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Bringing The Quad to Their Screens

Each year, the Office of Campus Life offers SUNY Potsdam students a wide array of programming to help them feel at home, make new friends, grow as leaders and enjoy their college experience. During the pandemic, however, the Campus Life team was tasked with a complex predicament: How do you engage students in campus life when they are isolating in their dorm rooms or living miles away at home?

The necessary solution was to go virtual, and their efforts were successful due to a combination of their team’s tremendous dedication and their programs’ donors and endowed funds.

Foundation Board Treasurer Christine Haile ’74 established the Christine Haile ’74 Women & Leadership Fund “to provide students with exposure to leadership and to women leaders, in particular.” Her fund supports the College’s Women, Gender & Leadership program, a year-long program that offers leadership workshops and mentoring opportunities to students of all genders.

In 2020-21, Haile’s fund was used to bring in a national speaker to kick off the program’s fall workshop series. For the second year in a row, Jaylene Clark-Owens shared a strong message of personal empowerment, with a focus on intersectionality, to inspire and encourage our students.

The Student Leadership Conference is the most important and successful leadership development activity for club and organization leaders at SUNY Potsdam. The program helps to start the academic year off strong by preparing student leaders to achieve at a high level in their roles, as well as welcome new students back to campus through Welcome Weekend activities.

The conference was held completely online in Fall 2020 and was extremely successful with 99 students—representing 47 different student organizations—in attendance. The Harmons’ fund was utilized to bring in a national speaker who presented on the topic of virtual team engagement.

The Pratt Student Fund is used to support a multitude of student activities and programs throughout the academic year. In 2020-21, this fund helped support online engagement opportunities that helped create a positive student life experience in a virtual format. Events and activities included: a virtual hypnotist show, a virtual meet and greet with cast members of Broadway’s Hamilton, a Beyoncé Trivia Night, and a virtual “Paint and Sip” of Satterlee Hall.

The Pratt Student Fund also supported activities and recognition efforts for students involved in Emerging Leaders, as well as staff development for the Campus Life team.

The Joseph C. Sarnoff Endowment honors the memory of Joe Sarnoff (Hon. ’10), a longtime director of the student union and student activities. The fund was established through the generosity of his colleagues, family, former students and friends, including a leadership gift from Tom and Ellen Nesbitt.

In 2020, the Joseph C. Sarnoff Endowment supported a virtual version of Playfair—an interactive team-building event for first-year students, generally held in the academic quad. The virtual event hosted close to 200 students and allowed our new students to meet and engage with one another online.

Alex Allen ’11, M’14—an alumnus and former Campus Life professional staff member—generously gave to Campus Life on Charter Day this March. “Potsdam gave me a strong professional foundation. Julie Dold and Ruth Policella gave me so much, and my donation is a recognition of their contributions to thousands of students,” he shared. (From left: Julie Sharlow Dold ’03, Director of Residence Life; Alex Allen ’11; Ruth Policella, Director of Campus Life.)

Resident Assistant Luisanna Marte Olivo ’18 dances in the academic quad during Playfair in 2016. Last year, this event was transferred to a virtual setting and made possible by the Joseph C. Sarnoff Endowment.

Mentors and mentees of the Women, Gender & Leadership program—made possible by the Christine Haile ’74 Women & Leadership Fund—gather virtually for their end-of-year celebration in May 2021.

To learn more about the impact of giving at SUNY Potsdam, visit the Donor Impact webpage.