President Wheeler’s March 2024 Report to Faculty

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Dear Colleagues:

Let me begin with a broad thank you for all the work of colleagues across the campus. This has been an interesting, exciting and at times stressful semester for me personally and I am sure many of you have experienced similar emotions. This year I attended my first NCAA Convention as President, participated with other SUNY and SUNY New Paltz colleagues in the Congreso Universidad 2024 in Cuba, and joined our community in mourning the tragic loss of one of our students. Through all of this, the strength and resilience of SUNY New Paltz has shown through!

Congratulations to the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams, who both won their SUNYAC Championships and competed in the opening rounds of the NCAA Division III Tournament this past weekend. It was an honor and pleasure to attend the opening rounds of the Women’s tournament here on our campus. All of our student athletes truly demonstrated what it means to be great student-scholar-competitors!!!

I want to reiterate my appreciation to members of the SUNY New Paltz community for ensuring the safety and right to free speech for all students, employees and visitors who participated in last week’s event organized by the Jewish Student Union and the protest in response to that event. By and large I was impressed with how our community members came together during these challenging times and despite strongly held opposing views, made space for difference and expression of those differences. Our successful track record last fall and this spring of holding peaceful events around the Israeli-Gaza conflict gives me hope many in our SUNY New Paltz community can be models for this spirit throughout the remainder of this academic year and beyond. The same cannot be said for other colleges and universities around the country, and even on our campus I have become aware of isolated cases of individuals and/or groups who sought to undermine the inclusive and brave spaces so many of us have tried to create. On this note, and consistent with the mandates from the SUNY Chancellor and NYS Governor, we will continue to monitor reports of on-campus faculty, staff and student bias and pursue them fully to resolution. Let us continue to live up to our educational mission at New Paltz that allows us to have deep conversations about difficult topics.

Budget Update
As the state budget process plays out this month, campus budget managers should begin the process of building their 2024-2025 fiscal year budgets. In collaboration with division leaders and using the Incentive-Based Model document as a guide (located in my.newpaltz.edu/Budget Information Center), budget managers will start the process by examining previous year’s expenditures to determine which are necessary going forward. As the expenses are documented, each should be linked to the University’s pillars or to a compliance need. While budget templates will not be shared with departments until late April or early May, this work may be started now by using www.suny.edu/analytics – Business Intelligence (BI), to research departmental expenditures.

Several SUNY Comprehensives, including SUNY New Paltz, will make presentations this spring to the Chancellor and his team on sustainable budgets and achievement of the required balanced budget by AY 2027/28. I note this as you may be asked for budgetary information and it is very important that you provide the requested information as quickly as possible.

By now, all requests for new funding (CRITICAL NEEDS ONLY) should have been submitted to vice presidents. During the month of March, vice presidents will gather all requests from their units, indicate support (or not) and rank all proposals before forwarding them to the Assistant Vice President for Budget, Julie Walsh, on or before March 15.

  • Information Technology Services FY24-25 Budget Guidance – Information Technology Services (ITS) has created an FY24-25 budget guidance document to assist departments with budgeting for technology-related expenses. The document can be found here.
  • Office and Space Changes – If you are anticipating additional hires that require office space or a new space need, please reach out to Gail Beltrone, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management, regarding your space planning needs.
  • Building Supervisors – The initial training has started for the revised building supervisor program. Thank you to all of you who have attended and please continue to ask questions to Matt Alfultis in the Office of Emergency Management as he creates a formal implementation of this program.

Enrollment Management
The Enrollment Management Strategic Enrollment Plan (24-26) was presented to the February Faculty Senate by Interim Vice President Turk. The plan outlines the goals and initiatives to increase new student enrollment and continuing student retention. The PowerPoint slides can be found on my.newpaltz.edu > Faculty Services > President’s Cabinet Presentations. Data on student retention presented reveals that students undeclared in a major during their first year have lower first-, second- and third-year retention rates than students who have declared a major at the beginning of their academic career. The Office of Academic Advising has been working collaboratively with the academic units, Admissions and Communication & Marketing, and will launch the Exploratory Experience initiative in fall 2024. This opportunity will allow students to become exploring members of one of the five schools/college. With the guidance of their advisors, a specialty crafted progress report and engaging programming, students will have an individualized roadmap to finding the major that aligns with their goals. More information will be presented to accepted undeclared students through marketing communications and during Accepted Student Open Houses (April 6 and 20, 2024). Faculty at these events should be aware of this opportunity in their school/college and be prepared to promote it to undeclared students reaching out with questions.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has received more than 16,000 fall 2024 applications so far in this admissions cycle and they have processed more than half of these. Our fall 2024 first-year and transfer deposits are up compared to last year and signups for Accepted Student Open House (ASOH) are also tracking higher than last spring. These are positive indicators that this will be a good enrollment cycle. Less positive is the news about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) discussed in my February report. SUNY System Administration is reporting that the FAFSA completion rate is down 40 percent compared to last year. This has the potential of impacting our most vulnerable students and delaying important college decisions. We are joining with other SUNY campuses and have moved our commitment date from May 1 to June 1, thereby allowing students and families more time to receive the information they need to make these important decisions.

Accepted Student Open Houses on April 6 and 20
Accepted Student Open Houses (ASOH) are our best yield events. Faculty play a critical role in helping our students know that New Paltz is the right choice for them. We learned during Interim VP Turk’s presentation that 65 percent of students who attended these events last year matriculated in Fall 2023. We would like to see this number increase. About two weeks prior to this year’s events on April 6 and 20, Undergraduate Admissions will be sharing with academic departments lists of their accepted students who plan to attend. Admission staff will include some basic language that faculty can use to follow up by email or through a phone call. In addition, they will send another list after the event to show who attended, so that departments can continue to reach out to these students.

Saint Rose Teach-Out Update
As you know, we are teach-out partners for students from The College of Saint Rose. On February 15, Admissions representatives from New Paltz attended a successful open house event at Saint Rose. A good deal of interest was generated for our graduate and undergraduate programs, and we hope to assist these students the best we can. We have been accepting applications from these students. Many thanks to Alana Matuszewski, Director of Graduate Admissions, Andrew Mantell, Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Aaron Hines, Assistant Dean, School of Business, and Collin Cusack, Academic Advisor, Education, for representing New Paltz so well.

Presentations by Vice Presidents at Faculty Senate this Spring
In consultation with Presiding Officer Reynolds Scott-Childress and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, each Vice President will make a brief presentation (no more than 20 minutes) to the Faculty Senate during its spring meetings to share critical initiatives in each division that are contributing to closing our structural deficit and supporting the two pillars of our mission. This is in addition to the President’s and Provost’s reports. The current schedule is as follows:

  • February 7: Interim Vice President for Enrollment Management Stella Turk.
  • March 6: Vice President of Development & Alumni Relations Erica Marks and Vice President for Communication and Chief of Staff Shelly Wright.
  • April 3: Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion (HRDI) and Chief Diversity Officer Tanhena Pacheco-Dunn; and Officer-in-Charge of Student Affairs Mike Patterson and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Kathleen Lieblich (joint presentation).
  • May 1: Vice President for Finance & Administration Michele Halstead
  • May 8: Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs William McClure and Presidential wrap-up.

Advising Units Move to Academic Affairs
After several months of review and consultation with the advising working group comprised of advising staff and faculty, I have decided to accept the working groups recommendation and move the following student advising units from other divisions and units into the Division of Academic Affairs, where they will be closely linked to other academic initiatives and student support programs. These moves will be effective beginning fall semester 2024.

The following units will remain or join Academic Affairs, School of Business Advising, Honors Advising and AC^2.

  • Academic Advising (moving from Enrollment Management)
  • Educational Opportunity Program (moving from Student Affairs)

These unit leaders and others in Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs, have been meeting regularly for the past 18 months as a working group and have transitioned recently to meeting regularly with Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs William McClure. The working group will become an Advising Committee.

The Scholars’ Mentorship Program (SMP) and the Office of Veteran & Military Services (OVMS) will remain in Enrollment Management, they will be represented on the Advising Committee for the foreseeable future.

The working group/committee is informing the development of an advising model that will be housed in one division and transitions the University to a consistent advising practice that embraces evidence-based best practices, informed by data, which is clearly understood by students, staff and faculty. Additionally, they are tasked with:

  • Identifying practices that lead to more manageable and cost-effective advising support.
  • Sharing timely information that can impact the student experience and create consistent communications for students, faculty and staff.
  • Identifying barriers to student success, including but not limited to University policy, class scheduling, and access to resources and making recommendations to address these barriers.

New Parent Communication Initiative
The Office of Communication & Marketing (OCM), in consultation with other campus divisions, launched a parent engagement portal last week—part of an effort this academic year to develop a robust and sustainable model for communication and engagement with parents, families and guardians of new and current students to support those students’ retention and completion. Parent communication has been a gap in SUNY New Paltz’s overall communication strategy. We’ve lagged behind many peer institutions who have a robust and strategic system for engaging with this critical stakeholder group. We have been limited by inconsistent contact list management and inconsistent messaging/branding originating from different divisions at different times.

A planning and implementation team, led by OCM with representatives from Enrollment Management, Student Affairs, Information Technology Services (ITS), Academic Affairs and Alumni Relations, met for the last six months, submitting recommendations in February. The group engaged in benchmarking; developed plans for sustainable contact list management, centralized the editorial process in OCM with other key units working with OCM; developed an editorial calendar; considered diversity of parent audience on many levels; and determined that messaging will emphasize parents and guardians empowering their students to succeed and focusing on general knowledge rather than personal knowledge (due to FERPA restrictions). The team identified and implemented an online tool, the SUNY New Paltz Family Network, which creates customized newsletters and emails for participating family members based on their specific interests. The tool also provides robust data for assessing parent behavior and satisfaction. Already more than 600 parents/guardians have signed up, and we hope many more will.

Student Affairs
As you’ll recall, SUNY New Paltz was awarded $939,000 in recurring funds from SUNY to support specific student experience and student support activities. The funds will be used to support the following campus initiatives, including stipends for unpaid or low-paid internships, travel grants, and support for the First Year Internship Program. The SUNY New Paltz’s Living Internship Stipend and Applied Learning Travel Grant programs will support student participation in unpaid or low-paid internships (credit and non-credit bearing), fieldwork, or curricular applied learning in public service and high-demand nonprofit sectors. Each year, the Living Internship Stipend will support approximately 100 to 125 students who will be eligible to receive up to $3,000. Similarly, about 100 to 125 students will be eligible to receive a $500 travel grant. The First Year Internship Program Stipend will support up to 40 students every year. These students will complete an on-campus internship that is supervised by an employee that is an alumnus/a of a SUNY school. Students will receive a $750 stipend and supervisors will receive $250 per intern (two interns maximum). The application process for programs will be coordinated by the Career Resource Center.

We are entering the spring athletics season and to learn more about upcoming games, please see the schedule at https://nphawks.com/calendar.

Development & Alumni Relations
A reminder that scholarship applications are now open! Here is a listing of the numerous awards available for the 2024-2025 academic year. Please encourage your students to apply.

To learn more about the impact of our Foundation scholarships, please attend the March 6 Faculty Senate presentation by Vice President of Development & Alumni Relations Erica Marks and Assistant Vice President of Institutional Research Lucy Walker: “We’ve Got the Data and Do We Have a Story For You! How Foundation Scholarships Boost Retention and Completion Rates.”

West Coast Donor/Alumni Trip
Together with Executive Director of Development Jonathan Vaughn, Interim Alumni Director Jennifer D’Andrea and my husband Donovan Howard, I embarked on a whirlwind West Coast visit last month with alumni groups who gathered in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Palo Alto, California as well as in Seattle, Washington. These visits are important alumni and donor engagement activities to further our connection with far-flung supporters. Please be sure to let the Office of Development & Alumni Relations know if you plan to travel to conferences or for other professional or personal reasons and would be willing to host a lunch or dinner with a small group of alums. New Paltz alumni would enjoy hearing about your work firsthand.

The annual alumni-student networking event will take place in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 25, at Toyota North American. Students hosted by Dr. Nancy Kassop, professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, travel to D.C. each year and while there, enjoy the opportunity to network with D.C.-area alumni. This is one of our most successful and popular annual gatherings, and we welcome your participation. If you will be in Washington that day, please let the Alumni Office know.

Orange and Blue Day of Giving will be March 28
This first-ever unique-to-New Paltz giving day event invites you and everyone in your circle to donate during a 24-hour period. A large social media push will encourage competition among groups. We hope to raise funds for the Fund for New Paltz. Thank you in advance for participating!

Please find below additional exciting events for your information and calendar. Faculty, staff (both current and retired), alumni, students, parents, and friends are welcome and encouraged to join.

If your department plans to host an alumni gathering, please be sure to work closely with the Office of Alumni Relations for maximum success.

New University Police Chief
Please join me in congratulating our new Chief of the University Police Department (UPD), Ryan Williams! Chief Williams, a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in New Paltz and has been with UPD since 2002, has worked his way to this leadership position through taking roles with increasing responsibility: Dispatcher, Officer, Lieutenant, Interim Deputy Chief and Deputy Chief. He is a role model for the community policing values of our University Police team and is deeply committed to the safety of our students, employees and visitors and the safety and well-being of his officers. We wish you well in your new role, Chief Williams.

Wishing everyone a productive next few weeks as we approach the midpoint of the semester and look ahead to our Spring Break, March 25-29.

I will be happy to respond to questions about this report or any other questions you may have at the Wednesday, March 6, Faculty Senate meeting.

Darrell P. Wheeler
President