Oswego Matters

Executive Director Betsy Oberst

Oswego Pride filled my fall. As you can see in our cover feature, we dedicated our fabulous new state-of-the-art Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation in October.

There was great pride in honoring my long-time friend, Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71 and her late husband, Dick, (along with the Richard S. Shineman Foundation), for their transforming philanthropy for our college.

I shared the tremendous pride among all of our campus facilities and technology staff who readied the building for its opening, the faculty who will reap the rewards of its cutting-edge research and teaching facilities and our STEM students who will benefit from the innovative and sustainable features of the building.

In November we held the ninth Annual Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit, founded by Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77 and named for a beloved mentor by Lou and fellow alumnus Al Roker ’76. For the first time, the all-star panel featured an all-alumni “cast.” We have such an incredibly talented, accomplished and generous alumni constituency. That day I was also incredibly proud of our students — professionally dressed in business attire — filling a capacity room at 8 a.m. for “Breakfast with Lou and Steve” (Levy ’87). If you know college students, 8 a.m. is typically not a time of day when we see many of them — and excited and awake to boot!

And then, on 11/12/13, we held our first ever 24-Hour Giving Challenge, with substantial funds pledged by generous alumni Jim ’78 and Debbie Adams-Kaden ’78, a former Alumni Board member, along with Oswego College Foundation Board member, Bob Moritz ’85 and another generous alumni couple. We initially had a goal of 100 donors in a 24-hour period. Well, we not only met and exceeded our first goal, when we increased it, your response helped us exceed our second goal of 250 donors, and then a third goal of 500 donors. When all gifts were tallied, we knocked it out of the park with 605 donors!

I was awestruck to watch the flurry of activity of Oswego alumni and faculty and staff that “blew up” on social media. The excitement and pride was palpable as you encouraged your friends to participate. There were the recent grad first-time donors, the donors who made small gifts because they are currently unemployed but wanted to show their pride and be a part of something “big” and those who made gifts in honor or memory of someone important in their Oswego experience — all helping to push us over the top.

And always a source of my Oswego pride is the dedicated, hard-working team in alumni and development who I am gratified to work side-by-side with every day. At the pinnacle of my pride is you, our loyal and generous alumni.

So, show your Oswego Pride every day in your community… sport Oswego gear, make a gift to support our students, refer a prospective student, attend a regional event, return to campus for a reunion and join the conversation on our social media networks.

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