Geneseo: Redefining the Honors Experience

2023 Opening Convocation Address by President Denise A. Battles, August 25, 2023

Thank you for your attendance at today's Opening Convocation, which provides the opportunity for me to deliver the annual State of the College Address. This marks my ninth address, and it comes at a pivotal time for Geneseo and higher education more broadly, as we confront significant challenges and seek out and pursue welcome opportunities.

The address's title—Redefining the Honors Experience—alludes to our new five-year strategic plan, our roadmap for action going forward. A solid understanding of our context is essential to the successful implementation of our plan. Accordingly, I've organized this address to highlight key activities and achievements since our last convening, after which I'll discuss our challenges and how we'll overcome them. I'll start with our accomplishments, in video format.

Selected Successes

Our curriculum is among the most tangible manifestations of our institutional values and identity as a premier public liberal arts institution. Last fall, we implemented A Geneseo Education for a Connected World, the first substantive change to our baccalaureate curriculum in over four decades. Based on our Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education, or GLOBE, this forward-looking curriculum will serve our students well, supporting acquisition of broad and specialized knowledge, intellectual and practical skills, and transformational learning through integrative and applied learning (or IAL) experiences. Moreover, the centering of multidisciplinary concepts of diversity, pluralism, and power; world cultures and values; and contemporary global challenges will position Geneseo graduates to be knowledgeable and engaged participants in broader society.

Of course, envisioning a new curriculum and implementing it successfully are distinct activities. Importantly, during the past year, the College made significant progress on approving GLOBE-related learning outcomes through governance, clarifying approval processes for IAL, and initiating pilot assessment. I want to express my deep appreciation to all who undertook the critical work to develop and implement the new curriculum and address the learning outcomes on which it is based. The curriculum, the work of many years of intensive collaboration and discussion, is a framework for learning that embodies the best features of an honors experience, and we should take pride in the quality of the result.

Bolstering our enrollment in a profoundly challenging higher education market is of paramount importance to Geneseo's institutional and financial health. Therefore, it's to our great credit that our academic programming efforts extended beyond our new curriculum.

We continued our momentum in expanding the options we offer learners, through the creation and launching of new high-quality and mission-aligned academic majors, minors, and microcredentials. Among the majors launched in the past year were data analytics and finance; this month, we add marketing. The enrollment of majors added since 2020 exceeds 250, an impressive tally. These are students who may not have come to Geneseo otherwise, highlighting the importance of refining our academic program portfolio. I particularly want to applaud the work to develop new microcredentials, including credit and non-credit, undergraduate and graduate options.

One noteworthy example is the data analytics non-credit microcredential, a new type of program for Geneseo. This program was enabled by the campus's approval of a new policy on microcredentials and badges, and so I'll extend thanks to College Senate and others involved in that shared governance process. This and other such programs broaden Geneseo's reach and opportunities for positive impact.

Our work to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is fundamental to our values as well as our equity-centered honors college aspirations, and in this area too we made significant progress. A Geneseo team was accepted to participate in the AAC&U's Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers, the aim of which is to "prepare the next generation of leaders to break down systemic racism and dismantle belief in a hierarchy of human value." We look forward to seeing the outcomes of our engagement in this national initiative. After a lengthy search process, we successfully recruited our next director of multicultural affairs. Clifton Harcum, who comes to us with an admirable record of achievement in diversity work, started this summer.

We also expanded the opportunities for residential students who seek to participate in Living-Learning Communities that serve diverse students. Kuumba House, named for the sixth principle of Kwanzaa, connects students from underrepresented backgrounds and their allies to each other and Umoja House, allowing them to explore creativity and cultivate leadership skills. The Sensory Retreat LLC, being piloted this year, seeks to provide spaces that support those with individualized sensory needs. Responding to student interest and demand, we added two major spaces that support diverse populations on campus. Last fall, we cut the ribbon on our Multicultural Center, which has quickly become a valued campus hub for programming, studying, and community-building. The LGBTQ+ Lounge has likewise become an important gathering space, supporting members of our LGBTQ+ community and allies.

Geneseo has a long and proud record of external affirmation through an array of national rankings and ratings. As I've cautioned before, it's unwise to overvalue a specific numerical ranking, particularly given the large number and diversity of US institutions. That said, Geneseo's persistence among the top tiers of varied national rankings is heartening.

Our emphasis on exemplary teaching is well known, and for the ninth time in the list's 13 years of existence, Geneseo topped US News and World Report's list for Best Undergraduate Teaching among northern regional universities. Notably, we were ranked number seven on its list of Most Innovative Schools among the northern regional schools, the only SUNY institution among that group. We once again were included on The Princeton Review's annual Best Colleges list and identified as a "Best Regional College" in the northeast.

Our College is renowned for promoting social responsibility, and this quality is reflected in multiple rankings as well. For example, using a quantitative ranking methodology, Washington Monthly placed Geneseo #2 of more than 600 US master's institutions for our Contribution to the Public Good, our tenth consecutive year among the country's top five. That ranking calculates each institution's performance in three areas: social mobility, research, and promoting public service. We were also recognized as a 2023–24 Voter Friendly Campus through a program sponsored by the student affairs organization NASPA and the Fair Election Center and a 2022 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting. Sustainability is among our five Geneseo values, and our commitment was evidenced through our inclusion in the Princeton Review's Guide to Green Colleges: 2023.

It is especially affirming that Geneseo achieves at such a high level while maximizing affordability and accessibility. This is validated by our inclusion as one of The Princeton Review's 2023 Best Value Colleges, a listing that considers institutional and student survey data, including academics, affordability, and career outcomes of graduates. Our listing in the 2024 Fiske Guide to Colleges also acknowledges the intersection of quality and value we offer, noting, "Geneseo is a preferred option for New Yorkers who want the feel of a private liberal arts college at a public-school price."

As I like to tell prospective students and their families, our recognition as an exceptional value nods to our stellar graduation rates. At a time when many institutions default to their six-year graduation rates, Geneseo's average time to degree of approximately 4.07 years contributes to a national ranking for our four-year rates. Simply put, an institution is a better value if a student can receive a four-year degree in … yes … four years rather than five, six, or even more.

Achievements by our students and recent graduates evidence our reputation for providing an honors experience, and last year's successes were again outstanding. In a remarkable accomplishment, last year's Student Association President Alexander Ruiz, Class of 2024, pursued the SUNY-wide Student Assembly presidency, challenging the incumbent ... and won. Alex's win, which makes him a member of the SUNY Board of Trustees, is even more noteworthy in that individuals from University Centers—frequently graduate students—have dominated that role.

Our high-striving students and alums regularly pursue nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, and the 2022–23 year may have yielded our best outcomes ever. Among the successes were two who landed Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships. The program, which "enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad," enabled the recipients' travel to South Korea and Ghana. The US State Department offers the highly competitive Critical Language Scholarship program, which enables recipients to spend time abroad mastering one of 14 languages deemed "critical to national security and economic prosperity." One such scholarship was awarded to a Geneseo student, who studied Hindi in India.

A Class of 2023 graduate—about whom I'll share more later—secured the highly competitive Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York scholarship, another program that targets individuals with demonstrated financial need. The scholarship, one of just three awarded, will support his graduate study in Scotland. Yet another recent alum received a Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program Graduate Fellowship award, one of the most prestigious awards ever extended to a Geneseo community member. The program prepares "outstanding young people for careers in the Foreign Service of the US Department of State in which they can help formulate, represent, and implement US foreign policy." The recipient, who previously received a Critical Language Scholarship to learn Russian, also was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for study in Kyrgyzstan, one of five such program awards offered to Geneseo community members this year.

And speaking of the Fulbright program, last year saw an unprecedented achievement. That program annually designates a limited number of higher education institutions receiving the largest number of Fulbright US Student awards as Top Producers, an honor Geneseo has now earned five times. It does similarly for schools with the largest number of recipients of Fulbright US Scholar awards, generally faculty members. For 2022–23, Geneseo became the first dedicated SUNY institution to receive Dual Top Producer status, one of just 18 higher education institutions nationally to accomplish that feat. In the words of the Fulbright program, "Harvard University (MA) topped the Dual Top Producers list for Research Institutions, SUNY College at Geneseo (NY) led for Master's Institutions, and Bates College (ME) was tied with Oberlin College (OH) as the Baccalaureate Institutions with the most combined Fulbright Students and Scholars." Wow, do I like being identified as a leader among that company! And it was a true honor to receive a congratulatory note on our elite Fulbright status from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A team of Geneseo business students shone in the third annual FDIC Academic Challenge, a national competition that focuses on the US banking sector. That group took home top honors for the second time in three years, beating teams from UNC–Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech, among others.

Another point of distinction is our college's excellence in both the academic and athletic domains, and the past year saw remarkable achievements in the latter regard as well. The 2022–23 season yielded 12 SUNYAC championships among our 19 eligible sports, our second highest total ever, which supported the receipt of our seventh consecutive Patrick R. Damore SUNYAC Commissioner's Cup, which is awarded for aggregate success across the athletic conference's sports. At the national level, the Learfield Directors' Cup calculates overall excellence across intercollegiate athletics programs by NCAA division. For the sixth consecutive time, Geneseo placed in the top 25 institutions in NCAA Division III, ranking 22nd among the 432 Division III schools, and fifth among the publics. Among the many achievements supporting that aggregate outcome were NCAA Championship performances by a junior hurdler and the men's distance relay and 4X400 relay teams.

Geneseo appreciates the state's investment in our institution, while understanding the importance of external funds, which enable worthy endeavors that are otherwise infeasible. Our efforts to secure extramural funds through grants and contracts met with success, as we received just over $2.5 million through 10 awards, our fifth highest total. As well, our grant expenditures through the SUNY Research Foundation were a record high at $2.49 million. Funds raised through advancement are another key enabler of excellence, and here too Geneseo performed strongly. The College was once again among the top institutional participants in the NY State Charitable Tax Credit Program through the SUNY Impact Foundation, garnering over $700,000 and placing sixth among the 64 System institutions and first among the comprehensives, with more than twice the funds raised of our closest competitor. I know that some of the contributors and program champions are colleagues, and I want to express my deep appreciation to those who participated.

Geneseo has always valued and cultivated strong community partnerships, lending our support and expertise where possible. One such collaboration facilitated the $4.5 million award to the Village of Geneseo for downtown revitalization through the state's NY Forward Program. We're embracing the opportunity for continued partnership as specific projects within the revitalization initiative are pursued. The E-911 project marked another cooperative endeavor with the community. The numbering of each college structure and naming of all roads and byways will enhance safety on our campus by facilitating more timely emergency response.

In sum, we enter the 2023–24 year with much to celebrate and build upon. I hope you'll join me in feeling a sense of satisfaction in our achievements.

Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement

Our impressive accomplishments are useful to celebrate and bear in mind, as they will inform our future action. Let's now turn to our foremost challenges and opportunities for improvement.

My starting point will be no surprise; among the most formidable issues we face is enrollment stability. For years, we had an expanding pipeline from which to recruit, and the steady growth in New York State high school graduates—Geneseo's "bread and butter"—permitted us to become increasingly selective in admissions. However, the past decade has brought significant demographic changes to our state, region, and nation, and since 2014, New York State has seen a plateauing of and overall drop in that pipeline of traditional-aged prospects. Projections through 2037 indicate that our state won't return to its 2014 peak; in fact, a decrease exceeding 15% is expected. That curtailment has heightened competition for new high school graduates, especially for the most academically talented—Geneseo's target audience. The fact that our academic profile is so strong forces us to compete more directly than sister institutions against highly selective private institutions, schools that can leverage their large endowments to out-recruit us. Our state is also experiencing a rapid diversification of its population by race and ethnicity, a shift that has additionally challenged Geneseo, given the regrettable disparity between our student body's racial and ethnic composition and that of the state we serve.

Our enrollment depends on more than first-time, full-time students; for years, Geneseo welcomed a large complement of transfer students, which regularly composed about 40% of our entering class. That pipeline too has shriveled, particularly among the SUNY community colleges that are a key source of our transfers. That SUNY sector has seen a drop of 34% over the past decade, with our primary feeder school declining by some 52%. Our focused efforts to reverse those trends are important for many reasons, certainly from an equity-centered perspective, and also to stabilize the total headcount of our entering class.

Enrollment is also a function of retaining the students we matriculate, hopefully seeing them through to a timely completion of their degrees. While Geneseo has placed much emphasis on student success in recent years, work that appears to be gaining traction, regrettably our retention is lower than it was a decade ago, further challenging our total enrollment.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is—for the most part—gratifyingly behind us, its impacts on our enrollment linger. Geneseo was not immune to the national trends of decreased college participation during that public health crisis; throughout the pandemic, our entering classes were substantially smaller than those we graduated, an imbalance with a years-long effect. As well, national studies indicate that individuals who did enroll tended to remain close to home. Geneseo's distance from our state's main population center has seemingly disadvantaged us.

Acting together, these various factors—and our deliberate choice to prioritize our students' academic profile over headcount—have hampered our ability to maintain enrollment. In whole numbers, our student headcount is down 24% over the past decade. While the drop is on par with that of our sector—rather remarkable, given the Geneseo-specific complicating factors I've outlined—there's no comfort in that observation.

As an institution, our funding is integrally related to enrollment; decreased headcount translates directly to reductions in revenue from tuition, fees, and room rents, as well as campus auxiliary-derived revenues like meal plans and vending. This carries serious ramifications for Geneseo's financial health. Our status as a public institution brings welcome financial support from our state, and this year saw a historic investment in the SUNY System in operating and institutional transformation funds, for which we are deeply grateful to Governor Hochul and other elected officials. However, as my colleagues and I have regularly shared through campus presentations and communications, Geneseo's structural budget gap, by which I mean annual expenditures that exceed our revenues, is sufficiently large that these new funds, while exceedingly welcome, do not constitute a financial panacea.

Geneseo has been attentive to our financial woes and active in countering them. Our development and launching of new programs have attracted students to Geneseo who otherwise may not have come, helping our bottom line. And our heightened emphasis on student success is both the right thing to do and financially beneficial. We've instituted hiring and expense controls, undertaken program analysis and alignment with the aim of improved efficiency, and pursued funding advocacy with positive results. Notably, we're among the very few SUNY institutions to have implemented a Voluntary Incentivized Separation Program. We also generated one-time bridge funding and curtailed losses, including through Campus Auxiliary Services' sales of McClellan House and the Big Tree Inn.

I'll acknowledge that some of these actions, while necessary, have been painful; for example, many of our offices have seen net reductions in personnel, a loss felt keenly by those who remain. Despite our multiple concerted efforts to generate revenue and curtail costs, the confluence of the factors I have mentioned with a highly inflationary market has caused our budget gap to not only persist but grow, leading us to turn to our reserves. Our projections indicate that we will consume our reserves in the coming year, a worrisome prospect that demands a redoubling of our efforts. While we won't delve into a detailed financial analysis today, please know that—as per our usual practice—this fall we'll offer a forum on this topic, at which I urge your attendance.

You'll recall that our College has taken strong action to turn around our enrollment drop; in fact, many of you have assisted in that response, for which I'm profoundly grateful. Under the leadership of the Enrollment Management team, we've expanded our recruitment outreach, enhanced and accelerated our admission and financial aid processes, and better engaged our broader community in the recruitment process, with heartening results. The number of first-year and transfer student applications for the incoming class—14,300—is by far the largest the campus has seen. The census date for official fall enrollment is still some weeks off, and a projection now is premature. That said, while we're confident that this year's incoming class will be significantly larger than last year's and academically very strong, the four-year nature of the undergraduate student lifecycle means we will assuredly see another modest total enrollment year, likely dipping below 4,000 this fall. This reduction of about 1,600 students from pre-pandemic norms equates to our having about $35 million less annually to address our core operation expenses in an inflationary market. Please note that the number I just cited is not Geneseo's structural budget gap, which is on the order of $10 million. To address these challenges, the College has developed an enrollment strategic plan focused on enrollment stabilization and retention, which supports our equity-centered honors college vision. Regardless, the magnitude of these shortfalls is significant and requires our continued urgent and focused responsiveness.

As a college, we have identified "belonging" as a core value, thereby broadening our articulated and steadfast commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not only is our dedication to DEIB essential to being a premier public liberal arts institution, it's at the heart of our equity-centered honors college vision. This work is all the more salient when one looks at the national landscape, one in which Affirmative Action and DEIB work in higher education are being questioned and assailed.

As deep and authentic as our commitment is, we recognize that the distance between where we are and where we aspire to be is significant. The college's opportunities and need for improvement were signaled strongly by our students in the recently completed campus climate survey, developed and administered by the Campus Climate Analysis subcommittee of the Commission on Diversity and Community. Among the most worrisome findings were disparities in our students' experiences and perceptions of Geneseo's campus climate, especially among selected underserved populations. I want to thank the many campus community members who participated in facilitated sessions to both discuss the results and inform our individual and collective responsive actions. Exemplifying the latter, I'll acknowledge the work of Student and Campus Life to develop a divisional DEIB Action Plan, being implemented this fall. As important as the student survey is, we recognize that our work to understand our campus climate is incomplete without the perspectives of our faculty and staff, an endeavor that we aim to undertake in the coming year. And as we grow our understanding of our climate and capacity for enhancement, it will be crucial for every campus office to consider their role and identify how they can contribute to our vision.

Another opportunity for improvement arose through last year's provost search, which regrettably didn't yield the desired outcome. While there were various contributing factors, one that emerged with great clarity during the recruitment process was Academic Affairs' unusually flat and broad divisional structure, prompting candidate concerns that it might hinder the provost's efficacy and ability to successfully advance the strategic plan. In response, the College secured a highly qualified thought-partner to assess our current organization and offer options for a cost-neutral structure that will promote efficiency and advance our strategic priorities. Many of you participated in the consultant's two-day site visit, for which I'm grateful. Please anticipate an update on that initiative in the coming days.

To attend today's event, all of us traversed a disrupted campus, a tangible manifestation of an additional challenge: the state of our physical plant. While deferred maintenance is endemic across higher education and within the SUNY System, Geneseo has been an outlier, from our academic and support buildings to our residence halls and subsurface infrastructure. The excellent news, as evidenced by the construction, is that our campus's tireless advocacy for physical plant investment has borne fruit: over $110 million in State University Construction Fund resources have been committed to Geneseo since 2019, a remarkable achievement. This investment means that long-deferred core structures such as Milne Library and Sturges Hall are under active renovation and the much-needed College Circle infrastructure project is underway. In addition to project-specific investments, the System has supported development of our Campus Master Plan, which details a long-term vision for our physical plant. The drafting process of that document is nearing completion. And so, while we can expect to continue to navigate a campus under active improvement, I hope you'll join me in viewing this as welcome progress, with the exciting prospect of vastly improved facilities on the horizon.

In sum, Geneseo's successes over the past year are impressive, particularly when viewed against a backdrop of significant challenges and opportunities for improvement that we face. With this context, let's now look forward, to our work in the coming months.

Our Work Ahead: Redefining the Honors Experience

One year ago, I used this gathering to proffer a bold new vision for Geneseo: to become the nation's first equity-centered honors college.

I did so with no little trepidation, for multiple reasons. First and foremost, although my Cabinet colleagues and I had been working assiduously for many months to develop the honors college concept, we'd been unable to openly discuss it and consult with campus community members, as its nature required System involvement. With the System's green light to engage our community more broadly, I was unsure if the enthusiasm my team and I felt for the equity-centered honors college vision would be shared by our colleagues, which was a prerequisite to its pursuit. Additionally, I was well aware of Geneseo's prior effort to attain the honors college designation, which produced much interest and consumed great energy but was ultimately unrealized. The details of the previously envisioned honors college were another consideration. Not surprisingly, the aspirational model of two decades ago was reflective of its time, when honors programs were more about gatekeeping than providing gateways. Simply stated, equity—and serving a diverse demographic—were not key elements of those traditional programs' design. The equity-centered honors college I envisioned—Geneseo's aspirational destination—would place these aspects at the forefront, and I wanted to induce no confusion on this vital point.

Despite the trepidation, I felt a certitude about that bold vision, because becoming the nation's first equity-centered honors college—one that offers the highest quality liberal arts-centered education and seeks to extend the fullest possible honors experience to ALL students whom we select through our rigorous admissions process—is a natural extension of our strengths, values, and aspirations. It's who we are and what we do, as well as being right for our state.

You may have heard last month about an Opportunity Insights study involving a dozen of the nation's most highly selective colleges, which found that the chances of admission were more than doubled for wealthy students relative to those from low- and middle-income backgrounds, a gap that couldn't be accounted for by academic achievement disparities. One of the study's authors, Harvard's Raj Chetty, described the phenomenon as "the thumb … on the scale in favor of the rich." That "thumb" has real impacts, leaving many high-achieving but under-resourced students by the wayside. We know that Geneseo provides a quality of education comparable with those of the finest private elites and does so affordably, which is why I find our vision so very compelling ... and necessary.

Examples abound that we offer—and have offered for years—an accessible honors-caliber experience, one that (in the words of our vision statement) propels learners to positively impact society. Consider some of our recent graduates.

Samson McKinley, Class of 2023, enrolled in Geneseo in 2019, but his first year was interrupted by a deployment to Afghanistan. He enlisted in the military after high school, out of a desire to serve his country as well as for the GI Bill's financial support for the college education to which he aspired. While Samson chose Geneseo with the aim of studying international relations, he credits the intersection of his Afghanistan deployment and campus experiences with shaping his career ambition to serve in the US State Department, championing strategies for international peace over conflict. Those influential experiences included becoming a member and ultimately the president of the campus's Model UN Club; developing deep personal connections with our faculty and staff; and participating in a faculty-led study abroad program at Oxford as part of his IR major requirement, with financial assistance through the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. Samson's Oxford experience included a visit to Scotland, which led him to the institution at which he'll soon start his graduate program in peace-building and mediation: the world-renowned St. Andrews University. His graduate study was made possible through his pursuit and receipt of the extremely competitive Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York Scholarship, a process facilitated by our College.

Josephine Lewis is another such exemplar. A Bronx, NY, native, Jo was a high-performing four-year student-athlete on Geneseo's indoor and outdoor track and field teams, ultimately becoming captain as well as a Student-Athlete Mentor. Her initial inclination was to pursue journalism; it was her Geneseo experiences that revealed a passion for DEI work, one she developed in concert with her interest in communication studies. She became a DEI Student Mentor in the Communication Department; chaired and helped develop the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee training for student-athletes and staff; worked in the Office of Diversity and Equity as a DICE Program Coordinator; was selected as a Presidential Scholar and as a 2023 recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence; and secured the Jason and Diana '95 Kyrwood Student/Faculty Research Endowed Fellowship, which supported her DEI-related faculty-mentored undergraduate research that was presented at this year's GREAT Day. Graduating in May as a communication major with double minors in Africana studies and conflict studies, Jo is pursuing her career in DEI consulting and education.

Abdul Sanderson, Class of 2020, also embodies this ethos. Abdul hails from Ethiopia and—after losing both his parents—was adopted as a seven-year-old by a single mother living outside of Watertown, in northernmost New York. His immigrant experience fueled a desire to promote intercultural understanding through the US foreign service; Geneseo enabled his journey, fostering his study of the Russian language and his successful pursuit of the aforementioned US State Department's Critical Language Scholarship, a 2023–24 Fulbright US Student award for Kyrgyzstan, and the highly competitive Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program Graduate Fellowship award. The Rangel program includes a Congressional internship and a US Embassy or Consulate internship, culminating in a five-year placement as a Foreign Service Officer, propelling our alum toward his envisioned future in that critical field.

While the individuals I've mentioned are all recent graduates, the phenomenon is not new. Consider alum Liz Allen, Class of 2006, who was recently sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, working under Secretary Antony Blinken. She previously served her country as Deputy Communications Director and Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama. Liz's desire for public service was influenced by a Semester at Sea experience she had as a Geneseo undergraduate. And Schiller Joseph, Class of 2004, a first-generation Haitian American, credits his Geneseo AOP experience with providing him the basis for a career at the intersection of social welfare and government, as he seeks to maximize such programs' positive impacts. Schiller, who currently works as a senior management and program analyst for the US Treasury in Washington, DC, has been honored by the DC Office of the Inspector General for his community impact.

Truly, there are many Geneseo alumni who are leaders and difference-makers in their communities and the world, the beneficiaries of our outstanding educational experience and supporting my contention that Geneseo has long exemplified an honors college. Who better than Geneseo to become a national leader through our aspiration to become the country's first equity-centered honors college?

Since my articulation of that vision one year ago, Geneseo has done much to lay the groundwork for this achievement. I'm pleased to announce today a major step forward in support of that aim. I've mentioned the state's historic investment in public higher education, and specifically in SUNY, one element of which was the provision of $75 million in Transformation Funds. The Transformation Funds were unknown last January, when we put the finishing touches on our new five-year strategic plan, Redefining the Honors Experience. Even so, as our strategic plan serves as the roadmap for all we do, our proposed deployment of the Transformation Funds is heavily tied to it. Working in partnership with SUNY System, there's agreement that Geneseo's share of those one-time monies—nearly $1 million—provides the opportunity to launch programs in support of our vision. There's a formal process by which each campus's proposed use of its allocation is approved, and so while we await that action, I'm excited to share with you today the two initiatives we have advanced.

In SUNY's mandatory Group 1 funding pool, we have chosen the Category 1 option, which seeks to enhance economic mobility through preparation for employment in high-demand fields. Specifically, in keeping with our strategic plan and equity-centered honors college vision, we propose to continue investing in preparing our students for success in the 21st century workplace and to broaden our audience through programs aimed at adult learners, such as the data analytics microcredential, and better support our students through enhanced career and pre-health advising. We're calling this initiative "Broadening Our Market."

Under SUNY's elective Group 2 funding pool, we are pursuing Category 5 monies, which aim to deliver essential student supports for targeted underserved populations. In this case, again in accord with our strategic plan and vision, we propose to pilot a student success collaborative focused on high-touch supports and to increase access and broaden honors opportunities for underserved student populations, with the aim of addressing equity gaps. This initiative will be designated as "Equity-Centered Student Success." We're excited about the opportunities afforded by these one-time funds and will keep you updated on the status of our request.

Importantly, these envisioned uses of the Transformation Funds will support and accelerate the strategic plan elements that we expect to prioritize this year, which I'll briefly outline. Geneseo's Strategic Plan is organized around four focus areas, all critical for our future: access, student experience, outcomes, and infrastructure and financial sustainability. While our plan—like all strong strategic plans—is specific and targeted, with clearly delineated actions and measurable desired outcomes, it covers a five-year period, and so we have identified priorities within it for immediate action. In doing so, we have purposefully prioritized activities that address our foremost challenges and our most promising opportunities.

Access is at the heart of our equity-centered vision and will be a central emphasis of our work. As I've noted, our student demographics diverge from those of our state and therefore merit our focused attention. We will heighten our efforts to increase the enrollment of historically underrepresented student populations, with particular attention to first-generation and transfer students. The Equity-Centered Student Success Transformation Fund initiative we have proposed will do much to accelerate this important work. And I'll take this opportunity to acknowledge the Geneseo Foundation Board's half million-dollar financial commitment over two years to expand our highly successful Multicultural Fellows Scholars Program, which provides funding to meet the full demonstrated need for academically strong students from marginalized communities, as well as mentoring and leadership development opportunities.

A second priority falls within the student experience focus area, and that is to reach a broader range of learners. As reflected in the title, this outcome is central to our proposed Broadening Our Market Transformation Fund initiative. We also intend to advance this aim by continuing to cultivate our academic program pipeline, including through new degree and certificate programs, microcredentials, and course offerings as well as non-credit administrative programs. Our continuing efforts to expand our Rochester area presence additionally facilitate this end.

Geneseo's honors college reputation is evidenced by our impressive outcomes, and while our retention rates are admirable, we'll better serve our students through improving those rates. Here too, the Transformation Fund initiatives, both of which augment student support, will advance this work. As per our plan, we seek to increase the overall first-year retention rate to 90% for the general student population. And it's important to acknowledge that this goal is within reach: through our dedicated efforts, the rate has rebounded from a low of 83.4% in 2020; we hope to maintain or surpass 86% this fall. Our continuing implementation of the Navigate Student Success Management System will be a key enabling element.

A fourth priority also targets student outcomes: to narrow the graduation rate equity gap by 10% for historically underrepresented racial groups. This aim is resonant with the Equity-Centered Student Success initiative, with its enhanced support for underserved students and the Multicultural Fellows Scholars Program expansion made possible by the Foundation Board's investment. As well, our ongoing intentional efforts to recruit diverse faculty who can serve as role models for students of color—efforts yielding admirable results—also foster this end.

All the actions I've highlighted intersect with and advance our fifth prioritized outcome: to diversify funding sources and address our structural budget gap. We will continue to develop and launch new, market-responsive and mission-aligned learning opportunities, including academic and non-academic, especially those that attract new learners—and expanded revenue—to Geneseo. We'll also refine our financial get-well plan and contribute to our System's Long-Term Plan for SUNY Success, a plan directed by the 2023–24 enacted state budget that will consider academic and financial sustainability in light of fluctuating student enrollments.

As well, recognizing the importance of donor-derived support to our college's advancement and financial well-being, we'll move this fall from the quiet phase to the public phase of our $45 million comprehensive fundraising campaign, Opportunities Rising: Geneseo for Generations. This campaign, which is integrally connected to our vision, seeks to elevate opportunities for all Geneseo students through increased funding for scholarships, expanded access to integrative and applied learning experiences, and programs to support post-graduation success. Moving to the public phase signals substantive progress toward our $45 million goal, a tangible indication of the extent to which our vision is resonating with Geneseo's alumni and other friends. I encourage you to participate in our public launch activities and—if able and so inclined—to join your colleagues in supporting Geneseo through your philanthropy.

Our fundraising efforts to advance our equity-centered honors college aspirations and the College more broadly aren't limited to donors; legislative advocacy and pursuit of extramural funding are key tools. The enthusiasm of key elected officials for our vision has been heartening, and while Geneseo did not emerge from this year's State budget process with a specific allocation to that end, we understand that sustained engagement is often a prerequisite to success. Please know that my colleagues and I will continue to aggressively pursue such support, as well as extramural funds available through foundations.

Concluding Remarks

I'll conclude by expressing my sincere gratitude to you. As I've shared, our accomplishments as we pursue our vision to redefine the honors experience have been remarkable, even as we grapple with formidable challenges. The enduring success of this college is directly attributable to the talent and dedication of you who have chosen to be members of our campus community. And to that point, I'll return to the theme of our alumni and their contributions, to highlight a key college distinction: the large number of alums who return to and repay Geneseo through their careers. Fully half of my Cabinet colleagues are graduates; many individuals in this room are as well.

The fact is, Geneseo inspires uncommon passion, whether from individuals who return to provide their professional expertise to their alma mater or those of us who have otherwise discovered and embraced this special community. No doubt, we have hard work ahead of us to tackle our challenges and achieve our vision. I'm buoyed by the knowledge that we will do this important work and overcome our challenges together. To quote the business scholar Jim Collins, "… in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered." Thank you for contributing to an endeavor that truly matters, to us, to our state, and to future generations of Geneseo alums. And thank you for your time and attention today.