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Foundation begins 26th year with new leadership, members

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NEW PALTZ — The SUNY New Paltz Foundation closed its 25th year with an enviable list of accomplishments, and is beginning its 26th year with a commitment to surpass those accomplishments, new leadership and nine new trustees. The Foundation is an independent non-profit corporation with a mission to give the university its “margin of excellence.” It is the steward of all funds, endowments, trusts, property or other gifts donated to the university to support scholarships and programming. In the past year, the Foundation’s impact was more visible than any other year in its quarter-century history. Examples include:

  • SUNY New Paltz’s first endowed professorship, the James H. Ottoway Sr. Endowed Professorship for Journalism. The first Fellow in this position was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg;
  • The Louis and Mildred Resnick Scholarship for Nursing, which will provide 13 or more scholarships to students pursuing a bachelor’s in science degree in nursing and help ease the nursing shortage crisis in the Hudson Valley;
  • A $75,000 scholarship fund established by Elias Foutsis, president of New York College at Athens, allowing students studying in the SUNY New Paltz program in Athens to transfer to New Paltz to complete the requirements for a bachelor’s degree;
  • More than $109,000 in contributions for the critically-acclaimed annual PianoSummer Institute and Festival, enabling scholarships for PianoSummer students and other program support;
  • Allocated funding to support 49 presidential merit-based scholarships to freshman applicants with outstanding academic credentials;
  • A $35,000 fund to support scholarships for Czech Republic students transferring from SUNY New Paltz’ program at the University of New York/Prague to New Paltz.

“More and more, private support of public universities drives the margin of excellence,” said Roger Bowen, SUNY New Paltz’ president. “Our SUNY New Paltz Foundation is our lifeline to reach people and organizations who share our values of higher education and service to the community.” In addition to reviewing the year’s results at its quarterly meeting Thursday, June 7, the Foundation elected a new chair and welcomed seven new trustess. Karl Rodman, owner of River Valley Tours and a Foundation trustee since 1999, will be the chair for the coming year, taking the reins from Paul Brown. Brown, who is a vice president of the international management consulting firm CLG, Inc., will leave the Foundation after eight years of distinguished service. New trustees are:

  • Eli Basch, a Kingston attorney and former member of the SUNY New Paltz Board of Trustees;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Richard Bengloff, ’75, New York City, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Elektra Entertainment Group, a division of AOL/Time Warner;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Vincent Cozzolino, ’83 and ’89, a New Paltz resident and vice president of IBM’s WW Interconnect Products;
  • Noah Dorsky of New Rochelle, president and CEO of Dorsky & Company, Inc., and vice president of Dorsky Gallery, Inc.;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Robert Jackson, ’74, New York City, director of field services for the New York State Public Employees Federation;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Mark Kalish, ’73, New York City, president of Kalish & Associates;
  • Shoji Kimura of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., of the Institute of International Education and a Johns Hopkins University trustee;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Brian McShane, ’74, New York City, president of Advertising Checking Bureau;
  • SUNY New Paltz alum Sarah Yue Wang, ’92, a Shanghai native currently living in New York City and the vice president of emerging markets structured products at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Inc.