Now in its 21st year, the Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) program is expanding its offerings to include a new certificate.

SUNY Geneseo student Tshering Sherpa ’21 was one of 45 students in SUNY’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) to receive the Norman R. McConney Jr. Award for Student Excellence. The award recognizes outstanding EOP students for their academic achievements and overcoming personal obstacles throughout their lives.

Sherpa, who is double majoring in psychology and international relations and has a minor in Spanish, is a first-generation college student and plans to become a human rights lawyer.

Despite its tropical-sounding name and exotic-tasting fruit—described as a mix of banana and mango flavors with a hint of pineapple—the American pawpaw tree grows as far north as Ontario, Canada. And yet, the species is considered extremely rare in New York State, with only 20 known locations, virtually all in Western New York (WNY).

The Division of Academic Affairs recently recognized five employees with its Awards for Outstanding Commitment to Geneseo’s Values. Provost Stacey Robertson honored recipients with an award and certificate as well as a $1,000 internal grant to support ongoing work in their respective categories.

Following are excerpts from the award nominations:

SUNY Geneseo was recently named a “Campus Leader in Mental Health Literacy” by Kognito, a health simulation technology company. Geneseo was recognized as one of 17 school districts and institutions across K-12 and higher education who have "demonstrated unwavering commitment to supporting student mental health."

Tashi Sherpa ’21 has won a 2020–21 Fund for Education Abroad (FEA) A. Rewari Family Scholarship to help fund her fall semester study abroad to Aarhus University in Denmark. Sherpa is an economics major and the third Geneseo student to win the award (Waderlie Mendez ’20 won it in 2018, and Tshering Sherpa ’21 in 2019). 

There’s a YouTube video of Lee Pierce, assistant professor of communication, performing a stand-up comedy routine involving a Roto-Rooter man and a kitty litter box. The piece is genuinely funny, but Pierce says its value lies not in the laughs it gets but in how it transgresses the norms of feminine hospitality. It’s that combination—of comedy plus social commentary—that she teaches students in her course The Rhetoric of Stand-up.

For the third year, Geneseo’s popular intersession term is expanding to include additional offerings of online courses for winter break. Last year’s enhanced intersession term was successful, with 44 courses offered online, many of them filled to capacity. This year will feature more than 70 online classes, many with double sessions, and more than 1,900 virtual seats available. The term, which runs January 4–29, 2021, allows students to earn upwards of four credits in the interval between fall and spring terms.

Geneseo First Response (GFR), a student-run volunteer organization that provides emergency medical services to the campus community, has played a critical role in the scheduling and supervising of SUNY Geneseo’s weekly pooled testing program. SUNY-mandated testing encompasses more than 700 Geneseo students each week—on-campus, off-campus, and commuter—as well as an increasing number of employees.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently recognized SUNY Geneseo as ninth in the nation for four-year graduation rates at highly residential public institutions. Geneseo appears in the top 10 alongside schools such as the College of William and Mary and the College of New Jersey, as well as much larger institutions such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California at Los Angeles.