Alumni News

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville kicked off its Campaign for Morrisville in grand fashion, receiving a $100,000 pledge from college President David Rogers and his wife, Associate Professor Jan Rogers.

It’s a monumental day in SUNY Morrisville’s history as the college announced its first master’s degree in Food & Agribusiness (FAB).

SUNY Morrisville Conservation Tri-Society (CTS) club members were recently busy doing service activities at Camp Kingsley for the Leatherstocking Council’s scouting programs. The students evaluated an area for invasive plant removal, refloated a dock that had been pinned by a beaver-felled tree, laid out a new trail and conducted trail maintenance.  Their advisor onsite was Professor Brendan Kelly ’93, an Eagle Scout who was a camp counselor in his youth at Camp Kingsley. 

In celebration of National Author’s Day, the Human Services Institute at the SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus, in conjunction with the Chenango County Historical Society & Museum, is highlighting five authors on Tuesday, Nov. 1. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Norwich Campus, located at 20 Conkey Avenue in Norwich. 

Suzan Harkness is the new Provost at SUNY Morrisville, beginning Jan. 9, 2023. 

SUNY Morrisville’s annual Autumn Review Sale, “Magic of Morrisville,” is Friday, Oct. 14.  The sale, run by the SUNY Morrisville Dairy Club, starts at 7 p.m. at the college’s former draft horse barn at 5000 Hart Road, near the Arnold Fisher Dairy Complex off of Eaton Street.  The sale features 43 live lots up for consignment plus an embryo lot and semen lot.

There’s no mistaking Rebecca Hargrave’s love for arboriculture and all things trees. The SUNY Morrisville professor’s enthusiasm toward the field and her innovative, hands-on learning have spirited students and spread to a campus and community. 

Dylan Rees, a student in SUNY Morrisville’s technology management bachelor’s degree program, is spreading his disc golf talent to the community.  Instead of a usual internship, Rees launched a startup business, Flying Mile Disc Golf, as part of his entrepreneurship practicum in associate professor Tom Pilewski’s class.  Rees’s business offers course design, individual lessons, merchandise sales and tournament planning and operations, including running events on-location.

SUNY Morrisville can be spotted throughout this year’s Great New York State Fair, which runs Wednesday, Aug. 24-Monday, Sept. 5.

MORRISVILLE, NY — SUNY Morrisville alumnus Andrew O’Connell is gearing up for a busy year. He  crushed the Men’s US STIHL® Rookie Championships in Little Rock, Arkansas, July 21, taking home a gold medal, setting a national rookie record and landing a spot in the STIHL® Rookie World Championships in Sweden next year.   Training starts now for the world event, O’Connell said in a recent telephone interview. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — A real-life classroom approach is giving students in Eric Diefenbacher’s herpetology class valuable field skills and an opportunity to explore and develop research skills for their future careers. And it led his Fall 2019 class to be published in the Journal of North American Herpetology.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — There’s no mistaking SUNY Morrisville professor Sheila Marshman’s compelling dedication as a teacher. “My purpose is to help others find theirs,” she said. She has spent the last two decades devoting her life to that teaching philosophy.  It’s fueled her as a teacher, spirited an entire campus and shepherded countless graduates to find and follow their purpose. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — The SUNY Morrisville campus was bustling with activity as it celebrated its first successful Earth Day event.  Community service projects and various activities were held throughout the day, helping create new campus tradition to join in acts of kindness that tie into sustainability and inspire them to protect the environment. 

MORRISVILLE, NY — Did you know that SUNY Morrisville’s herd of approximately 160 milking cows produces 95 pounds of milk per cow, per day, some of which is used in the college’s cheese curds? Or that a dairy cow chews an average of 50 times per minute? Learn more about cows, agriculture, SUNY Morrisville’s academic programs and its dairy complex during Spring on the Farm, Saturday, April 30, 2022. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville has been honored once again for its commitment to effective urban forest management, receiving 2021 Tree Campus Higher Education recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — There’s a lot to look at in professor Elisa Livengood’s marine lab at SUNY Morrisville. Colorful rock flower anemones, sea urchins and Aiptasia anemones are new species for student-driven projects in her research in aquatic science II class this semester.  “It’s an exciting lab,” said Livengood, associate professor of aquaculture & aquatic science. “There’s always something different and new focusing on our applied learning approach.”  

MORRISVILLE, NY — Growing up on a fruit farm in Pennsylvania, Charles “Chip” Ax III had his roots planted deeply in agriculture at an early age.  It led to roles with FFA, running a crop farm in St. Lawrence County, becoming a high school and BOCES ag teacher, and eventually found an outlet in the college classroom, where he has been educating SUNY Morrisville students to become agricultural leaders for more than a decade. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Interested in making a game and being part of a global experiment in creativity? SUNY Morrisville is once again serving as a host site for Global Game Jam®, the world’s largest game jam event, taking place Friday, Jan. 28-Sunday, Jan. 30.  During the worldwide event, participants are given a central theme and just 48 hours to create a video or board/card game.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Architectural studies & design students combined their skills and talents to build life-size person pods during a semester-end project that turned classroom lessons into real-world experience. 

Seven members of the New York State University Police at SUNY Morrisville were recently recognized by the SUNY Police Chiefs Association, receiving 2021 University Police Awards. Honored with Professional Service Awards for their outstanding service are: lieutenants James McCartney and Philip Netzband and police officers Stephen Leuthauser, Tyler Morgan, Cody Welch, Luke Learned and Nicole Wright. Officers Wright, Morgan and Welch are all SUNY Morrisville alumni.

Two SUNY Morrisville equine students wrapped up an exciting internship at the college’s western barn, which enabled them to participate at Central New York Reining Horse Association (CNYRHA) shows and take home numerous awards. Victoria Epstein, of Liberty, and Lindsey Eberle, of Holbrook, competed in the Green Reiner 1 and Green Reiner 2 classes to accumulate points for year-end awards, both through the CNYRHA Club and the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA).

SUNY Morrisville made another move toward clean energy with the grand opening of its new Agricultural and Clean Energy Technology (ACET) Center. Students, faculty and staff, along with industry partners and VIPs, gathered to celebrate at the new $16 million, 30,000-square-foot applied learning technology building, which houses the college’s renewable energy, agricultural engineering and diesel technology programs. Students started taking classes in the building this semester.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville has been recognized again for its excellence with numerous listings in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, receiving high marks as a Best Regional College and Top Social Mobility College.   

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Before they go out into the field to study reptiles and amphibians, students in Associate Professor Eric Diefenbacher’s Herpetology class get an indoor lesson in how to safely handle them. A table lined with frogs, lizards and snakes in captive tanks set the scene for one of his first classroom lessons this semester, a real-life learning exercise for students who will venture out to study the creatures in their natural habitat in the coming weeks.  

In addition to great food, eye-opening exhibits and commercial attractions, fairgoers once again got an up-close view at SUNY Morrisville’s innovative programs, one-of-a-kind learning and alluring draft horses during this year’s Great New York State Fair.   Faculty and staff stirred up interest during Agricultural Education Days, providing information about the college’s exciting academic programs and innovative learning going on inside and outside of SUNY Morrisville classrooms.