses food justice and food insecurity and how these issues affect millions of Americans; how food plays an important role when it comes to social justice, healing and culture; why food is about more than nourishment; and how her time at ���ϲ����� helped fuel her passions while encouraging her to take advantage of every opportunity.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 117 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Ashia Aubourg ’18. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

There was something beautiful about building community and teaching the ways of the Torah to college students for Bair, who earlier this summer was named and will serve as Jewish chaplain at .

Helping students learn more about who they are while furthering their development intellectually and spiritually is one of the most exciting aspects of this new position for Bair, an accomplished Jewish community leader who brings more than 10 years of experience to campus.

Rabbi Bair is excited to get started building interfaith partnerships that help cultivate an empowered spiritual Jewish community while serving as a valuable mentor and resource to Jewish students—and the campus community as a whole.

Ethan Bair, Hillel at ���ϲ�����’s new rabbi, stops by the ‘Cuse Conversations podcast.

He joins the podcast to discuss how he assists with the holistic development of ���ϲ�����’s Jewish students, why he’s passionate about forming meaningful connections and impactful relationships with the campus community, the importance of finding your joy and passion, and why being part of the multi-faith community at Hendricks Chapel is such a blessing.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out episode 116 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Ethan Bair. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Ganesharatnam boasts an impressive coaching resume and comes to ���ϲ����� after leading the Temple University’s women’s volleyball program to 173 victories over the last 11 years, including four seasons with 20-plus wins. Ganesharatnam has a reputation as a strong recruiter, and as a coach who helps his student-athletes achieve success on the court and in the classroom.

New ���ϲ����� women’s volleyball coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam brings an impressive resume to the Orange.

Hired to take over the reins of the Orange on June 27, Ganesharatnam inherits six returning student-athletes from last year’s team that went 17-13, including All-Region outside hitter . The hard work, commitment and dedication displayed by all of his student-athletes, from his first day on the job, have left a lasting impression on Ganesharatnam.

“The first thing I noticed, and this was from the very first meeting I had with the student-athletes, the returners who were remaining on the roster, is they were completely open to this process. They were excited, and they wanted to succeed. They were welcoming to me and the approach we had, and they were completely bought in from the first moment. That has carried throughout this whole process. We have a group of players who are willing to work hard, who are willing to make sacrifices, who are 100% bought into what we want to do and who are hungry for success,” says Ganesharatnam.

With the 2022 season underway, Ganesharatnam sat down with us to discuss what made this position so appealing, why he was the right person to lead the Orange, how he’ll use analytics to help his team get better and why his team enjoys a unique home-court advantage playing home matches in the Women’s Building.

Check out episode 113 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Bakeer Ganesharatnam. A transcript is also available.

Chief Craig Stone (Photo by Jeremy Brinn)

What does it take to keep 21,000-plus students safe on a thriving residential campus in the heart of an urban area? We attempt to answer this question and others on the latest episode of “’Cuse Conversations” featuring Associate Vice President and Chief of Campus Safety and Emergency Services Craig Stone. Chief Stone joined the team at ���ϲ����� this past spring and his team works 24/7/365 to protect our community and ensure the University is a safe place to live, learn and work.

This interview covers his new role and his background in campus safety and law enforcement; the priorities for his tenure as chief; ways the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is inviting community members to engage with it this fall; common misconceptions about DPS; and strategies for protecting yourself and your belongings on campus.

Check out the full podcast with Chief Stone. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

While first-year students are no longer obligated to wear their class beanie—it was an Orange tradition for more than 80 years, along with first-year students doffing their caps as a sign of respect when in the presence of older students—the still plays a vital role on campus.

Celebrating its 78th anniversary of making a difference in the lives of first-year students, the Goon Squad—with more than 500 students—will greet new students and lend a hand during move-in proceedings at the various residence halls across campus as part of , the University’s new student orientation program.

All told, the University is preparing for more than 4,000 first-year students to arrive on campus beginning today (international students started arriving on Aug. 19) for ���ϲ����� Welcome, a week filled with programs designed to introduce new students and their family members to life on campus through academic and social events.

Carrie Grogan Abbott G’03, the director of New Student and Family Programs, previews ���ϲ����� Welcome, the University’s new student orientation program.

“Our goal is for our new students and their families to feel like an immediate part of our Orange family and be excited to be here. The goal is for students to feel connected to each other, to start to build friendships and relationships with the University that conveys that sense of Orange pride, to become connected with their school or college, to learn more about their faculty and staff, and to get to know their classmates,” says Carrie Grogan Abbott G’03, director of .

���ϲ����� Welcome represents the first steps in a student’s ���ϲ����� journey, a journey that can feel overwhelming to students and family members alike, with changes happening everywhere.

Leading up to orientation, Abbott sat down with us to discuss what new students and their families can expect during ���ϲ����� Welcome. Abbott shares tips and best practices to ensure move in runs smoothly and highlights the important role the Goon Squad plays in helping new students move into their room.

Abbott also examines how this year’s ���ϲ����� Welcome will be different from years past, addresses the safety regulations required for students before they’re allowed on campus, runs through the programming highlights from the week and explains why the New Student Convocation is a key component of ���ϲ����� Welcome.

Check out episode 111 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Carrie Grogan Abbott G’03. A transcript is also available.