SCSU Report of the President 2018-2019

2018 2019

Report of the President

From President Joe

D

URING THE PAST YEAR, WE HAVE BEEN CELEBRATING SOUTHERN’S 125TH ANNIVERSARY and our time-honored

mission of building communities and empowering lives through a commitment to access, affordability, and social justice.

As I enter my fourth year as president, I continue to be amazed at how transformative a Southern education can truly be.

And as we conclude our anniversary year, it’s important to look at how Southern has changed, especially in recent times. The demographics of our population; the expectations of students, parents and employers; and the competition for enrollment and private support are all vastly different.

We know that the cost of attending college has increased and the availability of financial assistance has not kept pace — and these factors have seen an increase in the number of students who are not able to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, transportation, child care, and other essentials.

We must holistically help these students navigate life’s complexities and challenges, even as we focus intentionally on supporting their capacity to learn and ability to persist to graduation.

By doing so, our students win, we succeed in changing lives, and our community has gained immeasurably. This is social justice in action — and it is what helps to define us at Southern.

A Slice of Southern’s History

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IFE BEGAN FOR SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY ON SEPTEMBER 11, 1893 ,

when three teachers and 84 students met at the old Skinner School in New Haven to create a two-year teacher training school, New Haven State Normal School. By 1937, Southern had grown into a four-year college with the power to grant bachelor’s degrees.

Ten years later, Southern teamed up with Yale University’s Department of Education to offer a master of science degree. In 1954, the State Board of Education authorized the institution — then known as New Haven State Teachers College — to assume complete responsibility for this graduate program.

In 1959, six years after the institution had moved to its present location on Crescent Street, state legislation expanded Southern’s offerings to include liberal arts programs leading to bachelor's degrees in the arts and sciences. At the same time, New Haven State Teachers College became Southern Connecticut State College.

For the next 24 years, Southern grew, modernized, and diversified, expanding its undergraduate and graduate programs and opening up entirely new fields of study and research. But March 1983 brought even greater changes: Southern Connecticut State College was rechristened Southern Connecticut State University, and made part of the Connecticut State University System,

SCSU Presidents

Arthur Boothby Morrill 1893-1924 New Haven State Normal School

Finis Ewing Engleman 1937-1942 New Haven State Teachers College

Hilton C. Buley

along with Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

1954-1959 New Haven State Teachers College 1959-1971 Southern Connecticut State College

James Laurence Meader 1924-1928 New Haven State Normal School

E. Ward Ireland

Interim 1942-1947 New Haven State Teachers College

Manson Van Buren Jennings 1971-1981 Southern Connecticut State College

Lester Kelley Ade 1928-1935 New Haven State Normal School

Samuel M. Brownell 1947-1954 New Haven State Teachers College

E. Frank Harrison

1981-1983 Southern Connecticut State College 1983-1984 Southern Connecticut State University

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Michael J. Adanti

Interim 1981 1984-2003 Southern Connecticut State University

Stanley F. Battle

Interim 2010-2012 Southern Connecticut State University

J. Philip Smith

Interim 2003-2004 Southern Connecticut State University

Mary A. Papazian

2012-2016 Southern Connecticut State University

Cheryl J. Norton

2004-2010 Southern Connecticut State University

Joe Bertolino

2016Southern Connecticut State University

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

outhern today is a comprehensive institution of about 10,000 students, with thriving schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Graduate Studies, and Health and Human Services. Its population is increasingly diverse, with almost 40 percent being students of color. With more than 1,200 undergraduates earning degrees annually, Southern is a major contributor to Connecticut’s economy — more than 85 percent of each graduating class stays on to live and work in the state.

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In the Community • Southern was awarded a 5-year federal grant of up to

$3.68 million from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, supporting an effort to improve the health of vulnerable populations in New Haven. The project, called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health, will be coordinated by the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), an organization that is co-housed at the School of Health and Human Services and the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).

MELANIE STENGEL PHOTO

It is the largest grant ever received by Southern. A third of the money from the grant — the largest ever received by Southern — will be allocated to the New Haven community via local organizations and leaders with the intent of enhancing and developing health and nutrition projects to benefit low-income and under-served populations.

• Launching a unique partnership with the City of New Haven

and the city’s school system, Southern broke ground for the Barack H. Obama Magnet University School. The $45 million, 64,000-square-foot school, at 69 Farnham Ave., is expected to open in early 2020. It will be the first New Haven school teaching early education on a university’s campus, serving preK through fourth grade, with almost 500 students. The partnership will place Southern students pursuing a degree in education into Obama School classrooms, offering excellent opportunities for experiential learning.

Southern Connecticut State University

• A greater number of outstanding

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New Haven high school students will have access to college-level classes, thanks to a new agreement between Southern and the New Haven Public Schools.

The university already offered tuition-free college classes to a small group of highachieving high school students.

But for the first time, Southern is offering the option of taking those college classes at the city’s various high schools, where they will be taught by Southern faculty or high school teachers who meet specific criteria and are hired as SCSU adjunct faculty members.

• Southern’s Buley Library will be the repository for

“Part of our mission is to improve access to a college education.

By expanding this program, we will provide greater access to local students. It is an example of what we mean when we say Southern is not only in the community, but of the community.”

— [Left] President Joe Bertolino at a signing ceremony with New Haven Schools Superintendent Carol Birks

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

the papers and related materials of three New Haven mayors, thanks to a fund established by alumnus and attorney Neil Thomas Proto, ’67. The university had recently acquired the papers of former New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who served from 1994-2014. The Neil Thomas Proto Mayoral Papers Fund will now house documents dedicated to former mayors Biagio DiLieto (19801990) and John Daniels (1990-1994). Included in the Mayoral Papers will be correspondence, special project materials, proclamations, and memoranda such as newspaper articles, photographs, and campaign literature from each mayor’s tenure.

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Student Achievement • During the spring semester, 13 Southern students spent a week in Marrakech, Morocco, learning about sustainable development and how they could apply the concept in their home communities and Greater New Haven. The program was hosted by World Merit Morocco, part of a worldwide, apolitical organization that seeks to empower young adults to create a better future “by building confidence, raising aspiration, and connecting diverse people of merit.”

• Four Southern students excelling in both the classroom and community service were

named recipients of the CSCU system’s Henry Barnard Distinguished Student Award.

Southern Connecticut State University

English major Ariana Bengtson of Newington was a member of the Honors College and president of the SCSU Global Brigades, assembling a medical team of 18 students to work in Nicaragua. She plans to work as a human rights lawyer.

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Elementary education major Taylor Hurley was an Urban Education Fellow.

Urban Education is a student-led program whose members are committed to social justice and education.

She plans to study systemic inequities in education.

Victoria Bresnahan, a journalism major and women’s studies minor, was the recipient of awards and scholarships for excellence in both fields. She was a news editor and general reporter for Southern News, and plans a career in journalism.

Zachary Jezek, a public health major, helped address the issue of food insecurity as the owner of Grist Mill Market in Moodus from 2005-18. He is an intern with the state Department of Public Health Food Protection program, and is training to become a certified food inspector.

SCSU JOURNALISM PHOTO

• April 2019 was a great month for journalism at

Southern. Student journalists won six awards at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Region 1 Conference in Boston and a recent alumnus was part of a New Orleans-based newspaper team that won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

As part of The Advocate team that won the nation’s most prestigious journalism award, Jeffrey Nowak, a 2012 journalism graduate, prepared the digital presentation, compiled a massive splash page, created an interactive timeline, and led social promotion for a series that helped change Louisiana’s controversial split-jury law.

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• Southern’s nursing program was lauded as being one of the best in the country after the 2018 graduates of the traditional BSN degree program had a 100 percent first-time pass rate with NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensing Examination for Registered Nurses). Although Southern’s pass rate the previous year was remarkable at 95 percent — the highest of all public nursing programs in Connecticut — this was the first time in 10 years that a 100 percent pass rate was achieved.

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Reflecting the program’s overall standard of excellence, the 2018 first-time pass rate for ACE (Accelerated Career Entry) program graduates was 96.77 percent and the first-time FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner) certification pass rate was 91.7 percent.

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2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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Student Achievement

• Kiana Steinauer, a junior forward on

Southern’s women's basketball team, was featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of the January edition of Sports Illustrated; highlighting her extraordinary 33-point, 31-rebound game against Concordia (N.Y.) on Dec. 19, 2018.

Steinauer notched the second 30-plus point, 30-plus rebound game in NCAA history. It was also the first time the feat had been accomplished in the NE10 conference and SCSU women's basketball history.

Other highlights from athletics: • Southern placed 215 student-athletes on the 2018-19

Northeast 10 Conference Academic Honor Roll including 17 who were recognized for Academic Excellence with a 4.00 GPA and 94 recognized for Academic Distinction, with GPA’s ranging from 3.50 to 3.99.

• Two student-athletes earned the NE10 Elite 24 award.

Leanna Jadus was named to the prestigious Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District Team; 11 studentathletes were named to the NE10 Academic All-Conference Teams; 11 gymnasts earned Academic AllAmerican Scholar-Athlete honors; and field hockey was recognized with the NFHCA National Academic Award for the 12th straight year.

• Volleyball and Men’s Cross Country won their first

Northeast 10 Conference Championships, both advancing to the NCAA Regionals. Men’s Indoor Track & Field captured its third-straight NE10 Indoor Championship, which was its 14th all-time.

• Individuals from men’s and women’s indoor track & field • 45 student-athletes earned All-Region recognition and 26 (and counting with spring sports still ongoing) were named to NE10 All-Conference teams. Of them, six student-athletes earned All-American honors including Leo LaPorte, Fijero Onakpoma, Terrell Patterson, Kiana Steinauer, Hannah Stahlbrodt, and Jordan Peloquin.

• Nine student-athletes were honored with conference player of the year honors while seven coaches were named conference and regional coaches of the year.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

and men’s swimming also competed at the NCAA Championships.

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Faculty Research

Southern Connecticut State University

• Working with the Secoya

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indigenous tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, James Kearns, assistant professor of chemistry, is investigating two elements present in the bark of a tropical plant traditionally used as a stimulant. The project’s goal: agricultural development of this formerly wild-harvested plant for possible use in energy drinks.

• Candy Hwang,

assistant professor of chemistry, is researching a potential opioid vaccine designed to inhibit the effects of heroin and fentanyl on the brain.

• Professor of Psychology Julia Irwin is

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studying neural responses associated with audiovisual speech perception in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Students from the departments of communication disorders, psychology, and education are assisting with the research — which is being forwarded by a $394,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

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Southern Connecticut State University

Faculty Research

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• Opioid addiction is

also the focus of Aukje Lamonica, associate professor of public health. She’s teamed up with Miriam Boeri, associate professor of sociology at Bentley University, Waltham, Mass., to study addiction in three areas: the suburbs of New Haven, Boston, and Atlanta. The National Institutes of Health awarded the duo a $340,000 grant.

• Miranda Dunbar, associate

professor of biology, and alumnus Christopher Wisniewski, ’16, M.S.’18, are exploring the secrets of bat communication — including bats’ use of different “accents” depending on the purpose of the conversations.

in Organizational Management Journal, Assistant Professor Alison Wall found a correlation between employees who don’t feel pay at their workplace is transparent and employees who withhold effort or steal and destroy property.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

• In a study published

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Faculty Research

• Sean Grace, associate professor of biology, is

Southern Connecticut State University

studying the loss of kelp in the Atlantic Ocean off southern New England. Kelp die-off results in a less healthy and less biodiverse system, adversely affecting water quality and ďŹ sh populations, Grace said.

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EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY, NASA & PETER ANDERS (GÖTTINGEN UNIVERSITY GALAXY EVOLUTION GROUP, GERMANY) PHOTO

• Dana Casetti, a research associate in the Department of Physics, was part of a team of experts who used NASA’s Hubble Telescope to research two satellite dwarf galaxies — information that may help explain the birth of stars. The Space Telescope Science Institute recently awarded a three-year, $509,480 grant to Southern for a project to measure motions of distant and old star systems.

Frank Harris III is researching the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in North America in 1619. He says it is an important reminder of how far we have come as a nation, and how far we have yet to go.

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• Journalism professor

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Southern Connecticut State University

outhern’s 125th anniversary celebrations kicked off in grand style with a communitywide festival and the unveiling of two commemorative banners on the front of Buley Library. A bronze Owl Sculpture was later dedicated near the entrance to Engleman Hall, overlooking the academic quad.

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THE

following months were punctuated with notable events, including an Alumni Grand Reunion at Homecoming and a poignant performance of The Guys, a play about the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The performance featured alumnus Dan Lauria, ’70 and actress Wendy Malick.

In late fall, Doris Kearns Goodwin, the world-renowned presidential historian, Pulitzer Prizewinning author, spoke about her newest book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, at the Lyman Center.

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the spring, Olympics swimming legend Michael Phelps delivered the 21st Mary and Louis Fusco Distinguished Lecture, talking not only about his triumphs, but his personal battles with mental health.

Complementing Phelps’s appearance, the university held a televised forum: Student Mental Health: Crucial Conversations, in partnership with Connecticut Public Television. The 125th anniversary celebrations will conclude this fall with a Gala featuring Leslie Odom Jr. from the Broadway hit, Hamilton, with proceeds supporting the creation of a student food pantry and social services referral center on campus.

ANNIVERSA R

Šnspiration A NIGHT OF

STARRING

Leslie Odom Jr.

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Academics • A growing partnership between

Undergraduate students at Southern now have the ability to complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a combined five years in several majors as part of a package of new accelerated programs. The new pathways are available to students pursuing the following degrees: B.A. and B.S. in psychology; B.S. in athletic training; B.S. in chemistry; B.S. in computer science; B.S. in history, 7-12; B.S. in recreation and leisure studies; B.S. in Spanish, 7-12; and B.S. in sport management. “These new programs will enable students to save time and save money, while continuing to provide the full benefit of a high-quality educational experience,” said Provost Robert Prezant.

Southern Connecticut State University

• Public utilities management is a field

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with an abundance of well-paying jobs and a soon-to-be-crucial deficit of managerial and technological staff.

To prepare the next generation of industry leadership, Southern has created a specialization in public utilities management within the Bachelor of Science degree program in business administration — one of a handful of such programs nationwide.

The new program includes 30 credits focusing on management of public utilities, such as water, gas, electric, and wastewater, along with new courses in asset and infrastructure management, green energy and environmental sustainability, crisis/risk management, and workforce safety and industry regulatory codes.

Start on a

Start on a

Southern and two area community colleges was formally announced last fall at both Gateway (GCC) and Housatonic (HCC) community colleges. The partnership — called SCSU@GCC and SCSU@HCC — was created to support higher levels of degree attainment by increasing support for transfer students, removing the barriers of location, and reducing the financial impact for students while continuing their associate degree program requirements.

Students at those community colleges can take two Southern courses on their own campus for free and transfer the credits to Southern and other institutions.

The partnership also includes an “A to B” (Associate to Bachelor’s degree) program, in which students not accepted into Southern initially can receive support to do so after earning an associate degree at Gateway or Housatonic.

✒ Whether she’s guiding Afghan women toward the right English word to express the pain of oppression or helping Southern students discover their voice, creative writing lecturer Pat Mottola, ’87, M.S. ’90, MFA ’11, is driven by a force beyond her own talent. Mottola — who teaches creative writing, poetry, and composition — has three Southern degrees and was named one of two recipients of the prestigious CSCU systemwide Board of Regents Adjunct Teaching Award for 2018. “My goal in life is to help people and enrich their lives,” Mottola says. “I guess I’m just a born teacher.”

associate professor of marriage and family therapy, is taking his background in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction to India this fall as a Fulbright Scholar.

Perumbilly, who has taught at Southern since 2012, was chosen as one of 470 recipients worldwide. He will be hosted by the Department of Psychology at Christ University in Bangalore, India, where he will conduct a qualitative, method-based research project on India’s substance addiction treatment programs.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

• Sebastian Perumbilly,

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Social Justice

• David Hogg, a Parkland, Fla., teen who helped mobilize a national

movement of young people advocating for gun control, spoke at the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts during Social Justice Month about gun violence and policy goals he believes will change the future. Hogg was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018, when a gunman killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others.

• “The needs of our students

cannot be addressed, and their goals cannot be achieved, without an institutional commitment to social justice as a core value of our university,” President Joe Bertolino wrote in a New Haven Register forum column last May. Bertolino has worked to establish Southern as the social justice university of Connecticut, based on the five pillars of dignity, respect, kindness, compassion, and civility for all members of its extended community. “In my view, social justice is not a political platform but rather the full realization of the values on which our nation was founded: the right to be who you are and to espouse and express what you believe in,” he wrote.

• With the help of her daughter and

• For more than a decade, Philosophy Professor David Pettigrew has been traveling to Bosnia to

perform research, give lectures and interviews, and advocate for the victims of atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Last August, he urged Bosnian officials to help relatives of the more than 3,000 people who died in concentration camps near the city of Prijedor to erect one or more monuments there "as an important step toward any possible future reconciliation and sense of justice for the victims."

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

Southern graduate students, Associate Professor of Communication Disorders Kelly Mabry is addressing an international epidemic and helping to bring medical attention to an underrepresented group: thousands of children worldwide who are unable to smile because of a facial deformity like a cleft palate or lip. Mabry, who has taught at Southern since 2011 and is a craniofacial speech pathologist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, has been passionate about craniofacial disorders for decades and through Operation Smile, has taken several humanitarian missions abroad — the latest in Ecuador last March.

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Sustainability

Southern Connecticut State University

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an estimated $60,000 a year, thanks to an array of more than 3,000 individual solar panels constructed in parking lot 9 off Farnham Avenue.

The array will generate 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year and was made possible through a partnership with CT Green Bank and GE Solar, optimizing federal and state renewable energy incentives.

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• Southern’s electricity bill will decrease

• Two Southern students have been analyzing Connecticut’s shoreline to

combat the effects of hurricane-caused erosion and help make the state’s beaches more resilient in the face of future storms — potentially saving the state millions of dollars in the process. Juniors Brooke Mercaldi and Lauren Brideau, both paid researchers for Southern’s Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies, use laser technology and other sophisticated methodologies to conduct their analysis. Their work is highly regarded by state and local officials — Lauren is regarded as the “go to” beach scientist for Hammonasset State Park, which is the focus of her study, and Brooke is viewed as a driving force behind changes in coastal zone management in Connecticut.

• In response to recent student

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

advocacy for stronger climate action, Southern now publicly recognizes climate change as a global emergency because of its impacts on the environment and humankind.

President Joe Bertolino signed a climate emergency declaration on May 30, 2019, making Southern possibly the first university in the United States to make such a declaration. Southern pledged a carbon neutrality goal in 2008 and since then has cut its carbon footprint for buildings by 57 percent — a decade ahead of its original goals.

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Alumni Achievement

Southern Connecticut State University

• Daisha Brabham, ’17, graduated from

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Southern with a degree in history, and her passion for her discipline is taking her far. She was awarded a prestigious U.S. Fulbright — U.K. Partnership Award that will fund her completion of a Master’s of Public History degree at Royal Holloway University of London in the 2019-20 academic year. Brabham’s Fulbright project will involve a play she authored for an independent study in the Women’s Studies Program in her senior year at Southern about the history of black womanhood in America.

• Jacob Santos, ’19, graduated memoir, Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line, the reader accompanies Dostie — who was raped at 21 while serving in the U.S. Army — on her journey of pain, outrage, trauma, and survival, as she navigates the military and life beyond its hierarchy as a rape survivor. Dostie, who holds an MFA in fiction writing (2016) and a bachelor’s degree in history from Southern (2011), has been receiving a lot of attention for her book, listed as #2 in Esquire’s “Best Books of Summer 2019.”

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• In alumna Ryan Leigh Dostie’s

in May with dual degrees — business administration with a concentration in accounting and theatre. Today, his education continues in both subjects thanks to a prestigious fellowship from the Newman’s Own Foundation, designed to provide young emerging leaders with experience in the nonprofit sector. Santos, one of only 14 to receive the award for 2019-20, has been placed at Westport Country Playhouse, where he is a managing director fellow — a post he calls his “dream job.”

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Alumni Achievement

• Seniors at Williams College,

Southern Connecticut State University

Mass., are invited each year to nominate their former teachers for the George Olmsted Jr. Class of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary Education. For Alice Obas, the choice was obvious: Southern alumnus Liam Leapley, ’00, a special education teacher at West Haven High who also leads the Program for Accelerated Credit Recovery in Education (PACE) at the school. Leapley designed and implemented PACE and worked closely with Obas, who served as a teaching assistant with the program. “I feel that I learned and was taught more from Mr. Leapley than my AP [advanced placement] and Honors classes taught me out of a book,” says Obas.

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husband Zachary appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank — and walked away millionaires after accepting a $3 million buyout for their company. Their product — the Moki Doorstep — attaches to a car to provide easier access to the vehicle’s roof.

Its design was inspired by Alyssa, who enjoys snowboarding and kayaking, but wasn’t tall enough to reach her car’s roof to transport equipment without difficulty. Others apparently felt her pain: the couple raised more than $110,700 on Kickstarter before appearing on Shark Tank and receiving the buyout offer from Daymond John. The couple’s “American dream” success story captured the public’s heart, prompting media coverage on The View, USA Today, and more.

ERIC MCCANDLESS/ABC PHOTO

• Jahana Hayes, ’05, became the first

Southern graduate to be elected to national office on Nov. 6, 2018, when she won election to the U.S. House of Representatives for Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District. The historic nature of Hayes’ win extends beyond Southern, as she is the first African American woman to be elected to represent Connecticut in Congress. A former history teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, Conn., Hayes first received national attention in 2016 when she was selected as National Teacher of the Year.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

ERIC MCCANDLESS/ABC PHOTO

• Nurse Alyssa Brown, ’11, and her firefighter

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Success Surpassed

1

st Place

3,700

to Southern student teams at the Connecticut Undergraduate Venture Capital Investment Competition for four years running.

events held by 125 student

clubs/organizations during the 2018-19 academic year.

• Owl Pride is running sky

high thanks to a growing list of accomplishments that position Southern among the best. Here are some of the university’s many exciting initiatives and achievements.

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of 2018 grads of the traditional B.S. in nursing program passed the National Council

1

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nationally

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recognized

on their first attempt.

theater-inresidence — the Elm Shakespeare Company.

650 first-year students

volunteered at the annual

Southern Connecticut State University

Day of Service — just one

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2,700+ experiential learning and workforce-prep opportunities for students each year.

example of Southern’s commitment to the community.

1 38,000 20 of only

visits to the Academic Success Center

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in 2018-19 for free services,

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to earn the

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“Excellence in Assessment”

top-ranked Financial

designation (2016-18),

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recognizing those that

nation in 2019. Yale is the only other Connecticut

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college/university recognized, coming in at #20. — LendEDU.com

best proactively use assessment data to strengthen undergraduate education.

graduates awarded Fulbright U.S.

Student Program

student retention rate in

grants since 2012.

Southern’s Honors College — in step with many of the most-selective private

See more at SouthernCT.edu/news-owl-pride.

institutions of higher

30+

partnerships with distinguished universities worldwide — contributing to a 25 percent increase in Southern students studying abroad in the past five years.

57

%

reduction in campus carbon emissions between 2008-2018.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

education.

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Giving to Southern

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The Barbara Matthews Endowed Scholarship

Southern Connecticut State University

Southern’s Black Student Union (BSU) has supported students, alumni, and the community-at-large for more than six decades.

A newly endowed scholarship forwards that important work — while honoring Barbara Matthews, associate director emeritus of counseling, and one of the BSU’s first advisers.

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Many alumni of the BSU contributed to the scholarship over the years. In 2019, the fund was fully endowed. The Barbara Matthews Endowed Scholarship was awarded for the first time during the 2019-20 academic year and will continue to benefit students who are active members of the BSU in good academic standing.

“Students of color, especially black students, are not always aware of some of the resources available to them. . . . So having one [scholarship] that’s just for them, right here at the university, makes a difference,” says senior Kendall Manderville, president of the BSU and the first scholarship recipient.

The SCSU Sandy Hook Alumnae Remembrance Garden Rita Landino, ’64, devoted her 35-year career to supporting the Southern community — first as an English professor and later as a counselor. That tradition continued with a gift to help create the SCSU Sandy Hook Alumnae Remembrance Garden, a peaceful oasis behind Morrill Hall. The garden’s centerpiece — a softly illuminated circular sculpture — pays tribute to four alumnae educators killed in the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. With this gift, Landino also found a way to memorialize her son Michael, who died in a car crash in 2011 at age 21. “For me, this memorial takes the pain of my personal grief, and my more general grief over the deaths of my sister educators, and transforms it into a monument of beauty and memory,” she says.

19 rn’s 20 Southe y was a Da Giving with reaker, ted -b rd o a rec o d 27 n $ 220,5 donors — 8 by 1,33 ing the exceed goal 00 $125,0 %. by 164 John and Nina Caragianis firmly believed in the transformative power of education, a conviction they passed on to their daughter, Christine Caragianis Broadbridge — a celebrated Southern physics professor, researcher, and administrator. In 2018, she and her husband William established a memorial fund that extends her late parents’ legacy of support.

The fund benefits students who are enrolled in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) or related field. Preference is given to first-generation college students — like Broadbridge herself, who first learned about technology while watching her father repair jukeboxes and pinball machines at the family’s vending machine business.

Today, she is a leader in the groundbreaking field of material science and the founding director of the Connecticut State Colleges and University’s Center for Nanotechnology at Southern — dedicated to helping students realize their fullest potential.

Walter Stutzman, ’09, was working at the World Trade Center on 9/11, a tragic, harrowing experience that inspired a heightened degree of soul searching in the ensuing years. The end result: in 2005, Stutzman said goodbye to a successful 30-year career in IT to become a 50-something-year-old music major at Southern. Stutzman thrived in the program and, today, is an adjunct faculty member with Southern’s Department of Music and the First Year Experience program. Through his leadership, the Stutzman Family Foundation has funded numerous initiatives that directly support Southern students. Among them is the Stutzman Family Foundation Applied Music Program, which in 2019 commemorated its 10th anniversary.

The program provides free weekly voice or instrumental lessons for all music majors and minors.

The Stutzman Family Foundation Applied Music Program

SU The SC tinues n c n tio o Founda ceed its x e nt to vestme ance in Y perform rks, with an F a f m o h c e rat ben ortfolio 2019 p f .53%. o 8 return

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

at rships Schola althy e h rn are e h t u o S for the wing — and gro , the SCSU 9 FY 201 vided tion pro r a Found 00 fo $ 871,0o 386 t award ts. studen

The John and Nina Caragianis Research and Innovation Endowed Fund

37

Commencement 1 Milana Vayntrub, actor, activist and humanitarian, was the keynote speaker at the Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on May 24 at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, addressing 1,200 graduates and their families.

2 Michael R. Taylor, chief executive

Southern Connecticut State University

ofďŹ cer for the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, spoke and received the President’s Medal for exemplary community service at the afternoon ceremony for graduate students of Schools of Arts and Sciences and Health and Human Services on May 23 at the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts.

38

association executive, lobbyist, and policy analyst, addressed graduates at the evening graduate ceremony for the Schools of Business and Education, including Library Science, also at Lyman.

2018-2019 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

3 Lynn M. Gangone, an education leader,

39

MISSION STATEMENT

Southern Connecticut State University provides exemplary graduate and undergraduate education in the liberal arts and professional disciplines. As an intentionally diverse and comprehensive university, Southern is committed to academic excellence, access, social justice, and service for the public good.

CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES BOARD OF REGENTS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Matt Fleury, Chair Merle Harris, Vice Chair Richard Balducci Aviva Budd Naomi Cohen Felice Gray-Kemp Holly Howery

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS FOR THE CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

EX-OFFICIO (non-voting member)

Mark Ojakian President

Miguel Cardona

Jane McBride Gates Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs

Renee Coleman-Mitchell Delwyn Cummings David Lehman William Lugo Kurt Wesby

David Levinson Vice President for Community Colleges Elsa Núñez Vice President for State Universities

David Jimenez Peter Rosa JoAnn Ryan Elease Wright Elena Ruiz Vice Chair, Student Advisory Committee* * Student Regent

OFFICERS FOR SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY

PRODUCED BY THE OFFICE OF INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

Joe Bertolino President

Patrick Dilger Director

Robert Prezant Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs

Patrick Dilger Christina Levere Editors

Mark Rozewski Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Tracy Tyree Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Kingan Vice President for Institutional Advancement/Executive Director, SCSU Foundation Dennis Reiman Chief Information Officer Julie Edstrom Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management

Mary Pat Caputo Publication Director Betsy Beacom Joe Musante Villia Struyk Ken Sweeten Writers

Isabel Chenoweth Photographer Jason Edwards Justin Laing Brokk Tollefson Additional Photography Marylou Conley Designer Shawmut Communications Group Printer

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