Academics

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville graduates celebrated commencement day with family and friends amid a stage adorned with ferns and flowers grown and arranged by students in the college’s horticulture program. Noteworthy about this year’s graduates is the first cohort of nursing bachelor’s degree students. SUNY Morrisville President David Rogers was joined by Provost Barry Spriggs, school deans and members of the College Council in presiding over the ceremony, which began with the Syracuse Scottish Pipe Band leading graduates into the formal commencement exercises.
This semester has been anything but ordinary for SUNY Morrisville student Emilee Niejadlik.  Through an internship as an aquarium fellow at the world-class Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC), she interacted with octopuses, helped heal a wolf eel, and saw firsthand the magnificence of a sunflower sea star, the largest many-rayed sea star in the world.  The internship, a requirement for her bachelor’s degree in renewable resources technology, is the culmination of hard work leading up to graduation day.  
MORRISVILLE, NY—He worked with different wind turbine towers and took a tower climbing and rescue class. Last week, SUNY Morrisville student Dylan Mathew added wind turbine maintenance to his skill set. The Long Island native’s goal is to learn all he can through the college’s renewable energy bachelor’s degree program and to sign up for every opportunity offered to him. “I never know what I will be doing in the future, so I try to learn as much as possible,” he said.  
MORRISVILLE, NY—Faculty, staff and students are gearing up for two agricultural and dairy events this weekend: the sixth annual Milk Run on Friday, May 3, and Dairy Showmanship on Saturday, May 4. The Milk Run is a family-friendly, five-kilometer run, walk or crawl open to all skill levels. A one-mile fun run begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the 5K run beginning at 6 p.m. in front of Marshall Hall. The Milk Run is part of the Route 20 Road Race Challenge.
MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville students Zainab Jimoh, of Staten Island, and Layne Martin, of Cazenovia, have been honored with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. The prestigious award recognizes students who have best demonstrated the integration of academic excellence with accomplishments in the areas of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, campus involvement, or career achievement. It is the highest honor bestowed upon a student by SUNY.  
MORRISVILLE, NY—Did you know that the average Holstein dairy cow drinks 25-30 gallons of water per day? Or that cows can smell something up to six miles away?  Learn more about cows, agriculture and SUNY Morrisville’s programs and dairy complex during Spring on the Farm, Saturday, April 27. The event, which is free and open to the public, is from noon-4 p.m. at the SUNY Morrisville Arnold R. Fisher Dairy Complex, located off of Eaton Street.  
MORRISVILLE, NY— Gilligan’s Ice Cream loves its fans so much, they are letting them choose a new SUNY Morrisville indulgence through a Mustang Ice Cream Contest.  SUNY Morrisville alumni Andy Lagoe ’92 and Gil Hodges ’92 along with partner Mike Lagoe, owners of Gilligan’s Ice Cream, (www.gilliganssherburne.com), located in Sherburne, devised the contest, which lauds their Mustang pride.
NORWICH, NY—The SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus and Human Services Institute will present a community forum on the opioid crisis Thursday, March 28, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the community room, #132A & B of Follett Hall on the Norwich Campus. Light refreshments will be served at 1 p.m. The event, organized by students in the Abnormal Psychology course, focuses on gaining an understanding of mental health considerations, experiences and responses to the increasing severity of the opioid crisis locally and regionally. The forum is free and open to the public. 
MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville has been recognized by The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics as an educational community partner supporting its goals and mission.
From her post as a waterfowl researcher at the Forbes Biological Station in Havana, Illinois, Cheyenne Beach ’16 sees the whole country. She can look east and recall her time as an AmeriCorps volunteer on Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia. She can look west to the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge along the Colorado River in Arizona, where she worked with endangered species in the fall of 2016.