Around the SUNY Oswego campus

Around 75 alumni recently returned to campus for longtime music professor Juan F. LaManna’s final recital, the College-Community Orchestra and Alumni Concert on April 27. The retiring LaManna led the College-Community Orchestra for the first half of the concert, joined by the alumni cohort for a second half (including an encore) in a packed Sheldon Hall ballroom. (Photo by Graceann Cleator)

SUNY Oswego’s Syracuse Campus started off Quest activities with dozens of poster presentations filling the downtown Clinton Square space on April 16. (Photo by Kristen Eichhorn)

SUNY Oswego 2000 alumnus Aunrée Houston, currently the vice president of project management and digital production operations at Paramount Global, delivered the April 17 Quest keynote presentation on “From 2000 to the AI-based Renaissance” in the Marano Campus Center auditorium. Quest is the university’s annual celebration of scholarly and creative activity.

Kat McGreevy, assistant director of the recent production of “The Addams Family”, leads a segment of the backstage tour of the musical comedy production during Quest.

Sociology major Olivia Troendle poses for a photo by sociology faculty member and research mentor Emily Estrada on a poster they collaborated on, titled “How Does Someone’s Social Class Background Influence Their Social Behaviors and Interactions Once They Develop Relationships (Both Friendships and Romantic) While They Are Away at College?” during the April 17 Quest poster session.

Psychology major Karissa Tinsley holds a discussion with psychology faculty member Paul Stewart during poster presentations at Quest on April 17. Tinsley presented “Psychophysical Responses to Trauma-Related Visual and Auditory Stimuli,” prepared with student co-author Cassandra VanDamme and psychology faculty member Ashlee Moore.

Electrical and computer engineering major Likashmi Deosaran presents on the “Linear Emitter-Array Ionic Lifter” project, co-authored by fellow student Jack Gallagher. The project is part of electrical and computer engineering faculty member Adrian Ieta’s groundbreaking research on ionic propulsion technology, which recently received a federal patent.

Master’s in human-computer interaction student Kranthi Kumar Erra presents about developing the Budget Management App during the Quest poster session on April 17.

At Quest, biochemistry major Devon Seale presents a poster titled “Cortisol Analysis and Receptor Genotyping in the Oswego Student Mediation Study," developed with faculty mentors Kestas Bendinskas of the chemistry faculty and psychology faculty members Karen Wolford and Staceyann Reid.

The Quest presentation “Songs We Love: Adapting a Broad Range of Music for a Jazz Small Group” featured student members of the Jazz Small Group performing songs they selected and arranged under the direction of music professor Eric Schmitz. Student performers included Angelo Antonelli on keyboards, Yakira Jack on flute, Cece Caselli on saxophone, Hayden Arlington on bass, Nicholas Thielemann on guitar and Logan Russo on drums.

Illustrator Grace Kresback (left) and author Angel Hall (right) collaborated on their graphic novel, "Their Shadows Tell,” which they shared as part of Quest activities in the Tyler Hall lobby.

Olivia Taylor demos screen printing in Tyler Hall at Quest 2024.

Audio recording and production major Grace Clayton explains and introduces a rendition of “Blue Bossa,” featuring student musicians, during the Audio Recording and Production Recital at Quest. Clayton and other students in “Recording IV,” a senior seminar course for audio recording and production majors, showcased work from their semester-long album production projects, playing singles from the albums.

Andrienne Licata (right), a bachelor of fine arts studio art/illustration major, also majoring in creative writing, displayed some recent illustrations in the Tyler Hall lobby during Quest.

Jacob Hauser, a bachelor’s of fine arts graphic design student with a minor in music, presented an interdisciplinary and interactive project at Quest that involved creating an audio effect processor using Max MSP software. Attendees could play a guitar or sing into a microphone and hear various effects.

Displays and presentations in Tyler Hall during Quest included an exhibition of costume notes and behind-the-scenes insights for the recent campus production of “The Addams Family.”

At Honors Convocation on April 19, President Peter O. Nwosu and platform party members Kylie Annable (left), president of the Vega Junior and Senior Women’s Honor Society that coordinates the ceremony, and Elizabeth Dunne Schmitt, chair of Faculty Assembly and professor of economics, applaud the more than 130 students who received awards at the ceremony as well as all those who supported these achievers.

"One City. One Campus. One Community." -- a project supported by SUNY Oswego, the City of Oswego Mayor's Office and the joint Campus-City Relations Committee -- unveiled student photojournalism promoting features and connections around the community on May 1 in Oswego's City Hall. City and campus officials and those who took part in the project admired students' work during the reception.

Organizers and volunteers for Laps with Lakers work the table for the event outside Marano Campus Center on the foggy morning on May 1. Coordinated by lead organizer and Title IX coordinator Lisa Evaneski (third from left), Laps with Lakers aims to raise awareness of sexual and interpersonal violence by challenging the campus community to walk or run laps around the academic quad. A large number of participants and volunteers including students, faculty and staff make the event, previously known as Yards for Yeardley, an annual spring highlight.

Members of Oswego’s Division III track and field team participate in Laps with Lakers. Pictured from left are Henry Rose, Matt Pietzak, Brenna O’Brien, Faith Coyle and Andrew Deming.

A large group of students participate in Laps with Lakers by walking the path around the Academic Quad.

Bruce Ellsworth, a 1987 chemistry graduate and the scientific executive director of Oncology East and the Biocon Bristol Myers Squibb Research Center, returned to campus to deliver a 2024 Augustine Silveira, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series presentation on April 12.

Two descendants of Edward Austin Sheldon – who founded the institution now known as SUNY Oswego – visited campus last week for research and conversations. Marianna Page (right), Sheldon’s great-great-granddaughter, and her daughter Dawne Pafford (center) traveled from Illinois and Wisconsin, respectively. Here Zachary Vickery, university archivist librarian, shows them a recently discovered ancestral registry and Sheldon family ledger while gathered in Penfield Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

The Red Dress Art Installation Project returned to campus to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW). Red dresses made by students are displayed on campus (on the sundial of the academic quad) from April 19 to May 3. Tabling took place earlier where students could learn more about #MMIW and helped sew.

Students from biological sciences faculty member Eric Hellquist's BIO 320: Introductory Ecology work on the alvar native plant garden beds in front of the Shineman Center. Students prepared the beds for the new growing season by weeding, pruning, mulching, and adding new plantings in honor of Earth Day. These garden beds celebrate alvar communities, a globally rare ecosystem characterized by thin soils and limestone bedrock. Native plants of alvars often represent unusual geographic distributions. The Great Lakes region has the highest concentration of this globally rare ecosystem with several sites found in Jefferson County. (Photo submitted by Eric Hellquist)