A Message from President Carolyn J. Stefanco: A Look Back at 2019

The holidays are a time for celebration, and as we close the year, we also reflect on the accomplishments of 2019. 

In the College’s ongoing efforts to promote leadership, we launched the Women’s Leadership Institute in the Michelle Cuozzo Borisenok ’80 House, which was renovated thanks to the generous donation of Michelle and her husband, Walt. We proudly announced our first and second cohorts of BOLD Scholars, part of the national BOLD Women’s Leadership Network. We enjoyed thought-provoking talks by members of higher education and industry, including Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) President Sue Cunningham, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) president Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, and Saint Rose trustees James J. Sandman, the president of Legal Services Corporation, and Hai Ling ’93, co-president of Asia Pacific at Mastercard. 

Dynamic new leaders joined our ranks, including Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Lori Anctil, Huether School of Business Dean Raj Aroskar, and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities Gerald Lorentz.

We received large federal grants for important social issues, including addressing intimate-partner violence and sexual assault, and training master’s degree students in special education and school psychology in topics of diversity and mental health. We started promising new relationships with organizations at home and abroad: a new study-abroad program with the Universidad de Alcalá in Madrid, Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) tuition discounts for employees of Albany Medical Center and St. Peter’s Health Partners, and memorandums of understanding with two universities in Vietnam.

Finding new opportunities that draw on our strengths, we saw no shortage of exciting new programs, such as a design media arts bachelor’s degree, sales program, new flexible delivery method for our Master of Business Administration, and our esports team.

These are only a few high points of our community’s many achievements and the milestones of 2019, and we look forward to many more in 2020, the College’s centennial year. Thank you for being a part of our journey.

I wish you and yours a happy, healthy, holiday season.

Best wishes,
Carolyn