AAM55_AccessibleVersion

ALL ABOUT MENTORING

Issue 55 • Autumn 2021

A PUBLICATION OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE Issue 55 • Autumn 2021

MENTORING

ALL ABOUT

MENTORING

ISSUE 55

Autumn 2021

Alan Mandell

College Professor of Adult Learning

and Mentoring

Editor

Karen LaBarge

Senior Staff Assistant for

Faculty Development

Associate Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photos courtesy of Stock Studios,

and faculty and staff of

SUNY Empire State College,

unless otherwise noted.

COVER ARTWORK

By Betty Wilde-Biasiny

Beach Day, 2020, Oil on canvas,

16” H x 20” W

Photo credit:

Steven P. Harris

PRODUCTION

Steve Linton

Print Equipment Operator 3

Janet Jones

Office Assistant 2 (Keyboarding)

College Print Shop

Send comments, articles or news to:

All About Mentoring

c/o Alan Mandell

SUNY Empire State College

4 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10016

[email protected]

Special thanks:

To so many people who have gone

above and beyond to help our students,

our colleagues, and our communities

during extraordinary times, and every

single day, for 50 years.

And to Ms. Janay Jackson who, behind

the scenes for many years, helped to

make this publication possible.

“The odds were hugely against this

strange new institution.”

— Ernest L. Boyer, 1990

As cited in Richard F. Bonnabeau

The Promise Continues

The Donning Company, 1996, p. 35

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial — The Big 5-0............................................................. 2

Alan Mandell, Manhattan and Saratoga Springs

The Pandemic and the Health Care System:

Where Do We Go From Here?................................................. 4

Barry Eisenberg, Manhattan

Reections on a Writing Group ...........................................11

Melinda S. Blitzer, Selden

Fleetwood Cadillac .................................................................13

Robert Congemi, Albany

Serving Our Students.............................................................18

Kate Dermody, Plattsburgh

My Personal 2020 Prot and Loss Statement —

Net Gain ....................................................................................20

Deborah Falco ’11

Adult Education and Migration:

Reections on Some Recent Research...............................22

Maria N. Gravani, Open University of Cyprus

SUNY Empire State College: An Invitation

to the Institution of Knowledge Seekers ..........................28

Patricia Isaac, Syracuse

Caring With Technology ........................................................30

Carolina Kim, Manhattan

From “Before the Beginning” to Emeritus:

50 Years at SUNY Empire State College .............................32

Al Lawrence, Mentor Emeritus, Saratoga Springs

Poetry ........................................................................................36

Yvonne Murphy, Syracuse

Translating a Blended Cyprus Residency Study

in the Digital Arts to Online .................................................37

Thomas P. Mackey, Saratoga Springs

Cents & $ensibility..................................................................43

Michael Nastacio, Staten Island

Cross-Age Peer Mentoring in a Low-Income

Rural Community: A 20-year Retrospective

on a School-Community Partnership.................................47

Donna M. San Antonio, Je Martel, Cindy Weisbart

Fall 2020 Sabbatical Report ..................................................55

Deborah J. Smith, Saratoga Springs

Prospects and Perils for Workers and their

Organizations After the Pandemic .....................................59

Jason Russell, Bualo

The Color of Sound .................................................................67

Betty Wilde-Biasiny, Newburgh

Volunteering for Resilience in the Age of COVID-19 .......71

Roxana Toma, Saratoga Springs

SUNY Empire State College at 50:

Connections to The Open University .................................75

Alan Tait, Emeritus Professor of Distance Education

and Development, The Open University, U.K.

From Microaggressions to Hate Crimes:

Asian Americans’ Experiences During COVID-19 .............81

Gina Torino, Staten Island

From the Whale Coast to Cloud Forest:

Creating a Transformative Scientic Learning

Opportunity for Undergraduate Students

in Costa Rica.............................................................................85

Kevin L. Woo, Manhattan and Center for the Study of

Pinniped Ecology & Cognition; Gabriel Duncan and Juan

Pablo Rabanales, Walking Tree Travel; Lori McCarey,

Saratoga Springs

50th Anniversary Reections...............................................96

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

College Students and Adults with Developmental

Disabilities Compose Nonction Nature Writing..........102

Mary Zanni, Staten Island

Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and

Learning Project Summaries..............................................106

IMTL Fellows 2019-2020

Creative Expressions: Poets Among Us ...........................108

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

Promises Made, Promises Kept? .......................................112

Ed Warzala, Saratoga Springs

A Review of:

The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges

Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission

By Herb Childress

Found Things..........................................................................116

“Imagine One ESC” by MaryNell Morgan (1996)

Found Things..........................................................................117

“Long Island Regional Center, Graduation Ceremony:

Empire State College: Our 20th Anniversary”

by Rhoada Wald (June 23, 1991)

From the Archives ................................................................120

An Introduction to Self-Directed Learning

by George Moberg and Beverly Smirni, edited by

Frederic Mayo and Mary S. Mooney (n.d.)

Remembering Our Colleagues

and Friends of the College ..................................................122

Core Values of SUNY Empire State College.....................125

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

The Big 5-0

E D I T O R I A L

“The heart is revealed in the deeds.”

— A.J. Heschel, The Wisdom

of Heschel (1975, p. 24)

here is joy, there should be

celebrating, on hitting the big 5-0.

No tiny feat. We can think about

other institutions that have failed or

really thinned out, having lost their way

or the vibes they once had 50 years ago.

It’s impressive that our college is still

here, not having been knocked out of

the box nor absorbed into something

bigger and more powerful. So many

people have kept this place going:

mentors and tutors and administrators

and professionals and support staff and

people at the SUNY and community

levels and, of course, at the core of it all,

our students, who have trusted that they

could do it here and be encouraged,

and could achieve at least some of their

goals that would have been harder, if

not impossible, to achieve elsewhere.

How lucky we have been to meet and

learn from and try to understand

and respond to these thousands and

thousands of adult learners. What a gift,

and we are still here doing it.

We are a college that began as a

dream, as an idea about access and

experimenting and with a vision of a

qualitatively different kind of higher

education that begins with the student,

and here we are a half-century later

with a history of starting out and

trying and getting stuck and observing

and rethinking and agonizing and

questioning and gaining so much

pleasure and struggling and getting

pissed off — all knotted together.

But it’s all here: an incredible history

of a commitment to a sparkling

educational mission.

It’s impossible to miss the stunning

changes that have occurred in every

facet of college life over these five

decades. Locations have opened and

closed, academic structures have been

transformed, college offices have been

created, whole new administrative

systems have taken hold, an array of

technologies (changing over time) have

reshaped our communication, and

the very ways in which we work with

students, every day, continue to shift.

Fifty years ago, who would imagine

this college as a place of registered

programs and JITs (just-in-time studies)

and TISs (totally individualized studies),

and general education requirements,

and schools and a course catalog, and

a Blue the Bluebird mascot, and letter

grades and Latin honors and terms

and learning outcomes and so many

students learning at a distance, and

mentors working with so many mentees,

and a million other changes that, in the

moment, may not have seemed such a

big deal, but have, in their accumulation,

amounted to the creation of a radically

altered college. In 1971, who might have

imagined the SUNY Empire State College

of 2021? Maybe no one.

My point here is not at all to bemoan

losses, to romanticize some mentoring

purity, to claim some unspoiled teaching

terrain in which every student worked

closely and meaningfully with a mentor

to create distinctive learning contracts

and stunningly original and individual

degree programs that responded

to a particular student’s academic,

professional, and personal needs. That

would be silly — certainly empirically

way off base. Such a stance would also

miss the significant means by which

the college, right now, responds to

students in ways that a mentor — or

the college — in 1971 or 1980 or 1990,

or maybe even in 2015 couldn’t do.

We now have a huge array of student

supports (academic and otherwise),

and colleagues with expertise and

resources on hand; we not only have

more students but a more diverse

group of learners, we have more policy

and process clarity and orderliness,

we have more attention to and efforts

to respond to stinging issues of race,

class, and gender inequality, and I think,

we have more students diving in and

participating in the activities of the

college as a working institution. How

important all of this is, of course, with a

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

huge caveat: the recognition that there’s

so much more to do and so many

challenges that are right in front of us.

But here’s what concerns me: Are we

as a college clear about what criteria

we are using to evaluate every single

move we are making? Why this program

or that program? Why a program at

all? What are the effects, over time, of

doing this or that or moving here or

there? How is this policy or practice

affecting a student’s learning or the

quality of the day-to-day lives of anyone

who works at SUNY Empire State

College? Can we, at age 50, get back to

basics — not back to some image of

the work people were doing in 1971 (or

any other year along the way), but to

the mission and the core values, and

to the heart of this place? And I’d say

the heart has to do with pushing the

bounds of what most colleges do and

questioning hard-to-change academic

ways (that we should not reembrace),

deepening our commitment to access,

creating imaginative and flexible ways

for people to learn, finding room in all of

our academic work for students to make

decisions about what and how they are

studying, continuing to reenvision what

we mean by knowledge and skills, and

above all, asking ourselves how we can

sustain a humane place for all of us

to learn.

Drawings by Shantih E. Clemans appear on pages 19, 54, 80, and 115.

A Peek Inside Series

Shantih E. Clemans, Brooklyn

During the long months of quarantine, especially when I started venturing outside,

I found myself wondering about, and feeling emotionally connected to, the ordinary

moments occurring inside homes and businesses in my Brooklyn, New York,

neighborhood. What was happening just out of my sight? For example, what

was the experience of school for students of all ages learning from home?

This series is my effort to illuminate funny, awkward, stressful, and tender

moments unfolding during an extraordinary time of uncertainty.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

The Pandemic and the Health Care System:

Where Do We Go From Here?

Barry Eisenberg, Manhattan

ne of my students, who is a

nurse, described the final few

moments in the life of one of

her patients. In his 80s, he contracted

COVID-19 at a small family gathering

he believed to be safe. He was put

on a ventilator for two weeks. A few

days following its removal, he went

into respiratory distress. He labored

to breathe, gasping for every precious

breath. It was clear he would not

survive. He asked if he could say

goodbye to his son, but visitors were

not permitted in the hospital. The nurse

FaceTimed his son from her phone.

She wasn’t successful in choking back

her tears. They landed on the inside of

the protective shield covering her face,

blurring her view of his son’s anguish.

But she could hear him straining to

contain his sobs, his voice cracking with

helplessness. It was painful for her, but

at the same time, she was numb from

all the sickness and death all around

her. A moment into the call, the patient

in the next ICU (intensive care unit)

bed, also suffering from COVID-19,

lapsed into cardiac arrest, triggering

what hospitals call a “code.” As part of

the code team, the nurse was required

to rush to him. She had to end the

FaceTime call.

How does one keep going when no

moment is free of urgency, when lives

are taken in numbers so vast they defy

comprehensibility? Could the magnitude

of this suffering have been prevented?

Since the pandemic hit, sentiment in

the public health community has been

forming that the national response

throughout 2020 was woefully

inadequate, and we likely experienced

substantially more spread of the virus

and deaths than we should have.

Reliable judgments about the degree to

which a more effective response could

have contained the extent of contagion

and the death toll will take some time

and sober analysis. But a tragic picture

is taking shape, revealing that the

impact on those working in the industry

has been severe; a survey by Mental

Health America (n.d.) reported that the

workforce is “Stressed out and stretched

too thin: 93% of health care workers

were experiencing stress, 86% reported

experiencing anxiety, 77% reported

frustration, 76% reported exhaustion

and burnout, and 75% said they were

overwhelmed” (para. 6).

The effect on hospitals has also been

dramatic. For example, Research and

Markets (2020) forecasted that when all

is said and done, hospitals will have lost

$323 billion in 2020 due to COVID-19

and that operating room (OR) volumes

will have declined by 35%, due largely to

cancellations of elective surgeries and

anxiety about going to a hospital for

surgery in general during a pandemic.

Hundreds of hospitals across the

country, especially those serving rural

communities, have a heightened risk

of bankruptcy and closure. Those with

limited financial reserves or that rely on

nonpatient care revenue sources, such

as government subsidies and grants, are

at greatest risk (Center for Healthcare

Quality and Payment Reform, 2021).

Indeed, the pandemic has exposed

weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our

health care system that have been

there all along. Perhaps chief among

them — and this relates to society more

broadly — is the shameful inequity in

our system, dramatically verified by

the pandemic. Simply put: If you are

Black, brown, or poor, your chances of

contracting COVID-19 and dying from

Barry Eisenberg

it are higher than those of your white

counterparts in middle- and higher-

income brackets. This disparity didn’t

start with the pandemic. A recent study

conducted by researchers at New York

University examined life expectancy

across 500 cities. They found that

as racial and ethnic segregation in

neighborhoods increased, so did the life

expectancy gap (NYU Langone Health

News Hub, 2019). Among the most

glaring of such gaps was found in the

Chicago suburbs of Streeterville and

Englewood, just nine miles from one

another. The average life expectancy

in Streeterville, a relatively affluent

white suburb, is 90. Englewood, a poor

African American community, has a life

expectancy of 60 — a gap of thirty years

(Associated Press, 2019)!

COVID-19 has shed a spotlight on the

issue of racial disparity that should

make it impossible to ignore. Black

people have died at a rate 1.7 times

greater than white people (Peck, 2020).

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

found that Black, Hispanic, and Native

American people were approximately

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

four times as likely to be hospitalized

for COVID-19 as white people (Chavez &

Howard, 2020). In a late November 2020

Pew survey, “71% of Black Americans

are likely to say they know someone

who has been hospitalized or died as a

result of COVID-19, compared with 61%

of Hispanic, 49% of [w]hite and 48%

of Asian American adults” (Howard &

Andrew, 2020, para. 4).

Needless to say, these disparities are

unsettling. Certainly, the problem

extends beyond health care to

sociocultural and socioeconomic

underpinnings with deep historical roots

that make it easier for some to access

and enjoy the fruits of society while

others are confined to the sidelines. If

there is a silver lining to the pandemic

— admittedly, a peculiar sentiment in

light of the perverse price we have paid

— it may be that we can no longer turn

a blind eye to the disparities in health

care. Fixing this national humiliation

involves dismantling the barriers that

have made it impossible for all to

experience health care — good quality

health care — as a basic human right.

But the pandemic uncovered other

weaknesses in our health care system

as well, weaknesses not unrelated to the

uneven distribution and availability of

care. These involve a failure to be fully

— make that adequately — prepared

for a broad-based health crisis like a

pandemic; an inability to mobilize a

coordinated response on a regional

level, for example, in which resource

sharing might occur; insufficient support

for health care workers exposed

to health risks and undue stress; a

consolidation of hospital systems

that has weakened governance at the

local hospital level; and, of course, the

enfeebling of the Affordable Care Act

(ACA), slowing the pace of achieving

universal coverage and diluting

population health initiatives that, among

other things, bring health care resources

more directly into communities.

This is not meant to suggest that our

health care system does not have many

strengths. Like the health care systems

of all countries, it has its assets as well

as its limitations. All systems can be

traced to national values, culture, and

history. In order to explore where we

may head to correct deficiencies that the

pandemic has revealed should no longer

be tolerable, it is best to start with a very

brief chronicle.

How We Got Here

A starting point is almost arbitrary, but

World War II largely accounts for the

historical accident that is our health care

system. As wages slowed or remained

frozen during that period, health

insurance became a popular enticement

for employers to attract workers. In

1940, about 10% of workers had health

insurance provided by their employers.

By 1950, the number had skyrocketed

to 50%. Thus, in just 10 years, employer-

based health insurance had become an

institutionalized feature of our health

care system (Belasen et al., 2016, p. 2).

By the time the late 1970s and early

1980s rolled around, the basic structures

of the hybrid system of employer-based

insurance and government programs,

including Medicare and Medicaid,

were in place. Much of the change

that occurred after was built on those

structures, including the Affordable Care

Act, enacted in 2010.

In the late 1970s, and for much of the

following decade, health care inflation

was running high, often at multiples

of the consumer price index (CPI). For

example, in 1982, the CPI was 6.2% (CPI

Inflation Calculator, n.d.) while health

care inflation was 11.7% (US Inflation

Calculator, n.d.). Accordingly, there was

much pressure to control costs. As a

result, in that same year, the federal

government implemented a major

policy change that would have sweeping

implications for health care financing

and delivery. The policy, Diagnostic

Related Groups, was a Medicare initiative

in which fixed fees were developed for

roughly 500 diagnoses. This meant that

hospitals could no longer easily pass

along their costs for those procedures

to the government, representing the

first major shift from fee-for-service to

prospective payment practices.

Hospitals had to respond by holding

spending down. They did many things,

like trying to reduce the length of

time patients spent in hospitals and

introducing new inventory models that

limited how many supplies they would

keep on hand. But of all the landscape-

changing activities that took place, the

most significant was the realignment

with hospitals seeking economies of

scale through merger and acquisition.

Today, the vast number of hospitals

across the country are part of hospital

systems. In 2018 alone, there were 1,182

mergers and acquisitions, involving the

exchange of over $120 billion in assets

(Lagasse, 2019). The average transaction

in 2018 exceeded $400 million and, by

then, it wasn’t just individual hospitals

merging into hospital systems, but

hospital systems merging with or being

acquired by other hospital systems. The

largest hospital systems in the country

are vast enterprises. For example, the

largest, HCA, operates 214 hospitals, has

over 30 million patient visits per year,

and had a value of almost $47 billion in

2018, earning it a ranking of 67 on the

Fortune 500 list (Fortune, 2019).

Health Care System

Characteristics that Impeded

Preparedness for a Pandemic

The trends over the past 50 years have

important implications for how the U.S.

health care system met the challenge

of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining

these markers can help explain how we

have arrived in the current predicament.

Broadly speaking, four conditions or

characteristics of our system, natural

outgrowths of those trends, may

account for the health care system’s less

than stellar response to the pandemic:

(1) unrestrained hospital system growth;

(2) a dominant market-based culture;

(3) lack of incentives for preparedness

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

in the hospital sector; (4) weakened

structures for health crisis forecasting

and planning.

First, the growth of hospital-based

systems has occurred on a relatively

unrestrained basis. For the most

part, regulatory bodies with oversight

responsibility, like the Federal Trade

Commission, have approved virtually

every merger and acquisition deal

placed before them. Those proposing

transactions have used three arguments

to deflect and dispose of possible

resistance: (1) The public will be better

served by having a more comprehensive

system in which greater coordination of

care is possible; (2) Market domination

is not the goal — rather it is to provide

services in a contiguous geographic

region; (3) Communities will be better

served by systems with greater size

and reach. Incidentally, quality has not

been shown to improve as hospital

systems enlarge (Frakt, 2019); but what

does appear to increase are prices for

providing care, due largely to reductions

in competition (Abelson, 2018).

With system expansion, there has

been something of a shift from

the community-centric focus of

independent hospitals to one of

overall hospital system success; and

such corporate success is a function

of overall asset performance. This

would be an expected consequence

of hospital system expansion. To

protect the system’s interests — that

is, to maximize its advantage in a

competitive environment — market

share growth and solidification are

essential. After all, one’s competitors

would not be expected to sit still. Thus,

building a comprehensive and complex

corporation, one that integrates all

levels of care — from the medical

practice to the outpatient center, to

the diagnostic facility, to the hospital,

to the rehab facility — is an essential

means of keeping patients in the system

and enlarging the patient base. In such

a high-stakes climate, competition

supersedes coordination; that is, the

relationships between and among

hospital systems may be defined more

by how they compete than by how

they cooperate.

Second, a market-based culture has

prevailed in health care. This means

that all components of the system are

expected to perform well financially. For

example, a hospital system that spends

half a billion dollars a year on medical

supplies will want to be assured that its

suppliers have successful track records

and durable business models. Moreover,

as hospitals seek to manage their

expense base, finding low-cost solutions

for goods constitutes an important

strategy; supply chains built on low-

cost production and transportation

models are most attractive. With many

of the manufacturers of health-related

products, like ventilators and personal

protective equipment (PPE), based

overseas, it is possible to get caught

short in a crisis. Further, in keeping

with the market-based culture, services

that place a premium on return on

investment will be promoted. Cardiac

and orthopedic surgeries tend to offer

the greatest profit margin. Infectious

disease care, on the other hand, typically

yields negligible financial benefits.

Third, in a market-centered system —

one that promotes patient and resource

accumulation, fortification of competitive

advantages, and strengthened footholds

in communities of strategic value

— incentives for building resource

inventories for potential use are in short

supply. In this way, a preparedness

mindset would incur a cost that does not

align well with competition management.

The public health perspective, which

focuses on detecting disease and

managing its prevention and treatment,

has not had as loud a voice in guiding

hospital strategy.

Fourth, the Trump administration did

not consistently embrace priorities

and recommendations from the

scientific and health communities. The

then-president of the United States

acknowledged in a recorded interview

with Bob Woodward that COVID-19

“moves rapidly and viciously” and that

“If you’re the wrong person and if it

gets you, your life is pretty much over

if you’re in the wrong group” (Gangel et

al., 2020, para. 16). And yet, in the same

interview, the president presented a

public communication strategy built on

falsehoods with respect to the severity

and scope of the pandemic, admitting

that: “I wanted to always play it down”

(para. 21).

Indeed, then-President Trump’s

dismissive position on preparing the

nation for a health crisis predated

the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, he

demoted and, thus, weakened the

National Security Council Directorate for

Global Health Security and Biodefense,

the group responsible for forecasting

a pandemic and orchestrating a

national response. In an Op-Ed in The

Washington Post, Beth Cameron (2020),

the first director of the unit, equated the

department to a “smoke alarm … all with

the goal of avoiding a six-alarm blaze”

(para. 8).

History will judge our national leadership

as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some distance will allow for a thoughtful,

objective evaluation when the full extent

of outcomes has been sorted out.

Nonetheless, some things are clear. From

the very beginning of the pandemic, the

former president downplayed its severity,

failed to galvanize support for the

practice of proven mitigating protocols

while chastising federal and state

government officials who did, promoted

unproven and potentially dangerous

remedies, and touted administration

achievements unsupported by any

empirical measures.

Six Areas for Moving Forward

So, where do we go from here? Will we

take an open, honest, and hard look at

how we

responded to the pandemic in

a way that improves our capability for

anticipating and managing a health crisis

and is free of obstructions to access for

so many? Will we commit to making the

necessary changes such that dignity and

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

respect are not standard for some and

unattainable luxuries for others? If we

do, there are at least six areas we would

be advised to address:

Create a more generous and

inclusive health policy.

The good news is that if we look at

the long history of health policy in

this country, we see something of an

evolution toward broader coverage,

granting it to more and more groups.

In 1965, with the passage of Medicare

and Medicaid, health insurance was

extended to the elderly and the poor.

At various times since, coverage was

extended to other groups, including

children through various federal and

state programs. With the Affordable

Care Act, coverage was brought to

millions more. Thus, over the past

century, many groups — from workers

to retirees, to the elderly, to the poor, to

children, and most recently to remaining

groups, including those with preexisting

illnesses through the ACA — have

become eligible for coverage.

The bad news is that progress has been

largely glacial and inconsistent, often

two steps forward, one back. Tens of

millions of people remain uninsured

and access to coverage doesn’t neatly

translate into convenient means for

getting high-quality and timely care. As

long as health policy allows for such

gaps, honoring the principle of health

care being a right will elude us.

President Biden has indicated he

will build upon the Affordable Care

Act by introducing a public option.

This would add a federal plan to

the mix of insurance programs. It is

imperative that plans cover the 10

benefits considered “essential” under

the Affordable Care Act: ambulatory

patient services; emergency services;

hospitalization; maternity and newborn

care; mental health and substance

use disorder services; prescription

drugs; rehabilitative services;

laboratory services; preventive and

wellness services and chronic disease

management; and pediatric services

(HealthCare.gov, n.d., para.1).

Embrace principles of “population

health” and “community health.”

In the traditional health care model,

hospitals, medical practices, and other

providers waited, for the most part, for

patients to initiate contact and then

respond to their health needs. In an

emerging population health paradigm,

providers reach into communities to gain

a better understanding of factors that

influence the health of the residents and

bring health resources more directly into

the community. One CEO recently told

me that this amounted to his hospital

being defined more by its role in the

community than by the physical building.

Bringing health services more fully

into the community not only enhances

access but allows for a greater

understanding of how environment

influences health, wellness, and illness.

It provides opportunities for examining

more fully how social determinants

of health influence people’s ability to

obtain good quality care. Establishing

networks of community-based clinics

staffed by people who look and sound

like members of the community helps

dismantle the cultural divide, making

visits to a provider not only more

convenient but possible.

A recent graduate of SUNY Empire

State College’s MBA in Healthcare

Leadership program manages a

population health program for the

Montefiore Health System. They set up

screening systems directly in various

communities in the Bronx, including

going directly into residents’ homes. The

purpose is to gain insight into factors

that contribute to their health profiles,

including health literacy, economic

stability, housing, substance abuse,

violence, social connections, legal issues,

transportation, and food insecurities.

The focus on predisposition to health

problems and the creation of health

plans for community residents has had

an appreciable impact on incidences of

diabetes and heart disease as well as

disease comorbidities.

If we are to make headway on the

disgraceful inequities of care, we

cannot permit socioeconomic factors

that underlie health disparities to be

obscured by other priorities that special

interests attempt to convince us are

more pressing.

Strengthen the focus on social

determinants of health.

In the 1990s, as the competition among

hospitals was ramping up and as

regulatory agencies were placing more

emphasis on patient satisfaction, a wave

of empathy and communication skills

training for health care workers was

set in motion. Sometimes they worked,

sometimes they didn’t. Hospitals

that viewed patient satisfaction as

dependent on a broad-based effort to

strengthen communication experienced

more success. This included revisiting

the hiring criteria to be certain they

could detect relevant skills; building

communication into performance

standards and evaluation criteria;

ensuring that those in positions of

leadership and management were

role models; dignifying the training by

focusing on subjects like health literacy

rather than approaching the training

as though employees had been doing

something wrong; exercising sensitivity

to workplace stressors that could impair

effective communication … and doing

something about them; and conveying

to employees that their satisfaction was

as important as patient satisfaction.

Today, in recognition of the uneven

distribution of and access to good

quality care, hospitals across the country

are implementing activities to sensitize

employees to principles of diversity,

equity, and inclusion. The empathy

experience should prove instructive.

The rush to do something just to do

something, which occurred in many

cases with the empathy training, could

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

backfire if employees believe the full

measure of a solution is linked to a

deficiency on their part.

Social determinants of health are

a complex matter. Building an

environment in which barriers can

be overcome takes a lot of work and

commitment. It includes ensuring that

the decision-makers are representative

of the communities served, that

members of communities are asked

to contribute to the identification

of their health care needs and play

a role in devising solutions, and

that understanding health literacy

and its powerful role in influencing

predisposition to engage the health care

system will occupy a key learning goal in

the organization’s educational activities.

Further, it would be ethically

unreasonable to ask employees to

behave toward patients in a way not

reflected in management’s behavior

toward employees. Thus, making

sure that the workplace is a model of

diversity, equity, and inclusion principles

is foundational to a productive program

of improvement. As such, compensation,

advancement opportunities, and voice

in decision-making should align with

those values.

Enhance crisis planning and

coordination across federal,

regional, state, and local levels.

History is likely to judge the

management of the pandemic

throughout 2020 as a colossal failure

of leadership; in addition to the former

president downplaying the disease,

the failure to mobilize a coordinated

response between the federal and

state governments will undoubtedly be

viewed as fundamental to the disastrous

effort. Aside from presidential failures,

three factors account largely for the lack

of a more broad and robust approach

to crisis planning. First, it’s expensive;

saving for a rainy day — storing massive

amounts of PPE, ventilators, and so

on — involves building inventory with

no foreseeable payback. Second, in a

market-based environment, competition

supersedes coordination. Third, a

sense of urgency ordinarily depletes

after a crisis, accounting in part for the

weakening of a public health perspective

in policy development prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic.

This is not to suggest that coordination

doesn’t occur. Where it does, it is

generally for common interests, such as

policy advocacy, which, ironically, tends

to promote the very ability to compete

even more. Coordination also occurs

around emergencies — for example,

a plane crash or train collision — and

most of the coordination involves the

distribution of patients across a few

“… [I]t would be ethically

unreasonable to ask

employees to behave

toward patients in a

way not reflected in

management’s behavior

toward employees.”

hospitals located near one another.

But this type of coordination is for a

specific, generally isolated event, not

a pandemic.

Developing a more comprehensive,

synchronized response across

communities, regions, and states is

vital. It needs to start with restoring the

credibility, preeminence, and integrity of

the scientific community and agencies

responsible for public health issues,

like the CDC. Early signs from the Biden

administration have been promising.

For example, upon taking office,

President Biden took steps to reverse

the withdrawal from the World Health

Organization and restore the role and

capabilities of the National Security

Council Directorate for Global Health

Security and Biodefense, strengthening

the U.S. capabilities for resource

mobilization and coordination in the

face of a national health threat (The

White House, 2021).

The experience of 2020 should leave no

misunderstanding about the importance

of national leadership on this matter.

Simply, in the face of a national health

crisis, science should drive politics, not

the other way around.

Institute stronger protections

for health care workers.

In the fall of 2020, one of our MBA in

Healthcare Leadership students, a nurse

who works in the operating room, was

reassigned to work in the ICU to care

for COVID-19 patients. It is an entirely

different clinical environment, requiring

specialized training. She described it

as walking into a new world. An ICU

“buddy” nurse was designated to provide

basic information about how to care

for the patients. The buddy nurse was

overwhelmed with patients, so “training”

consisted of quick shouts across a

crowded nursing station about how to

handle a procedure. At the end of their

stressful shift — in which the OR nurse

felt like she was working in the dark

and the buddy nurse was feeling awful

because of an inability to provide support

— they saw each other across a hall,

stared into one another’s eyes, and cried

together, flooded by the sheer physical

and emotional exhaustion. Words were

not needed. They would do the same

thing all over again the next day.

Burnout and worker shortages are on

the rise. Over 20% of hospitals anticipate

that during the pandemic they will

experience critical shortages (McMinn

& Simmons-Duffin, 2020). A complete

plan for instituting a safer and more

gratifying work environment would have

many components, for example, taking

proactive approaches in identifying and

responding to burnout; implementing

more generous plans for professional

development; adjusting pay inequities;

mandating and enforcing worker-patient

ratios based on recommendations

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

from relevant professional groups;

strengthening inventories to ensure

proper supplies of equipment; and

allowing for a greater employee voice

at board and governance levels. An

uptick in interest in unionization

among health care workers, which

began shortly after the pandemic struck,

can prove instrumental in mobilizing

worker advocacy and advancing the

prospects of achieving a safer and

fairer work environment.

Re-empower local governing boards.

With the expansion of hospital-based

systems, centralized corporate boards

have largely replaced individual hospital

boards as the primary drivers of goal

development, direction, and strategy.

This is not surprising. After all, the

corporate giants have responsibility

for billions of dollars of assets and, in

some cases, treat individual hospitals

as entries on a balance sheet. While

corporate strategy is essential, what

can get lost in the corporatization of

the health care industry is the presence

and influence of the individual hospital

governing board.

Hospital boards are expected to

consider stakeholder needs in crafting

a policy and leadership framework

for senior management. Traditionally,

as representatives of the community

served by the hospital, board members’

awareness of and sensitivity to local

culture would make them more inclined

to build an enriching environment

in which to work and in which care

could be provided. This could become

obscured in an ever more centralized

governing model in which competition

management is a prevailing priority. By

no means does this suggest that patient

care and employee welfare will not be

treated as important. But the order of

priorities is influenced by where the

board sits and the structural span of its

organization. From a hospital employee

perspective, a board seen as light-years

away from a member hospital’s workers

may find it challenging to summon the

credibility to demonstrate that its heart

lies with them.

Reconstituting a local governance

presence should be pursued in order to

help employees feel as though their lives

and working conditions are important,

that the culture of the organization

aligns with and supports their values,

and that quality of patient care is not an

empty slogan but the core organizing

principle of the institution.

Possibilities? Hope?

The six areas are interlinked. For

example, a strengthened local

governance presence may prove more

capable of elevating the status of social

determinants of health in hospital

planning since they are closer to the

communities served by the hospital.

As such, they may be more inclined to

exercise community outreach, knowing

where health initiatives should be

pursued. A more inclusive and generous

national and state health policy should

make it easier for all to obtain care,

empowering those currently uninsured

or underinsured to get care earlier

when illness strikes and, ironically,

when it costs less, creating a healthier

population and at a lower expense.

Greater worker protections lead to a

more stable and satisfied workforce,

strengthening their predisposition to

make headway on social determinants

of health issues, not to mention the

proven benefit on care outcomes.

Certainly, there are a great many other

areas we might consider — for example,

in the realm of

the structural, cultural,

legislative, economic, and political. But

the six provide a starting point.

If necessity is the mother of invention,

then we have an opportunity to recast

our health care system in a way that

makes it more responsive and more

just. In normal times, political climates

allow for just incremental change,

tinkering around the edges. President

Obama campaigned on and was able

to usher the Affordable Care Act into

law. But just barely. The public option

proposal, which President Biden had

been advocating, had to be jettisoned

by President Obama to avoid losing the

entire plan in a political atmosphere that

would tolerate just so much change.

Republicans have not ceased attacking

the ACA since and, had it not been for

Senator John McCain’s thumbs-down

vote, the ACA in its entirety would have

been killed outright in 2017. Instead, it

was watered down by legislative action.

Public opinion polls have shown

that while a significant majority

approved of the Affordable Care Act,

a far smaller percentage approved of

“Obamacare.” They are, of course, one

and the same thing. Politics works by

influencing perceptions.

I have a fantasy that one day the

national discussion on health care can

be held in a politics-free atmosphere.

Reasoned debate will be the order

of the day … ideas coming from all

over will build upon one another

… disagreements will serve as the

basis for dialogue and for achieving

mutual understanding. Back in the

real world, this is a pipedream. But the

pandemic does provide an opportunity

to reexamine underlying and deeply

rooted assumptions about our health

care system. If so, such an opportunity

will be fleeting, for sure. But maybe,

just maybe, if we seize the moment,

the health and dignity of the American

people — all the American people —

will be at the heart of the health policy

discussion. Imagine that!

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hospitals merge to save money,

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York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2018/11/14/health/hospital-

mergers-health-care-spending.html

Associated Press. (2019, June 6).

Study: 30-year life expectancy

gap in 2 Chicago communities.

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https://apnews.com/ article/

cb4fbcf64546426d9de694ea5

cf9f885.

Belasen, A. T., Eisenberg, B., & Huppertz,

J. W. (2016). Mastering leadership:

A vital resource for health care

organizations. Jones & Bartlett

Learning.

Cameron, B. (2020, March 13). I ran

the White House pandemic office.

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com/outlook/nsc-pandemic-office-

trump-closed/2020/03/13/a70de09c-

6491-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_

story.html

Chavez, N., & Howard, J. (2020,

November 16). Covid-19 is sending

Black, Latino and Native American

people to the hospital at about

4 times the rate of others. CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/

health/cdc-black-hispanic-

native-american-coronavirus-

hospitalizations/index.html

Center for Healthcare Quality and

Payment Reform. (2021, July). Rural

hospitals at risk of closing. https://

www.chqpr.org/downloads/Rural_

Hospitals_at_Risk_of_Closing.pdf

CPI Inflation Calculator. (n.d.). 1982

CPI and inflation rate for the United

States. https://cpiinflationcalculator.

com/1982-cpi-inflation-united-

states/

Frakt, A. (2019, February 11). Hospital

mergers improve health? Evidence

shows the opposite. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2019/02/11/upshot/hospital-

mergers-hurt-health-care-quality.

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Fortune. (2019). Fortune 500: HCS

Healthcare. https://fortune.com/

fortune500/2019/hca-healthcare/

Gangel, J., Stuart, E., & Warren, M. (2020,

October 2). ‘I’m just not’: Trump told

Woodward he wasn’t concerned

about catching COVID in newly

released audio. CNN. https://www.

cnn.com/2020/10/02/politics/trump-

woodward-interview-covid/index.

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HealthCare.gov. (n.d.). What Marketplace

health insurance plans cover. https://

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marketplace-plans-cover/

Howard, J., & Andrew. S. (2020,

December 4). More than half of

Americans say they know someone

who has been hospitalized or

died due to COVID-19, Pew survey

finds. CNN. https://www.cnn.

com/2020/12/04/health/most-

americans-know-covid-patient-

wellness-trnd/index.html

Lagasse, J. (2019, January 28). Healthcare

mergers and acquisitions had

record year in 2018, up 14.4

percent. Healthcare Finance. https://

www.healthcarefinancenews.com/

news/healthcare-mergers-and-

acquisitions-had-record-year-2018-

144-percent

McMinn, S., & Simmons-Duffin, S.

(2020, November 20). 1,000

U.S. hospitals are ‘critically’

short on staff — and more

expect to be soon. NPR. https://

www.npr.org/sections/health-

shots/2020/11/20/937152062/1-000-

u-s-hospitals-are-short-on-staff-and-

more-expect-to-be-soon

Mental Health America. (n.d.). The mental

health of healthcare workers in

COVID-19. https://mhanational.org/

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covid-19

NYU Langone Health News Hub. (2019,

June 5). Large life expectancy gaps

in U.S. cities linked to racial & ethnic

segregation by neighborhood [Press

release]. https://nyulangone.org/

news/large-life-expectancy-gaps-

us-cities-linked-racial-ethnic-

segregation-neighborhood

Peck, P. (2020, December 22). The virus

is showing Black people what they

knew all along. The Atlantic. https://

www.theatlantic.com/health/

archive/2020/12/pandemic-black-

death-toll-racism/617460/

Research and Markets. (2020,

December). 2020 hospitals and

health systems market report. https://

www.researchandmarkets.com/

reports/5221341/2020-hospitals-

and-health-systems-market-

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19&utm_exec=jamu273prd

The White House. (2021, January 21).

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on United States global leadership

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COVID-19 response and to advance

global health security and biological

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usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/

health-care-inflation-in-the-united-

states/

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Reflections on a Writing Group

Melinda S. Blitzer, Selden

“Every book is an image of solitude, the

outcome of a great deal of time spent

alone in a room. Literature is at once the

product of an author’s solitude and a

means by which a reader reaches through

his own and the author’s solitude. In

reading, an isolated individual becomes

absorbed in something beyond his own

preoccupations and communes with

another mind. … It is possible to be alone

and not alone at the same time. Reading

literature creates a kind of companionship

that preserves the solitariness of reading

and writing.”

— Paul Auster, The Invention

of Solitude (1982), p. 136

riting can be lonely and

painful, and easy to put off.

One could spend countless

hours trying to find a way to say

a simple phrase with more pizzaz,

strive arduously for perfection, or be

distracted by external pressures. Taking

the first step is the scariest part. Last

spring, frustration with my writer’s

block began to mount. Although my

reluctance has always felt like laziness,

the reasons go deeper: fears of being

critiqued, fears of influencing others,

and fears of not influencing enough!

A leap from being an occasional writer

to a more consistent one would be

daunting. How could I initiate such

a painstaking task? I was filled with

ideas as well as fears, and in need of

some structure and encouragement —

something, a push to move forward,

much like our own students experience

at SUNY Empire State College. As

mentors, we provide foundational

tools for success in their endeavors;

sometimes, we need mentors, too.

I found them in a writing group.

In the winter of 2019, I was invited to

present a paper that I titled, “‘Should

I Stay or Should I Go?’ Staying Sane

in the Midst of Going Crazy Working

with Couples: A Relational Revision of

Gottman’s Theory.” The prestigious

(psychoanalytic) Joint International

Conference was scheduled to be held in

Greece in May of 2020. The pandemic

hit, and the event was postponed.

I knew I would need corralling and

inspiration to research and write my

presentation, even though the deadline

was now a year or two away. One of my

clinical colleagues, another conference

invitee, suggested I join a writing group

with her. I was self-conscious. Why

would I want colleagues I didn’t know to

critique my work? I would feel judged,

exposed. But the idea gnawed at me.

Given the COVID-19 quarantine, help

would be only a Zoom-click away. How

could I say no?

The group began last June and meets

for an hour weekly. Five New York

area psychoanalysts, including me,

are directed by a former professor

whom I have always admired. She

is widely published and teaches at

several psychoanalytic institutes. Group

members write about a variety of

psychological topics, and each week

one member presents approximately

15 pages for reading and critiquing.

One writer is working on a memoir

that details her childhood trauma

growing up in Germany. Another is

working on a book that examines “the

sadomasochism of everyday life.” A

recent retiree is putting together a

memoir focusing on what her therapy

office symbolizes and the role it has

played in her journey to becoming a

psychoanalyst. The fourth member

is writing a book on various clinical

experiences with her most challenging

patients. I had been working on a

paper on courage and another on the

Melinda S. Blitzer

pitfalls and complexities of working

with couples in marital therapy. I knew I

would have to present them soon.

At first, I found myself to be just as

concerned about the quality of my

feedback as about the work that I

presented. The other group members,

more seasoned writers, seem to

appreciate my efforts. (They haven’t

booted me out yet.) I learn from

them and I agree that I am making

progress. Their support has boosted

my confidence and some of the writing

roadblocks I once faced now seem to

be pebbles! Aside from the group’s

stylistic and organizational commentary,

the discussion always encourages self-

reflection. Each member gives their

honest reaction in a direct way. This

makes me feel cared for and safe; it

promotes my trust. I’ve come to realize

that the feedback I don’t like is the

most valuable.

The group has become a refuge during

the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing a

comforting sense of normalcy to an

abnormal, volatile time. While Zooming

involves viewing each person in a small

square on the computer screen, each

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

member’s impact is big: reassuring,

nurturing, and transformative. In some

ways, the online format is as intimate

as it would be in person, maybe even

more so: we see people and are seen as

closely as we want.

In my solitary writing activity, I find relief

in envisioning my group cohorts, also

hard at work. There are benefits, too,

in the writer’s solitude: a sense of calm

and peace. I resist the temptation for

too much news — losing myself in the

nation’s problems. The day tumbles

into a “timeless zone” and passes as

though it is a dream. Being a therapist

involves listening to, analyzing, and

piecing together my patient’s stories

and forming narratives in my mind.

In writing, I discover ideas and play

with them; I revise my own narratives.

Particularly relevant to this audience of

readers, the writing group has enhanced

my mentoring talents. I keep in mind

what it feels like to get critical feedback

and how to do it skillfully so that it

feels caring and constructive, even if

occasionally painful. And I try to convey

the sense that I am with my students;

indeed, I am now one of them.

“Our understandings and beliefs are more dependable when they produce

interpretations and opinions that are more justifiable or true than would

be those predicated on other understandings or beliefs. Formulating

more dependable beliefs about our experience, assessing their contexts,

seeking informed agreement on their meaning and justification, and making

decisions based on the resulting insights are central to the adult learning process.”

— Jack Mezirow, 2012

Learning to Think Like an Adult: Core Concepts of Transformation Theory

In Edward W. Taylor, Patricia Cranton, and Associates (Eds.)

The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice

Jossey-Bass, p. 74

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Fleetwood Cadillac

Robert Congemi, Albany

inally, the weather had changed,

the interminable, gray winter was

over, which had made Dexter

so tired he found himself worrying if

finally old age were upon him. But now

as he walked home from work in the

glistering sunshine of an afternoon in

May, birds were singing, the sky was

cloudless and blue, and air as fresh as

could be wished, even though, as usual,

downtown was clotted with cars. His

own street, tucked a few blocks away

from any main road, had taken on a

cozy, shady look, its trees abundantly

green and dappling the sunlight, almost

poeticizing the parked cars lining both

sides of the street.

“Well, what do you know?” he said to

himself. “Things may be right with the

world, after all.”

Then, before realizing he was doing it,

and not knowing why, Dexter glanced

at the broad side of one of the parked

cars, merely curious, and saw the car

was a Fleetwood Cadillac, much like

one he had owned several years earlier.

The colors were different. This one,

which was showing its age, was deep

metallic blue, while Dexter’s had been a

luxurious, metallic green, but they both

were Fleetwoods, and that fact stopped

him from taking another step. Suddenly,

a dozen or so houses from home, the

car brought back memories of his own

Fleetwood, and thinking of that brought

back to his mind the memory of his wife.

It was she who had gotten their family

the Fleetwood — or at least she was

the cause of their having one. They

were a young couple, with two children,

and she had answered a help wanted

advertisement in the newspaper for

people to sell Cadillac cars.

“We could use the extra money, Dexter,”

she had said. “The kids are in school

now, and I don’t mind working at all. In

fact, I want to. It’ll get me out a little.”

“You’re sure, Kate?”

They were in the kitchen of the

tiny house they had then, in the

morning, before he went off to his

job, selling insurance.

Kate hardly thought about it for a

moment. “I’m sure.”

As it turned out, she never sold any cars,

not one, though she did try, going off to

the dealership every morning dutifully,

Dexter driving her there in their old

Chevy and dropping her off before going

to his own office. In fact, the only sale

Kate ever was involved in was the one

where her coworker sold the Fleetwood

to her. She was giving up the job —

everyone at the dealership thought it

best — and Phil Burt, a nice old man

who had tried to show her the ropes —

suggested she buy a Cadillac that had

come in only the day before.

“It’s a beauty,” he said to her. “All nice

and green, and only 3 years old. You

can put your whole family in the car and

drive wherever you want, in luxury.”

Kate was sold. When Dexter came to

pick her up, Kate took him to the place

in the lot where the car was, and said,

“What do you think, Dexter? Phil says it’s

a good car. We can put everybody in it

and drive wherever we want, in luxury.”

Dexter asked Phil what he thought, for

himself. “What do you think, Phil?”

“I’d buy it before someone else does,”

Phil said.

They had a lot of fun with the car.

They couldn’t afford it, of course, but

it made them feel good and think

they were much better off than they

actually were. Dexter remembered how

Robert Congemi

the boys jumped up and down in the

driveway when he and Kate brought

the Fleetwood home for the first time,

and how they all drove around the

neighborhood that early evening, the

boys bouncing around in the roomy

back seat, Kate beside him marveling at

all the dials on the leather dashboard,

Dexter looking around while he drove,

hoping someone he knew would

recognize them and marvel over their

having a Cadillac. At an intersection, it

actually happened. A neighbor, who had

a job working for an oil company, pulled

up beside them and beeped his horn.

“We bought ourselves a Fleetwood,

Tom” Dexter explained to him.

“I can see that,” Tom answered back,

nodding his head in approval.

If the truth be known, Dexter learned to

identify himself with the car more than

he realized. Once, when the car had to

be serviced at the dealership overnight,

Phil Burt gave him a loaner car, a little

compact car that was available on the

lot. Right from the first moment, Dexter

saw that he felt somehow diminished by

being in that car, so used was he to the

stature the Fleetwood apparently gave

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

him. When he stopped at a supermarket

for some groceries, to help Kate out,

who was feeling overwhelmed, now

taking care of the family and working

part time as a receptionist at a hospital,

Dexter thought he noticed a group of

teenagers watching him get out of

the loaner.

“This isn’t my real car,” he said to them.

“It’s a loner. My real car is a Cadillac.

Except for just now, I drive a Fleetwood,

twice the size of this car.”

The teenagers, who had been interested

in themselves, horsing around and

flirting after school, didn’t know what to

make of his speech.

“Like, it’s OK, mister,” one of the boys

told him.

Once in a while, the Fleetwood led to

something that made a good story, like

the time a policeman followed Kate all

the way to their house before giving

her a ticket for allegedly speeding. As

the policeman walked away from her,

returning to his squad car, she felt so

unfairly treated that she seemed to try

to run him over.

“I’m still not completely used to driving

this big thing,” she explained to him, the

policeman still shaking from the close

call, Kate stopping at the last moment.

Other times, the story was not quite so

good, like the time Tim Holmes, the kind

man who worked on their car, lost his

business because the county seized

his land.

“To build a new highway,” Tim explained,

tuning the Fleetwood.

“Life is pretty lousy sometimes, isn’t it?”

Dexter said to Tim when he heard what

had happened.

“It sure is,” Tim concurred.

But because of the Fleetwood, at least

they got to know Tim for a while.

Above all, of course, the family took

long trips in the Fleetwood. It got them

out of town, provided them with a nice

change of pace and time away from

their troubles. Their first big trip was

nearly 400 miles away, to the shore, to

visit one of Kate’s aunts, and enjoy the

ocean and the boardwalk and rides at

the amusement park only blocks away

from where Kate’s aunt lived. That was

the time when Kenny, their younger boy,

wandered away from their blanket on

the beach, and Kate was terrified he had

drowned in the ocean when she and

Dexter couldn’t find him for almost an

hour. He and Kate had fought terribly

then over her saying that Dexter wasn’t

watching the boys well enough, and, in

some ways, that fight was the beginning

of what happened to him and Kate in

the end, at least that was when he knew

for sure their marriage was in some kind

of trouble.

But, despite their experience at the

shore, over the years, the Fleetwood

took them to about two dozen different

states, Dexter once counted, and

to almost every interesting part of

their own state. They even took the

Fleetwood north, to another country,

for goodness’ sake, a trip that was

supposed to turn everything around for

him and Kate, which it pretty nearly did.

They certainly were working hard to turn

everything around at the time. Dexter

always felt they both wanted to save

their marriage. On the trip, they took

turns driving, which was fun, especially

trying to get the other to give up driving

a few miles before they were supposed

to, and once Kate even reached out

and held Dexter’s hand. When she did

that, Dexter felt a surge of emotion and

even thought maybe things could be

all right after all. The Fleetwood, which

had been acting up on them recently,

now seemed to be gliding along the

highway like a big, smooth, green boat.

No red lights on the dash in front of

them suddenly went on, warning them

of trouble. There were no funny smells

or frightening sounds from the engine.

Teenagers at the time, their sons were

in the back seat of the Fleetwood as

usual, a little unsure about the trip and,

Dexter guessed, probably wanting to

be with their own friends. They were so

quiet. But the unusual sights of miles of

flat farmland and fields captured their

attention. Kate had been working at the

hospital for 10 years by that time and

had been made supervisor of her shift.

Dexter had changed jobs, working for

the township and driving a school bus

part time.

When they finally got to the hotel in

Montreal, which Dexter had found

for them — he had carefully made all

the arrangements, so much wanting

everything to go well — Kate liked it. A

doorman opened the car on Kate’s side

when Dexter pulled it over to the curb in

front of the hotel, and said, “Bienvenue.

Bienvenue, mes amis. Please allow us to

take this fine car and park it for you.”

Inside, in the grand lobby of the hotel,

crowded with vacationers beginning

their weekend, a lobby of large, gilded

mirrors and marble pillars, the concierge

couldn’t have been nicer, and the

bellboy who brought them to their suite

took the time to comment on the family.

“What a handsome family! You do not

mind my saying so?”

The bellboy had drawn back the

windows of the suite onto the city

below, which was beginning to light up

for miles against the darkening sky, and

had turned to show them the spectacle.

Dexter almost giggled with happiness.

“No, no, you certainly can say we are

a handsome family, sir. I mean,

monsieur. We love it. Everyone takes

after their mother.”

In the morning, they drove the

Fleetwood to the outskirts of the city,

to the famous municipal park that Kate

wanted to see. A friend of hers at the

hospital where she worked had told her

all about it.

“They have 1,000 different kinds of roses

there,” Kate told her sons and Dexter. “I

promised my friend I would make sure I

saw them.”

“And see them, you will,” Dexter said,

proudly negotiating his huge, American

car through traffic.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

In the afternoon, they drove to the

opposite end of the city, to see its

Olympic stadium, the choice of the boys

as soon as they had been told about

it. Next, they drove back to the hotel,

turned the Fleetwood once again over

to one of the hotel’s parking attendants,

and walked to the famed waterfront

district of Montreal to wander the

indeed narrow, winding streets of

shops there and to watch the street

performers — jugglers, comics, singers.

Dexter, himself, was fascinated by a

man and woman who had painted

themselves completely white, and who

stood like statues for an hour at a time.

“You don’t see that back home, do you?”

he asked his family.

In the evening, they had dinner at the

most expensive restaurant that Dexter

could afford, at the very edge of the

waterfront, looking down upon the

river that bordered the city, and gazed

fondly out at the large ships passing

by as the family ate. Afterward, Dexter

treated the family to a carriage ride

through the cobblestone streets of

the ancient district, a circular delight

of old churches, historic buildings, and

monuments. The boys were fascinated

by the powerful horse that pulled

their carriage along and by how they

could look down upon people in the

streets, and Kate seemed content, even

becoming excited when they passed the

shops of high fashion that were also a

highlight of these streets. If someone

had asked Dexter if this were the

sweetest moment in his life, he might

have agreed.

The next morning, after brunch and

after checking out of the hotel, they

drove home. Again, their big, green

Fleetwood glided along the highway.

Again, no emergency lights came on, no

scary oil smells, no sudden, frightening

sounds from the engine.

“Thank God,” Kate said, when they were

home, at last, the boys running off to

be with their friends. Dexter patted the

aging car on its fender.

“Performed like old faithful,” he told

Kate, and somehow was encouraged

to reach out to take her in his arms.

Unfortunately, though, she had turned,

without seeing his gesture, and already

was carrying pieces of their luggage to

the house.

In the years that passed, the Fleetwood

continued its service to the family.

Sometimes Dexter, sometimes

Kate, ferried their sons to baseball

and football practices, doctors’

appointments, first dates. Once, the

Fleetwood needed a new transmission;

once, even another engine, which

they bought somehow, second hand,

a rebuilt.

But, slowly, inexorably, the Fleetwood

rusted out. When Dale was 16, he

started to drive it to school and around

town with his friends, who loved the

old car. Kate had her own car by then, a

small, second-hand car. The next year,

when Kenny was 16, he wanted to drive

the Fleetwood, too.

That summer, they made one last

trip in the Fleetwood, a last-ditch trip

southward. Along with everything

else on his mind and everything going

wrong between him and Kate, Dexter

had to worry about the car completely

breaking down on the road, hundreds

of miles from home. His worries were

not without reason. The first night of the

trip, only halfway to their destination,

Dexter, desperate, had to find a garage

that had not closed. Suddenly, the

Fleetwood could not be driven over 10

miles per hour. And then it just quit.

Sadly, or so it seemed, Dexter was never

quite sure, the owner of the garage told

him the bitter, inevitable news.

“You’ve blown the engine, mister. This

car is dead.”

“Was it my fault?” was the first question

Dexter thought to ask.

“Nah. I don’t think so,” the man said.

“These things happen.”

“But what am I going to do? I’m

hundreds of miles from home.” The

words tumbled out of Dexter. “My family

and I are on our way to our vacation, a

very important vacation.”

Kate and the boys were sitting in

the garage office. Dexter and the

mechanic — a big, sloppy-looking

man — were in the shop itself, standing

next to the Fleetwood.

Dexter was always to believe that the

mechanic thought too quickly; he was

hard to trust. …

“I’ll tell you what, mister. I’ll buy the car

off you. For 50 bucks. And take it off

your hands. You can sleep in the motel

across the street for the night, and

tomorrow I’ll drive you to a rent-a-car

place. Then you can go on from there.”

Stunned, and grieved, Dexter didn’t

know what to do.

“That’s about it,” the mechanic said,

pushing his point. “That’s the only

thing I can think of. You just ran into

a bit of hard luck, that’s all.” The

mechanic seemed patronizing.

“I wouldn’t blame myself.”

“Yeah,” Dexter said, turning, to go and

tell Kate and the boys the news.

On the way home, of course, Kate

scarcely talked to him. In the morning, in

the motel before driving home, he asked

her if they could just keep going ahead

with their plans, without the Fleetwood.

With a car rented, they could still have

fun, go swimming, eat out, see sights.

But she shook her head, and only said,

“So he’s taking the car from us for only

$50. Is that so, Dexter?”

“ … Yes,” Dexter said, weakly. “What else

can I do? The car is no good now.”

“That’s what this man said? This

stranger, who looked to me like he

couldn’t wait to get his hands on the

car? He said the car couldn’t be fixed?”

Dexter tried to appeal to her, almost

franticly. “Kate, I’m not a mechanic. I’m

not much more than a clerk, but I think

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

he’s right. It’s cost us so much money

recently. You know that. It’s garbage

now, as best I can tell.”

“Don’t you feel humiliated?” she asked

him, wanting to be cruel.

On the highway, Dexter did admit to

Kate that he should have seen the signs

of the collapse of the Fleetwood coming.

He gave her that.

“It wasn’t really the Fleetwood’s fault.

I know, Kate. I should have seen the

little, tell-tale signs,” he explained to

her, as he drove the rental car onto the

highway near their home. It was all he

could think of saying. The boys, in the

back seat, were silent.

“Yes, Dexter,” Kate said. “You should

have seen the little, tell-tale signs.”

It wasn’t long after that trip that Dexter

came home from work one evening

and found a note to him from Kate on

the kitchen table. It was in one of her

personal envelopes.

“’I won’t be home tonight, Dexter,’” the

note said. “’Actually, I won’t be home

anymore. I have fallen in love with

someone else. A doctor at the hospital

where I work. It didn’t happen overnight.

It took a long time, and I guess I fought

it. I would have thought you’d have seen

the signs, but I guess you didn’t. Anyway,

there’s some supper in the fridge. You

just have to heat it up. My best to you. I

sincerely mean that. P.S. Please don’t try

to oppose this. It really is over between

us. I won’t be changing my mind.’”

In his last gesture of love toward his

wife, at least it was love as he saw it,

Dexter did not oppose anything, not the

separation, nor the divorce that followed

quickly afterward. He occupied himself

with seeing his sons as often as he

could, as often as Kate and the divorce

settlement allowed. In a few years, both

boys were off to college, Dexter bought

himself a compact car, which got good

mileage, and changed jobs again, this

time working in City Hall, a job from

which he hoped to retire.

Once, his younger son, Kenny, at his

graduation from college, asked Dexter

if he still loved Kate. Dexter wondered

if the boy had had a few celebratory

drinks. “Do you love Mother, even after

all that happened, Dad?”

“I do,” Dexter told him, not lying.

“And is that why you never

married again?”

Dexter did not answer that one.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think you

even date,” his son further said.

— — —

When Dexter got back to his house

after seeing the Fleetwood in the street,

he opened the front door with his

key and stepped inside. It was a cozy

townhouse, maybe not the biggest and

most impressive on the block, but he

was sort of proud of it. Distracted, he

went through his mail, which was bills

and advertisements, and then went into

his living room at the back of the house,

where he sat down on his couch, a piece

of furniture he had bought for himself

the previous year. He thought of what

he would do. This time was always an

awkward part of the day for him. He

knew other people felt that way, too.

“The hour or so after work is always

difficult for me,” a fellow office worker

once observed, holding reports he had

to read. “It’s transitional.”

But Dexter thought it might really be

worse for him. It certainly wasn’t an

idle observation.

He thought of leafing through a

magazine, or even reading the

newspaper, but he didn’t do either. In

his mood, magazines were just more

advertisements. Newspapers were

just gossip. Sometimes, he thought, as

he turned the television on and then

turned it off, it could be a good idea if

he drank. But he never did that — he

had no ability for drinking. Of course,

there was the tiny garden area, behind

the house, and he liked gardening. That

was for sure. People were right about

what they said about gardening. It was

relaxing and it made you feel good.

But, strangely, Dexter had no interest

in gardening, either. Maybe it was all a

matter of energy. Maybe a little later in

the evening, after he had fixed himself

some supper, he’d have the energy.

What else was there?

About an hour later, he called up his

son, Kenny. Dale had become a lawyer

and had moved away to the West Coast,

but Kenny was nearby. He owned his

own little construction company and

was doing well, too, for a young guy. For

a moment, Dexter wondered if Kenny

remembered that day at the beach

when he had wandered off.

The woman who did the office work

for Kenny answered the phone. Dexter

hoped she remembered him, and,

luckily, she did.

“Oh, yes, Mr. Grey, I remember.”

“Alice, isn’t it?” Dexter said to her.

She was pleased. “Yes, that’s right, Alice.

Nice of you to remember.”

Dexter tried to make a little joke. “I try,”

he pointed out.

“Yes.” Her voice became a bit more

professional, but still pleasant enough to

have fun with the fact that he and Kenny

had the same name. “I’ll tell the other

Mr. Grey that you’re on the line.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Dexter said.

Dexter thought it took Kenny quite a

time to answer the phone, but after

some noises on his end, he did. Kenny

seemed a little worried, the way people

usually are when they get a phone call

they were not expecting, especially

from family.

“Dad? Hi … everything all right?”

Dexter was quick. “Yes. Sure.

Absolutely. I just thought I’d call you.

And say ‘hello.’”

“Oh? Oh … hi.”

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Dexter tried to be as offhand as he

could. “It’s OK for a father to call his son,

isn’t it? Even if it is at work, right? You

have a few minutes, don’t you?”

Kenny still wasn’t completely off his

guard. “Sure, Dad. Of course. You’re

certain everything is all right?”

“Certain.”

Kenny sounded like he was letting

himself be convinced. “Well, what’s up?

What can I do for you, boss?”

“Well … I don’t know. I was sitting here

thinking, ‘Maybe it would be a good idea

to call my son, Kenny, and ask him if we

could have lunch soon or something.’

You know? Get together? Maybe even

for dinner. So we can have more time.”

Kenny did seem to like the idea. “Sure.

Sounds great, Dad. When would you like

to do that?”

“I don’t know. Tonight maybe?”

Dexter laughed, nervously. “Is tonight

too soon?”

There was a pause at Kenny’s end, not

too long, but a pause, nonetheless.

“Umm, gee, Dad. Tonight could be

tough. It might be too short notice. I’ve

got some stuff. You know what I mean?

I’ve got a little work here left, and I did

talk about possibly doing something

later after work with friends. You know,

maybe bowling or something like that?

How about next week? The beginning of

next week? No later. What do you think

of that?”

“Sure, Kenny,” Dexter said, almost

desperate not to reveal any

disappointment. “Sure. That’ll be just

great. Perfect. I’ll be looking forward

to it.”

There was one last thing. “Hey, Kenny,

you know I keep forgetting to say. Hope

the business is going well. Hope the

social life is good.”

“Sure, Dad, everything is great. Business

is fine. Social life’s fine.”

“Got a young lady in the picture?

Somebody nice to do things with?”

“Uh … that could be better, I guess. But

I’m pretty happy the way I am.” Kenny

seemed to be thinking for a moment.

“Who knows? I may be the bachelor

type. Know what I mean?”

Dexter didn’t know if he did.

“You shouldn’t mean that, Kenny,” he

replied to his son.

“OK, Dad. Anything you say. See you

early next week. Bye, now.”

“Bye, Kenny.”

After his phone conversation with

Kenny, Dexter looked around for

something more to do. Finally, he went

outside and walked down the street

to where he had seen the Fleetwood

Cadillac. It wasn’t there anymore.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Serving Our Students

Kate Dermody, Plattsburgh

Kate Dermody delivered the following

remarks during the collegewide panel

conversation, “Leading the Way: Values

and Practices of Mentoring, 50 Years In,”

on January 29, 2021.

Introduction

y name is Kate Dermody.

I am a part-time Historical

Studies faculty-mentor living

in Plattsburgh, New York. I have been

a faculty-mentor at SUNY Empire

State College for the past eight years.

Prior to joining SUNY Empire, I was

a public school teacher for 10 years.

In my summers, I teach part time for

Upward Bound, a program of the U.S.

Department of Education that supports

high school students’ preparation for

college entrance. When I became aware

of the position at SUNY Empire, I was

immediately drawn to the opportunity to

serve adult learners. Today, I serve our

North Country, which covers about 600

square miles. I mentor many students

in our local hospital, working directly

to preserve our University of Vermont

Health Network partnership with their

nationally accredited radiology school.

What does mentoring mean to me?

A faculty-mentor is an educational guide

who embraces and upholds the duty of

SUNY Empire’s mission to support the

individual needs of students. Mentoring

requires us to be agile, innovative, and

solutions-minded to help our students

succeed, to help them discover that

what appears to be impossible is, in fact,

possible with dedication and support.

Our students often have complicated

life situations, multiple transcripts,

life changes, job loss. This past term,

I had students, each of whom was

a mother with a child in the ICU.

When considering how to support my

students, I have to remind myself that

as a mentor I have the power to help,

to think out of the box about how to

navigate stressful situations. Mentoring

is a responsibility — one that must be at

the center of our educational practice.

How do I practice mentoring?

I practice mentoring by always striving

to understand the individual needs

of the student, being empathetic,

and positive.

1. Connecting and Listening: Making

a connection with students is

important to the way I practice

mentoring and teaching. We serve

students from many different

backgrounds and forging that

human connection is imperative to

the process.

2. Goal Setting: What are the

student’s goals, long term and

short term? Short-term goals are

important so students can actually

see their accomplishments along

the way. Long-term goals help the

student see that light at the end of

the tunnel. It is important to help

the student visualize themselves

with their diploma.

3. Being an Advocate: Being a

mentor means you must also be

an advocate for the students. We

help students create their degree

plans, their road maps for the

future. These plans help students

envision how they can get from

point A to point B. Our students

need someone rooting for them.

I tell them that I am their number

one supporter and I want them

to succeed, and lastly, I tell them I

believe in them.

I tell my students that I am thankful

that I am here with them on their

educational journey. I ask them to never

lose sight of their goals and dreams. I

Kate Dermody

continually assure them with constant

announcements and emails that

education is something that will never

be taken from you. It is theirs. Education

is a process, and if it is one course or

one term at a time, I am with them

every step of the way. I end most phone

calls telling students that I am proud of

them — for starting, for finishing a term,

and for asking for help when they need

it. The first step is always the hardest.

Where do I see SUNY Empire

in the next 50 years?

The future holds endless opportunities

for SUNY Empire as long as we keep

doing what we do best: thinking out of

the box, being creative and flexible, and

most importantly, offering the human

connection. We will succeed because

of collaborations, community building,

PLAs [prior learning assessments],

partnership programs, and dedicated

faculty and staff. We can build bridges

to increase accessibility and streamline

processes for students. I believe we will

harness our innovative spirit, and put

forth the energy that is created when we

all rise together and face the challenges

that have been set before us.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

In Closing

I think it is important to ask ourselves,

whom do we serve? We serve the adult

learner. We serve the survivors, the

underdogs, the fighters, mothers, and

fathers. We serve a unique population

that is far different than any other SUNY

institution. As mentors, we provide

something special. We provide hope for

our students. Being a mentor at SUNY

Empire is a privilege and an honor and a

way to make a difference in this world.

A Peek Inside #1

Shantih E. Clemans, Brooklyn

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

My Personal 2020 Profit and Loss Statement — Net Gain

Deborah Falco ’11

Deborah Falco ‘11 earned her bachelor’s

degree in Community and Human Services

through the college’s Long Island location.

She went on to earn her Master of Social

Work degree at Stony Brook University

(SUNY). As a prior learning assessment

evaluator for SUNY Empire, she works

with CHS students, as well as students

seeking credit for college-level learning in

insurance (she is a licensed New York state

broker). She wrote this piece in December

2020 while reflecting on the year.

s we near the end of 2020,

businesses everywhere are

tallying up profits and losses and

drafting forecasts for 2021. Individuals

rely on this information to make

investment choices, plan for the future,

and calculate some measure of success.

The results of these tabulations can

be sobering — for both positive and

negative outcomes, especially for a year

like 2020. It sure has been a tough one.

I thought that it might be time for me to

dig deep and review my personal losses

and profits. At first glance, anyone

would say that my life in 2020 has been

one of immeasurable loss. Yes, at my

age (60), I should have been prepared

for the deaths of my parents. They were

elderly, not in the best health, and had

lived long and for the most part happy

and fulfilling lives. My husband and I

often discussed how I would handle

their deaths and even had the temerity

to speculate on who would be easier to

deal with when one predeceased the

other. Of course, when I thought too

long about it, I would let it drop as is my

habit, choosing to deal with things when

the time came.

That time came and came again all too

soon this year. When both of my parents

died within 30 days of one another I was

forced to deal with things immediately

and not when it would be convenient.

The magnitude of these two losses lies

not just in their physical deaths. The

losses are much greater than not being

able to see them, hug them, or talk to

them again. I have lost the two best

friends I will ever have. Even though

our relationships were strained at

times, I no longer have my ride-or-die

advocates, my staunchest supporters,

and greatest critics. There is no one left

to lie to me when I need that or to tell

me the harshest truths when that is the

best course of action. I am no longer the

princess of someone’s home, the most

talented, the prettiest, smartest person

in the house. My parents did all those

things and let me occupy all those roles.

I am an orphan, no longer part of a

family, but a solitary person. Because I

am an only child there is no one left who

can bear witness to my upbringing —

warts and all. I have no familial partner

to reminisce, argue, or laugh with overall

that has passed during the years. There

is no one to remind me of my parents;

no one who has my mom’s eyes or my

dad’s smile. There is only me. I am in

this alone.

Those are the true extent of my losses.

They are incalculable and their impact

will continue to mark me for the rest of

my life.

But this exercise also includes

acknowledging my profits. What have

I gained in 2020? What positive things

have I come away with? Believe it or not,

there are some.

To begin with, I have reached a new

level of respect for my parents. Their

simple, hardworking lives somehow led

the way for building up a nest egg. I

remember ridiculing their frugality and

complacency with their material lives.

Well, I am the one to be ridiculed. All

those years pretty much killing myself to

get ahead financially only to spend my

money on things I could do without —

what a fool I was. Learning to be content

with what I have is a profound lesson

taken from their passing. No more

squandering; I will now appreciate it.

Simplicity, it seems, is fairly complicated.

It takes time to develop an appreciation

for small things, plain things, run-of-the-

mill things.

I have also learned to be proud of

myself. I am not as weak as I thought

and now know that I can bend without

breaking. I understand that although a

person will not die from a broken heart,

they will undoubtedly wish they had.

I have also learned that true friends

do last a lifetime and that I probably

do not have as many as I thought I did,

but my gratitude for the ones I have

grows more deeply every day. Friends,

it seems, can come from the craziest,

most unexpected places. There are

genuinely nice, decent people out there

who want to help.

One of the biggest positives I uncovered

was the true value of a good employer.

Sure, everyone is replaceable at

work and there is always a limit to a

company’s leniency. But apparently,

there is no limit to compassion at the

company I work for. The patience,

generosity of spirit, and understanding I

received continue to bowl me over.

Another profit has been a clear

realization that one never stops

learning. Of course, I do understand

that as we go through life it is natural

to glean some new skills, develop new

interests, and by social osmosis learn

to operate novel gadgetry and devices

and to speak emerging jargon and

slang with some proficiency. But these

are short-lived and easily acquired

accomplishments. I am referring to

deep-rooted, hard-wired, practical

knowledge. This learning can be brought

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

from the most random interactions with

the most unlikely people. People who,

at first, you believe are not as intelligent

as you or as urbane as you, are very

often the ones you learn the most from.

Their ways of thinking, their perceptions

have informed me. I have gained some

very profound insights into my psyche

and the world around me by speaking

to them. I have vowed to be more open-

minded and patient because of this.

Even the small fact of realizing I am

deficient in these traits is an enormous

gain for me.

Most importantly, I have gained a new

respect and admiration for my husband.

As you might imagine, I have been a

horrible person to be around for much

of 2020. Yet he was unwavering in his

support of me. He helped me reach

decisions and uncover solutions that I

never would have been able to see on

my own. He listened when I needed

hearing, gave me space when I needed

solitude, and knew when the only thing

that could possibly help me was a vanilla

shake! He is my hero, champion, and

best friend.

It is true what they say: The future

belongs to the young. I have a more

profound understanding of love and

motherhood when I watch the beautiful

young woman, who by some mistake of

nature, is my daughter. I do not deserve

her but thank the heavens I have her.

She is gentle and strong, wise beyond

her years, and has the most forgiving

and compassionate soul I have ever

encountered. She and her husband have

given me the greatest gifts — my two

grandchildren. Because of them, I pick

myself up and dust myself off each day.

I want them to have the most magical

childhood I can help to provide. Every

waking moment, I have learned to give

thanks for their lives. Their innocence

and palpable love for me and my

husband are healing tonics.

Patience is a virtue that I have learned

to embrace. It seems that almost every

day there is something else to wait for,

be it a delivery, a test result, a phone

call from a friend, a visit with a friend,

or some positive news for our national

psyche. Normalcy — what is that again?

I want some of that but know that I

must wait. The waiting will make

the results so much sweeter when

they arrive.

“Normalcy — what is

that again? I want some

of that but know that

I must wait. The waiting

will make the results so

much sweeter when

they arrive.”

Grief, I have come to know, is a tricky,

unexpected visitor. There are days when

I think that I am “doing good,” but in an

instant, that thought can turn into a foul,

dark whirlwind of emotion. However,

I am learning to handle my grief. I do

not think it will ever be completely

wiped away, but I am learning to

compartmentalize it so that I can deal

with it later.

I have gained a deep insight into my

soul. Maybe I am not the nasty woman

I think I am. For so long I have felt that

my life was one of uselessness; I was

no good for anything. But now I know

that we all have our parts. We all have

our ups, downs, and in-betweens. I can

recognize my weaknesses, adjust my

expectations, and conform to current

situations as needed. I have learned to

ask (and accept) help. In short, I have

learned to like myself again. Sometimes

I do “rock.”

So, when I calculate my losses and

profits, I am realizing that I DO have a

net gain for 2020. The biggest earner

and largest contributor to this result has

been learning to be present. Appreciate

each minute, each experience, or

conversation as they are happening.

Truly, there is no going back. Carpe

diem, everyone. Here’s to 2021!

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Adult Education and Migration:

Reflections on Some Recent Research

Maria N. Gravani, Open University of Cyprus

he purpose of this essay is to

reflect on the process, knowledge,

understandings, and experiences

of some recent research upon which I

have embarked regarding migration and

the role of adult education programs in

migrants’ integration, empowerment,

and social change in Europe and

beyond. By focusing on two completed

research projects on migration and

adult education, I hope to identify some

ideas that have emerged and their

implications and relevance to the field of

adult education and learning, our work

as adult educators, and to the world as

it is today.

Over the last five years, I have been

involved in two main research projects

on adult education and migration:

“Learner-Centred Education (LCE)

as a Tool for Social Change in Adult

Education Programmes for Migrants:

A European Comparative Study”

(which is described in this paper) and

“Life Experiences and Transitions of

Adult Migrant Learners Through a

Biographical Learning Perspective.”

The latter, which is still under

development, is being conducted with

one of my Ph.D. students and aims

at exploring adult migrants’ learning

in the light of their life experiences

and transitions, using a biographical

learning approach. As part of the two

projects, two minor, subprojects were

developed collaboratively: “Exploring

Adult Migrants’ Learning Needs Using

an Empowerment-Critical Approach: A

Biographical Research” (which is also

presented in this paper) and the “Adult

Migrant Education as a Mediator of

Democratic Citizenship in Postcolonial

Contexts: Inferences from Adult Migrant

Language Programmes in Malta and

Cyprus.” The latter project examines

adult migrant education in Malta and

Cyprus — two micro member-states

of the European Union and former

colonies of the British Empire — and

problematizes democratic citizenship

outcomes of adult education for

immigrants in postcolonial contexts.

The final short project that has just

been completed is titled: “Reception

or Deception? Formal and Nonformal

Education Provision for Refugees in

Greece and Malta.” It explores how

forced mobility and the reception of

refugees inform the geopolitics of

refugee adult education provision in

the two countries, using a framework

of mobility theories. It concludes

with a critical reflection on adult

education provision for refugees

in the region, foregrounding

integration, social cohesion, and

access to “powerful” knowledge.

As mentioned, this essay will focus

on two of the above four projects on

migration. Their selection was made for

two reasons: first, because they are both

completed and their findings have been

critically discussed with peer academics,

presented in conferences, and published

in books and journal papers; and

second, because some common themes

were raised by the analysis of the data

in both cases that I believe are worth

discussing and highlighting. These

include diversity, inclusivity, respect,

learner-centeredness, democratic

relationships, collegiality, authentic

dialogue, and empowerment, all of

which are related to the education and

integration of adult migrants and the

role of adult education.

Maria N. Gravani

Project One: Learner-Centered

Education (LCE) as a Tool for

Social Change in Adult Education

Programmes for Migrants: A

European Comparative Study

The idea for this project was generated

in one of the frequent International

Master in Adult Education for Social

Change (IMAESC)

consortium-partners’

gatherings in Tallinn (Estonia). Along

with Professor Bonnie Slade, my

colleague from the University of

Glasgow, we conceived the idea of

starting a comparative research project

exploring the micro-pedagogical

context of adult education language

learning programs for migrants in

four European cities: Larnaca (Cyprus),

Glasgow (Scotland), Valletta (Malta),

Tallinn (Estonia). We aimed to explore

how, and in what ways, LCE was

enacted and implemented in these

contexts as a tool for social change. Our

inspirations to investigate the above

were: first, our discussions about the

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

rapidly increasing rate at which people

migrate in Europe and its implications

for their learning and adult learning,

in particular; and second, the book by

Michele Schweisfurth (2013), another

colleague from Glasgow, on LCE as a

“traveling policy and practice,” which

can improve processes and outcomes

and can be used as a foundation for

the building of democratic citizens

and societies. As will be described,

Schweisfurth’s conceptualization and

framework of LCE incorporates varying

theoretical insights that link to the

work of Paulo Freire (1972), Malcolm

Knowles (1980), Jack Mezirow (1985),

and others, and has been influential in

an international comparative education

context mostly related to K-12 schooling.

Extending her framework into the field

of adult education would be something

challenging and, we thought, vital.

In this project, we decided to involve

all the IMAESC consortium partners

and the four European countries, as

all of them have histories of mass

migration and become places of

hosting migrants. I applied for research

funding at the competitive internal

funding program of my institution,

the Open University of Cyprus (OUC),

and, after receiving high grades from

external evaluators, I was awarded a

research grant of 40000 euros (about

$47,000), as principal investigator,

to implement the research between

2016-2018. It was a great opportunity

to expand the collaboration of the

four universities, and complement, as

well as build upon previous research

conducted by the OUC research team

on LCE, adult education, social change,

and migration. It attempted to address

the relative lack of recent comparative

research on whether and how LCE is

used in adult education for migrants

as a tool for social change across

different national contexts. Additionally,

by focusing on migration as a social

process and migrants as active citizens,

the research attempted to evaluate

whether LCE practices can become

a catalyst for empowering migrant

adult learners. Part of the research

sought to describe the historical,

geographical, cultural, religious, and

linguistic contexts, and to construct

cartographies of adult education for

migrants in the four countries. This has

been very informative. It has allowed

us to obtain important knowledge

about the European contexts within

which language learning programs

for migrants have been explored,

and, through the experiences and

perceptions of the adult migrant

learners, to compare the work of

educators and policymakers involved

in their design.

As a working definition of LCE, the

study adopted Schweisfurth’s (2013)

conceptualization “as a pedagogical

approach which gives learners, and

demands from them, a relatively

high level of active control over the

contents and processes of learning.

What is learnt, and how, are therefore

shaped by learners’ needs, capacities

and interests” (p. 20). Schweisfurth saw

this educational practice as existing

along a continuum from less learner-

centered to more learner-centered,

with LCE at one end of the continuum.

At that end, learners have control over

the content, process, and outcome of

learning based on their necessities.

Following this, Schweisfurth recognized

three justificatory narratives that

endorse LCE: cognitive, emancipation,

and preparation. The cognitive narrative

suggests that the learner has control

over the content and process of

learning. According to the emancipation

narrative, learners not only have control

over what they learn and the process

of learning but are encouraged to

question critically the canons of received

knowledge. This resonates with Freire’s

(1972) work on adult education in which

dialogue is promoted to encourage

learners’ reflection and questioning of

their own realities as a central aspect of

the learning process. The third narrative

is preparation, which highlights inquiry

and critical thinking as the cornerstones

of an effective knowledge economy.

In this continuum, she identified four

elements that comprise LCE practice,

namely: techniques, i.e., the activities

that teachers use in the classroom with

adult learners; relationships between

educators and learners; and motivation

and epistemology, which have to do with

the nature of knowledge and curriculum

and distinguish between “fixed

knowledge” versus “fluid knowledge”

that changes and is negotiable.

In our study, these four elements

were used as a guiding heuristic for

the collection and analysis of the

data, which consisted of interview

and observation notes with 12 adult

migrant learners, four adult educators,

and four policymakers. Interviews and

classroom observations were conducted

in all four contexts using the same

protocols, developed by the OUC team.

For the research, we collaborated with

experienced and early-stage career

researchers who were employed in

the project. It was a demanding task to

coordinate, as qualitative comparative

research conducted in four different

languages is not easy to manage.

However, it was a rewarding and

enlightening project for all of us in

many ways, as we learned so much

from exchanging our experiences

on the research process, as well as

from reading each other’s findings.

The outputs of this challenging study

revealed significant divergences among

“According to the

emancipation narrative,

learners not only have

control over what they

learn and the process

of learning but are

encouraged to question

critically the canons of

received knowledge.”

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

the four language learning programs

across the four countries in terms of

adult migrant learners’ motivations

for participation in adult education;

the relevance of the curriculum; the

extent to which the courses build on

migrant learners’ knowledge and skills;

the utilization of teaching techniques

and methods in the wider framework

of fostering dialogic teaching; and the

degree of control that migrant learners

do or do not have over their learning

(Gravani & Slade, 2021).

The four cases also reported varying

degrees of onsite, learner-centered

measures being catalysts for social

change through the empowerment of

adult migrant learners. For instance, in

Glasgow, experimental policies were

initiated to support migrants’ motivation

to engage with learning by setting up its

English for Speakers of Other Languages

(ESOL) program as an integral part of

a wide range of services that address

basic needs and enhance prospects

for social integration. Among other

services were: childcare, a particularly

important service for the participation

of migrant women; provision of family

support services, such as health

services, housing, social benefits, and

children’s education; and free meals

offered after classes, allowing migrants

to socialize and practice conversational

English. In contrast, in the Greek

language programs for “foreigners” in

Cyprus delivered by the State Education

Center, a governmental agency, the

difficulties of migrants’ lives constituted

a deterrent to their engagement in the

program, e.g., migrant women were

unable to attend weekly due to family

commitments and childcare. The above

divergence can also be explained

through the lens of the different types

of adult education providers. Where

nongovernmental organizations

assumed that role (such as the Housing

Association), in the case of Glasgow,

the curriculum of the language learning

programs was experienced by migrants

as tailored to meet their perceived

needs and interests. On the contrary,

in the case of Cyprus, where the state

was the program provider, the language

learning programs were characterized

by a largely fixed body of knowledge

and curriculum; that is, there was little

engagement of the educational activities

with migrants’ current knowledge,

experiences, and present and future

lives. This can also be explained due to

the lack of concrete policies on adult

education for migrants in Cyprus, in

contrast with Glasgow. The research

stressed the importance of fostering

democratic relationships as an integral

part of enhancing learner-centered

educational practices. For instance, in

the case of the Estonian program, which

sought to foster a friendly atmosphere

of trust that supported a positive

dialogue among all participants, migrant

learners felt safe and respected, as

issues and topics that could lead to

conflicts were avoided (Gravani &

Slade, 2021).

Despite the different degrees of onsite

learner-centered measures, a question

that emerged from the research was:

Are these measures adequate to achieve

the level of empowerment needed for

participants to become active members

of the community rather than peripheral

survivors? Our answer was no, as the

language programs primarily addressed

the need of the state to integrate

and assimilate migrants. Still, other

questions have emerged such as: What

kind of integration for adult migrants

do we need? How can this be achieved?

What role can adult education play in

this crucial process?

Project Two: Exploring Adult

Migrants’ Learning Needs Using an

Empowerment-Critical Approach: A

Biographical Research

This is a recent project, partly funded by

a small research grant of the OUC. For

its completion, I worked with a young

OUC researcher, Georgia Barkoglou. The

study was initiated after we were invited

to join the Learning and Migration

Consortium led by professors Chad

Hoggan (North Carolina State University)

and Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert

(University of Augsburg [Germany]),

along with a number of other professors

in adult education from across Europe.

The purpose of the consortium was, at

its first stage, for researchers to work

on a piece of research related to adult

migrants’ learning needs and education,

and to submit a paper for discussion

in a symposium. The subsequent

discussion lasted two full days and

took place online in March 2020 due to

the pandemic, although initially it was

planned to be face-to-face in Germany.

Hence, we had submitted a research

paper, discussed it in the symposium,

and, in light of the feedback we received

on it, revised the paper and submitted it

to the edited volume that is in press.

The research report sought to obtain a

comprehensive account of the processes

under which adult migrants’ learning

needs are formed and transformed

over the course of their migratory

experience. The extent to which and

the way with which migrants transform

their way of “being” in the new social

space is an important topic for adult

educators, academics, researchers,

and policymakers when planning

educational interventions that might be

effective in the case of adult migrants.

This is especially true if the aim of our

work is social integration and equal

opportunities for all.

The study adopted a biographical

approach based on the narratives of

the life stories of four adult migrant

learners who have been attending a

language learning program in Greece

and have been in the country for

more than 20 years. Life stories are

central, as they furnish participants

with the space to construct personal

meaning regarding their own needs

and their struggles to accommodate

these, along with their expectations

for the future. As researchers in adult

education, we believe that we should

create spaces for stories to be told

and listened to. Hence, in the study,

biographical interviews were conducted,

during which adult migrants talked

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

about their lives and some of their

experiences that have shaped their

identities and learning needs. Data

were analyzed and interpreted in the

context of an empowerment-critical

approach to learning needs, which

reveals heterogeneity and nonlinearity

in transformation. The idea was to

avoid a simple account of migrants’

learning needs without considering their

“emergent” needs.

The thematic discourse analysis of

the data revealed different categories

of learning needs in all four cases

that seemed to be shifting across

time, depending on the dynamics

of adult migrant learners in the

new sociocultural place. Thus, upon

arriving in the host country, the need

for language learning to secure their

survival and the need to access accurate

information were prevalent. At a later

stage, the need for language learning

for professional growth, improvement

of social status, social interaction, and

personal development emerged. Hence

a transformation from basic needs

for survival to needs related to self-

realization and well-being was evident in

all the participants. Findings highlighted

the heterogeneity and diversity among

the four cases explored, as well as the

complexity in the ways in which their

learning needs (past and present) and

future aspirations are shaped.

The above research poses some

interesting questions for us, as adult

educators, such as: What kinds of

educational interventions are essential

to address the constant changes in

adult migrants’ learning needs? Is

mainstream adult education, which

aims to adapt migrants to a given

society and equip them with necessary

survival skills, sufficient?

Personal Reflections

This part of the essay attempts to shed

light on some of the questions posed

earlier on. These are:

• What kind of integration for adult

migrants do we need?

• What kinds of educational

interventions are essential to

address the constant changes in

adult migrants’ learning needs?

• How can integration be achieved

and what is the role that adult

education can play?

• Is mainstream adult education,

which aims to adapt migrants to a

given society and equip them with

necessary survival skills, sufficient?

A first idea evolving from the LCE

project is that, despite the different

degrees of onsite LCE measures taken in

all four contexts, the language learning

programs explored address the need

to assimilate — to integrate migrants

into the dominant society. With one

exception, the programs are designed

with clear instructions from the state

providers defining the basic skills and

knowledge needed to survive in the

hosting country. In such a context,

LCE becomes only a practical response

to cohort situations; these are marked

by diversity, heterogeneity in terms of

migrants’ cultural, social and economic

capital, self and social location, and

years of experience in mobility outside

the migrants’ home country (Borg, 2021).

Therefore, given the short-term nature

of the programs, what can be attained

beyond the first response is limited

and partial. This is confirmed by two

adult migrant interviewees from

Cyprus who argued that the program

they joined was not enough for them

to improve their opportunities for

further integration.

The above takes us to the second idea

regarding the policies adopted among

the EU member states addressing

the integration of migrants, including

the countries that were part of this

research. These vary, ranging from

those assuming a monocultural

approach, like in the case of Cyprus

and Estonia, and those implementing

a more intercultural approach, such

as in the case of Scotland. Policies

adopting a monocultural approach

display assimilation tendencies, aiming

at migrant learners’ adjustment to

the host country’s local culture and

standards. This implies a “deficit model”

in which “migrants require intervention

to be included or integrated, while

the institutions and broader society

remain largely unchanged” (Morrice

et al., 2017, p. 129). When providing

integration courses that are unilateral

and monocultural, differences between

individual citizens and differences with

and between migrant learners are

ignored (Jenks et al., 2013, as cited in

Brown et al., 2020). Besides, migrants,

as diverse, active participants in the

educational process, do not fit into a

single category of learners and have

complex and diverse educational

needs or desires. The intercultural

approach understands integration “to

be a two-way process involving mutual

accommodation and change on the part

of both the migrant and host society”

(Morrice et al., 2017, p. 130). Based on

this understanding, collective identities

emerge; at the same time, individual

differences are valued through

discursive spaces, authentic dialogue

dedicated to emancipation, quality adult

educators disposed toward diversity,

internationalization, and interculturality

(Borg, 2021).

In some cases, research findings

identified discursive monoculturalism

and generalizing or homogenizing

approaches. These approaches reflect a

lack of sensitivity toward differentiated

adult migrants. However, the analysis

illuminated stakeholders’ critical

acknowledgment of the need for

differentiated teaching. Findings also

illuminated instances when policy gaps

that lead to traces of monoculturalism

were overridden by the educator (Brown

et. al., 2021) (e.g., in the case of the

Malta program).

A third idea that has emerged links to

the second project, which is based on

the life stories of four adult migrant

learners. Its findings are indicative of

the great heterogeneity among migrants

and the complexity in the ways in which

their learning needs and aspirations

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

get transformed while living in the host

country. Migrants’ initial need to learn

the language for survival evolves across

the migratory experience; hence, once

again, mainstream adult education that

aims at helping individuals to adapt to

a given society and equip them with

survival skills proved to be deficient.

Concluding Remarks

This discussion leads to three

conclusions and policy directions:

a) An integration model for the

education of adult migrants

that involves a two-way process

in which migrants and the

host community adapt to each

other. Only in this way can adult

education play an important role

by supporting and empowering

migrants and local communities.

Adult education should be seen “as

an open, dynamic system, which is

open to transformations from the

two-sided process of integration

that is driven by interactions

amongst migrants and native

learners” (Gravani et al., 2019,

p. 30).

b) A liberating, emancipatory,

change-oriented adult education

for migrants that enhances

critical awareness, self-efficacy,

personal development, and active

engagement in the new social

space. Manninen et. al. (2020)

introduced the phrase “change-

oriented adult education” and

argued that it

… encompasses an approach,

philosophy and set of teaching

and learning methods that seek

to create individual and/or social

change. Learners can also move

beyond individual transformation

to a collective empowerment based

on critical awareness, new ways of

thinking, and active participation.

This model facilitates a process of

conscious realization for learners

as they work together taking

action, including potential acts

of resistance, towards a more

democratic, equal and ethical

world. (p. 5)

c) An “emancipatory learner-

centered education” (ELCE)

for migrants. This is a phrase

introduced by Professor Carmel

Borg (2021) that responds to

the need for transforming top-

down, educator-learner (migrant)

relationships into opportunities for

genuine collaboration. The ELCE

initiative is rooted in participatory

democracy and evolves around the

pedagogy of authentic dialogue.

It also challenges the perceptions

of migrants and migration,

problematizes assumptions

about learning in the context of

migration, and challenges the

perception of the experts as the

only source of knowledge, and in

so doing, generates empathy with

all migrants. According to Borg,

“ELCE is an educational process

that welds the collective reading of

the world with ongoing communal

action for personal and social

change. ELCE’s vision is overt and

clear, it foregrounds the notion

that migrants and educators

act in communion and are both

protagonists in a process of mutual

and reciprocal transformation”

(p. 181).

Finally, yet importantly, these

discussions emphasize the value of

diversity. Migrants in our society bring

diversity, and diversity is a learning

opportunity: It is a strength. We, as

adult educators, should be open to

hearing the voices of adults around the

world, no matter their backgrounds.

A diverse society is a learning society,

and a culturally diverse society is an

open society. Adult education should

have a role in valuing and fostering

diversity, plurality, heterogeneity, living

with the difference, perceiving this as

an educative process, and trying

to create spaces to accommodate

differences. M. Scott Peck’s quote:

“Share our similarities, celebrate our

differences” (Brainy Quote, n.d.) should

be our motto.

As adult educators, we could reflect on

the above, empower ourselves, and

take action for forms of adult education

that support solidarity, inclusivity,

learner-centeredness, respect, authentic

and democratic dialogue, acceptance,

collegiality, empathy, and optimism. As

Bainbridge et al. (2021), colleagues from

the European Society for the Research in

the Education of Adults (ESREA), recently

identified: “We, as researchers, teachers,

and citizens, are embedded in a liquid,

runaway, fractious, anxiety ridden world

but have responsibilities to struggle

toward something better, grounded

in social justice” (p. 2). Even if there is

much work for us to do and the journey

is long, we should demonstrate critical

reflection, commitment, perseverance,

resilience, and turn our anger and

frustration raised by right-wing populism

into communal action informed by a

love for each other, gratitude for what

the journey has given us, and hope for a

better world that fosters equity.

To close with my favorite Greek poet

C.P. Cavafy (1911):

When you set out on your journey

to Ithaca,

pray that the road is long,

full of adventure, full of knowledge.

…

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has

not deceived you.

Wise as you have become, with so

much experience,

you must already have understood

what Ithaca means. (lines 1-3;

34-36)

Notes

This part is based on the recently

published book by Gravani and

Slade (2021).

IMAESC is an Erasmus Mundus

program funded by the EU and

delivered since 2016 by the

University of Glasgow (Scotland;

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

leader), the Open University of

Cyprus (Cyprus), the University of

Tallinn (Estonia), the University of

Malta (Malta), and the University

of Maynooth (Ireland; since 2019).

IMAESC is a unique program that

brings together European and

international universities, VET

(vocational education and training)

institutions, and community-

based organizations and policy

units, which recognize that adult

education is a powerful tool in

producing competent, critical

citizens and for developing

equitable and democratic societies.

It has had 74 graduates from over

35 countries and has received about

seven million euros in funding.

SUNY Empire State College is an

educational associate partner of

IMAESC.

This part is based on the book

chapter by Barkoglou and Gravani

(in press) that is to be published

in 2022.

References

Bainbridge, A., Formenti, L., & West, L.

(Eds.). (2021). Discourses, dialogue

and diversity in biographical

research: An ecology of life and

learning. Brill/Sense. https://doi.

org/10.1163/9789004465916

Barkoglou, G., & Gravani, M. N. (in

press). Exploring adult migrants’

learning needs using an

empowerment-critical approach:

A biographical research. In Hoggan,

C. & Hoggan-Kloubert, T., (Eds.),

Adult learning in a migration

society. Routledge.

Borg, C. (2021). Reading the migrants’

world through emancipatory

learner-centred education: Parting

reflections of the micro pedagogical

contexts. In M. N. Gravani & B. Slade

(Eds.), Learner-centred education

for adult migrants in Europe: A

critical comparative analysis (pp.

168-181). Brill/Sense. https://doi.

org/10.1163/9789004461529

Brainy Quote. (n.d.). M. Scott Peck

quotes. https://www.brainyquote.

com/citation/quotes/m_scott_

peck_160095

Brown, M., Gravani, M. N., Slade,

B. & Jogi, L. (2020). Integrating

migrants through adult language

programmes: A comparative case

study of four European countries.

In S. Przytuła & Ł. Sułkowski (Eds.),

Integration of migrants into the

labour market in Europe: National,

organizational and individual

perspectives (pp. 155-169). Emerald

Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/

S1877-636120200000025011

Cavafy, C.P. (1911). Ithaca. https://www.

ithaca.org.au/about-ithaca/poem-

from-cavafy

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the

oppressed. Penguin Books.

Gravani, M. N., Hatzopoulos, P.,

& Chinas, C. (2019). Adult

education and migration in

Cyprus: A critical analysis.

Journal of Adult and Continuing

Education, 27(1), 25-41. https://doi.

org/10.1177/1477971419832896

Gravani, M. N., & Slade, B. (Eds.).

(2021). Learner-centred

education for adult migrants in

Europe: A critical comparative

analysis. Brill/Sense. https://doi.

org/10.1163/9789004461529

Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern

practice of adult education: From

pedagogy to andragogy (2nd ed.).

Cambridge Books.

Manninen, J., Jetsu, A., & Sgier, I.

(2020). Change-oriented adult

education in the fields of democracy

and digitalization. FuturelabAE.

https://eaea.org/wp-content/

uploads/2020/02/FutureLabAE_

updatedversion2.pdf

Mezirow, J. (1985). A critical theory

of self-directed learning. In S.

Brookfield (Ed.), Self-directed

learning: From theory to practice. New

directions for continuing education

(pp. 17-30). Jossey-Bass.

Morrice, L., Shan, H., & Sprung, A. (2017).

Migration, adult education and

learning. Studies in the Education

of Adults, 49(2), 129-135.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.

2018.1470280

Schweisfurth, M. (2013). Learner-centred

education in international perspective:

Whose pedagogy for whose

development? Routledge. https://doi.

org/10.4324/9780203817438

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

SUNY Empire State College:

An Invitation to the Institution of Knowledge Seekers

Patricia Isaac, Syracuse

s SUNY Empire celebrates its

50th anniversary as an innovating

higher education teaching

college, let’s reflect on our past and

proudly focus on our future.

I’m always moved when I read these

words written by Britain’s poet laureate,

John Masefield (1878-1967):

There are few earthly things more

beautiful than a University. It is

a place where those who hate

ignorance may strive to know,

where those who perceive truth

may strive to make others see. …

These words still ring true for me

irrespective of what we know of the

traditional university as the keeper

of knowledge found in ivy-covered

buildings. I honor “those” who seek

the truth and abhor ignorance. I

honor those knowledge seekers who

came before me, who persevered and

endured to break down the hidden and

not so hidden barriers. These honored

ones did not retreat nor break at the

onslaught of adversity. The knowledge

seekers understood their birthright and

fought for acceptance. Their dreams

were weathered but not broken; their

every hope held firm and did not

diminish. They sought affirmation and

value and recognition because, as

Masefield reminded us 75 years ago, the

university must “uphold ever the dignity

of thought and learning”:

… where seekers and learners alike,

banded together in the search for

knowledge, will honour thought

in all its finer ways, will welcome

thinkers in distress or in exile, will

uphold ever the dignity of thought

and learning. …

The university is not just a structure;

rather, it is made up of individuals

who individually and collectively seek

knowledge; and for many, the love

of learning is unquenchable because

knowledge is free and a human right

that should be accessible to all who

desire to know and learn.

SUNY Empire’s founder and champion,

Ernest Boyer, questioned the purpose

of the traditional university in 1970. As

Richard Bonnabeau (1996) wrote in his

history of the college’s first 25 years:

… Empire State College sought to

bring about meaningful change,

to make higher education relevant

and accessible. It was this search,

courageously undertaken by the

founders, administrators, faculty,

and staff of Empire State College,

that put it, from its inception, on

the cutting edge of innovation in

American higher education. (p. 16)

And here is Masefield again:

There are few things more enduring

than a University. Religions may

split into sect or heresy; dynasties

may perish or be supplanted,

but for century after century the

University will continue, and the

stream of life will pass through it,

and the thinker and the seeker will

be bound together in the undying

cause of bringing thought into

the world.

Twenty-one years into the 21st century

and we still see the tension in higher

education between idealism and reality,

between exclusion and acceptance,

and between elitism and equality. As

thinkers and knowledge seekers, have

we kept our promise to ourselves and

our students? What are the most pivotal

Patricia Isaac

questions and answers that must be

explored? Masefield’s speech challenges

us to consider all possibilities and

engage in a shared journey of dialogue.

In the spirit of Masefield’s speech, I

ask all of us to think about how we see

ourselves as knowledge seekers and

how we express it.

John Masefield’s Speech

Reply to the Toast of the Honorary

Graduands [at the University of

Sheffield], 1946

There are few earthly honours

more to be prized than this which

you are now giving to us. There are

few earthly things more splendid

than a University. In these days

of broken frontiers and collapsing

values, when the dams are down

and the floods are making misery,

when every future looks somewhat

grim and every ancient foothold has

become something of a quagmire,

wherever a University stands, it

stands and shines; wherever it

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

exists, the free minds of men, urged

on to full and fair enquiry, may still

bring wisdom into human affairs.

There are few earthly things more

beautiful than a University. It is

a place where those who hate

ignorance may strive to know,

where those who perceive truth

may strive to make others see;

where seekers and learners alike,

banded together in the search for

knowledge, will honour thought

in all its finer ways, will welcome

thinkers in distress or in exile,

will uphold ever the dignity of

thought and learning and will exact

standards in these things. They give

to the young in their impressionable

years, the bond of a lofty purpose

shared, of a great corporate life

whose links will not be loosed until

they die. They give young people

that close companionship for which

youth longs, and that chance of the

endless discussion of the themes

which are endless, without which

youth would seem a waste of time.

There are few things more enduring

than a University. Religions may

split into sect or heresy; dynasties

may perish or be supplanted,

but for century after century the

University will continue, and the

stream of life will pass through it,

and the thinker and the seeker will

be bound together in the undying

cause of bringing thought into

the world.

To be a member of one of these

great Societies must ever be a

glad distinction.

In conferring it upon us you declare,

or let it be presumed, that we are

qualified to teach in those ways

of life which we have followed. It

has been a mark of the Humanist

since he began among us that “he

wol gladly lerne and gladly teche”;

and although all of us would more

gladly learn than teach, to be

counted fit to teach is something

of a crown to all men.

On behalf of my fellows in this

glory, on behalf of the very

learned, valiant, wise and gifted

men beside me here, who stand

for the Law by which we live, the

Air by which we breathe, the Free

Enquiry by which we hope to

endure, and the Art by which we

shall be remembered, I thank you

for this great distinction, which

links us with you while we last. (P.

Errington, personal communication,

November 18, 2020)

Note

Special thanks to The Society of Authors

as the Literary Representative of the

Estate of John Masefield, Phil Errington,

and Sarah Baxter for the permission to

include Masefield’s speech in All About

Mentoring.

Reference

Bonnabeau, R. F. (1996). The promise

continues: Empire State College —

The first twenty-five years.

The Donning Company.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Caring With Technology

Carolina Kim, Manhattan

Why Typing?

ack in the ‘90s in Brazil, before

my family had a personal

computer, my dad made me a

hand-drawn paper keyboard where I

was to practice my typing lessons. He

somehow convinced a director of a

professional development center for

adults where I grew up in Brasília to

enroll his two tween daughters and

create a children’s section of a typing

class just for us. In this newly formed

class of two students, I was the second-

best typist, just straggling behind

my sister.

At that time, I couldn’t rationalize why

he was making me memorize and

repeatedly press “asdfg” and “hjklç” —

one key, one letter, one finger at a time,

over and over again. “What was my dad

thinking dropping me off here?! Unee is

so much faster than I am. We don’t even

have a machine at home!” My weekly

internal complaints and bratty attitude

at our poor college-age instructor

were not fully unfounded. After all, we

didn’t have a typewriter or a computer

at home. We rarely saw computers in

school or ever thought about the need

to typewrite anything. Cursive writing

was serving me just fine, thank you.

In my young mind, the fact that we

didn’t have a computer automatically

disqualified me to learn anything about

it — let alone get typing lessons only

to go home and be expected to perfect

those skills on a flat piece of paper.

But by the time we moved to the

United States at the turn of the century,

personal computers were more readily

available and attainable for American

homes. When we finally got our first

computer, a cream-colored Gateway

with a real clickity-clackity keyboard,

my sister and I were already typing

very close to the average professional

speed (50 to 80 words per minute) and,

oddly, were already very comfortable

around computers. These newly-minted

immigrants who struggled to speak

English in their high school classes

were getting opportunities to excel in

advanced computer stuff such as, in my

sister’s case, learning C++ and CAD in

an engineering class, and, in my case,

using music notation software to create

music sheets with the legendary and my

most influential guitar teacher, Mr. Doug

Burris (yes, the Miami Beach Senior High

School Rock Ensemble director who

very sadly died of complications from

multiple sclerosis in 2016).

Technology as a Collection

of Art and Skill

My mind recalls these memories often in

my educational technology work today.

I meet, teach, and support students and

educators whose view of technology can

be as one-dimensional as that paper

keyboard; utilitarian, inanimate, and

draining. My observations are that most,

if not all of them, were thrust into the

dry world of click this to do that, and

have developed a disconnect between

the technical requirements and the

greater purpose for using technology.

So, what is the greater purpose for

using a platform, tool, or system? And

how does this address caring with

technology? Before addressing these

questions, allow me to share a few

important points. First, technology is

only a means to a purposeful, useful,

and transferrable end. It alone is never

the end goal (more on this in the next

section). Second, technology requires

and encourages a growth mindset.

Change is a constant and errors are

guaranteed. It is so important to accept,

be nimble about, and work within these

parameters. Last and most important,

Carolina Kim

technology is not just about computers.

Let us look at the origins of the root

word tekhnologia.

Technology has not always been

synonymous with glowing screens or

“techy” stuff. Tech comes from the same

Greek word from which “technique”

comes from, tekhne, which means skill

or art. Logy is from the Greek logos and

derived from the Proto-Indo-European

(PIE) root leg that means to collect or

gather. When put together, the rough

etymological meaning of technology

is “the collection of skills.” Or, as Alex

Gorischek (2017) explained, “technology

[is] a physical manifestation of a skill”

(para. 6). So, whatever the industry,

technology is the manifestation and

practical application of human ingenuity,

creativity, and problem-solving that were

built upon other collections of skills.

Therefore, the greater purpose is just

that: to build, collect, and transfer skills.

A Greater Purpose in

Transferrable Skills

If there’s one word to encapsulate the

end goal, it is “transfer.” Yes, we use

today’s technology to work faster and

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

more efficiently, but the end goal should

be to build, collect, and transfer skills

and knowledge. That means focusing

away from the emphasis on the name-

specific technology (e.g., Moodle, MS

Teams, Zoom) and spotlighting the

transferrable skills that we and our

students develop through them.

Take videoconferencing technology,

for example. This may be “old tech”

now that the entire world has relied

on it through the COVID-19 crisis, but

we may not have stopped to count the

skills that we have collected through the

endless video calls we’ve made. Here are

a few skills we have developed: how to

communicate in a remote environment

absent of nonverbal cues, how to utilize

video call etiquette in various platforms,

the basic knowledge of the workings

of a broadband internet connection,

and basic technical troubleshooting,

among others.

From this point, there are myriad ways

our students could transfer these skills

and knowledge. If they’re in education,

they may understand more deeply

how remote, synchronous teaching

via a video platform is an entirely

different modality than face-to-face

teaching and get inspired to develop

pedagogical strategies specific to

their schools. They may develop an

interest in policymaking after seeing

the inequalities of broadband services

in their communities. Others may even

get a spark on a research question, on a

completely innovative solution, or realize

that they are great troubleshooters

and seek a completely different career

path. Had COVID-19 not forced us to

build these videoconferencing skills and

knowledge, how many of our students

would have been given the opportunity

to collect these skills under normal

circumstances? If they do not build

these skills here, then where?

Caring With Technology

Despite not knowing much about

computers at that time, my dad realized

that the computer keyboard was

an entryway for us. Typing well was

not his end goal but it surely was an

opportunity. His gut feeling was that it

would remove barriers and allow me to

more easily navigate computers, while

potentially opening educational and

professional opportunities. Sure enough,

that one act opened possibilities for me

to utilize technology in multiple contexts

and applications that not even he could

have foreseen. I am forever grateful for

his perseverance. It was just one of the

many loving, caring decisions he and my

mom have made in my life.

In this same sentiment, how can we use

technology with our students as some

entryway and not as the end result?

What opportunities do we give students

to build skills as we use technology with

them? Do we give them the opportunity

to transfer those skills and experiences

to other areas? How can we implement

and use technology that is mindful of

those transferrable skills? By considering

the skill sets of the students first, we are

truly caring with technology.

Reference

Gorischek, A. (2017, May 30). Technically

tech is technology: Or, the root of

glowing screens is a human skill.

Medium. https://medium.com/

ologologic/technically-tech-is-

technology-ac54bfe27a4a

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

From “Before the Beginning” to Emeritus:

50 Years at SUNY Empire State College

Al Lawrence, Mentor Emeritus, Saratoga Springs

“I

’ve been involved with Empire

State College since before the

beginning,” I’ve often told my

colleagues. In 1970, I was a young

newspaper reporter with an associate

degree in journalism, covering campus

news, which consisted primarily of

anti-war demonstrations and student

takeovers of university administration

buildings in protest to the presence of

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

programs.

But one day I was assigned to interview

SUNY Chancellor Ernest L. Boyer, who

was traveling the state promoting an

initiative for a new kind of university

program that he called, at the time,

“University College.” It was designed

to appeal to those disaffected with

conventional college education, give

them an opportunity to design their own

learning programs, and acknowledge

that there are many different ways of

acquiring knowledge.

A few years later, I met a young

literature professor at the Albany

location of what, by then, was called

Empire State College. Bob Congemi,

who is still mentoring and teaching at

the college 50 years later, urged me to

enroll, assemble the credits from my

associate degree and miscellaneous

others I had picked up at various

colleges, and seek credit for what I had

learned covering government, courts,

and education at four newspapers

around the state.

Credits were then measured in months

(a month equating to four credit hours),

rather than credit hours, and I did a six-

month thesis project to complete my

degree on the controversial subject of

plea bargaining in the criminal courts.

Under the direction of my mentor, Dr.

Robert E. Morrison, I assembled the

bibliography that I would undertake to

read and proposed the lawyers, judges,

and legislators I would interview. Mentor

Bob Morrison and I wrote an extensive

learning contract in longhand, which

was typed on a manual typewriter by his

secretary, and I came back in six months

with the finished project, a version of

which was ultimately published in a

magazine on state government.

Six years later, I had a master’s degree

in criminal justice and a law degree and

was working in state government when

Bob Congemi again prevailed upon me,

this time to tutor one of his students

in Business Law. That was more than

39 years ago. In the meantime, I have

worked with hundreds of students as

an adjunct, a part-time mentor, a full-

time nontenure-track lecturer, and an

assistant, associate, and full professor.

I have taught individual studies and

study groups in a regional center of the

college, a unit, two of the former FORUM

Management programs, graduate

studies, the Center for Distance Learning

(CDL), and, for the past few years, what

is now called the School of Social and

Behavioral Sciences.

I’ve worked in eight different locations

in Albany and Saratoga under five

presidents, six interim presidents,

seven deans, and too many provosts to

count or remember. To my great good

fortune, two of those provosts were

Joyce Elliott and Meg Benke, who also

number among the deans and interim

presidents. I’ve labored in cramped

cubicles that I had to share with other

faculty and in an office in which I had to

hang an umbrella over the computer to

protect it from a leaky roof, as well as in

a beautiful modern building overlooking

a stand of pine trees. Somewhat of a

bibliophile, I surreptitiously filled the last

Al Lawrence

office with books after borrowing more

than the requisite number of shelves

that I was permitted!

In my early days, I often met with

students after hours in my government

office at Empire State Plaza in Albany

and sometimes at my home. I typed

my own learning contracts, narrative

evaluations, and prior learning

evaluations on typewriters. I found

my own books and other resources in

libraries and wrote to publishers for

review copies. We did not give students

grades at the time, and they were often

expected to come up with the themes

for papers, rather than fulfill specific

assignments. Students enrolled for

studies on any Monday of the year,

except during the faculty reading period,

so one often had students working at

different points in the same or a similar

learning contract. I had many Business

Law students and would meet monthly

with them to have them analyze

hypothetical problems from the text that

I used for 10 editions. I might be doing

contract law one day, corporations the

next, and property law on another day.

Photo credit: Zoey McAllister

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Over time, I developed about 30

different learning contracts in

legal subjects, criminal justice, and

journalism. I taught dispute mediation in

FORUM and New York state government

to interns in a SUNY-wide program

at Empire State Plaza. One of my

most rewarding experiences was the

collaboration with Joyce Elliott, mentor

Dick Gotti, and other colleagues on a

weekend residency on family issues

that we presented first in Albany, then

In Syracuse. In my session on legal

policy, we debated such “dull” topics as

abortion, gay marriage, and surrogate

parenting.

Teaching one-on-one has its

disadvantages. If a student is

unprepared or not understanding the

material, this Socratic method (which

I favor) does not work well. You can’t

simply go to another student for

enlightenment; you can only analyze

the problem yourself. And too many

students have a bad habit of “cutting

class” by simply failing to show up —

apparently not recognizing that their

instructor is sitting alone in the office

waiting to see whether they appear. But

it has its rewards, as well. I remember

clearly a student whose face would

light up with recognition as he saw the

reasoning behind many of the rules of

contracts to which he had been exposed

in the construction industry but had

never fully understood.

Study groups gave greater opportunities

for intellectual interaction and

sometimes frivolity. During the health

reform initiatives of the Clinton

administration, I was teaching a group

in Health and the Law when there was

a knock at the door. A secretary stuck

her head in and announced, “Al, there

is someone here to see you, and it’s

important.” I went to the door and

opened it to find a life-size cardboard

cutout of Hillary Clinton standing on

the threshold. “She” joined us for

the remainder of the session. With

the cooperation of the secretary, the

students had “invited” her as a surprise

to their instructor.

When I began mentoring in 1998, I

inherited a number of students who

had been ill-served by an ailing mentor

who had retired. The records of what

they had enrolled in, studied, and been

evaluated for were contradictory, and

the students themselves could offer

little information about what they had

studied, learned, and written. Dean

Joyce Elliott and I eventually concluded

that they could not be given the credit

that they had paid for, which, of course,

left many unhappy campers. I was

plagued by this problem for 10 years

as students who had once studied

with this mentor returned, hoping to

resume their studies and complete

their degrees.

Educational planning was then an open

book. Every student wanted to know,

“What courses do I need to take? Where

are the courses listed?” There were, of

course, no required courses, and the

only list was of CDL courses, which, at

the time, were far, far fewer in number

than the online courses offered today.

And they were not online; they were

by paper and mail correspondence

with instructors. Because they ran on

term schedules and many students

enrolled in regional centers on one of

the 48 other weeks, the CDL courses

were not available to them anyway.

This required extensive discussions

with students about what they wanted

to learn, why they wanted degrees,

and where they wanted to go. We still

do this, of course, but it’s much easier

when they have a catalog of possible

studies for a framework and even easier

if they have a registered program to

follow. On the other hand, I think it was

somewhat easier to mentor creatively

in the days when one didn’t need to be

as mindful of the strict educational and

professional requirements that exist

today in many fields. We didn’t need to

be so concerned about the prerequisites

and credentials needed to get students

where they wanted to be, which made

“generalist” mentoring in fields other

than your own much less fraught with

the danger of turning out students who

were unprepared for the career or the

graduate education they desired.

But have we become too unwilling

today to be creative and to urge

students to explore knowledge

in innovative and unconventional

ways? Are we too rigid in thinking

that a program “must” contain

“But have we become

too unwilling today

to be creative and

to urge students to

explore knowledge

in innovative and

unconventional ways?”

certain elements or that only certain

concentration titles will pass muster

with the college’s assessment

committees? This is certainly not

what Chancellor Boyer had in mind

50 years ago.

There was no DP Planner when I began

mentoring. Students typed their degree

plans, and alterations required constant

arithmetic recalculations. There were no

SUNY General Education requirements.

Rules about “shaving” credits in order to

meet what was then a 128-credit degree

requirement changed constantly.

The journalism and criminal justice

students that I taught developed

programs that did not easily align with

existing area of study (AOS) guidelines.

Furthermore, faculty on assessment

committees often interpreted

Community and Human Services (CHS)

guidelines narrowly as though the word

“community” did not appear and every

student was headed toward a career in

social work. Criminal justice students

were often required to include courses

in human services, and police officers

with 20 years of experience were

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

mandated to do internships in social

service agencies in order to meet a

guideline that required “application”

of their knowledge — something no

other college required of criminal

justice students.

Joyce Elliott was provost when I became

a full-time, tenure-track professor,

and I suggested a new area of study,

to be called Public Affairs, in order to

better accommodate many students

in public service. She gave me a partial

reassignment to discuss the idea

throughout the college and to draft and

shepherd guidelines through the long

process of college governance, SUNY,

and state education review. I worked

with Tai Arnold in academic affairs, as

well as faculty colleagues including Ed

Warzala, Duncan RyanMann, and Frank

Vander Valk. Tai was initially hesitant.

“We haven’t had a new AOS in 30 years,”

she told me, I remember. “But, on the

other hand, maybe that’s a good reason

to do it,” she said. In the process, we

discovered that an old “rule” that each

regional center must have a full-time

faculty member in each area of study

was an “urban myth,” not a requirement

for accreditation. We met with some

resistance. It surprised me that some

faculty at an innovative, nontraditional

college would balk at change, and

there were those who thought “Public

Affairs” referred to the likes of Bill

Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, even

though there were many colleges and

programs across the country using

that nomenclature.

The strangest objection, to my mind,

was that, by providing students with a

new option for a registered program,

we would somehow be “taking away”

something from the CHS area of study

and the faculty who identified with it.

This I never understood; at the time,

we had no schools and departments

and were administratively organized by

regional centers.

The new AOS was ultimately approved,

of course, and students have now been

registering programs under the title

Public Affairs for nearly 15 years.

I had often been confounded by

the language in AOS guidelines for

disciplines outside my own learning.

I remember that, when I began

mentoring, even psychology professors

could not explain to me what courses

aligned with “domains and dimensions

of thought,” language in the Human

Development guidelines at the time.

We attempted to draft the Public Affairs

guidelines in language that students

and faculty from other disciplines could

understand, and we used examples of

course titles that might be used to meet

them in the different concentrations

common to the AOS, such as criminal

justice, public administration, or

emergency management.

I moved to the Center for Distance

Learning as it was expanding in the

early 2000s and converting its print-

based courses to an online format

that then presented on a platform

called the SUNY Learning Network.

It was shortly after the 9/11 terrorist

attacks, and emergency management

and homeland security were becoming

burgeoning new fields. CDL had a one-

year government grant to create 10 new

courses in emergency management, and

I was assigned as the area coordinator

in criminal justice to lead the project.

There were few such programs, few

resources, and little definition in

academic circles as to what such an

academic study should encompass. For

years, I attended conferences at which

the primary topic of discussion was,

“What is Emergency Management as an

Academic Field?” But such vagaries don’t

make me uncomfortable; I saw it as an

opportunity to create a definition and a

curriculum. Criminal justice and public

administration also lend themselves to

multiple interpretations of knowledge

and content, and academics have also

struggled since the 1960s to define the

precise content of such degrees.

In a year, we had 10 new courses, many

of which still form the basis of our

offerings in emergency management,

and a program that emphasizes the

planning, policy, and management

of natural, technological, and human-

made disasters.

I also extensively revised the six, then-

existing CDL courses in criminal justice

and proposed some additional ones as

we moved them from print to online.

In addition, I was responsible for seven

fire administration courses that we had

long offered as part of a consortium

of colleges sponsored by the National

Fire Academy (NFA). The NFA had

produced textbooks for the courses,

paying experts in the field substantial

sums to write them. But when it was

subsumed into the new U.S. Department

of Homeland Security, that funding

dried up, and the NFA proposed placing

course content online. After only one

meeting with representatives of the

other consortium colleges, I realized that

SUNY Empire was the only institution

with expertise in online education, and

I urged Meg Benke, then my dean, to

take on the project. We became the

lead college, but each of the consortium

schools was assigned to develop two

courses. Unfortunately, several of them

were not equal to the task of doing so

in a timely way with quality content.

The program would never have been

completed without the extraordinary

support and perseverance of Nicola

Allain, who was then the director of

curriculum and instructional design, and

members of her team, most notably

Instructional Designer Sonja Thomson.

CDL grew by leaps and bounds during

my first 10 years on its faculty. We were

constantly searching for new faculty

and reviewing them for reappointment

and tenure. Hundreds of new courses

were created, and students came in

droves. New protocols for teaching and

mentoring them needed to be created,

and new methods for reviewing their

degree plans were developed. I served

as faculty chair for two years, and

we created several of what we called

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

“pre-approved programs,” which the

faculty agreed would pass muster in an

assessment committee without question

if followed by students. The need

for this process was obviated when

the college decided to move toward

registered programs.

I never felt the difficulty in moving

from teaching onsite to teaching online

that some of my colleagues have

expressed. Perhaps it is because online

discussions lend themselves well to

the Socratic method that I favor. I did

learn early on, though, that careful

monitoring of those discussions is

imperative, particularly if the subject

is controversial. In the first online

course that I taught, I had not realized

that students were posting before the

discussion period began, and, when I

joined, they were already calling one

another names and belittling responses

with which they disagreed. One

student’s remarks were so egregious

that he was ultimately disciplined.

When I joined the CDL faculty, there

was no standing Academic Review

Committee. I suggested that we needed

one and became its first chair. The

wealth of online resources has been a

boon for access to academic sources.

Unfortunately, it has also provided a

wealth of information for students to

plagiarize. Over the years, I endeavored

to design courses with assignments so

specific that it would eliminate the ability

of students to plagiarize. I also think that

it is part of our obligation as professors

to teach students the value of academic

honesty and respect for the intellectual

property of other scholars. Sometimes

that teaching requires consequences

for the deliberate copying of the work

of others. The integrity of the institution

and the degrees we award require that

we uphold these standards.

When I cleaned out my office shortly

before my retirement, I realized that I

have had a parallel career in student

conduct. I had amassed nearly a full

drawer of files of academic appeals,

and discipline and student conduct

proceedings. Plagiarism wasn’t the

only disciplinary issue. I conducted a

number of formal hearings in which

students were accused of such things

as forging a transcript for prior credit,

falsely obtaining financial aid, and verbal

harassment of college personnel.

We occasionally get praise or thanks

from our students, but often we do not

recognize the impact that we have on

their lives or their thinking. A few of my

students have become lifelong friends.

For years until she got her degree, I

encouraged, nurtured, cajoled, and

ran interference for a bright woman

from an abusive background who was

working as an over-the-road truck

driver. After a number of false starts,

she rewarded this effort by completing

two advanced degrees, remarrying, and

becoming a counselor. Even incidental

contacts can have a lasting impression.

I once received a gratifying email from

a student with whom I had had only

two sessions before she dropped out.

Years later, she wrote to tell me that

she had obtained a bachelor’s and a law

degree from another school but that, by

asking her to critique the rationale in a

court case, I had taught her “that I could

criticize the thinking of a Supreme

Court justice.”

The years between writing about a

“dream,” nontraditional college to

teaching in today’s robust institution

with hundreds of faculty and staff,

thousands of students, and many

thousands of graduates have led me

through three degrees, three careers,

hundreds of students, and dozens

of treasured colleagues, as well as

marriage, children and grandchildren.

I now look forward to returning to

a career in writing as a professor

emeritus, and I look forward to

watching the continuing evolution

of our dynamic college.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Poetry

Yvonne Murphy, Syracuse

Three Deer, an Elegy

II.

III.

Every daughter,

Her eyes fix

At the funeral, my daughter

a remnant —

upon impact,

stays outside.

deferred and shape-shifted

the pregnant doe —

Lacquered apples

through moon

her fawn spilling out.

flash from trees —

to a grey deer browsing

My headlamps splatter

most already fallen.

in lichened thickets.

with blood and shit and night.

This becomes impossible to say.

What more is there to say?

What was she trying to say?

Autumn bears its usual gifts,

Silvered in light, swelled

I have forsaken her, here

mums stutter like babies’ tongues,

expectations mirror

on the highway’s gravel.

geese gawk overhead

and fade —

More mute than mute, hot

and a doe leaps

her tired breath.

air of breath leaking

acrobatic

through my hands.

through mountains.

Petroglyphs

II.

Horses run through mariposa lilies, rice grass —

Having turned completely to stone,

etched in low cave walls of basalt, obsidian.

the wife asks: what’s next?

Feminine scratches of plants, avian species,

Carbon, chromium —

hunting camps and feathers, panels of ladders

faculties replaced

and circles, an archive of pecked-in marks.

by rock. Do I sleep?

Did they draw to record, embellish, or cover?

Do I burn?

Previous glyphs tagged, and extended —

petrified underground,

For love? Against erasure? Baskets and babies

kitchen dishes, clothes mounds

superimposed over fauna, cattails and water.

boulder and crack

Burials, rattles, monoliths, deer.

to dust

Some cross hatches devoid of design —

before the mineral flash

banded in zig-zags, Numic patterns on blankets,

of iron, manganese

carved expressions of supplication, open

filters through.

notices to recall: another year of ordinary devastations.

Tomorrow she will

decompose completely

without oxygen,

without demands.

This poem was previously published in Stone Canoe: A Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary (No. 15, 2021) by

The YMCA’s Downtown Writers Center, Syracuse, New York. More information is available at https://ymcacny.org/stone-canoe.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Translating a Blended Cyprus Residency

Study in the Digital Arts to Online

Thomas P. Mackey, Saratoga Springs

Teaching with Metaliteracy

Developing Ethics of Digital Art & Design

for the Cyprus Residency involved the

integration of metaliteracy in the course

design through readings, resources,

and learning activities. Metaliteracy is

a holistic pedagogical framework that

supports metacognitive reflection and

the collaborative production of new

knowledge. As first introduced:

Metaliteracy promotes critical

thinking and collaboration

in a digital age, providing a

comprehensive framework to

effectively participate in social

media and online communities. It

is a unified construct that supports

the acquisition, production,

and sharing of knowledge in

collaborative online communities.

(Mackey & Jacobson, 2011, p. 62)

Rather than rely entirely on discrete

skills, metaliteracy supports the

development of a critical and reflective

mindset for analyzing information

as well as producing and sharing it

in collaborative social settings. This

involves an awareness of metacognition

within four domains of learning that

intersect with the affective, behavioral,

and cognitive areas. As the metaliteracy

model shows (Figure 1: The Metaliteracy

Model), the metaliterate learner is at the

center of these four domains (Mackey

& Jacobson, 2014; [2022] in press). This

framework considers the whole person

and how learners think, feel, reflect, and

act as part of their learning in a variety

of information settings and situations.

An interactive version of this model is

available at the Metaliteracy.org (n.d.-a)

blog as an open educational resource

(OER) that is transferrable to different

learning scenarios.

Thomas P. Mackey (lower left) with Cyprus Residency students.

he summer 2019 Cyprus

Residency, part of SUNY Empire

State College’s International

Education program, inspired the

development of a new online course in

the digital arts titled Ethics of Digital Art

& Design. As a result of this translation,

from one mode to another, the online

version was offered to students for

the first time in the spring of 2021. In

the blended Cyprus Residency, this

particular study met the specific needs

of our International Education students

attending from Lebanon who were

seeking a course related to art, fashion,

and/or design. As a part of the digital

arts curriculum, it now meets the needs

of an even wider audience; it aligns with

the college’s area of study guidelines for

The Arts and meets the SUNY General

Education Requirement for The Arts. The

development of this course was realized

through the flexibility of SUNY Empire’s

independent study model to create

individualized learning experiences

based on the interests of students. It

also benefits from collaboration with

colleagues in International Education

to better understand the needs of our

students in Lebanon and to design it as

part of the digital arts course offerings.

The engagement with learners at

the Cyprus Residency, including the

enthusiasm they expressed for the

topic and this collaborative mode of

inquiry, motivated the development of

this course as an ongoing part of the

curriculum in the digital arts. Although

not all residency or special topics

courses need to become a permanent

part of the catalog, this one study, in

particular, delves into areas of digital

ethics in The Arts that contribute to and

complement related courses that benefit

student degree planning.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

The metaliteracy model includes another

ring beyond the four domains to identify

the characteristics that learners strive

toward as part of this process, including

being adaptable, open, productive,

informed, collaborative, participatory,

reflective, and civic-minded (Mackey,

2019, pp. 16-23). The characteristics

or qualities are practiced through

active metaliterate learner roles. The

outer ring of this diagram includes

the primary roles that focus especially

on the evaluation, production, and

sharing of content in social information

environments (Mackey & Jacobson,

2014, p. 91-94).

All of these components work together

to empower learners to reflect on their

own learning while taking charge of

their educational experiences. This

approach is informed by Flavell (1979),

who described a metacognitive process

in which individuals have “opportunities

for thoughts and feelings about [their]

own thinking to arise and, in many

cases, call for the kind of quality control

that metacognitive experiences can

help supply” (p. 908). This meditative

approach encourages learners to assess

their existing strengths while identifying

and working toward areas for continued

growth. From a metaliteracy perspective,

this is both an individualized and

collaborative process as individuals

reflect on their own needs and open up

to the potential for both teaching and

learning in collaborative communities.

Metaliteracy Goals and

Learning Objectives

Teaching with metaliteracy is supported

by four learning goals and related

objectives. The four main goals include:

1. Actively evaluate content while also

evaluating one’s own biases.

2. Engage with all intellectual property

ethically and responsibly.

3. Produce and share information

in collaborative and participatory

environments.

4. Develop learning strategies to

meet lifelong personal and

professional goals. (Jacobson

et al., 2018, paras. 4-7)

Each of these primary aspirations is

supported with learning objectives that

are identified as affective, behavioral,

cognitive, and/or metacognitive, which

unify the framework in a comprehensive

way. For instance, the first goal, which

focuses on the effective evaluation

of information, is reinforced with the

affective and metacognitive objective

to “Examine how you feel about the

information presented and how this

impacts your response” (para. 4). Here,

learners are encouraged to investigate

their emotional response to information

to identify potential preconceptions

that may impact their understanding

of content. The second metaliteracy

goal involves ethical and responsible

engagement with information. One of

the related objectives is both behavioral

and cognitive because it asks students

to “Differentiate between copyright,

Creative Commons, and open licenses

in both the creation and licensing of

original and repurposed content” (para.

5). This objective supports learners in

developing as responsible information

producers who understand copyright

and how to identify openly-licensed

materials.

The third metaliteracy goal is one of

the most important because it supports

the role of the learner as a producer

of information as individuals and in

collaboration with other participants.

This key goal is reinforced by the

affective and metacognitive objective

to “See oneself as a producer as well

as consumer of information” (para.

6). While some students may have

the latest technological devices, they

may not always see themselves as

contributing producers of content. This

objective is intended to encourage

reflection about this role and to think

beyond the technologies as only devices

for consumption. For students who may

have limited access or lack confidence

in applying technology, this same

objective encourages production in a

variety of settings from makerspaces

to connected communities with

openly available resources. According

to Sarah Nagle (2020), “Rooted in

the ideals of the maker movement,

the shift from consumer to creator

fundamentally changes students’

outlook and connects closely with the

theme of empowerment” (para. 4). The

fourth goal of metaliteracy emphasizes

the ongoing development of lifelong

learning strategies in personal and

professional contexts. In one of the

reinforcing objectives that is both

cognitive and metacognitive, learners

are encouraged to “Assess learning

to determine both the knowledge

gained and the gaps in understanding”

(Jacobson et al., 2018, para. 7). Through

this analysis of their own knowledge,

learners gain a better understanding

of where they are and where they

want to go on their own educational

journey. Overall, the metaliteracy goals

and learning objectives underpin the

conceptual model with the metaliterate

learner at the center of the roles,

domains, and characteristics. To further

reinforce the transferability of these

ideas, the metaliteracy goals and

learning objectives have been translated

into seven different languages and

are adaptable to different pedagogical

settings (Metaliteracy.org, n.d.-b).

Figure 1: The Metaliteracy Model

(Mackey & Jacobson, in press)

Figure design: Kelsey O’Brien using Genially

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

The Cyprus Residency

The original development of Ethics

of Digital Art & Design as a blended

residency study involved a new

course description and three learning

outcomes. The subsequent online

version of the same study has the same

title, description, and learning outcomes.

The course description states:

This course examines the ethical

considerations of digital art and

design. For centuries, artists have

contributed innovative perspectives

about how to see and understand

the world through creative

expression. Digital media allows

contemporary artists and designers

to make bold artistic statements of

their own with virtual technologies

and social media. In the digital

world, it is easy to manipulate

representations of reality while

instantaneously disseminating

information that has been digitally

altered. The proliferation of digital

tools has also allowed for greater

access to these resources, providing

everyone with the creative potential

to produce and share their own

digital artwork. What are the

ethical considerations for doing

so? What role do the digital artist

and designer play in revealing the

truth about the human experience?

What are the responsibilities of the

digital artist and designer to speak

the truth about society, culture,

and politics through digital art?

How do we differentiate between

creative artistic expression and

misrepresentations of reality in our

everyday experience with digital

media? (SUNY Empire State College,

2020-2021, DIGA 3036 section,

para. 1)

This course explores the ethical

issues related to digital art and design

within the context of creative artistic

expression such as the self-portrait and

representation of identity. This framing

of key art historical developments sets

the stage for an examination of ethical

issues related to the digital arts. One

of the key themes that emerges in the

course relates to digital manipulation

and the production and sharing of

content in a connected world. For

instance, students compare and

contrast altered images in digital art and

photojournalism to discuss the ethical

considerations in both contexts.

Learning Outcomes

This study defines three specific

learning outcomes to reinforce the

examination of issues related to ethics

in the digital arts:

1. Assess the ethical issues associated

with digital art and design, and

describe the responsibilities

associated with creating and

sharing digital artworks.

2. Analyze the social, cultural and

political issues related to art

and ethics.

3. Produce individual and collaborative

digital art projects. (SUNY Empire

State College, 2021a, Learning

Outcomes section, para. 1)

The learning outcomes for the course

are informed by the metaliteracy goals

and learning objectives as seen in the

emphasis on the evaluation of content

and the production of information

as individuals and in collaboration

with peers. The course description

and learning outcomes work together

to define the learning activities so

that students examine the ethical

dimensions of digital art and design.

All of the course readings are openly

available to guarantee access to the

materials at the residency and online.

Students engage in discussions in the

Moodle learning management system

sponsored by the Regional Food Bank

of Northeastern New York

and Catholic

Charities of the Diocese of Albany,

helping to distribute food of all sorts to

people who needed it.

This report aims to illustrate what

happens at a food drop: who is involved

and why, who volunteers, what they

do and how it gets done. If you want

to step inside the inner workings of a

Massive Food Drop or have ever thought

of volunteering at one, read on.

About Me, the Apple Queen

Earlier in my career at SUNY Empire

State College, I taught in the Middle East

for the college’s International Education

residency program in Lebanon. I

developed the course, Stories of Food

and Culture, a very popular global look

at literature, cooking, and foods across

various cultures. I really do like food. My

students loved introducing me to their

country and its traditional cuisines.

Food is not a privilege. Everyone should

be able to eat wholesome food. Our

country produces quality food in huge

quantities, so no one should go hungry

in America. Yet a Massive Food Drop is a

modern-day bread line; a story of food

and culture happening as we speak,

here in the richest country on earth.

I actually started volunteering in spring

2020, well before my sabbatical started,

with a Massive Food Drop at the

Pastoral Center on North Main Avenue

in Albany, New York. Maybe it was a

newspaper or television ad that got me

there. Or maybe it was the monthly

newsletter from Catholic Charities.

Their CEO, Vince Colonno, was a former

adjunct instructor in my online health

services area; we’ve always kept in

touch. Sister Betsy Van Deusen, of the

Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet,

coordinates the Massive Food Drops.

Betsy was a chaperone on my son’s

service trip to Guatemala with The

College of Saint Rose.

There I stood, staring at a pallet taller

than I was. This pallet was at least a ton

of apples, packed in plastic bags inside

cardboard cartons. My challenge was

to take the bags of apples out and fill

food boxes and bags with them until I

got to the bottom of the pallet. Later,

the prepacked bags were loaded into

the cars of guests who came to the food

drop or given to guests who walked in,

often with carts or rolling wagons.

The Larger View

A Massive Food Drop is a complex,

volunteer-powered activity with a lot

of moving parts. Unpacking food to

put in distribution boxes and bags is

mostly what I did, and while that task

is essential, there’s a lot more to the

whole enterprise.

Let’s back up a little. In Albany County,

where I live, roughly 10% of the

population in 2018 qualified as “food

insecure” (Feeding America, 2019). That

number has increased with the COVID-

19 pandemic.

“Food desert” is now an

everyday term, describing areas across

the country where quality food access

is limited or entirely absent. There are

more people who never required food

assistance before in rural, suburban,

Deborah J. Smith

and city communities. This includes the

elderly and those who are medically

compromised and often rely on others

to obtain enough food for their needs.

The Regional Food Bank is part of

the Feeding America network,

which

includes 200 food banks and 60,000

food programs across the United

States. Covering 23 counties from the

northernmost part of New York to as

far south as the NYC metro area, the

Regional Food Bank assists churches

and local food pantries, soup kitchens,

shelters, and programs for the disabled,

children, and seniors. A mammoth

physical warehouse in Latham, New

York, houses food donated to the

bank and received from various food

manufacturers, farmers, retail and

wholesale food distributors. Much of

the food comes from the United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Emergency Food Assistance Program.

The Regional Food Bank determines

what kinds of foods are loaded onto

pallets and delivered by various trucks,

including tractor-trailers, to each

drop site.

Photo credit: Philip McCallion

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Hey, here’s a tip: Food is sold to feeding

programs without markup, so the dollar

you or I spend at the supermarket buys

$10 worth of actual food from the food

bank. While donations to food pantries

are still useful, especially to teach

children generosity, the smart thing for

adults to do is write a check to your local

or regional food bank, as the money

goes much, much further. The Regional

Food Bank has been doing food drops

for some time now, but as the need

increased, they partnered with other

agencies, including Catholic Charities’

Mobile Vehicle Extension (CC MOVE).

CC MOVE coordinates food distribution

and service linkages for clients in rural

and underserved areas of the Diocese

of Albany, covering 10,000 square miles

of upstate New York. As the action

arm of Massive Food Drops, CC MOVE

employs an RV (recreational vehicle) to

transport its five-person staff to clients

in underserved areas. Massive Food

Drops originated as a collaboration

with Catholic Charities and the Regional

Food Bank, monthly, in largely rural

Montgomery and Fulton counties. In

2019, an average of 16% of Fulton and

Montgomery counties’ residents lived

in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.).

Social linkages and food services are

sparse there although greatly needed

by the population.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit,

the need for food in all locales rose

sharply due to sudden unemployment,

quarantines, food shortages,

government ineptitude, isolation, and

closures of congregate programs for

food and socialization, as well as other

pandemic sequelae. Catholic Charities

pledged to continue Massive Food

Drops beyond these two counties. In

December 2020 alone, 10 food drops

were conducted across a multicounty

area, offering 500 to 900 food bags at

each drop, receiving 12 to 24 pallets

(140 to 280 cases of a particular food)

per drop. Target figures for each drop

are estimated from the data collected

at prior food drops coupled with local

population demographics.

CC MOVE staff publish the dates and

times of Massive Food Drops on social

media and in the news. Volunteers

(that would be me) are welcome from

all over, providing the human power

to get those apples from the pallet on

the ground to the box in a car. Anyone

needing food can come to a Massive

Food Drop; there are no restrictions

of any sort. The data requested is

demographically simple: zip code,

number of households, and number of

people within each household receiving

food. And please wear a mask.

Where to Drop the Food

Like your own kitchen, you can’t drop

food anywhere and hope it will reach

its destination. Food must get to people

safely. Places for the Massive Food

Drops, especially during the pandemic,

require a location to be visited and

approved by both the food bank and

Catholic Charities. Sister Betsy — in

addition to coordinating and working at

the drops — scouts proposed locations.

A large, paved lot with two ways to get

in is ideal. During the drop, these are

entry and exit routes for traffic. There

should be room for the truck from

the Regional Food Bank to pull in and

unload pallets, room for traffic flow

around unpacking tables, a place to line

up filled bags and boxes, areas to put

fresh dairy foods and/or large fruit like

melons alongside the prepacked bags

so they can be easily loaded into cars or

given to walk-in guests ... all this while

maintaining social distancing among

each volunteer.

It’s a misperception that food drops

are mostly canned soup and other

nonperishable items (although a food

drop can include these, as well). Close to

a dozen food items are selected by the

Regional Food Bank for each drop. This

includes several sources of protein (for

example, pork, sausage patties, chicken,

shrimp, split peas, fish fingers, cheese),

fresh fruits (apples, plums, bananas,

grapes, melon, berries), fresh vegetables

(broccoli, potatoes, yams, carrots,

cucumbers, squash, prebagged fresh

salad, peppers — red and green), as

well as canned or boxed goods (bottled

orange juice, applesauce, spaghetti

sauce, dried pasta, pound blocks of

butter, macaroni salad). Often the bank

includes “fun stuff” most kids love, too

(packaged brownies, chocolate milk, Girl

Scout Cookies, pumpkin mini muffins).

Because the Nourish New York6

legislation allows New York state to buy

surplus dairy products generally sold

to the then-paused restaurant industry,

fresh milk, fresh and frozen eggs, fresh

butter, varieties of cheese and Greek

yogurts in several flavors are available

to distribute to guests along with their

food boxes or bags.

When I saw bags of shrimp at one food

drop, I instantly thought, “Can lobsters

be far behind?” While I never did see

lobsters, the shrimp were Gulf shrimp.

This purchase by the USDA provided

direct support to the fishermen affected

by devastating storms in the Gulf

Region, allowing them to keep and

maintain their livelihoods; similar in

focus to the Nourish New York scheme.

Deborah Smith sorting strawberries.

On the Ground, It’s Us

Anyone can volunteer at a Massive Food

Drop, no matter your age or any other

distinguishing characteristic. There’s

work for people who can haul and lift,

unpack, count, and repack, or those who

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

can direct traffic and record data. Mind

you, it is physical outdoor work. Often

local groups volunteer, from parishes

to social agencies. Massive Food Drop

volunteers report to the designated

site around 8:15 a.m. for instructions,

a short prayer for cooperative weather

conditions, and success in getting

food to people. Sanitizer and masks,

if needed, are available at the sign-in

table of the CC MOVE RV. Volunteers

social distance as the unpacking/

repacking process begins. In December,

an evening food drop was held in

Schenectady, New York, with the food

distributed successfully, shortly before

two feet of snow blanketed the region

— proof that miracles still happen.

Drive your car in for the Massive

Food Drop, and you’ll see these

volunteer roles:

Deborah Smith (left, in purple coat) and other

volunteers loading food bags into a waiting car.

Traffic control: Local police assist where

streets to the lot become congested with

waiting vehicles. But inside the drop

lot, volunteers in special vests direct

you, the “guest,” to one of four loading

stations where food is put into your car.

The car for Station One receives a blue

bag on the driver-side mirror; the next

three cars then move sequentially into

the remaining stations and drive out.

It makes directing traffic simple.

Station registrar: The registrar greets

you as a guest and collects data.

(That blue bag on the Station One car?

It’s taken by the Station One registrar.)

People obtaining food at the drop are

greeted as “guests” as a display of

dignity and respect. Keep in mind

that many in the food line never

thought they would ever find themselves

in need of food. Registrars ask for

and record the relevant demographic

data in each household (families of six-

plus get an extra bag). That’s all. From

this data, numerical tallies indicate

areas of greatest need, as well as

provide funding data for the CARES

Act,

the USDA,

and Nourish New

York programs.

Car loaders: In the hours before the

food drop opens, car loaders lift boxes

from the pallets onto nearby tables

so they can be sorted for packing.

Registrars take this function, also. Once

“showtime” arrives, the loaders will put

the prebagged food and dairy items in

your car trunk or back seat. As a guest,

you put the car in park, put on your

mask to talk to the registrar, and open

the trunk. Simple as that.

Pallet monitor: Remember me and

that pallet of apples? On either side of

the pallet are two long folding tables.

Once cartons of apples began to come

off the pallet and onto the tables, as

monitor, my job was to have both tables

supplied with apple cartons. Toward

the bottom of the pallet, food may be

consolidated at only one table, but until

then, the monitor gets cartons off the

pallet and onto both tables, either by

their own muscle or with assistance

from other volunteers.

Packers: That was me, too. I got cartons

of food and opened them up. Then I

piled enough on the table to drop into

many bags or stacked the cartons so I

could open and offload the food directly

from the carton to the bagger’s box or

bag. Sometimes foods are grouped in

predetermined numbers on the table

(which can change as certain foods

run out). Filling a bag usually happens

from either end of the table, so in hot

weather, I tried to rotate refrigerated

items in the middle out to the ends.

Baggers: Involving nearly everyone who

can lift a heavy box or carry a full bag,

baggers circulate past each table to

receive from the packers the allotted

number of food items. (Cardboard

boxes from the pallets are recycled

for this purpose, also.) The number

of food items per bag is determined

before the pallets are unloaded, then

divided by the anticipated number of

bags or boxes. Sister Betsy writes that

number in chalk in front of the table,

so everyone knows if a bag gets four

cheese blocks or one chicken, a bag of

cucumbers or four boxes of cookies,

for example. Through experience, a

good packer can work with two or three

food pallets and keep putting them into

waiting bags. With several volunteers

at a table, each usually works with their

own food item. Cartons of vegetables

(carrots, zucchini, and cucumbers are

good examples) arrive loosely packed

within their cartons, to be divided up by

volunteers into separate plastic bags.

It’s fun to try and develop a system with

packing, but when it’s flat-out busy and

the line of baggers is long, the whole

thing goes to blast anyway. As daunting

as it can be to look at hundreds of

carrots, or zucchini, or dried peas …

it’s great when they’re packed and

sitting in the line of ready-to-distribute

boxes snaking down the length of the

lot. Arriving at the bottom of a pallet

by unpacking all that food brings an

amazing sense of accomplishment.

Showtime!

Once 9:30 a.m. arrives, lined-up cars

proceed to the four loading stations.

Packers and baggers keep working,

while registrars and car loaders take

their positions. Traffic folks guide cars

into and out of the lot safely. Anyone

who “walks in” to a Massive Food Drop

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

registers (as do all of the volunteers)

near the CC MOVE RV at a continually-

staffed table where sanitizer, masks, and

registration lists are kept. A supply of

prepacked food bags is here for walk-in

guest distribution.

While there is a feeling of satisfaction in

having all the food packed and ready,

the depth of sadness at seeing the sheer

number of cars lined up at a Massive

Food Drop is huge. Hours in, the traffic

still doesn’t slow … and when it does,

there’s often a smaller number of cars

that show up slightly later, as guests

go home, tell their friends about the

drop, and the friends arrive. Massive

Food Drops run until almost lunchtime

or when all the food is gone — and the

food goes quickly.

Now and then, the line does stop and

some leftover food remains (even

the apples.) Most volunteers have a

connection to a local food pantry or

know people who need food but, for

their own reasons, may not come to

the Massive Food Drop. These items

are then delivered by volunteers to

those who need food. Sometimes it

is the elderly or a church food bank;

sometimes essential workers or

caregivers. Many times, the people

who get leftover food take some to

their neighbors who also need food,

expanding the delivery cycle.

It has been a strange year, to say

the least, but one where the Massive

Food Drops have helped others, in a

time when the larger forces in society

conspired to leave unaided many who

had fallen through the cracks. As a

nurse, I know the importance of good

quality food to health. I am delighted

to play a part in making sure nutritious

food gets to those who need it. I would

like to thank SUNY Empire State College

for this sabbatical opportunity to help so

many in whatever way I could.

Special Thanks

My thanks to Sister Betsy Van Deusen,

CSJ, who generously spent time with

me to describe the specifics of how a

Massive Food Drop occurs and why. It

was her energy and enthusiasm that

kept us moving.

My thanks also to Mina Murray Davis,

who crunches the numbers for the food

drives so we can continue to do what

we do; and Jim Hoon, who directs traffic

and “coordinates volunteers,” much akin

to herding cats. You all are the best.

Notes

Regional Food Bank of

Northeastern New York:

https://regionalfoodbank.net.

Catholic Charities of

the Diocese of Albany:

https://www.ccrcda.org/about_us/.

See projections for local

food insecurity by Feeding

America (2021).

Feeding America:

https://www.feedingamerica.org and

https://www.feedingamerica.org/

our-work/food-bank-network.

USDA Emergency Food

Assistance Program:

https://www.fns.usda.gov/

tefap/emergency-food-

assistance-program.

Nourish New York: https://

agriculture.ny.gov/NourishNY.

CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief,

and Economic Security) Act:

https://oig.treasury.gov/cares-act.

USDA Food and Nutrition:

https://www.usda.gov/topics/food-

and-nutrition.

References

Feeding America. (2019). Food insecurity

in Albany County before COVID-19.

https://map.feedingamerica.org/

county/2018/overall/new-york/

county/albany

Feeding America. (2021, March). The

impact of the coronavirus on

local food insecurity. https://

www.feedingamerica.org/sites/

default/files/2021-03/Local%20

Projections%20Brief_3.31.2021.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Quick facts:

Montgomery County, New York;

Fulton County, New York. https://

www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/

table/montgomerycountynewyork,fu

ltoncountynewyork/IPE120219

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Prospects and Perils for Workers and their

Organizations After the Pandemic

Jason Russell, Buffalo

Jason Russell is an associate professor

and coordinator of the Master of Arts in

Work and Labor Policy program in the

School for Graduate Studies, and the 2020

recipient of the Susan H. Turben Award for

Excellence in Scholarship. The following

is an edited version of his Turben Faculty

Lecture delivered at the Fall Academic

Conference on October 30, 2020.

Plagues, Work, and the Past

he 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is

without question a landmark

event in modern history. It has

been over a hundred years since

humanity faced a virus that spread so

quickly and with such impact. It has

understandably shaken people’s lives

as there is an expectation that modern

science can overcome any medical

adversity, yet a basic face mask is

the most effective available defense

against COVID until effective vaccines

and treatments are devised. There is

currently a lot of prognosticating going

on in the popular media about the

possible enduring meaning and impact

of COVID — it is now being accompanied

by an avalanche of scholarly analyses

of the virus — yet many of the

available mainstream narratives on the

consequences of COVID for work and

labor are so far somewhat superficial.

This discussion will hopefully help

address that deficiency in the discourse

on the pandemic by further historicizing

it as an event that impacts work

and labor. It will describe the trends

associated with COVID that are actually

new and others that, to paraphrase

Mark Twain, rhyme with what transpired

in the past.

COVID-19 is the latest in a long line

of major pandemics that seriously

impacted work and labor from the

earliest recorded history to the end

of the 20th century. For instance, the

Roman Empire was routinely beset

by plagues. Tens of thousands of

people are believed to have perished

in the third century CE [Common Era]

in Constantinople and the Eastern

Mediterranean because of the Justinian

plague, which appears to have been

a strain of the bubonic plague. A

devastating plague also ravaged

Jerusalem in the sixth century. We

regrettably know less about the history

of plagues in Africa and Asia 2,000 years

ago, and the origins of early plagues are

not entirely clear to historians.

The first plague for which we have

something approximating an extensive

historical record occurred from 1321

to 1353 when the bacterium Yersinia

pestis, which is carried by rodents, made

its way from Asia to Europe and led

to the Black Plague [the Black Death].

That pandemic killed between 75 and

200 million people and had a profound

effect on the development of the

societies that it infected. It also led to

the introduction of a law in England that

governed work. The fact that tens of

millions of people had died because of

the plague led craft workers to conclude

that the new scarcity of labor should

enable them to raise their wage rates.

England’s monarch and aristocrats

responded by regulating labor rates.

The 1351 Ordinance of Laborers is

considered the starting point for labor

law within the English common law

tradition. That tradition also forms the

basis for American constitutional law.

The ordinance set a maximum wage

for laborers, which was the rate paid

in 1346 before the plague raged across

England. People who were able to work

could be imprisoned for refusing to do

Jason Russell

so, and the ordinance placed limits on

people moving around to find work. This

ordinance was not formally repealed

until the Statute Law Revision Act was

passed in Britain in 1863 (Yale Law

School, 2008).

The Ordinance of Laborers was

succeeded in 1563 by the Statute of

Artificers. That second law was passed

in response to labor shortages brought

on by plague and other social issues.

It also set maximum wages, restricted

workers’ freedom of movement, could

force both men and women to toil

as agricultural laborers, and even

mandated the clothing that people could

wear based on their social class. Like

the 1351 ordinance, the 1563 statute

revealed a simple fact: a shortage of

labor did not give workers more power.

The state, in those cases monarchs and

aristocrats, could use coercion against

anyone who tried to bargain a better

wage rate for themselves (Digital Text

International, n.d.).

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

The problem of regulating labor

was not confined to Europe when

settlers began crossing the Atlantic

Ocean to what became the Americas.

The labor markets from the time of

European arrival to the Declaration of

Independence in 1776 changed but they

usually revolved around the scarcity

of workers. Epidemics and pandemics

were common in colonial-era America.

For instance, there were six smallpox

epidemics in Boston between 1636

and 1698. Smallpox vaccination was

eventually introduced in Massachusetts

by Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston

in 1721 (Niederhuber, 2014).

The lethal nature of European diseases

was most clearly seen in the impact

that they had on Indigenous people.

Up to 20 million Indigenous people —

95% of the overall population of the

Americas — died from diseases such

as smallpox, with many of them

perishing without actually coming

into direct contact with a settler.

Europeans, notably the Spanish,

attempted to enslave Indigenous people

to address colonial labor shortages

but the practice was not successful.

European countries identified another

solution: enslave Africans.

Up to 2 million enslaved people

perished crossing the Atlantic, but they

were not as susceptible to European

diseases as Indigenous people had

been. African slavery solved labor

shortages that were linked to disease,

although climate placed limits on its

use. A second source of labor was

thus introduced: indentured servitude.

Indentured servants were bound to

a master — the terms “master” and

“servant” were used into the first

decades of the 19th century — and

they came from poor families in Britain,

Ireland, and some from what is now

Germany. An indentured worker had to

work several years to pay off the cost

of his or her passage to the American

colonies before being freed from a

legal obligation to his or her master. A

servant who tried to break the indenture

could find his or her obligation extended

and face imprisonment.

Indentured servants were common in

the northeastern colonies because the

change of seasons imposed restrictions

on agricultural work. The cost of the

indenture relationship was really borne

by workers rather than employers.

In contrast, the horrid economics of

slavery meant that enslaved people

had to be made to toil all year, and

the more moderate southern climate

made that possible. Around one-half

to two-thirds of the Europeans who

came to the thirteen colonies between

the 1630s and the American Revolution

were indentured servants, or between

500,000 and 550,000 people (Galenson,

1978). Approximately 350,000 enslaved

Africans were transported to the

colonies during that same period (Miller

& Smith, 1988). The obvious difference

between the two groups was that

indentured servants could hope to be

eventually freed from their indentures,

while enslaved workers faced a lifetime

of bondage.

Although the United States came into

being following the Revolutionary

War, American labor and employment

law continued to be influenced by

developments in Britain. Britain

colonized what is now Australia in 1788

to establish a penal colony, and workers

who violated labor and employment

law found themselves transported to

the South Pacific Ocean. The British

government began passing master

and servant laws in 1823. Those laws

governed relations between employers

and workers, and the weight of the

state was firmly on the side of the

former at the expense of the latter.

Approximately 10,000 workers per year

were prosecuted in Britain between

1858 and 1875 for violating master

and servant laws. American legislators

took approving note of the master and

servant laws.

The circumstances and consequences

of the 1351 Ordinance of Laborers,

the 1563 Statute of Artificers, the use

of enslaved and indentured labor,

and the passage of labor laws that

overwhelmingly favored employers and

other coercive measures confirm a basic

fact about the interplay between work

and pandemic illnesses: the state set

early precedents indicating that exerting

control over workers would happen

rather than negotiating with them. It

was also fairly easy to use force against

workers considering public health

conditions in the 19th century. Personal

hygiene was poor, it was common

for human waste and sewage to run

through city streets, water was often

undrinkable, and overall mortality was

much higher than it would be by the

early 20th century.

The next major global pandemic

occurred in 1918 with the emergence

of the so-called Spanish flu. It did

not, in fact, originate in Spain and it

was instead given that name because

Spanish newspapers were the first

media outlets to report influenza

infection. It is now thought to have

begun in the American Midwest. There

has much popular media discussion

of the 1918 flu pandemic since its

COVID-19 successor began in late 2019.

Journalists have looked back to 1918 to

look for clues on how COVID-19 may

yet unfold, and some of what has been

reported has revealed important new

details of what was transpiring in the

United States and abroad from 1918 to

1919, while other important historical

events have been largely ignored in the

mainstream media.

One of the more important facts about

the Versailles talks [that concluded with

a treaty signing in June 1919] was that

President Woodrow Wilson suffered

from influenza while participating in

negotiations that led to a flawed end

of the First World War and established

conditions that led to the next war

that started in 1939. Wilson’s legacy

is undergoing reconsideration due to

the racist attitudes that he expressed

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

and discriminatory policies that he

implemented, but historians speculate

about how events at Versailles may

have transpired had Wilson been

healthy and focused during negotiations

with the other countries at the peace

conference. Similar speculation could

be made about the outcome of the first

2020 presidential election debate and

the possibility that President Donald

Trump may have been suffering from

undetected COVID-19 while he was

on stage with former Vice President

Joe Biden.

The fact that 1918 marked the end of

the First World War has been discussed

in the popular press, but key events that

began at the time have been largely

ignored in popular media. The years

from 1918 to 1920 are referred to as

the Workers’ Revolt period. There were

strikes and political unrest across the

wartime allied countries, and in the

central powers that were allied with

Germany. The 1917 Russian Revolution

inspired revolutionary movements,

and governments and business were

aghast at what was starting to happen

after the armistice was declared in

1918. The British government feared

that they would face a revolution, and

demobilized soldiers demonstrated in

Germany. There were conflicts across

the United States including a strike by

Boston police and a general strike in

Seattle in 1919.

Some of the strike activity predated

American entry into World War I, and

there were over 3,000 strikes per year

in the United States from 1916 to

1920. Much of the worker militancy

was inspired by militant unions such

as the Industrial Workers of the World.

Historians have yet to form many

clear links between the 1918 influenza

pandemic and post-World War I labor

militancy, but that pandemic significantly

contributed to the social unrest of the

postwar years. The heavy hand of the

state again appeared, most notably

fomenting the First Red Scare from 1919

to 1920. The so-called Palmer Raids led

by the eponymous U.S. Attorney General

A. Mitchell Palmer targeted people

suspected of anarchist and communist

political sympathies, and over 10,000

people were arrested. Massachusetts

Governor Calvin Coolidge used his

breaking of the Boston Police Strike

as a platform upon which to build his

campaign for president.

The American working class emerged

from the immediate postwar and

post-influenza pandemic years with

diminished militancy and weakened

unions. The United States severely

restricted immigration during the

passage of the 1924 Immigration Act

and became economically isolationist

after the introduction of the 1930

Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. In 1925,

the stunning decision in The State

of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes,

otherwise known as the Scopes

Monkey Trial, was one of the few

events to halt the rightward movement

of American society and politics at

that time. In that case, schoolteacher

John Scopes was charged with violating

a Tennessee state law that prohibited

the teaching of evolution in schools.

Scopes was ultimately vindicated in

1926, and science partially prevailed

over creationism.

Professional workers and managers

were one group that became stronger

during the 1920s. For example, the

pre-World War I federal civil service

was rife with cronyism, and action was

taken in the 1920s to make merit the

main staffing consideration. The federal

government passed a Classification

Act in 1923 that was the first attempt

to establish comparative salary scales

for civil servants. Management practice

began to be altered by the end of the

1920s. The infamous behavioral studies

conducted at Western Electric’s factory

in Hawthorne, Illinois, helped give

rise to the human relations school of

management. The war had elevated the

importance of science and technology

in public policymaking. Firms such as

the Radio Corporation of America (RCA)

and the Columbia Broadcasting System

(CBS) were formed to exploit new

technologies and forms of media.

A massive new pandemic did not follow

the 1918 influenza, but people were

still threatened by possible exposure

to other public health risks. Americans

living during the interwar period

could contract scarlet fever, measles,

tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, hepatitis,

and polio among other bacterium

and viruses. Avoidance was the only

protection against many diseases,

and parents carefully ensured that

their children were not in densely

populated social settings with their

peers. Treatment for tuberculosis

“Americans living

during the interwar

period could contract

scarlet fever, measles,

tuberculosis, rheumatic

fever, hepatitis, and

polio among other

bacterium and viruses.

Avoidance was the only

protection against many

diseases, and parents

carefully ensured that

their children were not

in densely populated

social settings with

their peers.”

often involved sequestering in one

of the nation’s many sanatoriums.

There were over 60 sanatoriums in

the United States, and they included

facilities in Saranac Lake and Astoria,

New York. Sanatoriums were also major

employers in the communities where

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

they were located and working at one of

them meant dealing with the threat of

contracting a potentially deadly disease.

The Second World War led to further

advances in public health. Penicillin

was first widely used during the

war years and provided a strategic

advantage to the allied countries. The

first influenza vaccine was developed

with U.S. military cooperation. There

was vast pharmaceutical infrastructure

in place by the end of the war to foster

the expansion of public vaccination

programs. The polio vaccine was

introduced in 1955, with an oral version

implemented in 1962. The measles

vaccine was put into use in 1963. There

was a flu pandemic from 1957 to 1958

but it was not nearly as fatal as what

occurred in 1918.

People became accustomed to the idea

that diseases could be combatted with

medications of different types in the

postwar decades, and bacterium and

viruses no longer impacted American

workers as they had in prior years.

There was a swine flu pandemic

in the mid-1970s that was quickly

countered by the rushed rollout of a

vaccine. The emergence of the human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and

acquired immune deficiency syndrome

(AIDS) in the late 1970s marked another

major public health milestone. The

American public did not initially know

that the earliest cases of HIV/AIDS

originated in 1959, and the seemingly

unstoppable nature of the disease led

to hysterical discrimination against gay

Americans at work and in their daily

lives. HIV/AIDS became a plague, but the

fact that it is transmitted mainly through

sexual contact meant that it would not

spread as prolifically as a respiratory

virus. There is no available cure for HIV/

AIDS but there is a medication that will

block its transmission and there is a

therapeutic medication to control in the

event of contraction.

COVID-19 and the Future of Work

There are some significant similarities

between the many plagues, pandemics,

and epidemics that humans have faced

in the past and the current COVID-

19 pandemic that go well beyond a

person’s choice to wear a mask or

protest against wearing one. There are

some key common themes found in

past pandemics that are reappearing in

2020. The pandemic has again shown

bifurcation between social classes. In the

medieval period, wealthy people sought

to escape the effects of the bubonic

plague by escaping crowded cities for

less densely populated areas. There has

been some physical flight from cities in

2020, but the departure is more virtual

than actual.

Writers such as Thomas Friedman

(2020) have asserted that in a world in

which the workplace of the future will

be virtual, the commercial real estate

market will suffer, and higher education

will be transformed because of COVID-

19. Those predictions primarily pertain

to workers who are part of that same

minority who can work remotely and

the organizations that are structured to

permit remote work. The notion that a

company like Facebook would permit its

workers to work anywhere in the United

States they wished ignores simple facts

of how many people are employed

by knowledge industry firms like it.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, and

Facebook collectively employ 1.3 million

people (Lerman & Greene, 2020). That

is an impressive number, and most of

those people can do their jobs remotely.

In contrast, McDonald’s has around

205,000 employees in nearly 14,000

restaurants (Microtrends, n.d.) and

Amazon (n.d.) has 125,000 employees

and operates 75 fulfillment centers —

another term for warehouses — across

North America. There are more than 3.5

million truck drivers in the United States

(Day & Hait, 2019). Fast-food workers,

warehouse workers, and truck drivers

do not get to work from home.

A second similarity involves the role

of the state and how employment is

regulated. We live in a socioeconomic

system that requires people to sell

their labor. A person enters into an

employment contract when she or he

is hired and agrees to sell his or her

labor for an agreed rate and for a fixed

or open time period. The labor and

employment system in the United States

was already overwhelmingly oriented

toward the interests of employers

before the COVID-19 pandemic began,

and the imbalance between workers

and bosses is now even more acute.

All 50 states operate under the

so-called “fire-at-will” doctrine that

permits employers to rid themselves of

unwanted workers at any time. There

are some exceptions to that doctrine,

but they are legally difficult to prove.

Unemployment insurance, which is

administered by the individual states,

is intended to provide meager benefits,

and otherwise encourage people to

immediately start looking for work after

losing a job. There is no longer a need

for legal sanctions to explicitly force

people to work, as was done in the

15th century, because capitalism forces

people into the job market.

Many states chose to reactivate their

local economies in early summer 2020

before the first wave of the COVID-

19 pandemic had weakened and

many of those same states have weak

unemployment systems and social

welfare programs, so their citizens

had little recourse but to return to

work and possibly contract COVID. The

federal government provided one-time

payments to displaced workers and

some assistance to business owners,

but one of the two main political

parties expressed grave concerns about

giving money to citizens and possibly

encouraging slothful behavior.

American workers have responded to

COVID-19 in a manner similar to their

1918 predecessors. Walkouts and strikes

have increased since the pandemic

began. Some labor councils and unions

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

are advocating for a general strike if

Donald Trump refused to leave office

after losing the 2020 election. Interest

in unionization has also increased since

early 2020. The United States is not yet

into a new Workers’ Revolt period, but

it could progress into one depending

on how 2020 ends and 2021 begins in

political and economic terms. Health

care workers, teachers, and others

working in the broad service sector are

fully aware that they are expected to

jeopardize their health on the job to

ensure that the national economy is at

least partially functioning.

Responses by government and business

to worker militancy over the past several

months share similarities with earlier

pandemics and plagues. The most

important similarity involves the role

of the judiciary. The 1920s fell in the

middle of the 1897 to 1937 Lochner era

on the United States Supreme Court.

Indeed, the term “Lochner” came from

a 1905 case called Lochner v. New York.

In that case, the Supreme Court struck

down a New York state law that placed

limits on working hours. It was one of

many instances of the court striking

down Progressive era laws meant to

protect workers, consumers, women,

and children. Another Lochner era

decision, Adkins v. Children’s Hospital,

struck down a law that mandated a

minimum wage for women and children

working in the District of Columbia.

The Lochner era eventually came to

an end with Franklin Roosevelt’s

election in 1932 and a confrontation

with the court over its responses to

New Deal legislation.

The current United States Supreme

Court is not yet an ideological match

for its Lochner predecessor, but it is

certainly moving in that direction. For

instance, the court ruled in the 2018

Janus v. American Federation of State,

County, and Municipal Employees case

that public sector union members may

not be compelled to pay union dues.

The majority decision ignored the

problem of free-riding when workers

are not obliged to pay dues. In the 2018

Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis decision,

a 5-4 majority on the court ruled the

employers could force employees to

accept individual arbitration to resolve

unfair labor practice issues rather

than permit them to seek class-action

remedies.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, when

he was a lower court judge, once

ruled against a truck driver who had

been fired for leaving his vehicle in a

snowstorm because he feared that he

would freeze to death. The truck driver

had first attempted to find help to get

the truck moving.

Labor and employment law cases that

come before the Supreme Court do

not usually receive the same media,

but the court has now become more

pro-employer and it will inevitably deal

with cases on how workers have been

treated during and after the pandemic.

There has been a long dispute between

gig economy employers like Uber and

Lyft over whether or not their drivers

are contractors or actual employees. It

seems inevitable that such issues will be

decided before the Supreme Court, and

not in a manner that benefits workers.

Management techniques and

organizational practices were already

continuing to alter before the COVID

pandemic because of changes in

technology. Workplaces are now seeing

the rise of Big Data and algorithm

management whereas, as noted earlier,

the 1920s saw the rise of the human

relations school. The emergence of

Big Data, which means large volumes

of data, is made possible by the size

and complexity of computer systems

that now span the globe. An algorithm

is a defined sequence of instructions

that a computer can implement. The

two are being used to try to transform

workplaces. For instance, there is a long

history of using behavioral testing and

interviewing to screen job applicants.

Programs like Wasabi Waiter that

use algorithms can screen potential

employees much more quickly than

a paper-based or online multiple-

choice test. Such programs can quickly

generate reams of data that can be

used to inform future job searches

(Knack, n.d.).

The consequences of the gig economy

were already proving dire for workers

before COVID-19 appeared, and their

impacts may worsen after the pandemic

ends. For instance, Amazon does not

just sell merchandise and ship packages.

It also runs a site called Amazon

Mechanical Turk (n.d.). Organizations

that have short-duration tasks that

they would like completed can post

them on Mechanical Turk and people

who want to complete such tasks can

also register on the site and starting

working. A site such as Mechanical

Turk takes the concept of short-term

gig work to a new and insidious level.

It is seemingly benign, but it offers a

model of employment that could be

widely replicated.

The use of ultra-short-term employment

platforms is linked to the ever-

expanding role of the job placement

and recruiting industry. That industry,

which includes firms like Adecco and

Kelly, is now globally worth about $1.3

trillion per year. Many first-time job

seekers obtain their first jobs through

job placement firms, and workers who

lost full and part-time jobs secure new

employment through them, as well.

The employment firm is now an

integral component of the job

market that exemplifies precarious

work (Cision, 2020).

The contours of the gig economy had

taken shape well before COVID made

the jump from animal to human, but

its features are hardly new despite

how short-term employment is

described in popular media. Working

at short-duration jobs that provided

no lasting security was the normal

experience for most workers prior to

the New Deal era and the introduction

of laws like the National Labor Relations

Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act

gave workers a chance to gain some job

security and a voice at work. Indeed,

as historian Jefferson Cowie (2017) has

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

persuasively argued, the New Deal years

and the three decades that followed

them now look more like an exception

in American history than a permanent

change in direction.

Which Direction Post-COVID?

The foregoing discussion may suggest

that the post-COVID future looks

bleak for people who work for wages.

There are parallels between 2020 and

1920 that are disturbingly similar. The

imposition of a labor and employment

framework that essentially compels

people to work under terms that

confer enormous advantages on their

employers exists today as much as

it did a hundred years ago, although

some of its features have become

more sophisticated. It is easy to

conclude that American workers will

face a dire labor market as the country

eventually moves on from COVID-19.

People could increasingly live in Airbnb

units, cram themselves into Uber cars,

and find daily employment through

placement agencies and supplement it

with hourly gigs found on Mechanical

Turk. The right to unionization could

be gradually lost, minimum wage laws

may be struck down, health and safety

protections eliminated, managers may

be replaced by algorithms, and the

power of corporations immeasurably

strengthened. Short-term work

assignments and piecework, which is

what is offered by employment agencies

and Mechanical Turk, are a turn back to

the 19th century. Piecework was once

called sweated labor. There are ample

signs that the United States is already

headed in that direction, but it is not the

only possible future for the country.

2020 is very similar to 1920, but

Americans can choose if they want 2021

to rhyme with 1921 or 1932. The end of

the 1920s brought the worst economic

downturn in modern history. The years

before the 1929 stock market crash

had been economically prosperous for

many people but not average workers,

people of color, or women. The Great

Depression that began after 1929 ended

the hegemony of the Republican Party

and ushered in decades of Democratic

Party power. Civil rights were not

improved during the 1930s and 1940s

but crucial programs that were part

of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New

Deal, like Social Security, were created

and important labor and employment

legislation was passed.

The choice for workers of all types is

quite clear: the years following 2020

can be a step backward or forward.

The labor and employment trends

currently evident in the United States

did not appear by accident, and they are

instead the result of deliberate policy

decisions by business and government.

The pandemic brought consequences

that are already reversing gains that

disadvantaged workers struggled for

years to achieve. For example, the

current recession is accurately being

described as a “she-cession” as its

effects are more adversely impacting

women than men. Over 860,000 women

left the workforce between August and

September 2000, while only 216,000

men did. Labor historians have long

recognized the crucial role that unpaid

domestic work plays in the American

economy and the need for most families

to have two income earners. The

pandemic has increased the amount of

work that women are doing at home

while at the same time driving many out

of the paid workforce (Vesoulis, 2020).

Workers of color have been

disproportionately harmed by COVID-

19. The labor force participation rate

for Black workers declined in 2020 after

maintaining a consistent rate from 1970

onward, and the unemployment rate

for Black workers is currently twice the

rate for white workers (U.S. Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 2020a). Workers of

color, especially women, are more likely

to be employed in the broad service

sector than white or Asian workers

and service subsectors like hospitality,

tourism, and retail have been grievously

impacted by the pandemic (U.S. Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 2019). As Arlie Russell

Hochschild (2012) argued years ago,

women also bear a disproportionate

burden of emotional labor and that

load has been made heavier during

the pandemic. No single group of

workers has benefited from the

pandemic, but the virus has taken

away decades of progress from many

demographic groups.

“… [W]omen also bear a

disproportionate burden

of emotional labor and

that load has been

made heavier during

the pandemic.”

Public policymakers can choose to

implement higher minimum wages

and strengthen unemployment

insurance systems. The first $15 per

hour minimum wage was introduced in

Seattle in 2014. The business community

predicted that a higher minimum wage

would lead to business failures and

ultimately higher unemployment. Two

studies completed at the University

of Washington in 2019 showed that,

while a higher minimum wage required

adjustments by business, it did not

increase unemployment or cause price

inflation in the Seattle area. Indeed,

there is no compelling evidence that a

higher minimum wage does anything

other than raise the standard of living of

low-income earners (Holtz, 2019).

Arguments against labor and

employment law reform are as weak

as those marshaled in opposition to

a $15 per hour minimum wage. The

American labor movement is now

principally a public sector movement

as private sector unions, meaning

those that organize workers employed

by companies of different sizes, have

declined. Overall membership numbers

in the labor movement have not

markedly declined, but the percentage

of workers represented by unions has

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

declined relative to overall growth in the

country’s population and workforce. The

business community and the Republican

Party go into raged hysterics whenever

labor and employment law reform bills

begin moving through Congress as they

fear the impact of facing a workforce

that has some collective bargaining

rights and other workplace protections.

Their fears are unfounded. The

American economy grew spectacularly

during the three decades following

the Second World War, and unions

were strong worker advocates during

that period. Industrial workers were

able to earn middle-class wages, and

that made it possible for them to send

their children to one of the many new

colleges and universities founded

after 1945.

Labor and employment law, even in its

most progressive forms, still confers

more workplace power on employers

than workers. To use a sports analogy,

labor relations is like a baseball game.

Unionized workers bring their skills to

play the game, their gloves and bats,

and they have a say in how the rules

of the game are written and enforced.

Government appears as the umpire

through organizations like the National

Labor Relations Board. Employers also

come with their ability to play the game

along with their gloves and bats but

they also own the field, the bases, the

dugouts, the bleachers, the concession

stand, everything else in and around the

stadium, and they control the league in

which the teams play.

Technology has always relentlessly

altered work by gradually eliminating

older jobs and creating new roles. The

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does

not count how many coopers (barrel

makers) and cordwainers (shoemakers)

there are in America but it does count

the number of computer programmers

and web designers employed across the

country. There are limits to how much

technological change can be anticipated

in a short period of time. Comparatively

few Americans may have heard of

Zoom or Microsoft Teams but have not

had ample contact with both systems.

Predictions that innumerable jobs will

be done remotely after the pandemic

are not accurate despite the ubiquity

of video conferencing systems. A U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020b) study

recently found that 37 percent of jobs

can be done entirely from home but

that 63 percent require some degree

of worksite presence. There has indeed

been an increase in the percentage

of people working from home due to

the pandemic, from 10 percent to 25

percent, but the country is far from a

future where even half of the people are

spending their days in home offices.

The nature of post-pandemic work

and labor in the United States is not

certain. Much of what happens next

in the United States links to individual

identity. People identify themselves

based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexual

orientation, and other variables. They

also answer the query “What do you

do?” by stating their occupation but

identifying as a worker often comes

after factors that shape identity. As

Karl Marx (1963) argued, people “make

their own history, but they do not make

it as they please; they do not make it

under self-selected circumstances, but

under circumstances existing already,

given and transmitted from the past”

(p. 15) Americans did not choose the

circumstances caused by COVID-19

but they do get to decide how they

will move forward from the pandemic.

Indeed, the recent presidential election

suggests that people have chosen to

make a future that rhymes with better

times in the nation’s past. The choice is

ultimately about the kind of country in

which Americans want to live and work.

Notes

For two of the better new analyses

of COVID-19 as it relates to labor

history, see Finkel (2020) and

Winslow (2020).

On Woodrow Wilson’s role at the

Versailles Peace Conference during

the 1918 pandemic, see Barry

(2018).

On the Palmer Raids, see Finan

(2007).

John Thomas Scopes v. The State,

Nashville, December Term (1926).

Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45

(1905).

Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 261 U.S.

525 (1923).

Janus v. American Federation of State,

County, and Municipal Employees,

Council 31, No. 16-1466, 585 U.S. ___

(2018).

Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 584 U.S.

___ (2018).

References

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network. Retrieved October 28, 2020,

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com/working-at-amazon/amazons-

fulfillment-network

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Overview. https://www.mturk.com/

Barry, J. M. (2018). The great influenza:

The story of the deadliest pandemic in

history. Penguin.

Cision. (2020, May 6.). Employment

services industry report 2020-2030

— Post-COVID growth deviations

places the market at $1.67 trillion

in 2023. PR Newswire. https://

www.prnewswire.com/news-

releases/employment-services-

industry-report-2020-2030---

post-covid-growth-deviations-

places-the-market-at-1-67-trillion-

in-2023--301053999.html

Cowie, J. (2017). The great exception: The

New Deal & the limits of American

politics. Princeton University Press.

Day, J. C., & Hait, A. W. (2019, June 6).

American keeps on truckin’: Number

of truckers at all-time high. U.S.

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Census Bureau. https://www.census.

gov/library/stories/2019/06/america-

keeps-on-trucking.html

Digital Text International. (n.d.). Statute

of artificers, 1563. http://www.ditext.

com/morris/1563.html

Finan, C. M. (2007). From the Palmer

Raids to the Patriot Act: A history of

the fight for free speech in America.

Beacon Press.

Finkel, A. (2020, April 23). Plagues and

social change: Putting COVID-19 in

historical context. Active History.

https://activehistory.ca/2020/04/

plagues-and-social-change-putting-

covid-19-in-historical-context/

Friedman, T. L. (2020, October 20).

After the pandemic, a revolution in

education and work awaits. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/10/20/opinion/covid-

education-work.html

Galenson, D. W. (1978, February).

British servants and the colonial

indenture system in the eighteenth

century. The Journal of Southern

History, 44(1), 41-66. https://doi.

org/10.2307/2208243

Hochschild, A. R. (2012). The managed

heart: Commercialization of human

feeling (3rd ed.). University of

California Press.

Holtz, J. (2019, February, 6). Two new

studies published about the Seattle

minimum wage ordinance. UW

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edu/news/2019/02/06/two-new-

studies-published-about-the-seattle-

minimum-wage-ordinance/

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The fight over inoculation during

the 1721 Boston smallpox epidemic.

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1721-boston-smallpox-epidemic/

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October). Labor force characteristics

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and-ethnicity/2018/home.htm

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ability-to-work-from-home.htm

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had a panic button, we’d be hitting

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jacobinmag.com/2020/05/seattle-

general-strike-1918-spanish-flu

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yale.edu/medieval/statlab.asp

The Color of Sound

Betty Wilde-Biasiny, Hudson Valley

Art oers a time and place where quiet contemplation

is still possible. This collection of oil paintings on canvas,

made during a period of heightened isolation and focus

due to the pandemic (2020-2021), is my way of recording

sound vibrations in color, representing gentle waves of

thought through undulating forms and passages. The

visual language of color evokes my memory of sounds of

the Mediterranean, which I experienced on two dierent

creative residencies in Cassis, France. Sounds give way to

form, created by the pulsing waves after the thrust of a

passing ship, the splashing of a swimmer launching from

the dock, or the ripple of a cool evening breeze. Hikes

through the nearby lavender elds oer a cool respite to

the pulsing heat of the beach and mark the shifting light of

the coming sunset.

The Swimmer, 2020, Oil on canvas, 18” H x 24” W

Photo credit: Steven P. Harris

Studio view of earlier work.

Far from home, nding

comfort in the sea

Connecting us all, like the

roots of a tree

Pressure is gone, my body

oats

Triggering thoughts by the

splash of the boats

The sh swim by, ignoring

my thrall

Happy snails making

paths despite it all

(top) Sirens, 2021, 16” H x 20” W

(bottom) E-Minor, 2020, 18” H x 24” W

Oil on canvas

Photo credits: Steven P. Harris

(top) High Sea, 2021, 18” H x 24” W

(middle) Heat, 2020, 16” H x 20” W

(bottom) Lavender, 2021, 18” H x 24” W

Oil on canvas

Photo credits: Steven P. Harris

Betty Wilde-Biasiny, 2020

Photo credit: Amelia F. Biasiny

Low Tide, 2020, Oil on canvas, 18” H x 24” W

Photo credit: Steven P. Harris

Betty Wilde-Biasiny is a painter and printmaker and is a visual

arts professor at SUNY Empire State College in New York. She is a

recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for individual

artists, and earned an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from

Ohio University.

Public collections include the United States Library of Congress, Print

Collection, Washington, D.C.; and a commission for a public mural for

Monteore Medical Center, Bronx, New York. Exhibitions include the

Studio Art Center International (SACI) Gallery, Florence, Italy; Usdan

Gallery, Bennington College, Vermont; and New York City locations

such as John Jay College, 55 Mercer Street Gallery, The Bronx

Museum of the Arts, and The Painting Center. Recent exhibitions

include the Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York; and a show

titled “Contemporary Landscape 2021” at CICA Museum, South Korea.

Before beginning her work at SUNY Empire State College, Wilde-

Biasiny was a teaching artist in the South Bronx, founded the Bronx

River Restoration Art Center, became a curator at the Bronx Museum

of the Arts, and was associate director/editor for En Foco, Inc.

For more information, visit https://www.bettywildebiasiny.com/.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Volunteering for Resilience in the Age of COVID-19

Roxana Toma, Saratoga Springs

A different version of this article, titled

“Resilience in a Time of Plague: A Personal

Account,” was published on April 21,

2021, by Public Seminar, a journal of

The New School for Social Research in

New York City. It is available at https://

publicseminar.org/essays/resilience-in-a-

time-of-plague-a-personal-account/.

he COVID-19 pandemic recession

has knocked millions of the

most economically vulnerable

Americans out of work and it has

exacerbated longstanding racial and

income divides in America. Workers

who were college educated, relatively

affluent, and primarily white were able

to continue working from home and

minimize outdoor excursions, thus

reducing the risk of contracting the

virus. Those who were lower paid, less

educated, and employed in jobs where

teleworking was not an option faced a

bleak choice in places where restrictions

were lifted early and employers ordered

them back to work — whether to

prioritize their financial lifeline over

their health.

That disempowered group was heavily

Black and Latino, though it included

lower-income white workers, as well.

For example, Americans who earned

$50,000 a year or less were more than

twice as likely to say they or a family

member had lost jobs amid the crisis

than those who earned more than

$150,000 (Tankersley, 2020). At the same

time, higher earners and whites were far

more likely to say they could work from

home during the pandemic than lower

earners and Black and Latino Americans.

Moreover, Black and Latino Americans

already had less ability to withstand a

prolonged job loss than whites because

they had entered the crisis with lower

incomes and with less wealth. In 2018,

the typical Hispanic household earned

three-quarters of what a typical white

household earned, according to census

data. The typical Black household

earned three-fifths of what the typical

white household earned, and their

household income had yet to return to

pre-financial-crisis highs (Tankersley,

2020). Calculations by the Center for

Economic and Policy Research also

found that Black and Latino Americans

were overrepresented in many

“essential” jobs of the pandemic, like

grocery store clerks and delivery drivers

(Rho et al., 2020). The virus had only

exacerbated these inequalities, with

minorities suffering both higher death

rates and more financial harm.

The pandemic has also exposed the

plight of seniors, who ran by far the

highest risk of succumbing to the

pathogen. Governments across the

world urged people over the age of 70

to cut off all social contact to reduce the

risk of contracting the virus. Confined

to their homes, many of these seniors

had no idea how they were supposed

to get food or other supplies. Lacking

broadband connections, some had no

face-to-face contact with friends or

family members for many months.

You probably heard this slogan

throughout the pandemic: “We’re in

this together.” Although COVID-19 has

been our common enemy, is it true

that we have had the same experiences

as the poor and the elderly? How do

we help the people who are hit the

worst? Moreover, how do we help

ourselves when we are experiencing

an extraordinary level of stress and

isolation like we have been facing

since the beginning of the pandemic?

There is much disaster literature that

links volunteerism, social capital, and

resilience. It boils down to this: during

a crisis, the people who cope best are

those who help others. In the next

Roxana Toma

sections, I will talk about volunteering,

social capital, and resilience and offer

some personal reflections from my

ongoing work throughout the pandemic

as a volunteer.

Volunteering

As a form of prosocial discretionary

behavior, volunteering represents “any

activity in which time is given freely to

benefit another person, group or cause”

(Wilson, 2000, p. 215). Volunteering,

however, is different from spontaneous

helping that arises in situations in which

an individual encounters “an unexpected

need for help, calling for an immediate

decision to act” (Clary et al., 1998,

p. 1516). It is also different from the

extra-role helping behavior displayed

at work such as helping colleagues

or supporting one’s boss (Bateman &

Organ, 1983; George & Brief, 1992) in

that it is not oriented toward members

of one’s work organization. What

distinguishes unpaid volunteerism

from other helping behaviors is that it

represents purposeful helping, which

requires actively seeking opportunities

to help others with whom someone

is not immediately connected (e.g.,

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

family members, work colleagues) and

the planning and commitment of time

and energy (Clary et al., 1998; Rodell et

al., 2016; Wilson, 2000). Scholars see

volunteering as serving the purposes

of well-being, community spirit, and

inclusiveness (Smith & Holmes, 2012;

Steffen & Fothergill, 2009; Thoits &

Hewitt, 2001), individual and collective

empowerment (Gooch, 2004; Nichols

& Ralston, 2011), and the public good

(Mangan, 2009).

Finally, time-based approaches to

volunteering consider issues of

timespan and continuity. Rather than

long-term, constant volunteering,

people can also engage in spontaneous,

short-term, episodic volunteering

activities, including micro-volunteering

to help with smaller tasks of a larger

project. Some scholars argue that

disasters bring out the best in human

beings. As Rebecca Solnit’s (2009) A

Paradise Built in Hell book suggested,

perhaps it is a paradox of the human

condition that its moments of unity

and love appear only at the moments

of greatest suffering and sacrifice.

However, Steffen and Fothergill (2009)

found that while “disaster volunteering”

was initially spontaneous or episodic

(related to 9/11), it eventually led to

a more continuous engagement in

volunteering activities.

A Personal Account

I was already volunteering at the soup

kitchen in my neighborhood when the

pandemic hit. Before the pandemic, we

used to provide a sit-down meal every

Monday for around 65 to 75 people,

part of the Open Door Soup Kitchen

and St. Bridget’s Food Pantry Ministry at

the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church

in Allston, Massachusetts. We receive

donations from Trader Joe’s and Whole

Foods, among others, which we then

sort ourselves and bag. We also do the

cooking on-site. When state-ordered

restrictions took effect, we had to resort

to hot meals in “to-go” boxes, along

with the usual bags of groceries. At the

peak of the pandemic in 2020, we were

serving around 170 to 180 meals per

day — an almost threefold increase that

happened in a matter of a few months.

To add to the challenge, we were also

short staffed; student volunteers had

transitioned to online classes and left

town, while older volunteers were

not able to come anymore because

they were in the high-risk category of

contracting the virus. The few remaining

volunteers had to extend shifts to meet

the demand. We have been doing that

since, although the numbers now are

not nearly as high as at the peak of the

pandemic; we continue to serve around

100 people per day.

I am also a trained and certified

volunteer with the Medical Reserve

Corps (MRC), a national network

of volunteers organized locally to

improve the health and safety of their

communities. This program has a

20-year history and suggests one way

in which the spontaneous efforts of

ordinary citizens to help out can be

institutionalized. In the wake of the

9/11 terrorist attacks, there was an

overwhelming desire of ordinary citizens

to help in some way with the response

efforts. Medical, public health, and

laypeople rushed to volunteer their

services; however, there was no way to

integrate volunteers into coordinated

response efforts, and individuals could

not be verified and credentialed on-site.

As a result, then-President George W.

Bush — like his father, a conservative

Republican keen on encouraging

volunteerism in place of big government

— established the Citizen Corps, the

parent organization for MRC. Since then,

MRC has become a way to recruit, train,

and activate volunteers to respond to

community health needs, including

disasters and other emergencies.

MRC volunteers include medical and

public health professionals, as well as

community members without health

care backgrounds — like me. MRC units

engage these volunteers to strengthen

public health, improve emergency

response capabilities, and build

community resiliency. They prepare for

and respond to natural disasters, such

as wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes,

blizzards, and floods, as well as other

emergencies affecting public health,

such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the pandemic, the MRC network

comprised approximately 200,000

volunteers in roughly 800 community-

based units located throughout the U.S.

(Public Health Emergency, n.d.). That

number has since changed dramatically,

as the pandemic has seen an

unprecedented flood of people wanting

to get credentialed and trained to

become part of MRC. In an official letter

to MRC volunteers dated November

24, 2020, Esmeralda Pereira, director

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

of the MRC program, stated that more

than 400 MRC units nationwide had

responded to fight COVID-19 across the

country, dedicating over 500,000 service

hours up to that point, and counting

(Metro East MRC Newsletter, personal

communication, December 2020).

As an MRC volunteer, I was activated

in March 2020 for grocery deliveries to

senior housing, low-income housing,

and other immunocompromised

people who were not able to go outside.

During March, April, June, and July of

2020, I volunteered with MRC three

times a week — driving to a food pantry

where another team of volunteers was

bagging groceries and labeling them

with names, phone numbers, and

addresses; receiving my assignment;

loading up my car; driving along my

“route”; and delivering about 30 bags

stuffed with the groceries that were

requested individually. The delivery

process was contactless; I took the bags

to the recipients’ doors, I left, then I

called the recipients to let them know

that it was safe to come out and get

their deliveries.

During this time, I was touched by the

experience in too many ways to count.

I remember, for example, an old man

who was always waiting for me every

Tuesday outside of his apartment,

even though he was told not to. We

were at a safe distance, but he wanted

to see me and thank me in person —

he gave me the military salute more

than once. Others, who did not pick

up their phones when I called and I

had to leave a message, would call me

later in the day and give me heartfelt

thanks. It was the most basic form of

human interaction that I have ever

experienced; these were strangers who

were expressing their gratitude in a way

that gave me meaning and purpose.

We also received emails from our

MRC coordinator with quotes from the

people we delivered groceries to, and I

am including a couple here:

So happy. God bless you and everyone

for what you are doing. If there is a

way to pay it forward, I’ll gladly do it.

Just got it. Trying not to cry, but I have

a smile. May the Lord bless you and

those that do the needful.

Since July 2020, I’ve been deactivated

from that delivery program. But MRC

continues its COVID-19-fighting efforts

and volunteers have been activated

to assist local health departments

and hospitals to speed up vaccine

distribution efforts.

Social Capital and Resilience

Much of the scientific research on

resilience — which is our ability to

withstand adversity and bounce back

— has shown that having a sense of

purpose and giving support to others

have a powerful impact on our physical

health and psychological well-being

(Parker-Pope, 2020). Resilient people

can better manage negative emotions

and experience more positive emotions;

they experience increased emotion

regulation and that, in turn, creates an

increased sense of control. Research

suggests that the people who have

higher levels of “felt obligation” — which

is a motivational state directed toward

enhancing others’ welfare — cope

better with their own life challenges.

An orientation to helping others acts as

a protective factor — against losses in

psychological well-being — something

especially important throughout this

pandemic. Supporting others gives us a

sense of purpose and helps buffer our

bodies against the detrimental effects

of stress.

In March 2020, just days after Prime

Minister Boris Johnson imposed the first

lockdown on Britain to curb the spread

of the coronavirus, the government

appealed for 250,000 people to help the

National Health Service (Landler, 2020a).

The recruiting drive, which drew nearly

twice its goal in less than 24 hours,

had amassed an army of volunteers

to help elderly people quarantined in

their homes, as well as the beleaguered

public health system, so much so that

it was forced to temporarily stop taking

applicants so it could process the flood.

In barely a week, the recruiting drive

ended up with more than 750,000

people pitching in to help older and

more vulnerable Britons by delivering

food and medicine (Landler, 2020b).

Also, in addition to the national

program, hundreds of community-based

aid groups have sprung up around the

country, enrolling tens of thousands of

volunteers, in a stirring display of British

national solidarity. This brought solace

to Britons, and a sense of unity after

three and a half years of bitter divisions

over Brexit. For some older Britons,

the volunteer army felt like a return to

the 1950s and a time when there was

more interaction. During the lockdowns,

they were not allowed to be with each

other, but they said they did not feel

alone (Landler, 2020b). They hoped this

display of social capital would continue

beyond the pandemic.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

While I don’t believe that volunteer

organizations can ever take the place

of a strong government that is needed

to tackle entrenched inequities and

injustices, I, too, hope that we can learn

the lessons of mutual aid. This way, in

conjunction with the kinds of economic

relief the government has been offering

people, we can become more neighborly

and play a small part in healing our

suffering communities.

References

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org/10.1037//0022-3514.74.6.1516

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September). Feeling good-doing

good: A conceptual analysis of

the mood at work-organizational

spontaneity relationship.

Psychological Bulletin, 112(2): 310-

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2909.112.2.310

Gooch, M. (2004). Volunteering

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groups: Empowering the

volunteer. Australian Geographer,

35(2), 193-208. https://doi.

org/10.1080/0004918042000249502

Landler, M. (2020a, March 25). Britain

enlists an army of volunteers to

help fight the coronavirus. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/03/25/world/coronavirus-

uk-volunteers.html

Landler, M. (2020b, April 7). To fight

coronavirus, U.K. asked for some

volunteers. It got an army. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/04/07/world/europe/

coronavirus-united-kingdom.html

Mangan, A. (2009, January). “We’re

not banks”: Exploring self-

discipline, subjectivity and

co-operative work. Human

Relations, 62(1): 93-117. https://doi.

org/10.1177%2F0018726708099516

Nichols, G., & Ralston, R. (2011,

October). Social inclusion through

volunteering: The legacy potential

of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Sociology, 45(5), 900-914. https://doi.

org/10.1177%2F0038038511413413

Parker-Pope, T. (2020, May 6). The

science of helping out. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/04/09/well/mind/

coronavirus-resilience-psychology-

anxiety-stress-volunteering.html

Public Health Emergency. (n.d.). About

the Medical Reserve Corps. https://

www.phe.gov/mrc/about-the-mrc/

Pages/default.aspx

Rho, H. J., Brown, H., & Fremstad, S.

(2020, April 7). A basic demographic

profile of workers in frontline

industries. Center for Economic

and Policy Research. https://cepr.

net/a-basic-demographic-profile-of-

workers-in-frontline-industries/

Rodell, J. B., Breitsohl, H., Schröder,

M., & Keating, D. J. (2016, January).

Employee volunteering: A review

and framework for future

research. Journal of Management,

42(1), 55-84. https://doi.

org/10.1177%2F0149206315614374

Smith, K. A., & Holmes, K. (2012). Visitor

centre staffing: Involving volunteers.

Tourism Management, 33(3), 562-

568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.

tourman.2011.06.010

Solnit, R. (2009). A paradise built in hell:

The extraordinary communities that

arise in disaster. Viking.

Steffen, S. L., & Fothergill, A. (2009).

9/11 volunteerism: A pathway to

personal healing and community

engagement. The Social Science

Journal, 46(1), 29-46. https://doi.

org/10.1016/j.soscij.2008.12.005

Tankersley, J. (2020, April 27).

Job or health? Restarting the

economy threatens to worsen

economic inequality. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/04/27/business/

economy/coronavirus-economic-

inequality.html

Thoits, P. A., & Hewitt, L. N. (2001,

June). Volunteer work and well-

being. Journal of Health and Social

Behavior, 42(2), 115-131. https://doi.

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Review of Sociology, 26(1), 215-240.

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.

soc.26.1.215

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

SUNY Empire State College at 50:

Connections to The Open University

Alan Tait, Emeritus Professor of Distance Education and Development, The Open University, U.K.

At the All College Conference on April 6,

2021, Alan Tait, emeritus professor of

distance education and development at

The Open University, U.K., gave the annual

Ernest L. Boyer Sr. Family Lecture. On the

occasion of the 50th anniversary of SUNY

Empire State College, Alan Tait was also

awarded the Doctor of Letters, honoris

causa. We thank Dr. Tait for this talk and

his help in the preparation of this text.

1. Ernest Boyer

want to begin by acknowledging

Ernest Boyer, in whose name this

lecture is given. He was clearly a

remarkable man who quickly in his life

saw how he could achieve the most

through educational administration,

and he did so with access and inclusion

high on his list of priorities. I’ve used

Boyer’s (1990) report on scholarship on

a number of occasions in working out

how to construct a research, or better

put, a research and scholarship agenda

for universities that are teaching-

focused like The Open University, U.K.

[OUUK], and perhaps SUNY Empire State

College, a comparison of which is my

topic for today. Boyer’s clear thinking

made it possible to disembed so many

of the false statements about how

universities must or should position

research at the expense of teaching, and

much more productively, how agendas

for scholarship should be constructed

on a multidimensional framework that

is so much more than just discipline-

based. That agenda for scholarship is an

area where SUNY Empire State College

and The Open University have similar

concerns and priorities, but not what I

want to talk about today.

2. How well do radicals age?

My theme for today could be

summarized as: How well do radicals

age? This is a matter of personal as

well as scholarly interest, as it may be

for some of you, too. Is radicalism a

youthful phase for SUNY Empire State

College and The Open University —

essential as you push your way into an

institutional landscape, but once success

has been achieved, to be left behind?

Or can radical challenges to established

social and institutional assumptions on

behalf of new audiences that challenge

what a university is, what it does,

and who it teaches — in other words,

radical challenges to the purposes of a

university — remain active in the DNA

of a university even 50 years after its

establishment? And if we examine the

challenges of today in terms of social

justice and equality, does it need to be?

I am not the first to reflect on this. I

have a volume by James Hall, your first

and long-serving president and a close

associate of Ernest Boyer when he was

in leadership positions in the SUNY

[State University of New York] system.

In his volume Access Through Innovation:

New Colleges for New Students, Hall

(1991) reviewed a range of innovative

colleges and universities primarily in the

USA but including the OUUK, which he

visited more than once — finding time

to inscribe my own copy of his book

with a kind word of support to a very

junior colleague. I am indebted to the

work of James Hall — I always called

him “Jim” but now I look back with some

embarrassment at the overfamiliarity of

youth. If he is listening today, greetings

to you, Dr. Hall.

Alan Tait

Now we have in this talk a very

noninteractive approach to learning

and teaching. While I know the OUUK, I

hope I can say well, despite my relative

familiarity with SUNY Empire State

College over some 35 years, I cannot

ever know the SUNY system or American

society as well as you. So, I want to

try to create a form of interaction by

creating an internal conversation for

you, as I move back and forth from the

OUUK to SUNY Empire State College,

and you test my ideas against your

understanding of your own radical

university. So close your eyes, perhaps,

while I talk from 3,500 miles away in

Cambridge, England, and reflect on

whether what I say corresponds to your

own understanding.

So, what do the two universities have

in common, and at least as interesting,

what divides them?

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

3. Innovation at the OU

There are a number of historical

developments that help set out the

context for the establishment of The

Open University, U.K., in 1969. The first

is that in 1960, the continuation rate

from school to university in the U.K. lay

at approximately 5% only, ending that

decade doubling to some 10% following

major expansion with around 23 new

universities. Almost all the places in the

newly expanded higher education sector

were, however, taken up by school

leavers, with the adult part-time learner

served almost entirely in evening classes

by Birkbeck College in London, and the

University of London itself with external

degrees freely available more widely

throughout the U.K. and indeed the

world. Higher education was primarily

an opportunity for the elite and middle

classes, dominated by children from

private and selective schools, and more

by men than women. Both the historical

backlog and the continuing injustice in

life opportunity constrained by social

class, gender, and ethnic heritage

provided one stream in Labour Party

Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s first

proposal in 1963 that an additional new

university but of a new kind should be

established to address such inequities.

The primary driver for a new university

like The Open University was about

who could be a student, and it is fair

to say that for U.K. society, The Open

University has changed that. The idea

that adults, in general, were worthy

entrants to and participants in higher

education, as against high school

leavers, met considerable skepticism,

with unkind remarks of an ageist and

snobbish nature about how worthwhile

this was. Secondly, the OU brought new

entrants into university study from the

socioeconomic perspective, and from

the dimension of gender, including

women in greater numbers than other

universities then, and including people

with disabilities in ways that had never

been done before.

The implications of how a university

should function if it is to serve adult

learners, however, took us on different

paths. But I will come back to that.

The second stream of the prime

minister’s concern was that the

possibilities of broadcasting had not

been optimally deployed for formal

educational purposes, and he thus

placed the use of technology for

education at the heart of what was

to become The Open University

institutional model, which he named

“The University of the Air.” Wilson

entrusted the still embryonic idea to

his Minister for the Arts Jenny Lee, who

is widely given the credit for making a

reality of it, and in doing so adapting

the original vision in some very

important ways.

Jenny Lee worked with The Open

University Planning Committee, which

examined the available range of

options on a global basis that might

provide concrete help in inventing the

organizational form for a radically new

university. None of these provided

a blueprint, but all contributed

elements of innovation that made

up the new whole.

A number of key characteristics of

how universities were understood to

function, and for whom, were disrupted,

not to say upended, by The Open

University, U.K. They have had an

impact worldwide. The first of these is

that The Open University, U.K., as the

latest of the 1960s new universities

designed to move the U.K. from an elite

to a mass higher education system,

decided to have no entry qualifications

for undergraduate admissions. At a

stroke, this changed something hitherto

fundamental to the functioning and

character of higher education, that

the university chose its students, as

happened through competitive entry

and selective interview at all other

universities. However, at the OUUK,

the students chose the university.

There were, for the first 20 years, more

applications to The Open University

than there were places, and as there

were for the more selective universities,

but The Open University used a first-

come, first-served queuing system to

manage its admissions, not selection.

The Open University, U.K., has stuck to

this fundamental reversal of the power

relationship between student and

institution for more than 50 years.

It is this radical approach to student

admission that has changed the

understanding of who could go to

university, from the stereotypical but

not misleading picture of an 18- or

19-year-old middle-class young person,

more often a boy than a girl, almost

always white, to a university of adults in

all sorts of occupations, and with a more

or less equal proportion of women to

men. The predominant characteristics

of the OU student were not of someone

who had had no postschool education

but of someone who had had some

but wanted more. The picture is one of

individuals already in a process of social

mobility, not so much those for whom

this was the first step. However, we

should not overlook the large numbers

of women homeworkers, for whom The

Open University provided a route for

study flexible enough to accommodate

the demands of parenting and home

management; and the smaller but until

the recent period important number

of people who had retired and were

studying more or less exclusively for

reasons of personal fulfillment rather

than vocational advancement. Finally,

there were a number of student

audiences who had never been served

adequately by the university sector.

First and foremost were students with

disabilities, and to this day, The Open

University, U.K., supports more students

with disabilities than all the other

universities in the U.K. put together, and

can fairly be said to have pioneered the

recognition that students with a range of

functional disabilities could and should

be supported to study, and how this

can be done. Other groups have had

their study facilitated by the flexible

and student-centered nature of The

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Open University operations and

systems, including students in prison

and the military.

The foundation of The Open University

as laid out here was driven by an

educational and social mission built

primarily on ideas of social justice,

sharing the goods in society more

widely, and remediating past exclusive

practices. I believe the OUUK has had

a great deal in common with SUNY

Empire State College in its changing

of society’s understanding of who could

go to university.

The Open University put in place a range

of approaches to learning, teaching, and

student support to make that openness

a reality and not just a revolving door.

These included learning materials that

for the first year, at last, created a ramp

into higher education that supported

those with minimal or less than minimal

high school leaving qualifications;

highly developed tutorial support on

an individual basis focused on student

work for continuous assessment; and

a modular course structure that allows

students to plan degrees.

4. Innovation at SUNY Empire

SUNY Empire State College, founded

almost conterminously with the OUUK,

took the same central imperative as

its sister university, that is to say, that

there were significant populations who

could and should enjoy higher education

and who had had no opportunity to

do so. To serve them most effectively

and appropriately you needed to look

to radical innovation in learning and

teaching. It was primarily a lifelong

learning mission for the adult learner

who had had a break from the familiar

trajectory of high school to college and

who had worked or cared for a family

or both. They were in many cases

fractured trajectories, that is, individual

students whose path on that high school

to college trajectory had never been

imagined or permitted by family, or had

been interrupted by lack of resources,

health crises, caring duties, etc. We were

familiar with these students, too.

But SUNY Empire, led by Ernest Boyer,

James Hall, and other senior founding

administrators, crafted from a range of

small-scale, existing innovations in the

USA, a bricolage practice of innovation

shared in method with the OUUK. That

is, SUNY Empire created a home-based

study system that built from the adult

learner up, using the resources of the

statewide system, centrally supported

by the mentor who would guide through

a form of Socratic dialogue, a practice

well described by Lee Herman and

Alan Mandell (2004), both friends and

colleagues from whom I have learned

so much, in their book titled From

Teaching to Mentoring — titled I would

say provocatively if I did not know

how gentle Distinguished Professor

Mandell is. The core ideas at SUNY

Empire’s foundation as I understand

them were more radical than anything

we had conceived in the U.K.: that the

individual learner creates her or his own

program of study rather than engaging

with a curriculum designed by faculty

and inherited from others. This was

indeed courageous. It was to refuse the

power that the university hitherto had

assumed as its prerogative by definition.

In addition, the knowledge that the adult

learner had gained outside the academy,

not only in terms of credit from other

universities but also from life and work

experience, could through its expression

through a portfolio be given academic

credit. This was equally radical I suggest,

as it recognized that knowledge and

understanding generated from outside

the academy were worthy of recognition

within the currency of academic awards.

5. What has Changed at the

OUUK and SUNY Empire?

So where are we now in terms of these

aging radicals?

I see some common patterns between

us both. Firstly, with the OU, while the

initial qualifications offered for the

first 20 years or so were unnamed in

the sense that they were a “B.A. Open”

and only a “B.A. Open,” and composed

through free choice by the student

not according to a pattern designed

by discipline-based academics. In this

way, the OUUK made a significant

nod to the openness of curriculum

that SUNY Empire pioneered. It was

the OU students, through their own

association that has membership in the

university senate, who drove change

toward permitting so-called “named

degrees,” a preselected series of

modules that deliver a B.A. or B.Sc. in

a subject area. Some academics at the

OU — I remember that senate debate

— defended what they thought was a

key element of the OU’s radicalism and

opposed what they saw as the creep

of conventionalism into the university.

But the majority listened to the student

demands for easier social recognition

of their degree titles that society and

employers more easily understood, and

agreed to the change.

Equally, as I understand it through

conversations with your colleagues

and looking at your webpages, SUNY

Empire, too, has expanded the modes

of study to include online degrees made

up of conventional courses, as well

individually planned and negotiated

study plans for credit supported by

mentoring, and retains the inclusion

of experiential learning, or indeed a

particular strength that is apparent, a

combination of all three modes.

My assessment for both universities is

that these changes have strengthened

our ability to include a wider range

of students and to innovate in how

these students are supported. There is

nothing so damaging as “founding father

syndrome,” if I can term it that, where

any change from the original vision is

regarded as treason. As SUNY Empire’s

Emerita Professor Elana Michelson

(2020), friend, and colleague of many

years, proposed in an article last year,

we should “resist a more-of-the-same

defensiveness that can keep us stuck in

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

what we already do” (p. 113). That has

emerged as for me the crucial theme

of this talk.

And nothing has tested the mission and

organizational structures and processes

more than the digital revolution of the

last 30 years, which I come to next.

6. The Digital Revolution

In the early 1990s or so, the digital

revolution made its challenging entry,

for me first in the form of desktop

computers for email and managing text,

although elsewhere in the university it

began to transform student records and

logistics. By that time, the educational

radicals of The Open University, U.K.,

were in many cases in their 40s and

50s. And it seems to be true that while

the technologies we grow up with, and

perhaps up to the age of 40, are seen

as part of the natural world, those that

come later in our lives for some at least

intrude as a personal challenge and an

unwelcome one at that.

But I remember when the first desktop,

just one, was installed, with its black

screen and winking green text. And I

sent the first email in my life, which was

as it happens to a colleague in Australia.

It could hardly have traveled farther.

And some five minutes later, I received a

reply. I couldn’t believe it. I think, literally

as well as metaphorically, my mouth

dropped open. Suddenly the world

changed shape, and some dimensions

of geographical distance, of time, and

of communicating, sharing, and working

with others, were changed forever.

Skeptics

But those who were armored against

new technological innovations, over

and above the ones we had worked

with for the last 20 years, represented

themselves as weary skeptics in

the face of naive tech enthusiasts

who had no understanding of “real”

communication, “real” relationships, or

“real” learning. And for an innovative

technology-supported university just

20 or so yearsold in the 1990s, there

were a surprising number of such

conservatives who refused to model

continued innovation, and who gradually

became more and more forlorn and

unhappy voices. It became so difficult to

distinguish a new conservatism from a

legitimate protection of the educational

mission, a continuing challenge.

7. Anti-commoditization Practices

So where is innovation most

strong now?

Open Versus Commercial Practice

Of great interest is the reaction to the

high levels of commoditization that

the digital revolution has brought —

above all of our personal data — in

the form of a pushback with anti-

commodification practices in fields such

as open software, open publishing, and

open educational resources [OERs]. If

it is true that every force engenders

resistance, nowhere has this been seen

so strongly as in the open publishing

movement of the last 20 years. I will

be fascinated to see where the next

moment of stasis comes in the field of

open versus commercial publishing. As

for open educational resources, I remain

wedded to the idea that courses can be

more speedily, cheaply, and equitably

produced if we are able to share and

adapt — facilitated by digital systems.

But apart from the valuable open-source

production of some textbooks in North

America where textbook prices are very

high, I have personally seen less than

enough evidence of open educational

practice, that is, OERs in use in the

production of learning resources and

courses rather than lying unexamined

in unvisited repositories. I hope to be

proved wrong!

8. Informal Learning

On the other hand, the use of OERs for

informal learning has had more success,

for example with the OpenLearn site of

The Open University, U.K. (n.d.), which

makes freely available discontinued

courses and fractions of current

courses and is used by millions of

informal learners. As well as sites like

this there are a million blogs, curated

collections of resources on every

subject under the sun, and spaces for

association and discussion. The digital

age has produced an extraordinary

creativity based on informal learning

and ease of communication. We can

see it happening in front of our eyes

as people stare at their screens in

every sitting room at home, every

café, on every bus, train, or airplane.

Is it here, not only in the study of but

in the production and curation of

resources, that the spirit of innovation

in learning might burn most fiercely in

the current period? And are educational

institutions still fit for purpose with their

architectures of learning still in analog

form in terms of lengthy programs of

study and credit systems, and able to

support the informal learning that is

going on all around them, which is, for

the most part, ignored, unrecognized

and unvalued? I suggest that the

microcredential agenda has now far

more potential than the early days of

badges of competency information

technology companies might have

suggested.

9. It Has Not Worked

But to Conclude with an

Overall Challenge to SUNY

Empire and the OUUK

If we are to be critical, and I include

self-critical, I would want to ask if the

notion of openness, while an advance

on the notion of opportunity to learn,

a privilege granted by others, is in itself

an adequate basis for social justice, and

what the widely promoted rationale

for a university like the OUUK of social

mobility really means. I draw on the

work firstly of Michael Young (1958) on

meritocracy, and Selina Todd (2021),

and in particular her recent book

Snakes & Ladders: The Great British

Social Mobility Myth.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Michael Young, an innovator in ideas

in education as well as other sectors,

and influential on the founding ideas of

the OUUK, wrote a satire as long ago as

1958 using the neologism of meritocracy

as descriptive of a dystopian society

where the able minority rule for their

own benefit a less able majority, and

extend these benefits to their own

family only, and have in the notion of

meritocracy a set of beliefs that make

this entirely defensible. Young was

profoundly disappointed however

that meritocracy became a term of

approbation rather than understood

as he intended as a satirical account

of new forms of privilege and the

justification of hierarchy that it supports.

So, I think it is fair to ask if the OUUK,

and perhaps SUNY Empire, while we

have widened slightly the terms on

which people may move in society, have

unwittingly failed to critique the social

mobility that we support. To strengthen

“So, I think it is fair

to ask if the OUUK,

and perhaps SUNY

Empire, while we have

widened slightly the

terms on which people

may move in society,

have unwittingly failed

to critique the social

mobility that

we support.”

the urgency of this question, I turn

to Selina Todd’s (2021) recent work,

Snakes & Ladders. She wrote that “By

2010 40% of London’s children lived

in poor households … London had

become the most socially polarised city

in Britain, but researchers found that

a similar inequality of both wealth and

opportunity characterised the largest

provincial cities too.” She added that

we “saw social mobility strategies as

replacement for social policies that were

designed to prevent or minimise poverty

and inequality” (pp. 328-329).

In other words, it has not worked. If

the original founding vision of our

two universities was a commitment

to improving social justice, that is to

say, diminishing the gaps between the

richest and the poorest and supporting

social mobility, thus, creating more

opportunities for secure employment

and housing, and health outcomes

to be available to a larger and larger

proportion of the population, it has not

happened. The gaps are greater, the

poor are relatively poorer, the richer

are relatively richer, and decent housing

is more and more of a challenge. A

sobering moment. The very challenges

that we were established to meet

have, in fact, over 50 years, developed

into worsening problems rather

than improved life outcomes for the

majority, notwithstanding the millions

of students whose life trajectories we

have supported. How do we contribute,

then, in the light of that? Do we continue

in the same way? Or do we recognize

that the hopes of 1971 have in some

ways gone backward and that we must

rethink how we deliver our missions?

I would like to focus on my own answer

to those questions, which are the

questions I hope to leave you with, on

whether our understanding of social

justice and, in particular, social mobility

is adequate. I think they are not.

Firstly, it is all too usually implicit, not

thought through. To renew our mission

statements, which have not succeeded

overall in embedding change for the

better in our societies, despite the many

achievements of our students, we need

to discuss and debate what we mean

by social justice and social mobility,

and then plan again how we can better

deliver on those ambitions; better than

we have done so far.

Secondly, I think the very strength

we thought we had in supporting

the individual learner may also be a

weakness. It is not that it is wrong,

rather, it is inadequate. While we

thought we were mitigating the

most damaging characteristics in

our societies, perhaps we were too

often reflecting and reproducing their

individualism. There is a clue, I think, in

that both universities have been pulled

back from “open curriculum” being the

sole program offering, to complement

the mentor-supported curriculum

planning process in the case of SUNY

Empire and the Open Degree in the

case of the OUUK, to qualifications that

are built around the same principles

of established fields of knowledge

with names that are immediately

recognizable in communities and by

employers, that is to say, a B.Sc. in

economics or a B.A. in literature.

And while the open curriculum

continues to engage many, at least

half of our OUUK students, perhaps in

their decision to take named degrees

in subject areas, implicitly express the

notion that they are not just individuals;

they are or want to be part of wider

communities defined by knowledge

area. In other words, the truism that

human beings are social animals not

just individuals is being expressed in its

own ways by our students.

Relatedly, can we do anything about the

very long-established notion that social

mobility is an individual’s farewell to her

or his own community, for admission to

another community or social class? This

individualistic notion of social mobility

is impoverishing for the community

left behind, as those most able and

energetic members of the community

are encouraged to get up and go, and at

the same time negates broader notions

of social solidarity that have contributed

so much to the fragmentation and

anomie that we can recognize in the

U.K. and perhaps, it is for you to say,

in the U.S.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

So, let’s celebrate at 50 years the many,

many lives of individual students whom

our universities have supported in their

life trajectories, and whom no one else

chose to notice. But let us also reflect

on the challenge that the injustices in

our societies that we were established

to mitigate have, in fact, gotten worse.

Let me return to the question as to how

well radicals age. The task before us,

I propose, lies in our capacity to draw

on the radical courage of SUNY leaders

Ernest Boyer and James Hall and in the

U.K. Government Minister Jenny Lee,

and as young and old alike renew the

moral challenge to our societies today

to reinvent our universities to support

a fairer more just society, just as our

founding mothers and fathers did 50

years ago. In other words, we still have

work to do!

References

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship

reconsidered: Priorities of the

professoriate. Jossey-Bass.

Hall, J. W. (1991). Access through

innovation: New colleges for new

students. National University

Continuing Education Association.

Herman, L., & Mandell, A. (2004). From

teaching to mentoring: Principle and

practice, dialogue and life in adult

education. RoutledgeFalmer.

Michelson, E. (2020, Spring). Truthiness,

alternative facts, and experiential

learning. New Directions for Adult

& Continuing Education, 2020(165),

103-114. https://doi.org/10.1002/

ace.20371

Open University, The. (n.d.). OpenLearn.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/

Todd, S. (2021). Snakes & ladders: The

great British social mobility myth.

Random House.

Young, M. (1958). The rise of meritocracy.

Thames and Hudson.

A Peek Inside #3

Shantih E. Clemans, Brooklyn

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

From Microaggressions to Hate Crimes:

Asian Americans’ Experiences During COVID-19

Gina Torino, Staten Island

ince the beginning of the

pandemic in late 2019-early 2020,

the U.S., along with the rest of

the world, has been overwhelmed by

COVID-19. Communities of color in

the U.S. have been disproportionately

impacted by the virus in negative ways.

Moreover, there has been a precipitous

rise in the frequency and severity of

microaggressions as well as overt racism

and hate crimes directed toward Asian

Americans. In this piece, I will discuss

the rise of discrimination in the Asian

American community as well as some

recent research that discusses the

long-term psychological impact of the

aforementioned incidents. As mentors

and staff who work with and serve

students representing various racial

and cultural groups, it is imperative

that we all attempt to understand

how our own biases may unknowingly

be transmitted through our words

and behavior. Thus, interventions for

minimizing the incidence and impact

of microaggressions and racism will

be discussed.

Over the last two decades, there has

been mounting evidence that various

forms of oppression and discrimination

have become more subtle and nuanced.

Authors across disciplines have explored

these manifestations for people of

color, women, LGBT individuals, and

more recently, disabled, and religious

minorities. Across the literature, the

unifying theme is that expressions of

bias and discrimination have moved

from overt and blatant to more covert

and ambiguous. Sue, Capodilupo,

et al. (2007) reintroduced the term

microaggressions in a theoretical

taxonomy that included people of color,

women, and LGBT individuals. In that

work, microaggressions are defined

as: “brief and commonplace daily

verbal, behavioral, or environmental

indignities, whether intentional or

unintentional, that communicate hostile,

derogatory, or negative … slights and

insults to people of color, women, and

LGBT individuals” (p. 273). Oftentimes,

microaggressions are manifestations

of unconscious biases and stereotypes

we possess; however, they can also be

at the conscious level of awareness.

An example of a behavioral race-based

microaggression would be a white

woman clutching her purse more tightly

when a Black man enters an elevator

(Torino et al., 2019). The message

conveyed is that all Black people are

criminals. A verbal microaggression

would be acting surprised when a

female college student states she is

a math major. So, someone might

say, “Oh, you are a math major?” The

reaction of surprise is based on the

stereotype that women are not good

at math.

Some of the early research documented

microaggressions perpetrated against

Asian Americans. The initial qualitative

research study by Sue, Bucceri, et

al. (2007) indicated several broad

themes including: (a) alien in own

land, (b) ascription of intelligence,

invalidation of interethnic differences, (e)

denial of racial reality, (f) pathologizing

cultural values/communication styles,

(g) second-class citizenship, and (h)

invisibility. An example of the first

theme included, “Where were you

born?” The message is that if one is

Asian, one cannot be born in the U.S.

Subsequent research on Asian American

microaggressions validated the initial

research and broadened the themes

that included: being excluded/avoided,

being ridiculed for speaking with an

accent, and having one’s international

Gina Torino

values/needs disregarded (Houshmand,

Spanierman, & Tafarodi, 2014). Of

note is the general theme that despite

having multigenerational roots in

America, Asian Americans are treated as

perpetual foreigners/outsiders.

Xenophobia against Chinese Americans

has been around since the mid-19th

century with the influx of Chinese

immigrants to the U.S. The term that

was used was “yellow peril” which

reflected fears that Western values

would disappear, and that the “exotic”

Chinese person would come to

dominate. This fear was stoked by early

depictions of fictional characters such as

Fu Manchu and Ming the Merciless. And,

shortly after it was thought that COVID-

19 originated in China, Asian Americans

began to experience discrimination in

various forms. One predominant theme

across the verbal incidents has been

the linking of Asians to COVID-19, where

the aggressors are purportedly calling

Asian people “coronavirus,” “Chinese

virus,” or “diseased,” and telling them

that they should “be quarantined” or

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

“go back to China” (Tessler, Choi, & Kao,

2020). A former government official

often referred to the coronavirus as the

“Kung Flu” (Lee, 2020). Last year, in a

New York Times piece titled, “Coronavirus

Racism Infected My High School,”

Katherine Oung (2020) discussed the

microaggressions she experienced as a

Chinese American during the outbreak.

For example, her classmate of almost

three years whom she considered to be

a friend said: “Everyone knows Chinese

people are disgusting. They’ll eat any

type of animal. They’re dirty.” Oung

stated that these words expressed to

her by her friend felt like a “stab to my

chest” (0:00-0:15).

Moreover, between March 19, 2020,

and March 31, 2021, the nonprofit

organization Stop AAPI (Asian

Americans and Pacific Islanders) Hate

received 6,603 reported incidents

of discrimination targeting Asian

Americans across the U.S. According to

their data, physical assaults made up

12.6% of incidents; coughing/spitting

comprised 8.5%; verbal harassment

made up 65.2% of incidents; shunning

or avoidance comprised 18.1%. Women

are attacked two times more than men.

Chinese people made up the ethnic

group most often targeted, making up

43.7% of incidents. Asian Americans

as a whole, though, are being racially

profiled and attacked: Koreans (16.6%),

Vietnamese (8.3%), and Filipinx (8.8%)

have also faced COVID-19 discrimination

in high numbers, and states with high

Asian American populations report the

most incidents (CA (40%); NY (15.1%);

WA (4.8%); and IL (3.2%) (Jeung, Yellow

Horse, & Cayanan, 2021).

There has also been a rise of

discrimination directed toward the

elderly in Asian American communities.

Nationally, Stop AAPI Hate reported

that of the 6,603 incident reports,

those by elderly Asian Americans

(60+) went up from 6.3% in 2020 to

7% in 2021 (Jeung, Yellow Horse, &

Cayanan, 2021). On January 31, 2021,

a 91-year-old man in Oakland,

California’s Chinatown was violently

shoved to the ground. That same

month, an 84-year-old man died

following an attack in San Francisco

(Wiley, 2021). On February 18, 2021,

a 74-year-old Filipino man died after

a random attack in Arizona (KVOA

Television, 2021). On March 16, 2021,

a man killed eight people, six of

whom were Asian women, at three

spas in Atlanta, Georgia; anti-Asian

bias has been suspected in this case

(Hauser, 2021).

Some first-hand accounts reported to

Stop AAPI Hate (2021a) include:

I was waiting to cross the street

when I felt something on my head

and it turned out to be spit all over

my hair and the back of my coat.

I was repeatedly spit on by a big

white guy. (67 y.o., New York, NY)

As I was leaving a restaurant, a

white male stormed up to me and

verbally harassed and terrorized

me. He screamed, ‘return to China

you f***ing Asian’ and other

hateful, racial slurs, threatening me

physically. This went on for several

minutes as I departed the scene

quickly to call police. A clear case of

racial hatred towards me. I called

the police who arrived quickly to

apprehend him. I gave a verbal

account to another officer who

arrived later. I have not heard back

from anyone. (67 y.o., Alamo, CA)

On my daily walk in my hometown

Sausalito, I was wearing a face mask

when a white woman yelled at me,

‘I hate Chinese people! Why do they

come to this country?!’ when she

passed me. I was stunned by her

words which caused me to fear and

be more alert of my surroundings.

(71 y.o., Sausalito, CA) (pp. 3-4)

While the long-term mental health

impacts of recent events are

unknown, scholars have posited that

these hate crimes and other related

microaggressions related to COVID-

19 may have deleterious physical

and psychological effects on Asian

Americans (e.g., anxiety) (Chen, Zhang,

& Liu, 2020; Tessler, Choi, & Kao,

2020). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,

researchers had found that racist

incidents delivered in overt forms and

through microaggressions negatively

impacted Asian Americans’ self-esteem

and contributed to overall mental health

problems (Nadal et al., 2015; Wong-

Padoongpatt et al., 2017).

Support in response to the

devastating reports of hate crimes and

discrimination is being seen throughout

the country. For example, in Oakland,

California, Jacob Azevedo created

“Compassion in Oakland” which is a

volunteer group that offers to walk

with anyone in Oakland’s Chinatown

neighborhood if it might help them feel

safer (Smith, 2021). In addition, the Stop

AAPI Hate coalition and the UCLA Asian

American Studies Center (AASC) have

received $1.4 million in funding from

California to support ongoing research

and community programs that address

rising anti-Asian American racism

(Stopaapihate.org, 2021b). President

Biden signed a memorandum in January

2021 acknowledging that “inflammatory

and xenophobic rhetoric has put Asian

Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI)

persons, families, communities, and

businesses at risk” (The White House,

2021, para. 1). “The president also told

the Department of Health and Human

Services to consider issuing COVID-19

guidance addressing language access

and sensitivity when it comes to the

AAPI community” (Somvichian-Clausen,

2021, Steps in the right direction section,

para. 2).

As mentors and staff at SUNY Empire

State College, there are actions we

can take to mitigate the harmful

impact of microaggressions on our

students. In the new book, Derald Wing

Sue et al. (2021) discussed in detail

microintervention strategies that one

can implement in daily life and higher

education settings. Briefly, if one

experiences a microaggression, one

approach is to make the invisible,

visible by asking for clarification,

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

thereby making the communication

explicit (e.g., “You believe I am sick

because I am Asian.”). Another approach

is to disarm the microaggression

by describing what is happening and

through interruption and redirection

(e.g., “I am having a reaction to

what you just said. Let’s discuss this

together.”). One can also educate the

offender by differentiating between

intent and impact (e.g., “I know your

management efforts have focused on

issues of diversity and inclusivity but

your statement does not reflect your

intent”). Finally, one can seek external

intervention by reporting the incident

and seeking support through

the community.

When one commits a microaggression

and realizes it or if one gets confronted

by someone, it is best not to get

defensive. First, it is imperative to

take stock of one’s own thoughts and

feelings and ask the person for help in

understanding the microaggression.

Second, it is very helpful to acknowledge

the other person’s hurt and to apologize

to that individual. Finally, it is especially

imperative to reflect on where the

microaggression came from in order

to avoid similar instances in the future

(Sue et al., 2021). We all possess biases,

and it is important to take responsibility

for increasing our understanding of

them as well as privileges we might

hold based on identity groups (e.g.,

age, race, gender, ability, weight, etc.).

To understand oneself better, one can

participate in workshops, webinars, and/

or small facilitated groups on crucial

conversations. These difficult dialogues

can be challenging at times, but they

can foster a deep understanding of

one’s own racist views. In addition, a

few online assessments of the Implicit

Association Test (IAT) can be taken to

get a sense of one’s own racial cultural

preferences (Project Implicit, n.d.). On

an organizational level, it is important to

change hiring/promotion practices and

integrate cultural competency. Bringing

in outside diversity consultants to

provide training and to provide expert

insights into microaggressive incidents

is also very useful. By working together

and developing higher levels of self-

awareness, we can make SUNY Empire

State College a more equitable and

inclusive environment for all.

References

Chen, J. A., Zhang, E., & Liu, C. H. (2020).

Potential impact of COVID-19-

related racial discrimination on the

health of Asian Americans. American

Journal of Public Health, 110(11),

1624-1627. https://doi.org/10.2105/

AJPH.2020.305858

Hauser, C. (2021, March 26). 8 dead in

Atlanta spa shootings, with fears

of anti-Asian bias. The New York

Times. https://www.nytimes.com/

live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-

acworth

Houshmand, S., Spanierman, L. B., &

Tafarodi, R. W. (2014). Excluded and

avoided: Racial microaggressions

targeting Asian international

students in Canada. Cultural Diversity

and Ethnic Minority Psychology,

20(3), 377-388. http://www2.psych.

utoronto.ca/users/tafarodi/Papers/

CDEMP2014.pdf

Jeung, R., Yellow Horse, A. J., &

Cayanan, C. (2021, May 6).

Stop AAPI Hate national report:

3/19/20–3/31/21. https://

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Report-National-210506.pdf

KVOA Television. (2021, March 4).

74-year-old grandfather dies

after random attack in Arizona.

https://kvoa.com/news/top-

stories/2021/03/04/74-year-old-

grandfather-dies-after-random-

attack-in-arizona/

Lee, B. Y. (2020, June 24). Trump

once again calls COVID-19

coronavirus the ‘Kung Flu.’ Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/

brucelee/2020/06/24/trump-once-

again-calls-covid-19-coronavirus-the-

kung-flu/?sh=5aaedd971f59

Nadal, K. L., Wong, Y., Sriken, J., Griffin,

K., & Fujii-Doe, W. (2015). Racial

microaggressions and Asian

Americans: An exploratory study on

within-group differences and mental

health. Asian American Journal of

Psychology, 6(2), 136-144. https://doi.

org/10.1037/a0038058

Oung, K. (2020, March 14). Opinion:

Coronavirus racism infected my

high school: A Chinese-American

teenager on what she and her

friends are encountering during

the outbreak [Video]. The New

York Times. https://www.nytimes.

com/2020/03/14/opinion/Racism-

coronavirus-asians.html

Project Implicit. (n.d.). Preliminary

information: Implicit Association

Test (IAT). https://implicit.harvard.

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Smith, K. (2021, February 15). Hundreds

of people are volunteering to escort

elderly Asian Americans to help keep

them safe. CNN. https://www.cnn.

com/2021/02/15/us/volunteer-

group-helps-to-keep-elderly-asian-

americans-safe-trnd/index.html

Somvichian-Clausen, A. (2021, February

16). Hundreds of volunteers are

escorting elderly Asian Americans to

keep them safe. Changing America.

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Stop AAPI Hate, UCLA Asian American

Studies Center to Receive CA State

Funding to Address Rising Anti-

Asian Hate During COVID-19 [Press

release]. https://stopaapihate.org/

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K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2007). Racial

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Sue, D. W., Calle, C. Z., Mendez, N.,

Alsaidi, S., & Glaeser, E. (2021).

Microintervention strategies: What

you can do to disarm and dismantle

individual and systemic racism and

bias. John Wiley & Sons.

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G.

C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B.,

Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007,

May-June). Racial microaggressions

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doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271

Tessler, H., Choi, M., & Kao, G. (2020).

The anxiety of being Asian

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negative biases during the COVID-

19 pandemic. American Journal

of Criminal Justice, 45(2020), 1-11.

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(Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory:

Influence and implications. John Wiley

& Sons.

White House, The. (2021, January 26).

Memorandum condemning and

combating racism, xenophobia, and

intolerance against Asian Americans

and Pacific Islanders in the United

States. https://www.whitehouse.

gov/briefing-room/presidential-

actions/2021/01/26/memorandum-

condemning-and-combating-racism-

xenophobia-and-intolerance-

against-asian-americans-and-pacific-

islanders-in-the-united-states/

Wiley, M. (2021, February 12). 700 Anti-

Asian hate incidents reported in Bay

Area during pandemic — True figures

might be even worse. KQED. https://

www.kqed.org/news/11859965/700-

anti-asia hateincidents-reported-

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

From the Whale Coast to Cloud Forest: Creating a

Transformative Scientific Learning Opportunity

for Undergraduate Students in Costa Rica

Kevin L. Woo, Manhattan and Center for the Study of Pinniped Ecology & Cognition;

Gabriel Duncan and Juan Pablo Rabanales, Walking Tree Travel; Lori McCaffrey, Saratoga Springs

¡Pura vida! — The universal Costa Rican

greeting, universal Costa Rican farewell,

and a moniker that translates to

“Pure life!”

Introduction

ransformative episodes enhance

undergraduate learning

experiences. In the natural

sciences, these experiences may come

in the form of traditional laboratories

or field exercises that demonstrate

the employment of equipment and

techniques that are typical for the

discipline. However, transformative

experience may transcend the pairing

of applied and theoretical instruction. It

is also the environment in which these

lessons are demonstrated that have

the potential to holistically impart a

significant emphasis on the experience,

and thus enhance individual learning

(Davies et al., 2013). While field study in

the biological sciences can be conducted

in representative locations that are

in close proximity to an institution’s

campus, international study abroad

programs enhance the transformative

perspective by providing a dynamic

and novel learning environment. It is

the interaction between traditional and

nontraditional pedagogical practices that

gives the student a multidimensional

approach to learning, and hence a

more global education (Van Doorn &

Van Doorn, 2014). Here, we detail the

creation of the first Tropical Ecology

field course to Central America and

reflect on our partnership between

SUNY Empire State College and Walking

Tree Travel,

and the impact that our

vision may have on the undergraduate

student experience.

Goals

As we embarked on our collaboration

between SUNY Empire State College and

Walking Tree, we sought to highlight

some preliminary goals for our program:

1. To establish the first Tropical

Ecology field experience as a

residency course at SUNY Empire

State College.

2. To create a transformative learning

experience for students by pairing

natural science themes with

conservation, sustainability, and

cross-cultural perspectives.

3. To infuse instruction with unique

fun, adventure, and increased

enthusiasm for learning.

4. To provide an opportunity for

underrepresented populations

to engage in STEM (science,

technology, engineering, and

math) disciplines.

The Tropical Ecology Program

Stemming from a long-standing and

successful Tropical Ecology field and

travel course in Panama, the genesis

of this new project was conceived from

a 2014 collaboration between SUNY

Ulster (a community college in Stone

Ridge, New York) and SUNY Empire State

College. Detailed in All About Mentoring

by Cattabiani et al. (2014), we outlined

both the practical and pedagogical

applications of our collaboration and

the transformative learning opportunity

between two public-serving institutions.

Moreover, we reflected upon the actual

experience in Panama and the greater

personal and academic impacts on

our students.

Using the course design as a model, the

intent was to replicate a similar Tropical

Ecology academic experience based at

SUNY Empire State College. Our current

modes of study offer flexible learning

options. Consequently, one of our

first considerations was to employ a

mode of study that likely captures both

the prescriptive essence for content

instruction and then pair it with an

immersive experience of field study. It

seemed that our residency model would

be the optimal mode for instruction.

Here, we provide distance instruction

to our students across the state and

internationally throughout the term, and

then bridge the in-person portion as the

travel component. With the majority of

the course’s content and assignments

already designed, it would be necessary

to continually update to reflect the

current knowledge in the field. We

believed that its adoption would be

relatively seamless and could utilize its

dissemination and participation to fit

our residency mode.

While we originally intended to launch

the program in Panama, we moved

the desired in-person experience to

Costa Rica. We approached Walking

Tree Travel based on its expertise in

coordinating educational, research, and

service-learning programs with colleges

and universities. Moreover, its affiliation

with the Smithsonian Institute

affirmed

its commitment to understanding the

natural world. Walking Tree Travel is

a small, mission-driven organization

dedicated to bringing students on

meaningful international adventures.

Founded in 2005 by three childhood

friends who share a profound respect

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

for the transformative powers of

international travel, Walking Tree

customizes each program to meet the

goals of the travelers with a dedication

to respectful cross-cultural learning.

Walking Tree has been organizing

science-focused programs in Costa

Rica since 2006 and is proud to

partner with wonderful communities,

conservationists, and service providers

who share their philosophy of travel.

Practically, the logistical coordination

for travel to and within Costa Rica is

relatively easy. Internally, transportation

is supported by a stable infrastructure

and reliable network of roads on both

the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Travel

to and from San José, Costa Rica, is

relatively easy with either direct flights

or connections from most major U.S.

cities. U.S. citizens need a valid U.S.

passport to enter the country. The local

currency, the Costa Rican colón (CRC),

is also interchangeable with the U.S.

dollar. Spanish is the official language

of Costa Rica; however, an international

population of expatriates has also made

English a fairly common language in

many parts of the country.

Similar to Panama, Costa Rica embodies

analogous tropical ecosystems within

a relatively small geographic area.

However, unlike Panama, Costa Rica

has long championed ecotourism and

has been a model for sustainability and

environmental conservation (Evans,

2010). For example, 99.62% of the

country’s energy is generated from

renewable green sources such as wind,

hydrothermal, geothermal, and solar

(Apergis & Payne, 2011). Since the

abolition of its military forces in 1948,

the Costa Rican democratic government

has invested heavily in social services,

such as free public education and

health care, as well as environmental

protection. As a result, Costa Rica began

to establish their National Parks System,

which covers nearly 25% of the entire

country (Evans, 2010).

Costa Rica: A Biodiversity Hotspot

Costa Rica is one of the most prominent

biodiversity hotspots in the world. With

a relatively small landmass of 19,700

square miles, which is comparable to the

size of West Virginia, the flora and fauna

of Costa Rica account for approximately

6% of the world’s biodiversity. There

are greater than 500,000 species of

plants and animals, with likely several

thousand more that have yet to be

described. In terms of flora, Costa Rica

has over 9,000 species of flowering

plants across 12 representative tropical

biomes (see Table 1). In addition, there

are also 800 species of ferns (Cyathea

spp. [several species]), primarily found

in rainforest regions. In terms of fauna,

Costa Rica supports 200 species of

mammals, 850 species of birds, 200

species of amphibians, 220 species

of reptiles, and 300,000 species of

insects, accounting for a significant

portion of the fauna biomass. The

combination of active conservation and

ecotourism has preserved the country’s

sensitive ecosystems and subsequently

underscores Costa Rica as one of the

most biodiverse countries on Earth.

Boots on the Ground:

Onsite Location Visits

Walking Tree provided itinerary options

based on select criteria that we wished

to infuse into the experience. While we

wanted to preserve cultural, educational,

and social experiences, the aim was

to primarily study various Costa Rican

ecosystems and for each student to

incorporate an empirical research

project. Typical of many field courses

in biology, and as required during our

Tropical Ecology course in Panama,

the opportunity to design an empirical

study and utilize field techniques allows

students to apply the scientific method

and execute individual scientific research.

The connection between scientific theory

and application is enhanced when

pedagogical practices can demonstrate

the direct link between them (Lunetta

et al., 2007). Moreover, the additional

experience of collecting data in novel

habitats, such as the tropical ecosystems,

has been shown to increase participation

in both the exercise and as an

opportunity for career selection (Lopatto,

2007). Thus, it was important for us to

ensure that students learned about

tropical ecosystems at representative

locations throughout Costa Rica, but

continued to draw parallels with active

scientific application.

After Walking Tree conceived of a

possible student itinerary, we knew that

it was important to conduct location

visits. It was central for us to undergo

the same likely experiences that

students would have during the course

so that we could be genuinely confident

about how each activity, location,

and accommodation may mirror the

expectations. Equally important was to

meet with local organizers, researchers,

and institutional staff at these locations

so that we could plan collectively for

these activities. In particular, meeting

with local researchers also provided

several opportunities for students to

participate in both individual research

projects for the course, but also in

ongoing research at the facility. The

ability to participate in active research

with scientists provides another

dimension for students to learn and

engage in the scientific method.

For the site visits, we planned a route

to each location based on the tropical

ecosystem type over the course of five

days (Figure 1). While we proposed that

the actual course be longer, five days

allowed us to examine each location

for access to nearby ecosystems,

inspect the accommodations for

students, participate in proposed

activities, and liaise with researchers

and institutional staff. Upon arrival

at the Juan Santamaria International

Airport, we were met by Juan Pablo “J.P.”

Rabanales, Walking Tree Travel’s country

operations manager for Costa Rica. We

spent 24 hours in Alajuela, which is a

large suburb northwest of the capital

of San José, Costa Rica, and is situated

on the foothills of the surrounding

mountains that envelope the city of San

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Table 1. The 12 representative biomes found in Costa Rica.

Biome Description Representative Area/Region

Lowland tropical rainforest Consistent rainfall and warm

Corcovado National Park

temperatures; vegetation abundant from

forest floor to canopy

Tropical dry forest Seasonal dry/wet periods; dry period

Nicoya Peninsula

particularly from November to April;

dominated by deciduous vegetation

Cloud Forest High-elevation, cold-tolerant species with Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve

persistent precipitation

Highland mountain Predominantly evergreen species; cold and Tenorio National Park

rainforest warm tolerant species

Páramo Arid grassland and scrubland Southern Talamanca mountain range

Semi-deciduous mid- Dominated by semi-deciduous trees that

Arenal National Park

elevation forest reach canopy (75-125 feet); forest floor and

understory comprised of dense vegetation

Mangrove forest Brackish and saltwater environment

Tortuguero National Park

defined by mangrove species with buttress

root systems; often riparian zones with

connecting river systems to oceans

Wetlands Shallow freshwater systems that may Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge (Alajuela)

intersect rivers and marshland

Coral reef Coastal symbiotic relationships between

Bahia Ballena National Marine Park

algae and living coral; must be in marine

photic zones for photosynthesis

Caribbean coastline Mix of tropical rainforest, mangrove

Caribbean (eastern) coastline between Panama

forest, and riparian forest from the north

& Nicaragua

(Nicaragua) to the south (Panama); also

typically wetter with seasonal rainfall

Pacific coastline Typically tropical dry forest interconnected

Pacific (western) coastline between Panama

from the north (Nicaragua) to the south

& Nicaragua

(Panama)

Shallow seas Relatively shallow (<90 feet) marine areas

Gulf of Nicoya

along the Pacific and Caribbean coastlines,

within the photic, euphotic, epipelagic, and

sunlit zones

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Figure 1. Map of Costa Rica (left). Travel route during location visit: 1) Alajuela, 2) La Florida,

3) Ojochal, and 4) Monteverde (right).

José, which was strategically planned in

the Central Valley of San José canton. As

the capital and largest city in Costa Rica,

the metropolitan area of San José hosts

over 2 million residents and accounts

for more than half of the country’s

population. Much of the population is

highly diverse, with mixed Indigenous,

other Central American, and European

(mestizos) ancestry. In a demographic

similarity, and as a suburb also known

for its diversity, Alajuela also boasts

one of the largest indoor food and

produce markets in the greater San José

canton region. Upon our first full day,

we visited these markets, which provide

a context for local cuisine, but also

larger social issues like food systems,

food security, and the association

between food and culture. Moreover,

local food and agricultural markets

can be used as regional biodiversity

indicators in terms of the produce

that is harvested and animals that are

sold (Burger et al., 2004). In Alajuela,

we stayed at Casa Cielo Grande (e.g.,

Big Sky House), overlooking Alajuela

and the surrounding Central Valley.

At 4,300 feet in elevation, Casa Cielo

Grande is situated in a mountainous

region north of San José and resides

at an altitude that demonstrates the

ecological mirror of increasing latitude

toward the north and south poles.

While also located on the leeward

side of prevailing wind systems and

easterly of most precipitation, this

part of Alajuela had very low humidity.

The dramatic shift in elevation mimics

extreme daily temporary changes,

which is subsequently reflected in the

type of flora found (e.g., succulents

like cactuses, Cactaceae) in deserts —

another climate that is dry with extreme

temperature variation.

From Alajuela, we traveled southerly

with J.P. along the Pacific coast toward

the Osa Peninsula. Near the seaside

town of Tarcoles, we stopped at a bridge

that is suspended above the Tarcoles

River, an aquatic system known for

resident American crocodiles (Crocodylus

acutus) and spectacled caiman (Caiman

crocodilus), near Carara National Park.

We then continued onto Pura Suerte,

a fully sustainable farm located in La

Florida, about 30 kilometers northeast

of Dominical. Originally conceived as a

center for sustainable living in 2000, the

150-acre farm encompasses 20 acres

of organic farming, 75 acres of primary

growth tropical rainforest, 30 acres for

reforestation from what was once a

purely agricultural portion, and 20 acres

of secondary tropical rainforest growth.

With approximately 1,900 species of

trees in Costa Rica, both primary and

secondary forests exemplify flora typical

of Central American tropical rainforests,

such as walking palm trees (Socratea

exorrhiza), Guanacaste (Enteroloblum

cyclocarpum), and trumpet tree (Cecropia

obstusifolia). The remaining acreage is

interspersed with lodging, sustainable

infrastructure, and common areas.

Here, the neighboring caretakers, Roy

Image credits: Google Maps

Photo credits: Kevin Woo

and Graciela Jimenez, greeted us; they

were our hosts during our stay at Pura

Suerte. Roy and Graciela also operate

their own sustainable property, Finca

Sueño. As we toured the property,

we walked through the organic coffee

(e.g., native species of Coffea spp.;

Figure 2a) plantations, organic fruiting

Figure 2a

flora like banana (Musa spp.) and

passionfruit (Passiflora maliformis),

and native cocoa trees (Theobroma

cacao). We toured the gardens that

consisted of both hydroponic and

soil-based crops, which are provided

water from a network of rainwater

systems throughout the farm. Adjacent

to the rainwater collection systems

was an aquaponic system established

for growing blue tilapia (Oreochromis

aureus) in the enclosures and feeding

the water with fish waste back to a

separate garden system situated above

the enclosures. The aquaponic system

is a closed-loop system where the fish

are fed on decaying plant matter, and

in turn, the fish waste (e.g., nitrogen,

phosphorus, and potassium) supply

the plants with natural fertilizer (de

Silva & Anderson, 1994). Other livestock

such as chickens, goats, cows, and

pigs were also raised humanely on

the farm. Excess agricultural products

were sold at the local farmers market

in La Florida. Consistent with the theme

of sustainability, the farm was nearly

100% energy-independent. For example,

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

from the pig waste, the farm produced

biogas, which was held in large vinyl

bladders and used for cooking fuel.

A solar panel system also found on

the rooms of several buildings on

the property provided the farm with

electricity, with AC/DC conversion and

storage capacity for use in the evenings.

From Pura Suerte, we traveled southward

to the Pacific coastal town of Uvita.

Before leaving La Florida, we stopped at

the local school to talk about some of

the service-learning projects that Walking

Tree initiated. Walking Tree groups have

been visiting La Florida for 15 years, living

with local families and doing service

projects. Walking Tree works with La

Florida municipal leaders to conceive

and coordinate the service work, which

is a careful and respectful collaboration

between community members and

visitors. Most projects have involved the

local school or other public installations

and consist of light construction work

under the guidance of a local foreman.

Approximately 12 miles south of Uvita

along the Osa Peninsula in the town of

Ojochal is the Reserva Playa Tortuga,

nonprofit research institute dedicated

to the conservation and study of native

flora and fauna. It is here at the Reserva

Playa Tortuga where we envision our

students will spend a significant portion

of their time executing individual

projects. Ideally, the methodology should

be designed prior to the departure of

the trip; however, it is often common to

adjust protocols based on the conditions

of the field location. In addition to

the students’ own projects, they will

participate in ongoing research and

conservation efforts by resident and

transient scientists at the Reserva Playa

Tortuga. Formed in 2009 and situated

on 175 acres of coastal land alongside

its namesake beach, Playa Tortuga, the

institute hosts a number of international

scientists and volunteers for projects

in monitoring native birds, mammals,

bats (Chiroptera), American crocodiles

(C. acutus), tree boas (Corallus spp.),

butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera),

and sea turtles (olive ridley, Lepidochelys

olivacea; green, Chleonia mydas;

leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea;

hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata). In

particular, their sea turtle conservation

project has been the longest operating

research area, which also includes

monitoring of nestling sites and predator-

proof hatcheries. Some research is

seasonal, as well as dependent on the

natural circadian rhythms of individual

species. For example, some ectotherms

(e.g., cold-blooded organisms) like tree

boas and crocodiles are more easily

monitored in the evening, whereas

birds may be more active during the

crepuscular (e.g., dawn and dusk) hours.

Similarly, sea turtle nesting and hatching

occurs on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica

from July to December.

The nearby coastline of Uvita is known

as the Costa Ballena (Whale Coast).

One major topographical feature is

the artificial sandbar constructed in

the shape of a mysticete fluke, which

is called the Cola de Ballena (Whale’s

Tail). Crafted originally as a jetty for

transporting goods from the rainforest

to barges, Marino Ballena National Park

was designated as both a coastline and

marine protected sanctuary, essentially

ceasing all commercial and recreational

harvesting of flora and fauna within the

park’s zone. In Uvita, students may also

have the option to join a whale watching

tour. From December to March and

again from July to December, humpback

whales (Megaptera noaeagliae; Figure

2b) make their northerly and southerly

Figure 2b

migrations, so students are likely to

see mothers and their calves voyaging

to their seasonal destinations. It is also

possible to spot resident populations of

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops

truncatus) and common dolphins

(Delphinus delphis).

Reserva Playa Tortuga exhibits a

coastal tropical ecology where riparian

systems overlap estuarine systems.

Often at these intersections, mangrove

forests are established and create a

rich ecosystem to support diverse flora

and fauna. During our time at Reserva

Playa Tortuga, we will experience

a kayaking tour on the Rio Sierpe

(Serpentine River). Typical of many

riverine and estuarine ecosystems,

tropical mangrove forests also shelter

the juveniles of many species and

become a regional nursery to aquatic

and marine species (Robertson & Duke,

1987). From a community interaction

web perspective, the richness of

the ecosystem also increases likely

competition for resources as well as

predation from marine and aerial

predators (Sheaves et al., 2015). There

are seven species of mangrove trees

in Costa Rica. For example, the red

mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is found

commonly in many mangrove systems

across Central and South America. This

riparian system hosts a nursery for

juveniles, but they provide shelter for

crustaceans, such as the mangrove tree

crab (Aratus pisonii), and produce edible

fruit for birds, mammals, and bats.

Some common primate species found

in southwestern Costa Rica and within

the mangroves are white-faced capuchin

monkeys (Cebus imitator; Figure 2c),

golden-mantled howler monkeys

(Aloutta palliata), and Geoffrey’s spider

monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Many other

iconic and Indigenous species of fauna

can be found in the mangrove forests,

such as the blue morpho butterfly

(Morpho spp.), northern tamandua

(Tamandua mexicana), two-toed

(Choloepus hoffmanni) and three-toed

sloths (Bradypus variegatus), coati

(Nasua narica), colorful macaws (Ara

spp.), Lesson’s motmots (Momotus

lessonii; Figure 2d), leafcutter ants

(Atta columbica; Figure 2e), basilisks

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Figure 2c

(aka Jesus Christ lizard, Basiliscus spp.;

Figure 2f), red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis

callidryas; Figure 2g), and poison dart

frogs (Dentrobatidae).

We departed the Osa Peninsula and

said farewell to J.P., who returned to

San José to welcome the next cohort of

Walking Tree travelers. From Ojochal,

we journeyed to Monteverde, an

evergreen area situated at an elevation

of 5,100 feet. Known as a cloud forest

(i.e., forests that range in elevation from

3,500-9,500 feet), the Monteverde region

Figure 2d

Figure 2e

overlooks the Guanacaste province

and the Nicoya Peninsula to the west.

Unlike Alajuela, much of Monteverde

is exposed to the windward side, thus

inheriting persistent precipitation

throughout the year. However, similar to

Alajuela, the altitude of Monteverde also

mimics diverging polar latitudes, where

the temperatures are significantly cooler

than the surrounding rainforests that

are lower toward coastal elevations. The

interaction between the precipitation

and cooler temperatures creates a

lusciously green environment but is

a stark contrast from other tropical

rainforests in Central and South

America. The physical attributes of

this ecosystem have also shaped

the diversity of the flora and fauna

species that differ from other tropical

regions. While there are some flora and

fauna that overlap with transitioning

ecosystems, there are species that are

only found in cloud forests. Through

a series of interconnecting cloud

forest patches, such as the Santa

Elena Preserve and Bosque Eterno de

Los Niños (Children’s Eternal Forest),

the largest protected area is the

Figure 2f

Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological

Preserve.

Historically, Quakers, who

migrated from America to avoid the

Korean War draft, colonized the area

in the 1950s and purchased land in the

Monteverde (Green Mountain) region.

Through collaboration between the

first settlers and a burgeoning interest

from scientists who recognized its

biological and conservation importance,

the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological

Preserve was established as a formal

and private sanctuary to protect

the flora and fauna found within

its boundaries.

Figure 2g

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

As a distinctive climate within a tropical

region, Monteverde supports flora and

fauna unique to its region. Known for

its forest canopy of tall trees such as

the strangler fig (Ficus aurea; Figure

2h), the cloud forest includes 878

Figure 2h

known epiphytes, which comprise

29% of all floral species. One of the

most prominent groups of epiphytes,

the bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) are

one of the greatest contributors to

water and nutrient cycling, as well as

relative floral biomass (Nadkarni &

Wheelwright, 2000). In addition, the

Monteverde region also has the largest

concentration of orchids in the world,

which comprises over 500 species. With

such a high concentration of flowering

plants, Monteverde also supports large

resident and migratory hummingbird

populations (Trochilidae; Figure 2i).

The Monteverde region is also the

geographical location of the Continental

Divide through Central America. As a

result of a physical barrier, it has kept

some species in isolation on either

side of the divide but also becomes a

stopover for many migratory species.

For example, the resplendent quetzal

(Pharomachrus mocinno) is an iconic

resident in Monteverde that moves

seasonally between higher and lower

elevations. Adjacent to the reserve and

also once a former private residence,

the Curi-Cancha Reserve exhibits the

same ecology as the surrounding

Monteverde region but is a popular

location for bird watching and evening

tours. Many typical mammalian, avian,

and herpetological species that are

found across Costa Rica also inhabit

Monteverde and have adapted to the

cooler climate. Following our time in

Monteverde, we returned to Alajuela

and San José as we awaited our

departure to the United States.

Creating the Final Itinerary

After the site visits, we conferred

with Walking Tree in order to devise

a 10-day experience where students

were immersed in representative

tropical ecosystems. In addition to

learning about the various ecological

processes, students would also have

the opportunity to conduct independent

scientific research and participate in

ongoing research projects. Interspersed

throughout the itinerary are options to

engage in additional cultural activities

that provide more transformative

learning opportunities. While we initially

proposed for the inaugural trip to

launch during the spring 2021 term,

the coronavirus pandemic impacted

Figure 2i

both SUNY Empire State College and

Walking Tree’s operations. Federally,

regionally, and internationally mandated

restrictions enacted strict guidelines

for international travel. However, and

understandably, individuals also elected

not to engage in international flights to

reduce the risk of infection and spread

of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the COVID-

19 pandemic has affected logistical

travel to international destinations and

has had a negative economic impact

on organizations that support these

educational expeditions. As a result of

several interacting factors, we elected

to postpone the inaugural course to the

spring 2023 term, with likely travel time

sometime between the end of February

and early March. Integrating our ideas,

goals, and experiences, we were able

to craft a comprehensive itinerary that

incorporates our goals for the program

and enhances transformative learning

(Table 2).

Potential Impact for

Undergraduate Mentoring

SUNY Empire State College has had

relatively few opportunities for our

students to study abroad, despite our

international partnerships. The Tropical

Ecology program seeks to be the first

course with an international travel

component that allows students to

study the natural world in the field.

We believe in the importance of

mentoring undergraduate students

as an uncompromising pedagogical

constitution. This resolution is genuine

across all academic disciplines. However,

here we have the direct opportunity to

mentor students in the natural sciences

and to do so in an environment that

embodies biodiversity and conservation.

Another facet of transformative learning

is the opportunity to mentor students

while engaged in the applications that

are the demands of the discipline, such

as field research, use of ecological

methods, employment of data collection

techniques, and operation of typical

field equipment. The mentoring

relationship directly is evident during

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Table 2. Itinerary for spring 2023 Tropical Ecology course in Costa Rica.

Day Location Activities

USA — Alajuela

Alajuela — Pura Suerte

Pura Suerte — Oso

Osa Peninsula

Osa — Alajuela

Alajuela — Monteverde

Monteverde

Monteverde — Alajuela

Alajuela — USA

1. Arrival from USA to Juan Santamaria International Airport.

2. Orientation meeting at Casa Cielo Grande regarding trip details,

expectations, and safety.

1. Depart for Pura Suerte.

2. Stop along Rio Tarcoles to see crocodiles.

3. Tour Pura Suerte for indigenous and invasive flora and fauna.

4. Visit coffee and cocoa plantations.

5. Discuss sustainable practices of the farm.

6. Interact with community members and engage in cultural exchanges.

1. Hike to Nauyaca waterfall in rainforest.

2. Depart for Reserva Playa Tortuga (RPT).

3. Meet researchers and discuss conservation efforts at RPT.

4. Tour the facilities.

4. Prepare individual projects for the course.

5. Establish roster to participate in ongoing research, such as monitoring

of crocodiles, bats, birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects.

1. Participate in morning beach cleanup around nesting turtle sites.

2. Hike through nearby rainforests.

3. Begin individual research projects.

4. Engage in scheduled research projects with onsite scientists.

1. Continue data collection for individual research projects.

2. Continue participation in various research projects at RPT

with scientists.

1. Depart RPT.

2. Kayak through mangrove forests along Rio Sierpe.

3. Evening reflection on our work at RPT.

1. Explore Alajuela’s Central Market.

2. Depart for Monteverde.

3. Conduct night hike into evergreen cloud forest.

1. Explore and hike the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

2. Visit surrounding communities, such as Santa Elena.

1. Soar through forest canopy on ziplines.

2. Depart for Central Valley/Alajuela.

3. Evening reflection on science, culture, and conservation.

Fly home.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

field research, and the pedagogical

instruction is strengthened with this

process of facilitation.

This approach is especially important

for fostering diversity and burgeoning

interest in STEM fields. At SUNY Empire

State College, we serve a large number

of underrepresented populations and

first-generation college students, and

this is particularly evident in our STEM

disciplines. While STEM programs are

beginning to demonstrate increased

enrollment of underrepresented

populations, there is still no equitable

representation across the disciplines.

Historically, African American, Latino,

and Native American representation in

STEM disciplines trails behind white and

Asian American enrollments (Estrada et

al., 2018; Hurtado et al., 2010; Toven-

Lindsey et al., 2015). In 2010, students

who identified as underrepresented

minorities (URMs) accounted for only

14.7% of all undergraduate bachelor’s

degrees that were awarded in STEM

(Estrada et al., 2018). By comparison,

this number increased to 24% in 2013

(Strayhorn et al., 2013). This discrepancy

is also revealed through gender

inequality. In the United States, women

represent only 35% of currently enrolled

undergraduate students in STEM fields

(Botella et al., 2019). Given the current

climate regarding cultural sensitivity to

issues of race, gender, and diversity,

many higher education institutions

have begun to acknowledge the lack of

representative diversity in their students

and faculty (Smith, 2020). However,

actionable changes for improving

diversity across campuses still have

much to achieve.

Our Tropical Ecology course and

program has the potential to continue

to foster interest in the natural sciences

and to provide an opportunity for many

STEM students of underrepresented

populations to engage in the sciences.

In many ways, the course can act as a

gateway for scientific inquiry or continue

to reinforce a developed interest in

the sciences. The course is not merely

an innovative learning opportunity for

our students, but it may also provide

insights into future STEM careers and

scientific research.

The Importance of Cross-

Cultural Learning

Travel courses to international

destinations are inherently

interdisciplinary. While the emphasis

for our program is on ecology and

conservation, cultural and social

interactions enhance both personal and

academic experiences. Cross-cultural

interactions create long-lasting and

memorable accounts of unique learning

experiences (Anderson et al., 2006).

Our vision is to avoid an educational

silo by focusing solely on the natural

sciences. As we interact with local

communities, research scientists, and

environmental stewards during our

travels, our hope is for students to

develop a greater appreciation for the

preservation of culture. We want our

students to reflect on wider societal

and cultural considerations, such as the

impact of climate change on coastal

communities, food security, access to

education in remote locations, and

the future of ecotourism in Costa Rica.

The implications of anthropogenic

interactions on human communities

also have implications for the success of

future generations. Thus, we aim for our

students to become stewards of cultural

and environmental sustainability and

represent themselves as global citizens.

Reflections on the Program

Kevin Woo

Currently, at SUNY Empire State College,

our Center for International Education

engages in global partnerships to work

with students in Albania, the Czech

Republic, the Dominican Republic,

Greece, Lebanon, and Turkey. Our

program allows international students

to earn undergraduate degrees from

SUNY Empire while studying in various

host countries around the world. To that

extent, our programs have catered to

international students already abroad,

but we have had very few opportunities

for SUNY Empire students from the

states to experience international

learning overseas. Stemming from

my own personal and professional

experiences, it became evident that

the importance of creating such a

program, particularly in the natural

sciences, would give our students the

opportunity to engage in academic

and transformational learning as

part of their curriculum. Developing

the program and initially working

collaboratively with my colleagues from

SUNY Ulster (Cattabiani et al., 2014)

provided the motivation for creating

such an opportunity for our SUNY

Empire students and other potential

partner institutions. While the overall

framework was already established with

my colleagues, initiating a program that

allows SUNY Empire students to travel

abroad required logistical coordination,

such as travel (to and from countries

and internally), accommodations,

working with local institutional partners,

and academic activities. Administratively,

the creation of the experience as

embedded within a course also required

formal approval before it would be

available for students to register.

Parallel to the necessary logistical

concerns for traveling, navigating the

process for course approval ensured

that students could take a course on

tropical ecology, engage in the academic

content, and concurrently participate in

a transformative experience in a foreign

country. For some students, particularly

for the typical student population at

SUNY Empire, this may have been either

the first or one of the few opportunities

to travel to an international destination.

Thus, for our students, it was important

for me to deliver this opportunity to

the SUNY Empire community and to

form new collaborations, such as our

relationship with Walking Tree Travel,

which provide an updated framework

for the program’s longevity.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Gabriel Duncan

Walking Tree Travel’s mission is to

inspire students to become curious and

compassionate global citizens by taking

an active interest in the world around

them. For us, travel should be profound,

challenging, fun, and emotional. A

tropical ecology field experience helps

students conceptualize and apply

learning from a classroom to the field,

and in this case, a field far from home.

We want students to be inspired by

the people they meet who share an

interest in these scientific pursuits and

to be inspired by the cultural similarities

and differences between them. Most

of all, we want students to be inspired

by the tropical ecology they see and

more committed to the study and

preservation of tropical ecology than

ever before. Our name, Walking Tree

Travel, was inspired by trees of the

tropics that have roots that actually

move the tree toward nourishment.

The name evokes the metaphor of

establishing roots in local communities

but maintaining a desire to move

and travel. We are confident this field

experience embodies the name Walking

Tree Travel in many ways.

Juan Pablo Rabanales

As a program leader for Walking

Tree Travel, I always aspire to expose

students to new experiences and give

them the necessary tools to process

the experiences. Personally, I consider

hands-on learning a key aspect of our

programs. Exploring a tropical forest

in a foreign country, visiting biological

stations, participating in academic

research, and getting to know field

researchers and how they live their

lives, are all experiences that not every

student gets to have. I believe these are

extremely beneficial and inspirational

for their professional and personal

development. Other than motivating

students to learn about tropical ecology,

I also like to push students to reinforce

the sense of connections between

cultures and become more conscious of

their role as global citizens and actors of

change in the world.

Lori McCaffrey

As the collegewide residency

coordinator, I collaborate with faculty

to create engaging and experiential

learning opportunities for students.

Our goal is particularly important for

students pursuing natural science

degrees. Because SUNY Empire State

College does not have traditional

laboratory facilities, we aim to provide

students with opportunities for hands-

on field experience through residencies.

The Adirondack Environmental Studies

Residency and the Ecology and Earth

Systems Field Research Residency have

allowed students to develop field and

laboratory research and analysis skills in

environments typical of the Northeast

region of the United States. The Costa

Rica residency will be the first of its kind

at SUNY Empire State College to provide

students with science-based experiential

learning in an international setting with

a rich, biodiverse climate significantly

different from New York state. Dr. Woo

and Walking Tree Travel have developed

an itinerary that will afford students

hands-on research, meaningful cultural

experiences, and an abundance of

opportunities to study unique flora and

fauna. I envision Costa Rica’s diverse

climate, ecotourism and conservation

initiatives, history, and culture will allow

us to expand the residency in the future

to include students and faculty from a

variety of disciplines and areas of study.

I welcome the challenge of planning an

international residency and look forward

to collaborating with the experienced

and passionate educators at Walking

Tree Travel.

Conclusion

International travel opportunities that

are associated with academic courses

enhance content learning, but also

create a transformative experience.

As demonstrated from the previous

iteration of Tropical Ecology in Panama,

our Costa Rican program intends to

replicate these scientific and cultural

experiences for all students, particularly

those from underrepresented

populations in STEM. From our own

individual reflections, we also presented

a collaboration in which our collective

aim was to promote scientific inquiry

and sustainable philosophies and

practices for global stewardship. It is

this lasting impact that we wish for

students to expand their personal

growth and impart their experiences

moving forward.

Notes

Kevin Woo ([email protected])

is an associate professor in the

Department of Natural Sciences,

School of Science, Mathematics,

& Technology, SUNY Empire State

College. He is based in Manhattan

and is also affiliated with the Center

for the Study of Pinniped Ecology

& Cognition, St. Francis College,

Brooklyn Heights, New York. Gabriel

Duncan ([email protected]) is

co-founder of Walking Tree Travel,

and Juan Pablo “J.P.” Rabanales (jp@

walkingtree.org) is country director

and country operations manager

— Costa Rica. Walking Tree Travel

is based in Denver, Colorado.

Lori McCaffrey (Lori.McCaffrey@

esc.edu) is collegewide residency

coordinator, SUNY Empire State

College, and is based in Saratoga

Springs, New York.

Walking Tree Travel: https://

walkingtree.org/.

Smithsonian Institute: https://www.

si.edu/.

Pura Suerte: http://www.purasuerte.

com/.

Reserva Playa Tortuga: https://

reservaplayatortuga.org/.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Biological Preserve: http://

cloudforestmonteverde.com/.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Center for International Education:

https://www.esc.edu/international-

education/.

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R. J., & Hubbard, A. C. (2006, July).

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Apergis, N., & Payne, J. E. (2011,

January). The renewable energy

consumption-growth nexus in

Central America. Applied Energy,

88(1), 343-347. https://doi.

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Botella, C., Rueda, S., López-Iñesta, E., &

Marzal, P. (2019). Gender diversity

in STEM disciplines: A multiple

factor problem. Entropy, 21(1), 1-17.

https://doi.org/10.3390/e21010030

Burger, J., Stern, A. H., Dixon, C.,

Jeitner, C., Shukla, S., Burke,

S., & Gochfeld, M. (2004). Fish

availability in supermarkets and

fish markets in New Jersey. Science

of the Total Environment, 333(1-3),

89-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.

scitotenv.2004.05.016

Cattabiani, R., Lemmon, D., & Woo, K.

L. (2014). Scenes from academic

travel in Panama: The impetus

for transformational learning in

the field. All About Mentoring, 45,

18-22. https://www.esc.edu/media/

ocgr/publications-presentations/

all-about-mentoring/2014/Issue-45-

AAM-Summer-2014.pdf

Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier,

C., Digby, R., Hay, P., & Howe, A.

(2013, April). Creative learning

environments in education —

A systematic literature review.

Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8,

80-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.

tsc.2012.07.004

de Silva, S. S., & Anderson, T. A. (1994).

Fish nutrition in aquaculture (Vol. 1).

Springer Science & Business Media.

Estrada, M., Burnett, M., Campbell, A. G.,

Campbell, P. B., Denetclaw, W. F.,

Gutiérrez, C. G., Hurtado, S., John, G.

H., Matsui, J., McGee, R., Okpodu, C.

M., Robinson, T. J., Summers, M. F.,

Werner-Washburne, M., & Zavala, M.

(2016). Improving underrepresented

minority student persistence in

STEM. CBE—Life Sciences Education,

15(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1187/

cbe.16-01-0038

Estrada, M., Hernandez, P. R., & Schultz,

P. W. (2018). A longitudinal study

of how quality mentorship and

research experience integrate

underrepresented minorities into

STEM careers. CBE—Life Sciences

Education, 17(1), 1-13.

Evans, S. (2010). The green republic: A

conservation history of Costa Rica.

University of Texas Press.

Hurtado, S., Newman, C. B., Tran,

M. C., & Chang, M. J. (2010).

Improving the rate of success for

underrepresented racial minorities

in STEM fields: Insights from a

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P. (2007). Learning and teaching in

the school science laboratory: An

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393-441). Routledge. https://doi.

org/10.4324/9780203824696

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(2000). Monteverde: Ecology and

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Oxford University Press.

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& Connolly, R. M. (2015). True value

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Smith, D. G. (2020). Diversity’s promise

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Strayhorn, T. L., Long III, L. L., Kitchen,

J. A., Williams, M. S., & Stentz, M. E.

(2013). Academic and social barriers

to Black and Latino male collegians’

success in engineering and related

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

50th Anniversary Reflections

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

Our collective work is anchored in a call to

“reflection,” so this important milestone —

yes, SUNY Empire State College at the half-

century mark (and kicking) — offers us a

special opportunity to wonder about what

we have done and what we have not done,

and about what our next half-century

commitments should be. As prompts, we

welcomed colleagues to respond to three

questions: “What is your sense of what

the priorities of the college should be as

we move forward? What are the values

that should shape our work? What is

your vision of our college over the next

50 years?” Thanks to those who offered

these reflections. As our colleague Richard

Bonnabeau wrote, now 25 years ago, may

“the promise continue.”

Tanweer Ali, Prague

In recent decades, the dominant

discourse on education has been

framed by human capital theory, which

sees schooling as primarily an ingredient

of material success (despite scant

empirical evidence). From this point

of view, humans are atomized, selfish

individuals, factors of production driving

ever-increasing corporate profits. In this

world, markets reign supreme. Helping

people lead fulfilling lives and cementing

democratic values on a societal level are

assumed to be of little value. Such an

instrumentalist view of education is also

deeply immoral.

This paradigm must change if we are to

avoid sliding into barbarism and meet

two massive challenges facing humanity

over the next 50 years: the threat of

catastrophic climate change and the

rise of artificial intelligence. There is

a growing awareness of the need to

transform the ways in which we live and

work. Education will be vital in preparing

us for these changes, promoting human

flourishing in the broadest sense.

SUNY Empire State College, with its

deep commitment to inclusiveness and

accessibility, and its track record of

innovation, can play a key role in this

transformation. The Harry Van Arsdale

Jr. School of Labor Studies can be a

central force in formulating a vision of

the relationship between the college’s

mission and the world of work in the

decades to come.

Ye Chen and Eileen M. Angelini,

Saratoga Springs

SUNY Empire State College is a pioneer

in adult education and will continue to

lead nontraditional learning over the

next 50 years. SUNY Empire will become

a borderless, smart, intelligent campus

for all regardless of one’s location in

the world. Our teaching and service

will integrate well with innovative

technology (e.g., artificial intelligence,

automated tools, and big data analytics)

to provide flexible and personalized

education. Our mascot, Blue, will

be a smart and adaptive supporter,

communicating effectively and efficiently

with our learners. Education may even

transform into opportunities offered

on an on-demand basis, expanding the

flexibility of our degree and certificate

programs. SUNY Empire will become the

bridge connecting the corporate world

with the workforce. The SUNY Empire

corporate-academic campus will be the

new model of nontraditional higher

education — customized by industry

fields or a specific corporate partner, as

well as by strong employer partnerships

to train employees — all leading to a

higher quality workforce.

Richard Bonnabeau, Mentor

Emeritus, Saratoga Springs

On January 6, 2021, the United States

came within a hair’s breadth of losing

its republic. While possibly half of the

electorate believed that the presidential

election had been stolen, the other

half did not. Each side was utterly

astonished by the supposed irrational

thinking of the other. How can both be

right or wrong?

So, in this context, what can we —

SUNY Empire State College — do

before the next national election to

further promote right thinking — not

left nor right, nor the in-betweens, but

evidenced-based critical thinking —

about issues that profoundly impact the

individual lives of our nation? What then

might be our next steps?

I believe that the assault of January 6

is of a much greater magnitude and

threat than the tragedy of 9/11, which

resulted in noteworthy educative

responses by faculty and students.

But we should try to do more. Our

mentoring ethos already has a laser

focus on developing critical thinking

skills. With many thousands of

graduates and many thousands of

enrolled students, is this not the time

to think of civic engagement as one of

our core values? And starting initially

with our college senate (which includes

student representatives) and United

University Professions [our union], why

not create statewide networks with

other SUNY campuses (and perhaps

other colleges, too) and move on to

develop national networks? This must

sound extraordinary, even foolhardy.

But if democracy is hanging by a thread,

what are the other choices? This is

not just for us, but for the captives of

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

autocratic regimes of the world forced

to surrender the civil liberties of

their birthright.

Val Chukhlomin and Bidhan Chandra,

Saratoga Springs

Toward 21st Century Mentoring and

State-of-the-Art Online Learning

Just 10 to 15 years ago, SUNY Empire

State College was considered a national

leader in online learning and a pioneer

in adult education, with a range of

unique features such as individualized

degree planning, prior learning

assessment, and faculty mentoring,

and it was clearly a rising star in the

SUNY system. Since then, the rest of

the academia has been quickly catching

up. These days, many nontraditional

and traditional universities have

started targeting the adult learner

and developed formidable capacities

in online learning. Also, thanks to the

unprecedented circumstances forced

by COVID-19, many lesser-known or

previously less-active players are now

emerging as dominant providers of

online education. Unfortunately, the

college did not pay sufficient attention

to the changing marketplace and, as

a result, finds itself in a rightsizing

situation. We firmly believe that the

college has the capacity, including a

critical mass of experts, to reinvent itself

and regain leadership in adult education

and online learning by fully utilizing

its human potential and strategically

responding to the challenges and

opportunities in the current and future

marketplace. One way of doing it is

to reestablish itself as a premier skills

management institution, with customer-

friendly and technologically advanced,

quick and efficient student service;

stackable credentials; professionally

recognized and accredited programs;

state-of-the-art online programs; and

continuous academic innovations.

Shantih E. Clemans, Brooklyn

When I imagine SUNY Empire State

College’s next 50 years, I hope we

continue to meet our amazingly diverse

(in all ways) adult students where they

are, genuinely engaging them around

their interests, goals, hopes, and

aspirations. I hope a love for the revered

practice of mentoring comes to life in

every conversation with a student —

in every effort each of us makes to

understand, to make meaning, to grow,

change, serve, and strengthen our

community. I hope we celebrate

flexibility, deep care for each other, and

the unscripted, reciprocal process of

learning together: mentor and student,

mentors together, our community

as a whole. I also hope that SUNY

Empire State College is a celebrated,

increasingly well-funded, and unique

institution committed to the careful and

caring engagement of learning in all

its beautiful and complicated aspects.

Finally, I pray (in a meditative, not

religious way) that SUNY Empire will not

be tempted to follow the trends of fast-

paced modalities and systems as thin

substitutes for what matters the most: a

high-quality academic institution where

the humanness of teaching, mentoring,

and advising are central. Let care,

curiosity, and compassion lead us

in our next 50 years.

Xenia Coulter, Mentor Emerita, Ithaca

Hope for the Future of SUNY Empire

In today’s world, we are awash in

readily understood and continuously

updated information. We no longer

need to worry about our students

lacking access to important facts

and theories. What if instead faculty,

each year, working together, sought

to identify specific human behaviors

that support the democratic needs

of our society and then invented new

kinds of learning experiences that

strengthen those behaviors in ways

that textbooks, exams, and literature

reviews do not? For example, today we

see a growing desire for authority —

for people in charge to wipe away the

conflicts that inevitably result from the

complexities of our changing world.

Faculty together might conclude that

their courses, no matter in what field,

should raise questions rather than

provide answers, require students to

ponder diverse points of view, and help

them practice rational and empirical

ways of determining their value. With

good guidance, students might then

become less fearful of uncertainty and

more confident in their collective ability

to address change. At the end of each

year, faculty would analyze whether

their courses achieved those ends, make

improvements if appropriate, and add

activities that help students strengthen

whatever other democratic skills faculty

deem newly important.

Cathy Davison, Saratoga Springs

When asked what values should shape

our work over the next 50 years, Peter

Allen’s lyrics to “Everything Old Is New

Again” from the musical All that Jazz

immediately came to mind:

Don’t throw the pa-ast away

You might need it some rainy day

Dreams can come true again

When everything old is new again

(lines 13-16)

Yes, higher education is changing. Our

student body is changing. Should our

values change to keep pace? Do they

need to change?

Our core values statement (SUNY

Empire State College, 2005) is one that is

rooted in Dr. Ernest Boyer’s vision for a

new university college (State University

of New York, 1971). This new college

would respond to the needs of each

student and identify and build upon

learning gained outside a traditional

college classroom. The promise and

possibility of individualized education

is one that has always been central

to SUNY Empire State College. Let us

not forget why many SUNY Empire

students choose us — because they

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

don’t see themselves and their learning

“fitting” into a preplanned curriculum.

They see that they can build upon their

prior learning, wherever and however

it is gained, to earn a degree that is

meaningful to them. Let’s be sure that in

the next 50 years, SUNY Empire’s raison

d’etre is not forgotten.

References

Allen, P. (1974). Everything old is

new again [Lyrics]. https://www.

musixmatch.com/lyrics/Peter-Allen/

Everything-Old-Is-New-Again

State University of New York. (1971).

A prospectus for a new university

college: Objectives, process, structure

and establishment: Preliminary

draft. https://web.archive.org/

web/20120606041912/http://

suny-empire.esc.edu/media/ocgr/

anniversary/esc40th/a-prospectus-

for-a-new-university-college.pdf

SUNY Empire State College. (2005).

Core values. https://www.esc.edu/

academic-affairs/provost-office/esc-

core-values/

David Fullard, Manhattan

Yes, there is a future for SUNY Empire

State College and maybe an exemplary

one, but only if administrators proceed

in a manner that diversifies the faculty,

student body, administration, and

staff. Let me be perfectly clear: If

the college refuses or even drags its

feet on creating and implementing a

strategy that puts diversity mandates

in place immediately, the effort will fall

by the wayside and ultimately fail. As

part of the strategy, the college must

continually take the temperature of the

situation and adjust wherever necessary

to ensure the desired result. If we are

not continually attractive in our diversity,

we will not garner the interest of quality

and dedicated faculty and staff who

share our goals. Those we would like to

study at our college will go elsewhere.

I am happy to say that I do see more

recent movement toward increasing

diversity than I’ve seen in my past

23 years with the college, but it’s not

enough and I’m afraid we will miss the

boat and fade into obsolescence. I am

not just talking about a diversity plan

on a piece of paper. I am talking about

providing faculty, staff, administrators,

and students with very specific and

tangible strategies that will help all of us

grow within SUNY Empire State College.

This will require a distinct, dedicated,

committed, and undiluted effort if any

positive, noticeable, and significant

change is to be realized.

Dana Gliserman Kopans,

Saratoga Springs

The Next 50 Years: “Employments for our

senses, and subjects for arguments.”

I take my title from Margaret

Cavendish’s 1666 satirical utopian

feminist proto-science fiction work The

Blazing World. It is a capacious work, but

the line I’m using here is the plea of the

experimental philosophers. Cavendish

saw the danger of scientific and

technological innovation as a cause of

social fragmentation, but these scientists

(who were also bears — it’s quite a

book) were right that experiments

and the debates about them are less

about the uncovering of truth and more

about what is best about the academy:

the collective process of knowledge-

production. And I’ve gone back a few

hundred years, but Cavendish gave us

a road map to the next 50. The world

of higher education has done a lot of

work to catch up to SUNY Empire in the

past year, but we need, nonetheless,

to lead; not necessarily in the field of

technology, but in teaching our students

how to think critically and ethically

about it. We need to give our students

employment for their senses and

subjects for arguments: we must not

merely produce workers, we must also

improve the world into which we send

them. The crises are always already

looming, and we need to be the bold

experimenters and philosophers in the

service of social justice.

Renata Kochut, Hartsdale

We live in a world of dynamic

sociocultural and technological changes.

Colleges worldwide must follow them

or even precede them to stay relevant

in this competitive environment. We

can imagine how higher education will

follow these changes with e-learning,

virtual reality-supporting lectures, and

globalization of offerings. We would see

more and more programs that offer

national and international certificates,

programs that are created jointly with

external businesses and institutional

partners. Colleges would focus more on

hands-on experiences that would get

students ready for their professional

lives. These ideas follow SUNY Empire’s

(n.d.) mission as a college providing

“innovative, flexible and quality

academic programs that empower

people and strengthen communities”

(para. 1). However, there should be

a greater emphasis on affordability.

According to NCES (2018), in the 1971-

1972 academic year, the average

undergraduate tuition and required fees

charged by 4-year public institutions

for full-time students were $2,579. This

price is adjusted for inflation. Currently,

students pay four times more! In the

2017-2018 academic year, students

were on average paying $9,037 for

a year of a college education. SUNY

Empire’s mission for the future should

focus on providing our education at

much lower costs. More students would

enroll in higher education institutions,

allowing SUNY Empire to better serve

underrepresented communities.

SUNY Empire can accomplish this

by replacing textbooks with open

educational resources, engaging with

local businesses and institutions

to create innovative programs that

would allow companies to sponsor

students, expanding credit evaluation

programs, and leveraging technology to

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

communicate with students. Students

would also benefit by receiving an

education without drowning in debt.

Society and economies would gain from

the money saved or spent on other

goods and services.

References

National Center for Education Statistics.

(2018). Table 330.10. Average

undergraduate tuition and fees and

room and board rates charged for

full-time students in degree-granting

postsecondary institutions, by level

and control of institution: Selected

years, 1963-64 through 2017-18.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/

digest/d18/tables/dt18_330.10.asp

SUNY Empire State College. (n.d.). College

mission and vision. https://www.esc.

edu/about/college-mission/

Maureen Kravec, Watertown

SUNY Empire State College was founded

on the premise that the learner and

the learning should be at the center of

the educational experience. We were

created to serve students’ individual

needs, no matter where they lived or the

constraints they faced about attending

classes. Over these 50 years, we have

become more technologically advanced

and started new programs. Still, as ever,

we welcome the cultural diversity and

neurodiversity our students bring to

us and the contributions they make in

their communities. May we continue to

learn from one another and respect one

another as equals in this journey. May

we continue to foster the growth of each

individual student through recognizing

the skills and learning each brings

to the college and offering students

opportunities to learn and change. May

we continue to remember that achieving

a college degree is not only about

earning grades and certificates, but also

about engaging and solving local and

global problems thoughtfully, ethically,

and creatively.

Jeannine Mercer, Thessaloniki, Greece

If society views higher education as

a path to enlightenment, universities

need to provide students with

distinctive knowledge and benefits

beyond the societal acceptance that

a degree provides. If we teach trades

and career skills, are we worth our

cost as technology looms and we

are overwhelmed with information

found online? Phones, and soon smart

glasses and lenses, are becoming brain

appendages, answering our many

inquiries and solving complex problems

as we move toward biometric wearables

and transhumanism. What is and will be

lacking is teaching people how to think

for themselves, beyond and without the

technological tools. I envision a focus on

guided think labs, getting back to basics,

and teaching students how to ponder

and answer the favorite question of

toddlers: Why? The broader view will

be valued, as we teach students how

to pull back and reexamine systems

and processes macroscopically. Also,

as true experience becomes delinquent

among the new generations, our college

may seek to find ways to provide

experience equivalents.

Diane Perilli, Manhattan

The student-centeredness approach at

SUNY Empire sets it apart from other

institutions. The desire for opportunities,

choices, and flexibility will always be in

demand by students. We can replace

many tasks with technology, but the

benefit of personal touch is lasting.

SUNY Empire rises to the challenge

of meeting the needs of our diverse

student body. Individualized learning

happens from individualized teaching,

which involves personalized care,

attention to detail, and respect. Effective

teaching and learning are facilitated with

supports, be it academic, technical, or

simply words of encouragement. SUNY

Empire’s holistic approach to education

makes the college greater than the sum

of its parts.

Amy Ruth Tobol, Brooklyn

Over the 24 years I’ve been at SUNY

Empire, my passion has been providing

the individualized mentoring and

education that have helped our students

succeed. In the future, we need to fully

resource our commitment to providing

individual attention to every student

and to an education that fits their lives.

This means offering an education in

all modes and providing a welcoming

environment for every single student

who needs us. Providing this kind of

education takes time, labor, and money.

We need to find more sustainable

sources of income. We barely have the

faculty, staff, and technologies we need

now to meet student educational needs.

We must also address the social needs

of our students, providing food for those

in a college without cafeterias.

How about this:

Let’s get into the manufacturing

business! Seriously: small SUNY

Empire factories around the state,

producing needed goods (3D printers

are amazing … PPE [personal protective

equipment]?), generating regular

income, new learning opportunities, and

internships. Who’s with me?

Finally, the future should find us

recommitting to Ernest Boyer’s [1990]

“reconsideration” of scholarship [from

his book Scholarship Reconsidered], as

his ideas are at the root of some of the

most innovative and important faculty

work. I want our community to celebrate

public scholarship, the scholarship of

teaching and learning, and other forms

of scholarly activities that are different

from simply peer-reviewed journals. In

the future, all of our faculty should be

promoted and tenured using Boyer’s

ideas as the frame.

Reference

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship

reconsidered: Priorities of the

professoriate. The Carnegie

Foundation for the Advancement

of Teaching.

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Tina Wagle, Buffalo

While I know this could be misconstrued,

I sometimes wish things could go back

to the way I feel they were. I miss the

intimacy, collaboration, and positive

spirit that has made us what we are

as a college community.

At the same time, I would be remiss not

to acknowledge the strong connections

I have made with newer faculty and the

importance and energy they bring to the

college. I am so pleased to be able to

call them colleagues and friends.

Additionally, I cannot stand being the

“best kept secret.” We should never be

dwarfed by other SUNYs. We need to

shine our light. At one time, some of

our most innovative ideas were frowned

upon by the very institutions that are

now copying us. If any institution can do

something new and innovative, it is this

college. At the same time, we need to

be able to sit back and reflect on what

is working well and where we can

improve. We must take care of what

we have and find the space to do that.

Growth is important if it is meaningful

and targets a need. We should not grow

just to grow. So, while we might think

we are poised to champion innovative

practices, we often fall short on the

necessary resources.

In the years ahead, we also have to

focus our attention on academic quality.

In the most practical sense, we cannot

afford to offer less to our students,

especially if we are claiming that we

are modeling what good teaching

practices should be. We need time

and space and support to do all of

this and to rejuvenate.

Nadine V. Wedderburn, Schenectady

At this moment in the institution’s

history, SUNY Empire State College

has an opportunity to help define and

exemplify “academic quality” for the

next generation of higher education

students, teachers, and administrators.

In my mind, academic quality is largely

dependent on the quality of curriculum

and instruction. Quality programs

consist of well-rounded curricula —

grounded in scholarship — that students

find relevant, current, and valuable;

and, therefore, are programs in which

students are more likely to enroll and

be successful. As students’ interests

and curiosities evolve, quality programs

demand faculty who practice inclusive

pedagogy, promote the exploration

of a variety of knowledge sources,

and encourage the development of all

students’ research, critical thinking, and

analytical skills. Consequently, priority

must be given to making a significant

investment in systems and processes

that recruit, nurture, and retain a

diverse, highly qualified professoriate.

For me, in everything we do, there is

only one overriding value: compassion

— to ensure that every SUNY Empire

State College constituent recognizes

each other as fully deserving of their

right to be here and succeed here.

Evidence of this value will be borne

out in all aspects of the institution’s

life: from facilities to fundraising;

communications to curriculum;

academic affairs to student affairs;

financial resources to human resources;

instruction to graduation — across the

state and around the world. To do less

is to undermine confidence in any other

value statement.

My hope is that, throughout the next 50

years, SUNY Empire State College (n.d.)

will be going strong and staying true

to its mission of providing “access to

innovative, flexible and quality academic

programs that empower people and

strengthen communities” (para. 1).

Reference

SUNY Empire State College. (n.d.). College

mission and vision. https://www.esc.

edu/about/college-mission/

Melissa Wells, Staten Island

College students are more diverse

in race, ethnicity, and ability than

ever before (Espinosa, Turk, Taylor, &

Chessman, 2019). It is imperative that

higher education is aware of the needs

of its students and has a plan and a

guiding framework to ensure that all

students are provided the supports they

need to achieve the high standards of

the learning institution. SUNY Empire

State College is at the forefront of

inclusivity and making sure all students

have a seat at the table. This was

recently demonstrated by the creation

of the Shirley A. Chisholm Center for

Equity Studies and The Center for

Autism Inclusivity.

Without a framework and support

for diverse students, many will not

succeed. According to the National

Center for Education Statistics (2021),

the graduation rates for full-time

undergraduate students who began

seeking a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year

degree-granting institution are 23%

for those who identified as Black, 30%

for Hispanics, 32% for whites, 36% for

Asians, 34% for Pacific Islanders, 27%

for American Indians/Alaska Natives,

and 25% for those who identified

as multiracial. The Statista Research

Department (2021) found that the

employment rate of persons with a

disability in the labor force who had a

bachelor’s degree or higher was 25.7%

in the United States. However, only

7.6% of people who had less than a high

school diploma and had a disability were

employed in 2020.

SUNY Empire State College has

demonstrated its belief in educational

equality. By focusing efforts on training

faculty and staff in pedagogical efforts to

teach and mentor a broad student body

of learners, SUNY Empire is making sure

everyone gets a seat at the table, now

and in the future.

References

Espinosa, L. L., Turk, J. M., Taylor,

M., & Chessman, H. M. (2019).

Race and ethnicity in higher

education: A status report.

American Council on Education.

https://1xfsu31b52d33idlp13twtos-

wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/

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wp-content/uploads/2019/02/

Race-and-Ethnicity-in-Higher-

Education.pdf

National Center for Education Statistics.

(2021, May). Undergraduate retention

and graduation rates. https://nces.

ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ctr

Statista Research Department. (2021,

March 4). Employment rate of persons

with a disability in the United States

in 2020, by educational attainment.

https://www.statista.com/

statistics/1219132/us-employment-

rate-disabled-persons-education/

Christopher Whann, Manhattan

The college has always been a “serve

students first” place, and it should

always be one. There is too much

administrative (and sometimes

administrator) detritus interfering

with that goal of service. Whether it is

individualizing degree plans, opening

students’ eyes to new opportunities, or

faculty creating chances for students to

explore through new programs, groups,

or independent studies, or supporting

student opportunities, we must focus on

students first. Though we don’t always

agree on how to do this, I think the

faculty and staff are dedicated to

this goal.

There is nothing wrong with

restructuring our administrative

hierarchy to accomplish our goals

better, saying “yes” or “no” to proposed

changes in a strategic way, or exploring

programmatic opportunities that

improve what we do, but the students

should always come first. If the changes

work, great. If they don’t work, change

them again. But never lose sight of why

we are here.

“Although the role of the teacher in such unpredictable systems follows no recipe,

it is critical: demanding an ongoing awareness of risk and opportunity,

a willingness to support students in learning that stretches, that may

well unbalance and dis-comfort them; asking that we listen and

make — sometimes unmake or remake — decisions in the face

of uncertainty, stay present with students and ourselves.”

— Jody Cohen and Anne Dalke, 2019

Steal This Classroom: Teaching & Learning Unbound

Punctum Books, p. 29

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College Students and Adults with Developmental

Disabilities Compose Nonfiction Nature Writing

Mary Zanfini, Staten Island

Mentor Mary Zanfini wrote the following

reflection about her and her students’

work with Lifestyles for the Disabled

October 2020 as part of her Institute on

Mentoring, Teaching and Learning project,

and as a follow-up to her two All About

Mentoring articles, On My “Bucket List”

(issue 51, winter 2018) and “On ‘My Bucket

List’” Continued or “How We Have Grown”

(issue 53, spring 2020).

n September 2017, SUNY Empire

State College formed a partnership

with a local day habilitation program

called Lifestyles for the Disabled. SUNY

Empire belongs to a cohort of colleges

across Staten Island that invites adults

with developmental disabilities into

their college classrooms. Louise Vallario,

a special education teacher from

Lifestyles, and I collaborated to foster

the partnership at SUNY Empire.

Our initial course taught poetry to

a class of matriculated students

from SUNY Empire who were joined

by Lifestyles students interested in

postsecondary education.

Our first course with Lifestyles focused

on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. We

composed a body of poetry that we

shared through an article in The New

York Times’ The Learning Network on

October 25, 2018, titled, “Reader Idea |

College Students and Disabled Adults

Create Spooky Found Poetry Together.”

We decided our second course would be

on nature writing. The first thing to be

determined was how we would define

“nature journaling.” What is it and how

do we do it? We decided to look at and

strive to emulate some nature writing

by American writers. After searching for

authors who would be accessible to all

our students, we decided on three: Emily

Brontë (her poetry), Emily Dickinson

(her envelope poems), and Henry David

Thoreau (his journals). All three were,

among other things, nature writers.

Next, we had to determine what

supplies we needed to craft our nature

journals. Money was limited so we

purchased blank nature journals,

pencils from The Walden Woods Project

(which houses the Thoreau Institute),

magnifying glasses, colored pencils,

brushes, and watercolor paints. In the

field, the students were also to make

use of their cell phone cameras to take

photos. Not all the Lifestyles students

had the fine motor skills needed to

capture what they saw on paper.

We also adapted an idea from “The

Vintage Female Birder” blog.

(This is

a blog that concentrates on birding in

the local community). We would make

a “unique tool” from the deadwood

found around our homes, tie four sticks

together with yarn and make a “frame”

to look through. The frame would be

used to get students to hone in on one

part of the landscape and write about

it. We would later discuss why this view

was important to them. They would then

write about what they had “framed.”

We began our first class by defining

what nature journaling is and how to

go about doing it. That class took place

in the third week of January 2020. We

distributed the blank nature journals,

pencils, and magnifying glasses. I

brought in cuttings from my holly bush

and a juniper tree. Our first lesson

was in observation. We coached the

students to employ their senses: to

see, touch, and smell the cuttings. We

used the following prompts to stimulate

ideas: Do these cuttings remind you of

anything? How do they feel? How do

they smell? Then we asked the students

Mary Zanfini

to compare the two cuttings. We used

our magnifying glasses to take a more

detailed look at the holly and juniper

cuttings. We then asked the students

to record their observations in their

journals. The SUNY Empire students

primarily assisted the Lifestyles students

during this exercise.

The students began with writing their

observations and then moved on to

“illustrating” what they observed. Some

students made drawings, others made

rubbings of the samples with their

pencils, and some taped their samples

into their journals. We emphasized that

there are no rules or limits for how one

journals about nature. Journals can

be simple observations or can contain

personal reflections about how the

writer feels being in nature. The initial

lesson seemed to be a success. We

planned a field trip to Blue Heron Park

on Staten Island for the following class.

Blue Heron was chosen because it has

an indoor Nature Center (it was still

January and we needed a place to stay

warm) and some of its trails are flat.

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We would all be able to move around

easily on the Red trail, including one

student whose wheelchair could be

rolled down this path without difficulty.

The park also has outside tables where

we could work on our journals. We met

at the park at 3:30 p.m. The students

(and teachers) were excited about our

first outing together.

We started in the main room of the

Nature Center. It was packed full of

different artifacts to look at, read about,

and write about. Everyone spread out,

took out their journals and pencils, and

got to work. At the front of the center

were some live turtles native to Staten

Island. We observed the beautiful

patterns on their shells; some of the

students began to draw the shells in

their journals. Other students took

photos. Sgt. Ghanim Khalil, our park

ranger, told us interesting facts about

the turtles and let the students hold

them. This generated a lot of interest.

I was surprised at how easily our

students sprang into journaling!

Other park rangers joined us. They

showed us the fish tank, a corn snake,

and walking sticks — camouflaged

insects. We were charmed by the antics

of the walking sticks. Some students

were entranced by the beauty of the

snake. We moved into the next room,

which had large picture windows that

looked out onto bird feeders. As we

stood gazing out of the windows, some

students picked up binoculars left

on the windowsill for bird watching.

Students began to exclaim, “Look, look!”

I turned but at first couldn’t see anything

because my eyes aren’t so great

anymore. I then saw and heard a downy

woodpecker. Sgt. Khalil explained that

the woodpeckers hadn’t left for warmer

climates yet because our winter was so

mild. We marveled that there were still

bugs around for the woodpecker to eat.

Later we saw a cardinal, a blue jay, some

crows, sparrows, finches, and a hawk.

Everyone got busy taking photos. The

birds stayed active and didn’t seem to

notice us behind the window. After this

little show, we stayed until it began to

get dark. What a wonderful time we had

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on our first journey into the field. We

never did get out onto the Red Trail but

we planned to come back another time

to give it a chance.

The following week in class we shared

what we had learned and what we

had written in our journals. Louise and

I introduced the concept of “picture

poems” and described how to create

them. Picture poetry is simply a photo

with a poem written on it. Two art forms

are combined to create the picture

poem. One of my SUNY Empire students

shared picture poems she had already

crafted and explained her creative

process. Everyone agreed to work on

one picture poem each for the next

week. Their journals were beginning to

take shape!

The first nature writer we studied was

Emily Dickinson. We learned about

Emily Dickinson’s life. I showed the

class some of her “envelope poems.”

We discussed her creative process. We

found a PDF containing samples of her

envelope poems

and studied them.

Why envelopes? In the 1800s, paper

was expensive, and the frugal Emily

made use of every scrap, even discarded

envelopes. Emily, a 19th century New

Englander, recycled! She composed her

poems on these used scraps of paper.

All the better for the environment. After

this discussion, the students were ready

to tackle their own envelope poems.

I gave them some envelopes and they

began to work.

At this point, we decided to organize

an overnight field trip. This was

something we had not done before. In

our last course, we visited the Edgar

Allan Poe Cottage

museum in the

Bronx. An overnight trip was a much

more challenging undertaking. Each

term, we try to add experiences to the

class that college students typically have

the opportunity to do. This year, we

set our sights on the Emily Dickinson

Museum

in Amherst, Massachusetts. I

applied to my union, United University

Professions (UUP), for Individual

Development Award funds to make a

“preview visit” and scope out the trip

in advance. I was granted the funds.

Next, we had to gain permission from

Lifestyles to make the trip. Lifestyles

agreed to seek funding for our outing.

Parents and guardians were delighted

for the Lifestyles students to make

the trip. We received the funding from

the state and then found two van

drivers, as well as a nurse to administer

medications to the Lifestyles students

while we were traveling.

The Emily Dickinson Museum agreed to

provide a private tour of the museum

and let us take photos of ourselves in

Emily’s parlor holding our envelope

poems. We also secured a private

tour of the gardens at the site. Our

visit was scheduled for the first week

of April. Unfortunately, things then

rapidly deteriorated. The COVID-19

virus began snaking its way through

the City of New York. The museum

contacted us in March to let us know

the museum would be closing due to

the pandemic. We debated about how

to tell our students that their “dream

trip” would not take place. We decided

to be optimistic about it and told them

that the trip had been postponed. We

assured them that the trip would take

place at a later date.

Soon after that, SUNY Empire

stopped in-person classes. A week

later, Lifestyles closed its doors. We

decided to keep the class going and

meet virtually. This transition was

problematic. Adapting took some time

for the Lifestyles students to navigate.

After Lifestyles closed, there was a

scramble to make sure that Lifestyles

students and SUNY Empire students had

the necessary technology to continue.

Computers were ordered and delivered

to students who needed them. The

real sticking point was teaching the

Lifestyles students to use technology …

at a distance. For example, they had to

learn to log onto Zoom. They struggled

with the technology. Through the help,

patience, and dedication of Louise, we

were later able to have nature writing

sessions virtually. We relied on the

families of the Lifestyles students to

help, too. A lot of patience was needed

but it got done. In the meantime, I was

tasked with creating a new curriculum

that would work in this format.

I developed my lesson plans so our

Lifestyles students could appreciate

the nature available to them through

their windows and in their yards. We

narrowed our focus to take in nature

one flower or one bird at a time. We told

the SUNY Empire and Lifestyles students

about a “time-lapsing technique” that

seemed to stimulate many of them.

The idea is to focus on one part of a

garden, describe what happens to it

over time, and record the changes in the

journal. My SUNY Empire students were

no longer there to help the Lifestyles

students in person because of the

pandemic. But the Lifestyles families

and staff stepped up to help with the

work. Each week, we read from our

journals and shared our insights. One

week, we took a virtual nature walk

through Central Park by sharing a video

made by the Central Park Conservancy.

We had a great time and talked about

what we saw in our Zoom meetings. The

Lifestyles students had to write in their

journals for homework. During this time,

we were interviewed by Mary Pannese,

Meredith Arout, and Jennifer Romano,

reporters from Life-Wire News Service.

Our work from this class appeared in

a piece in the local paper, The Staten

Island Advance.

This experience was often trying.

Tragically, some participants at Lifestyles

died. Many of the deceased had Down

syndrome and their hearts were too

weak to fight off the COVID-19 virus. We

lost the director of the Lifestyles college

learning partnership program when that

wonderful gentleman, Scott Salinardi,

passed away during the pandemic. How

to move on? How do we handle our

grief? As any teacher knows, you cannot

fail to mention a tragedy unfolding

around you. Louise and I decided to

try to deal with the deaths in a positive

way. We asked the Lifestyles students

to write testimonials to Scott, who they

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

loved deeply. We put together a written

something worthwhile … our poetry and

https://thevintagefemalebirder.

memorial tribute, which we intend to

our memories. We expect to continue

wordpress.com/2013/06/29/stick-

share with his family. Meanwhile, we

with our virtual nature writing course

frame-nature-crafts/.

continued to write poetry … lots and

next term and, if COVID-19 cooperates,

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/

lots of poetry. The creation of poetry

finally make our overnight trip. SUNY

blue-heron-park.

helped us grapple with the grief by

Empire students will again join us in this

https://literaryinfrastructures.

finding words to express our thoughts

unique journey of discovery and sharing.

files.wordpress.com/2018/01/

and emotions. In turn, we shared our

I look forward to it.

dickinsonenvelopepoems.pdf.

work in our virtual classroom week after

week. It helped us all to be “together.” It

Notes

http://bronxhistoricalsociety.org/

poe-cottage/.

gave us a purpose.

https://www.lfdsi.org/.

https://www.emilydickinson

Stopping was not an option. Sometimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/

museum.org/.

we limped along, tired from the

10/25/learning/reader-idea-college-

lockdown, anxious from our fears. Other

https://www.centralparknyc.org/.

students-and-disabled-adults-create-

times we laughed about something that

spooky-found-poetry-together.

https://www.silive.com/togethersi/

lightened our hearts. We were human

html?searchResultPosition=1.

2020/05/escape-that-pent-up-

together. Together … that is the way

feeling-through-nature-journaling.

https://www.walden.org/.

to make it through this pandemic with

html.

Student Poetry

Megan S.

Ling

I feel crazy, when they are impatient with me,

I love the appearance of flowers

I am going as fast as I can

And the smell of flowers.

People should be thankful

I like to go to the Brooklyn Botanical

I don’t like injustice, such as racism/bullying

Gardens.

and meanness of people by others,

There are thousands of flowers

I tried to teach them how not to be

In the garden to enjoy.

I used to but not anymore, lastly, I don’t like Creepy people

There are pink and blue and lavender flowers.

They make me nervous; I get mad when

Flowers on a sunny Spring Day.

I feel stalked. It is a good thing I don’t feel angry.

I also love when the flowers blossom.

Jenna

About Love

Elisa L.

Love

I love my Mom and she makes me happy

He makes me feel safe.

Like a beautiful rose.

He is my heart.

I love my Dad he makes me happy

He worries about me a lot.

Like a bird singing.

He makes me happy.

I love my twin sisters; they make me happy

He is my heart.

Like the butterflies.

He calls me to be sure I’m safe and happy

I love my Grandma she makes me happy

He is my heart.

Like the pretty lady bugs.

He made a nice home for me.

I love my Grandpa and Grandma they make me happy

He is my heart

Like a sunny beach day.

He is my husband and I love him forever.

I love my friends from “Lifestyles” they make me happy

Like a unicorn.

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and

Learning Project Summaries

IMTL Fellows 2019-2020

The Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and

Learning (IMTL), offered by the Center

for Mentoring, Learning and Academic

Innovation (CMLAI), provides time and

support to those who mentor, teach,

or are involved in research or resource

development relevant to teaching and

learning, for pursuing projects that

enhance their mentoring and teaching

practices. The following are short

descriptions of some of the project

outcomes that were part of IMTL 2019-

2020. Other projects were pursued by

the following individuals and groups:

Rebecca Eliseo-Arras and Jenny Mincin;

Carolina Kim; JoAnn Kingsley, Debra Kram-

Fernandez, Anamaria Ross, Bhuwan Onta,

and Stacey Gallagher; Renata Kochut;

Norine Masella, Jennifer Nettleton, and

Bridget Nettleton; Norine Masella and Kim

Stote; Daniel McCrea and Mike Fortune;

Anne McDonough; Diane Perilli; and Betty

Wilde-Biasiny. More information about

IMTL can be found at https://www.esc.

edu/cmlai. We are excited that IMTL is

part of our academic program each year.

Jennifer Nettleton, Jacqueline

Michaels, Lynn McNall, and Kim Stote

“School of Nursing and Allied Health

(SONAH) Online Teaching Resources”

As an IMTL project beginning in 2017,

an online repository was developed

to organize teaching resources in

a meaningful way so that faculty

and adjuncts can efficiently access

information needed to teach courses

within the SONAH.

The repository is housed in Moodle with

a total of five modules containing a wide

array of pertinent information such

as the college’s mission, core values,

best practices in online teaching and

mentoring, resources (library, student

services, textbooks), and links to the

faculty handbook and college catalog.

In addition, there is information related

to the SONAH, such as policies and

procedures, course design and layout,

technology tips, and grading procedures

(rubrics, incompletes, etc.). The

repository was originally made available

during the spring 2019 term.

Lynette Nickleberry Stewart

“Designing 8-week Courses:

A Template”

This handbook is grounded in an

extensive review of the research and

practices in accelerated learning (AL).

Many of the suggestions can be applied

to full-term courses of any modality

and across disciplines. Scholars of adult

student experiences in accelerated

courses recommend that administrators

and instructors ground programmatic

and course development in the theory,

principles, and methods of accelerated

learning for best results. This is a

dynamic resource, intended to respond

to changes in SUNY Empire policies,

practices, and technologies, as well as

innovative insights from new research,

your experiences, and the experiences

of our students. [Note: The text of the

handbook is provided in this issue of

All About Mentoring.]

Kymn Rutigliano

“Wisdom From the Horses: Vital

Lessons About Leadership and Life”

Horses are master teachers with rich

guidance about emotional intelligence,

resilience, and navigating crisis

situations. As a result of this project, I

am enriching my courses with lessons

from the herd for students studying

leadership and management.

Nan Travers, Amanda Treadwell,

Sarah McMichael, Bernard Smith,

and Leslie Ellis

“Continuing the Story: iPLA From

Faculty and Student Perspectives”

Our ongoing project is to learn more

about the iPLA (individualized prior

learning assessment) process through

mentor and student experiences. In

past years, we looked at retention data

for iPLA students, as well as faculty and

student surveys to learn more about

their iPLA experiences. We will continue

this work by conducting focus groups

to learn more about faculty experiences

mentoring iPLA students and supporting

them through the process.

Thomas Kerr

“Pursuing Liberal Credit for Labor

Leaders Using iPLA: A Model and

a Framework”

This cycle marked the completion of a

major project: “An Individualized Prior

Learning Assessment (iPLA) Request

Development Workbook for Labor

Leaders: Using the Threshold Learning

Model.” Between 2017-2020, I worked

with the supportive IMTL network on

what began as a notion to “leverage

learning,” like prying against a fulcrum

helping to lift student knowledge.

Now I theorize a “double reflective” in

iPLA request essay writing, allowing

the value of prior, present, and future

knowledge equally. Thresholding

recognizes students’ needs and abilities

to start their reflective process at the

experience, experiential, and college-

level learning phases of the iPLA work.

Thanks, IMTL.

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Nan Travers, Susan Oaks,

Michele Forte, Pat Pillsworth,

Marie Pennucci, Margaret Sithole,

Tom McElroy, Bhuwan Onta,

and Debra Kram-Fernandez

“(PLA Resource Site) Educational

Planning and PLA Resource Exchange”

The PLA Resource Site will house

resources and tools to help faculty,

staff, and evaluators work with PLA

(prior learning assessment) students.

The team collected and curated PLA

information from within and outside of

the college in order to have one place

where all the information can be found.

This site will be located in Microsoft

Teams and is organized by different

areas of PLA, for example, working with

students, different types of PLA, etc.

Allison Moreland

“Universal Design for Learning:

Improving Learning for All”

My goal was to write an article on

universal design for learning (UDL) for

All About Mentoring. It was published in

the most recent issue of the journal (no.

54). The idea for the article stemmed

from a presentation I gave at the

2018-2019 IMTL residency on UDL. I

have made UDL a focus of my work

in instructional design as its goal is to

create instructional content that is more

inclusive of all students.

Linda S. Jones

“Adult Learners and Undergraduate

Science: Participation and Perceptions”

My project was a continuation of the

project that I began as the 2018-2019

Susan H. Turben Chair in Mentoring. The

focus was to identify barriers, related to

science courses, to adult learners and

to develop learning models that address

those barriers. The learning models

integrate interdisciplinary design, citizen

science, student-directed learning, and

project-based/experiential learning and

were used to design the Principles of

Environmental Sustainability course.

The goals of the models are to support

student success and increase retention

in science courses and to support

lifelong, self-directed study in science.

Karen LaBarge

“Completing the Transition:

The CMLAI SharePoint Site”

After the CMLAI website content

moved into SharePoint, I worked on

reorganizing the various pages and

resources into sections that mimic the

original concept. The large “Mentoring,

Teaching and Learning” section of the

site (which contains areas on Mentoring

Essentials, Working with Students,

Academic Issues, Planning Degrees,

Ways to Study, and Evaluating Learning)

was the main focus of my IMTL project

and needed special attention including

updated text and links. After my initial

work at the residency, I reached out to

the CMLAI team and others for the latest

information and continue to work on

making this section reflective of CMLAI’s

mission and responsive to the needs of

new and experienced mentors.

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Creative Expressions: Poets Among Us

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

he tradition of poetry reading (indeed, writings of all kinds) has been vital to our community. At the annual All College

Conference, Fall Academic Conference, and more recently through Creative Expressions, colleagues have shared their writings.

Thanks to Nicola Marae Allain, Lisa D’Adamo-Weinstein, Elaine Handley, Mindy Kronenberg, Kymn Rutigliano Harvin, and

Tom Kerr — poets among us — for offering us these words and helping us celebrate the arts.

Nicola Marae Allain

Out of the Box

I sense

subtle transformations

in the quality

of everyday experience

and sensibilities.

Awareness

of a deeper part

of myself

has taken root

in the ground

of my being.

Daily meditations

clean my brain,

removing clutter

accumulated

by absorbing

stress of others

transmitted through

computer screens

and electronic

communications.

The refresh

is a reboot,

wiping memory,

deleting excess

information

and unnecessary

data, putting

me back

to a pristine state,

where I began.

Unlearning

If I learned

how to listen,

would I

suddenly see

words

unspoken?

Would the trees

tell me

how to care

for land

and life

long neglected

by beings

who

abandoned

senses and

sensibilities?

If I learned

how to see,

would I

somehow hear

the calls

of creatures

longing for

the space

to survive?

If I learn

to speak,

could I share

the wonders

of a wild

world

wanting desperately

to live

but slowly dying

because we have all forgotten

how to be?

Lisa D’Adamo-Weinstein

Broken, for today

Today I need to be broken

And sit amongst the shards of my own

making

Critiquing each piece

Coddling every sliver

Mourning the shape they once

collectively formed

But, I am not really mourning

I relish in the shatters

Of what was constrained in fixed

existence

I welcome the release of

The wet mess of feelings

The sound of blood pounding

The awareness of being

The freedom of breathing

I like not being the “strong one”

Not being “ok” for everyone else

Absorbing the possibilities being broken

brings

The alliteration of allowing

Celebrating what is yet to come

Broken is not final

Broken is not negative

Broken is a relief

Broken is a gift

Broken is an opportunity

Broken, for today

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Elaine Handley

QUARANTINE 2020

Wake to spring’s panic dreams news fever.

Big snowflakes like a white virus infect the ground

while birds’ new librettos go viral.

Our lives dwindle in harsh germ mystery.

Spring’s late, so much to do

it forgets to get things going:

buds sealed tight, no mud,

the snow stays too long.

But the light — it comes as it should,

it must, and the cold

is dazzled by arias from the sun.

III

It is hard to breathe deeply when you think: ventilator.

It is hard to breathe when a knee is on your neck.

It is hard to watch the news while crying.

It is hard to rock a baby you cannot hold.

It is hard to say goodbye to your mother over the phone.

Morning’s bloodshot eye opens

to no taste for winter’s news death.

Epidemic Fever contagion —

what symptoms might today have?

The wind’s funeral song is just outside the door.

CHICKEN LOVE

She has posted herself

by the backdoor

in love and waiting.

Poking her head in the window,

she startles guests.

When he leaves the house

she hops down from her perch

to follow him around,

purling and muttering her chicken love,

telling him everything, everything.

This summer she was just one

fluffy chick who came in the mail.

He feeds her scraps from dinner,

sunflower seeds meant for other birds.

Come the snowstorm

he says he can’t bear it

her feathers glistening with ice

snow making her a little hat

as she holds her vigil.

Cooped up with fowl company,

I imagine she dreams

of how she will stalk him,

trail him into the garden, cluck to him

at the woodpile, settle on her perch

again by the back door.

These cold February days

there is no one waiting for him

when he takes stale bread to the feeder.

I have come to think his is a roostery love

we can share. Besides, what accounts

for who loves who, who erases the sorry aches

of loneliness, who makes a place

feel like home?

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Mindy Kronenberg

Archeology

What is the evidence of love, really?

A small heartbeat

hidden in the frills

of a rescued seashell,

The glimmer of sun

glowing in a bowl

of arranged stones?

Sometimes a lost object

protrudes from a pocket,

pinches a finger

drawing blood, bringing

the tongue to taste the wound.

Other times a pebble rolls

in the toes of a shoe, never

embedding or escaping,

growing in size until removed.

And what of hair

clinging to an old coat,

its color brighter than remembered,

a single strand pulled from

a sleeve that hangs in a dark

and quiet space where,

undisturbed, it remains

in embrace.

Scarfing Poetry

(inspired by Mark Strand)

I am sipping poetry, a polite gesture of the lips

and throat, feeling it glide down my gullet

and vanish like fine wine or perfumed tea.

But then I grow peckish, crave words

that are sticky and sweet, petite fours

that crunch like brightly colored candy in my teeth.

The mouth wants what it wants:

my tongue seeking verse with a craved dissonance

of sour and salt, a brave confession whose voice persists

which brings on the hunger for savory

songs of the ancient world, long juicy tales

with blood, gristle, and fat, my jaws tearing at the pages.

Can this longing ever be sated?

I wash it all down with a sibilant spill

of saucy and spicy slang, a smooth burn of Beat,

relish the echo of all I’ve imbibed,

nibbled, and devoured, the flavors

raging on my tongue, tingling in my bloodstream.

Kymn Rutigliano Harvin

S T O P.

Just stop.

Doing so much.

Racing around so much.

Amassing so much.

Worrying so much.

Fearing so much.

Fighting so much.

Complaining so much.

Destroying so much.

Denying so much.

Ignoring so much.

Wasting so much.

You know what to stop.

You know.

And now I am giving you permission to do what you have long

wanted to do and feared you could not … STOP.

The world will not come to an end if you stop.

It may, in fact, begin again. Newly.

Life begins anew when we stop. Yes, it does.

Now, will you stop?

(pp. 17-18)

L I S T E N.

With your whole being, listen.

To the spaces between the words.

The lines in between.

The whispers that have your best interest at heart.

Stop. Quiet. Listen.

Open where you have been closed.

Invite a conversation.

Listen for the still, small voice.

Consider that the caliber of listening has a great deal to do

with the caliber of speaking.

For you to clearly hear my voice takes more than superficial,

give-it-to-me-quick, can-you-put-that-in-a-tweet kind of

listening.

Listen as if you are on an airplane with its engine on fire and

the flight attendant is telling what you need to do to survive.

Listen as if your life is at stake — because it is.

I will tell you — and all who ask — what you need, not just to

survive, but to thrive.

Please listen.

What will help you listen with your whole being?

(pp. 20-21)

Reprinted with permission of the author. Harvin, K. (2020). The soul of

America speaks: Wisdom for healing and moving forward. Capucia Publishing.

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Thomas Kerr

Struggling Over a Giant Baby Called the Golden Pagoda of Democracy in a

Nation at Risk of Losing Hope and Happiness (for Nandar)

Let’s start with a lordly Prince who witnessed a struggle between a mother

and a giant demon, each tugging on the arms of a baby held over hot flames.

The Prince decreed the winner to be the maintainer of control over the baby.

The mother, unable to bear the sight of her screaming, suffering child,

relinquished her grip saving his crimson hide. The demon was visibly filled

with delight. To the Prince he turned for a prize, to be reprimanded.

Bring out your knives, your injurious cutlery, all you mothers, cease banging pots

end solidarity, stand down barricades boys and girls universities are unnecessary.

Shots into homes, tear-gas in hospitals, triage units in elementary schools.

Jets bomb the highlands, virus swamps the lowlands, all now diseased.

The Lady unseen, the President and cabinet imprisoned it seems, Dr. Sa Sa is on TV.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, embedded with the Tatmadaw: our Eichmann, her Jerusalem?

A CJ captures on video cam the bloodshed of a fallen man, gunshot into helmet head.

People run into the bullets, a General said. Warn the deceased, listen to the dead.

A witness shouts in the street: my son, my son, see me watching you.

Then from behind a wall a baby walks into the street. With each step the baby grows.

He walks along the wall, toward the dying boy. Holds him in his arms.

The giant demon observes this tender act, commands Unit 33 to kill more innocents.

Monks ask for alms, are gifted spent shell casings used and recovered by police,

while the baby, now a giant being of impermanence, contemplates a challenge:

acting with compassion begets increased violence, capitulation increases uncertainty.

The Prince had told the giant demon he would win a prize, the prize was not the child

for the demon will not win what is not wanted to be cared for, to be loved,

for only a mother can love. Demons eat children by nature, mothers nurture children.

But look upon this another way: she brought an end to her baby’s suffering, he lived

briefly with the giant demon, gained from its spirit power, feared not in face of warfare

loved others to end their suffering in his arms. This is the meaning of compassion.

Now between unwashed curbs and wishful stars stands a giant baby.

Swaddled in golden leaf, pagoda-like, who began crying over burning coals

enflamed in history, moving forward with karma, circling toward a popularity.

There’ll be no final line to this poem, a tribute to imprisoned poets, whose voices —

such a foreign a concept in Western font — the power of a poem to inspire hearts.

Nature versus nurture, the karma of the army.

Can the baby stop a civil war? That’s to be decided. Face the demon,

find its mother, return the vote to people, bring back balance to society.

Is that a fair request, demons on our backs, cradling babies in our arms?

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Promises Made, Promises Kept?

Ed Warzala, Saratoga Springs

A Review of:

The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s

Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their

Students, and Their Mission

By Herb Childress

“As for the hands, each man knew that

there was no chance of obtaining work

anywhere else at present; there were

dozens of men out of employment already.

Besides, even if there had been a chance of

getting another job somewhere else, they

knew that the conditions were more or less

the same on every firm. Some were even

worse than this one.”

— Robert Tressell (2012, p. 221;

original work published 1914)

ressell’s turn of the century

novel described the lives, trials,

uncertainties, and fears of wage

laborers of the early 20th century. The

work of adjuncts and part-timers of the

21st century is, ironically, as uncertain

and fearful as the lives of Tressell’s

painters, plumbers, carpenters, and

common laborers. Childress (2019)

captures the emotional suffering and

the social relations of nontenure-track

faculty. The social relations of adjuncts

are determined by the overall structure

of employment in higher education

systems. Just as Tressell’s skilled

tradesmen were needed when their

services were in demand, so too are

the services of the “adjunct underclass.”

When enrollments decline or budgets

are cut, contingent and part-time faculty

become relatively expendable. This is

the larger context within which adjunct

faculty commonly find themselves.

The adjunct underclass includes all

nontenured and nontenure-track (NTT)

faculty. Nationwide, approximately half

of all college teaching is conducted

by NTT faculty. “In fall 2018, of the

1.5 million faculty in degree-granting

postsecondary institutions, 54 percent

were full time and 46 percent were

part time. Faculty include professors,

associate professors, assistant

professors, instructors, lecturers,

assisting professors, adjunct professors,

and interim professors” (National Center

for Education Statistics, 2020, para. 1).

The numbers of NTT and part-timers are

growing. From 2008-2009 to 2018-2019,

the growth in NTT faculty increased in

public baccalaureate institutions. In that

decade, NTT FT faculty increased from

10.4% to 24.7% of full-time faculty. (The

Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019).

In sum, the growth in NTT faculty is

trending upward while tenure-track

positions are declining.

Even though the faculty employment

system depends upon the adjunct

underclass, the adjunct underclass

cannot, in the same way, depend on

the faculty employment system. The

social relations within higher education

are based in economics, even though

the functioning of higher education

is informed by a spirit of humanism,

liberalism, community, and collegiality.

All ranks and titles, departments

and offices, programs and schools in

higher education are interconnected

dialectically within a higher education

system, and each leg of the system is

interdependent in the enterprise of

college teaching and learning. However,

not all integral parts are permanent and

secure and some parts are expendable.

In describing the value of his book for

those contemplating the academic

profession, Childress (2019) asserts,

“This is the book my family should have

had when they considered sending

me to college. It’s the book I should

have had when I considered graduate

school. It’s the book that grows from the

fundamental question of what college

is, what college teaching is and why

Image credit: University of Chicago Press

some participants — both students and

teachers — are secure while others

remain ever uncertain” (p. 18). To his

great credit, Childress is able to capture

and communicate the human costs

and indignities of the contingent faculty

employment system that is operative

in higher education today. Through

interviews with contingent faculty,

postdoctoral researchers, graduate

students, and college administrators,

Childress captures the relational nature

of contingent faculty life. Quotes

from these interviews punctuate the

chapters to remind the reader of the

indignities, disappointments, and

suffering experienced within the faculty

employment system. Part-timers and

NTTs interviewed by Childress live in a

world of uncertainty and disrespect and

may have feelings of being undervalued

and invisible.

In 2020, when college budgets were

endangered by the COVID-19 crisis,

contingent faculty quite predictably

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

became one of the first “line items”

earmarked for budget cuts. The more

contingent faculty employed by any

institution, the more hurt and fear of

uncertainty permeate the community

that colleges aspire to be. It is not just

the colleague we know whose life and

family are thrown into uncertainty when

budgets are deeply cut, but rather it is

the entire ecosystem of social relations

that exist within a college community.

Full-time, tenured faculty colleagues

find themselves powerless to lend

any fundamental assistance to valued

colleagues, except to voice advocacy,

sympathy, and understanding. Survivor’s

guilt may accompany powerlessness

for tenured faculty. Administrators,

most of whom serve at the pleasure of

a president, must dutifully supply the

lists of those who stay and those who

go. Collegiality and personal friendships

become collateral damage and some

contingent faculty simply resign and

withdraw their many contributions

from the community. No matter how

administrators respond to a budget

crisis, no one will be happy. Budgets

drive decisions that no one wants to

make and inevitably the “instructional

budgets” — our friends and colleagues

— pay more than their share. A shock

to the system like the COVID-19 crisis

devastates college communities, and

in turn the human beings who work

together collegially on every campus.

The allure of the academy is seductive

and membership in an academic

community is a powerful motivator for

the graduate students and doctoral

candidates steeped in the ethos of

teaching and mentoring. Doctoral

programs cannot sufficiently prepare

students for the uncertainties of the

employment market they will likely face.

Childress (2019) warns, “Adjuncting

can be pretty awful work. Low pay, no

benefits, no security, no intellectual

freedom. Why would anybody ever do

it? Where do all the serfs come from

to work their overlords’ estate?” (p.

51). The simple and partial answer is

that the faculty labor market is flooded

with new, highly qualified candidates

for whom tenure-track jobs are in

short supply. As an example, citing The

National Science Foundation’s Survey

of Earned Doctorates, Childress reports

the creation of “3,765 new Ph.D.s in

psychology in 2014. These people

entered a hiring pool that The Chronicle

of Higher Education‘s JobTracker research

project estimated at 326 tenure-track

positions at four-year schools for the

2013-14 academic year. That’s one

faculty job for every eleven and a half

new scholars” (p. 52). The structural glut

in newly minted Ph.D.s can be traced

to the abundance of Ph.D.-granting

programs and Ph.D.-granting institutions

that continue to churn out many more

qualified candidates than the market for

tenure-track faculty can ever absorb.

Ironically, universities create the

flooded academic job market and

are complicit in the frustrations and

human suffering that are so central to

Childress’s arguments. In 1973, there

were 286 Ph.D.-granting institutions with

33,755 degrees awarded. By 2018, with

declining demand for college faculty, 431

Ph.D.-granting institutions turned out

55,195 new Ph.D.s. (National Center for

Science and Engineering Statistics, 2019).

This is the fundamental explanation for

the creation of the adjunct underclass

and the business model that has

emerged in higher education. “But

some people do get jobs, after all.

Some people win the lottery, too,

which is what keeps us in line at the

mini-mart” (Childress, 2019, p. 53). The

particularly American myth that with

hard work anything can be achieved,

especially when combined with a

university system that overproduces

faculty reserve labor, perpetuates a

dynamic that ends for too many in

frustration and broken promises.

Many contingent faculty depend

completely on the income from college

teaching, and some, driven by the

economic realities of their lives and

the work they are educated to do,

teach at multiple colleges and may

never be fully included in the life of

any one campus community. Those

contingent faculty who work on annual

contracts and whose positions are

stable under normal budget conditions

become as vulnerable as adjuncts at

times of budgetary crisis. Tenured and

tenure-track faculty may also become

responsible for taking on additional

sections and extend their normal

teaching loads beyond negotiated

levels. Budget cuts are alienating and

dehumanizing for everyone in the

institution, including the administrators

charged with identifying which faculty

colleagues stay and which ones go. In

2020, a year like no other, the COVID-

19 health crisis cascaded through the

global economy and higher education

could not escape. It is not yet entirely

clear how higher education will emerge

from the crisis and whether COVID-19-

driven broad changes will permanently

transform higher education and the

faculty employment system now

in existence. There is, however, no

evidence to suggest that the pandemic

will lead to a more stable, more

secure college employment system for

contingent faculty. More likely, colleges

will become reluctant and less able

to increase the numbers of tenure-

track hires as the global and national

economies begin recovery from the

health crisis. From everything I have

“The particularly

American myth that with

hard work anything can

be achieved, especially

when combined with

a university system

that overproduces

faculty reserve labor,

perpetuates a dynamic

that ends for too many

in frustration and

broken promises.”

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seen to date, adjunct, part-timers, and

other contingent faculty have been

harmed or are at risk due to COVID-19-

related cuts or the threat thereof. “Since

the World Health Organization declared

a pandemic, the U.S. Labor Department

estimates that American academic

institutions have shed a net total of

at least 650,000 workers, according

to preliminary, seasonally adjusted

figures. … Put another way, for every

eight workers employed in academe in

February 2020, at least one had lost or

left that job 10 months later” (Bauman,

2021, para. 2). Whether the increase

in the use of adjuncts and part-timers

continues in the next decade remains

to be seen, but if I were wagering, I’d

say the higher education “industry” will

seize the opportunity to hire and further

exploit nontenured faculty. Higher

education is, after all, big business.

Because public colleges are critically

dependent on government funding,

their financial stability is directly

tied to the fortunes of their states.

Difficult decisions forced on college

administrators become resource-driven,

and if cuts are deep enough, the human

resources essential to fulfill a college’s

mission may be sacrificed. Budget cuts

destroy the morale of the entire campus

community when contingent colleagues

face unemployment and the loss of

membership in the collective effort

to serve students. Adjunct lecturers

tend to be “on call” to cover sections

when demand dictates, and may find

themselves waiting by the phone when

enrollments decline. In 2020, the COVID-

19 crisis set in motion a widespread

economic retraction across all sectors

of the economy, including higher

education. Elite private institutions,

as well as community colleges and

everything in between, have been

shocked by a health crisis completely

out of their control. The largest

comprehensive public university system

in the country, the State University of

New York (SUNY), is facing up to 25%

cuts in state contributions to operating

budgets, throwing SUNY campuses into

budgetary crisis mode (Vielkind, 2020).

The loss of on-campus housing revenues

places residential campuses at especially

high risk, as does a common decision of

students to extend gap years beyond a

single year before returning to residency

on campus.

Budgets in public higher education have

declined over the course of the last

decade while costs have risen, forcing

institutions to reduce the numbers of

tenure-track lines in favor of hiring more

contingent faculty and adjuncts. College

administrators are not to blame for

budget cuts as potentially devastating as

those caused by the COVID-19 crisis, but

they are responsible for the emotional

well-being and treatment of valued and

loyal colleagues who hold contingent

appointments. Budget deficiencies are

cold, hard facts that administrators

must manage, but they must also

remain cognizant of and sensitive to

the emotional consequences of their

decisions and the human costs of

employment uncertainty.

In Childress’s (2019) tone throughout

the book, there is no small degree

of bitterness about the system that

deprived him of his appointment to a

tenure-track teaching position, but it

is not until after the final chapter that

the reader learns of the professional

frustration and emotional resignation of

the author.

But the grief of not finding a home

in higher ed — of having done

everything as well as I was capable

of doing, and having it not pan out

… of being told over and over how

well I was doing and how much my

contributions mattered, even as the

prize was withheld — consumed

more than a decade. It affected my

mental health. It ended my first

marriage. It reopened all my fears

from childhood about abandonment

and rejection. It was a chasm into

which I fell during the job search

of 1996-97, and from which I didn’t

fully emerge until I left higher ed

altogether in 2013. (pp. 158-159)

Despite the personal pain and suffering,

Childress does not make this book

about his personal disappointment, but

rather, about the countless contingent

faculty who live in the limbo of uncertain

employment and unfulfilled promises.

There is more to his career path than

Childress divulges in the book. In a 2019

Inside Higher Ed interview, Childress

bared his soul about his personal

journey inside and outside of higher

education. For Childress and for others

who have been denied the fulfillment of

the coveted tenure-track appointment,

there is hope and opportunity. Though

he never landed the tenure-track

job in architecture for which he was

educated and of which he dreamed,

he has built an impressive academic

career as a writer and scholar and is

now at peace with his semi-departure

from higher education. It is difficult to

determine if the story told in The Adjunct

Underclass will change the minds of

students and professionals pursuing

the college faculty career path, but his

plea for change in the ways in which

academic institutions treat their striving

contingent faculty members rings true.

Childress attempts to remind interested

parties that everyone in the higher

education system must become more

sensitive and compassionate toward

contingent colleagues.

We have to think of higher ed as

a community to which we belong

and to which we welcome others.

We need to stop treating any of

our members as expendable. …

We are not business products with

an expected amount of process

waste: we are whole, beloved,

intelligent people invested with every

possibility. Our society is adrift in a

cynical and angry sea, and higher ed

needs to be a counterforce, enabling

a return to earnest, generous care.

(Flaherty, 2019, para. 20)

While we remain hopeful that a kinder,

gentler, more compassionate higher

education system will emerge from the

crisis of pandemic, not much will likely

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

change. Contingent faculty everywhere

will continue their kind philanthropy

to the institutions they are enlisted

to serve, just as Tressell’s “ragged

trousered” philanthropists persisted in

their choiceless generosity to the firms

that employed them.

References

Bauman, D. (2021, February 5). A brutal

tally: Higher ed lost 650,000 jobs

last year. The Chronicle of Higher

Education. https://www.chronicle.

com/article/a-brutal-tally-higher-ed-

lost-650-000-jobs-last-year?cid=gen_

sign_in

Childress, H. (2019). The adjunct

underclass: How America’s

colleges betrayed their faculty,

their students, and their mission.

The University of Chicago

Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/

chicago/9780226496832.001.0001

Chronicle of Higher Education, The.

(2019, August 18). Change in

percentages of full-time faculty

members who were non-tenure-track

by institutional classification, 2008-9

and 2018-19. https://www.chronicle.

com/article/change-in-percentages-

of-full-time-faculty-members-

who-were-non-tenure-track-by-

institutional-classification-2008-9-

and-2018-19/

Flaherty, C. (2019, April 16). ‘The Adjunct

Underclass.’ Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/

news/2019/04/16/herb-childress-

discusses-his-new-book-adjunct-

underclass

National Center for Education Statistics.

(2020, May). Characteristics of

postsecondary faculty.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/

indicator_csc.asp

National Center for Science and

Engineering Statistics. (2019). Survey

of earned doctorates: Doctorate-

granting institutions: Table 2:

Doctorate-granting institutions and

doctorate recipients per institution,

1973-2018. https://ncses.nsf.gov/

pubs/nsf20301/data-tables/

Tressell, R. (2012). The ragged trousered

philanthropists. Wadsworth

Editions Limited. (Original

work published 1914)

Vielkind, J. (2020, May 12). SUNY curbs

spending, braces for more cuts

amid pandemic. The Wall Street

Journal. https://www.wsj.com/

articles/suny-curbs-spending-

braces-for-more-cuts-amid-

pandemic-11589318997

A Peek Inside #4

Shantih E. Clemans, Brooklyn

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Found Things

“Imagine One ESC” by MaryNell Morgan (1996)

MaryNell Morgan, mentor emerita, shared the

following words to a song she performed on

September 27, 1996, at the Arts Celebration for

the college’s 25th anniversary. The event was

held at the Northeast Center, then located at

845 Central Avenue in Albany. The song was

sung to the tune of “Imagine” by John Lennon.

Imagine there’s no classrooms

It’s easy if you try

No dorms or student unions

And no limits but the sky

Imagine all the students

Learning at ESC

*You … you may say I’m a Dreamer

But I’m not the only one

We hope some day you’ll join us

And Empire State will live as One.

Imagine there’s no Faculty Senate,

It isn’t hard to do,

No need for governance meetings,

And no committees too,

Imagine all the Mentors

Sharing all their workloads … *

Imagine no Assessment,

I wonder if you can,

No need for Rationale Essays,

All DPPs would be canned,

Imagine all the Tutors,

Earning decent pay … *

Imagine there’s no Centers

And no limits too

No need for Regions or Programs

And all super deans were through

Imagine all the students

Learning at a Distance online

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Found Things

“Long Island Regional Center, Graduation Ceremony: Empire State College:

Our 20th Anniversary” by Rhoada Wald (June 23, 1991)

Rhoada Wald, mentor emerita, provided

the following graduation speech that she

presented to Long Island’s Class of 1991.

To The Graduates:

oday, it is our pleasure to

celebrate your graduation from

the Long Island Regional Learning

Center of Empire State College. This

year also marks the 20th anniversary

of the College as a whole. Today, in the

context of your graduation and this 20th

anniversary celebration, I will talk about

how and why we began as a college,

what we became, and what some of

the ideas are from this experience

you can take with you into your life

after graduation.

The Long Island Regional Center

opened its doors in September 1972,

one year after the College officially

opened. Our first graduation was in

May 1973, thirty-seven people were in

that first graduation. Last year, 1990,

two hundred and nine people were

graduated. This year we have two

hundred and ninety graduates, the

largest graduating group at the Long

Island Center since we began. As of May

1, 1991, two thousand nine hundred and

thirty-three people have graduated from

the Long Island Center. This number

represents the highest number of any

center in the College.

Preparing for the first orientation of new

students at the Long Island Learning

Center in 1972 was an awesome task.

None of us had ever before worked

in a setting quite like Empire State

College. We did not know who the

students were, who you and your

early counterparts were. We knew

you were not the traditional college

age individuals; we could read your

admissions materials. But who were you

really? And, why were you coming back

to college at this stage of life?

The students who were attracted to

Empire State College turned out to be

a new clientele, a student constituency

unique in the annals of the history of

higher education. You were unique

because you were coming back to

college at a later stage in life and you

were adding education to an already full

life of responsibility to work and family.

You were unique in your interests

and unique in terms of what you

accomplished before you came.

You turned out to be what we now

call the adult learner, individuals who,

for one reason or another, would not

accept the traditional clocks of the life

cycle, that this is the stage for doing this

or that. Colleges all over the country

are now recruiting adults. They found

out what we learned long ago, that you

are interesting students, that you are

creative, resourceful, and motivated.

Today there are articles, books, and

research programs geared to the adult

learner. You should be proud because

it is you and all the adult students who

came before you who paved the way for

this new direction.

What was the mandate for this new

college? Essentially, the mandate was

to provide new and flexible approaches

to higher education in New York State.

In addition to the concept of the

nontraditional learner, several other key

ideas framed our work.

We would design a college environment

organized around one-to-one study.

The traditional concept of learning in

a group or in a classroom was not the

way we would begin. We would begin

with two people, a student and a faculty

member, who would, together, organize

the learning experience.

The dyad of student and teacher is

still the heart of Empire State College.

Learning begins with the student.

Student purpose is the key to the

learning experience. It is not accidental

that all contracts begin with student

purpose. For it is the individual that is

central, not the body of knowledge, or

the discipline, or the faculty member,

but the student.

Secondly, college credits could be

awarded for valid learning accruing

from work and life experience both

before and during the student’s college

matriculation. It is difficult to convey

to you, and for me to remember,

what a new concept this was just

twenty years ago, we take it so for

granted today. The notion that college

credit could be earned in a place other

than a classroom was tantamount

to revolution.

A third idea is related to curriculum.

Curriculum would not be set, but

would be designed in relation to each

student. There would not be a core

curriculum or series of subjects that

were required by all. And often, the

content of this curriculum would not

mirror the expertise of the mentor. The

mentor would be a facilitator rather

than a teacher and each student would

individually engage with the faculty in

designing her or his degree program.

Another revolutionary idea was that the

complexity of learning would not be

reflected in grades, some other strategy

was needed to capture the learning

and growth of individuals. I randomly

selected three folders of graduates

here today and would like to share with

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you comments from the many contract

evaluations to illustrate this idea. I

believe they speak for themselves.

Douglas Kozlik studied the theme of

dying in literature. His mentor wrote,

“On this, his first college literature

contract, Mr. Kozlik was interested

in learning how to analyze literature

and how literature illuminates the

human experience and reactions to

dying. He gained confidence and skill

in interpretation. He strengthened

his writing and developed a renewed

appetite for Hemingway and Steinbeck.”

Doris Gannon completed a contract

on racism and ethnicity. “Her paper

clearly demonstrated that she gained

an understanding of the broad issues

and analysis of the problem of racism.

She was able to discuss strategies,

tactics, and general ways in which

one can begin to think about changes

at an individual, institutional and

societal level.”

Mary Ann Murray studied human

biology in one contract. The following

comments are drawn from the contract

evaluation. “Ms. Murray was able to

visualize physiological processes at all

levels from molecules to organ systems

and articulate them clearly in her own

words. Best of all, she was intrigued by

the understanding that she was gaining

and this fascination and wonder at the

complexity of biological functioning was

enthusiastically conveyed.”

So sometimes, if in your heart of hearts,

you yearned for closure, for the notion

that a grade will tell all, remember that

the evaluation process at Empire State

College is rich, valid, and a real reflection

of learning and growth.

These were the basic ideas of the

College, the basic ideas for designing

learning experiences, the basic ideas for

fulfilling individual goals.

The celebration of your graduation

combined with the 20th anniversary

of the College is also an appropriate

time for reflecting on the impressions,

reactions, and ideas that the faculty

have gleaned from working here.

To be a member of the faculty at

Empire State College means to have

reaffirmed every working day of your

life the notion of individual differences,

to perceive on a daily basis, the

strengths, the vulnerabilities, the

anxieties that people face, to learn

again each day, that individuals are

different, they are different in different

ways, they have different needs,

interests, and learning styles.

For me, a member of the faculty, the

experience of mentoring changed

forever my view of how people grow,

change and provide meaning to their

lives. I have been here for twenty years

but not a week passes without someone

coming into my office and adding to

my conception of how people learn,

think, and experience their unique

life histories.

To be a mentor at Empire State College

means to always be aware of the

complexity of the human experience,

the issues related to the various

stages of the life cycle, the joys, the

satisfactions, the triumphs represented

today, and also the difficulties, the

tragedies, and the abilities to overcome

these misfortunes, to witness human

resiliency and human dignity.

“So sometimes, if in your

heart of hearts, you

yearned for closure, for

the notion that a grade

will tell all, remember

that the evaluation

process at Empire State

College is rich, valid,

and a real reflection of

learning and growth.”

The final theme of Empire State College

relates to life after graduation, the

concept of life-long learning. Learning

is a life-long process for all of us as

mentors and for you as students, and

we hope as you leave Empire State

College that you will continue to seek

new experiences for learning. We

learned together that learning is a life-

long process not restricted to time or

place or a specific body of knowledge.

Graduation is an accomplishment, but

it is also a transition. One person who

is here today said to me, “Empire State

College has given me the understanding

that I will be a student all my life, that

learning is part of the life force.”

Sometimes the learning comes from

planning, from putting yourself into

a particular situation for a particular

reason. But sometimes it is difficult to

forecast what will be significant, what

will change one’s view of the world. I am

reminded of that idea by something that

happened to me several months ago. I

was in a restaurant one evening when a

woman in her forties greeted me. Carol

graduated from Empire State College in

1983 and I was delighted to know that

she was teaching fourth grade in an

excellent school district.

I remembered her very well because

when she was a student she expressed

fixed ideas about gender, about the

roles of men and women in society.

She joined us at the table and said,

“You know Rhoada, it was that last

contract that really changed me.”

The contract focused on children’s

literature. It was in the context of that

study as she read stories about family

life portrayed in children’s literature,

some wonderful, some terrible, that

she began to perceive for the first time

the meaning of gender equity, of the

feminist movement, of her own roles as

a woman, mother, teacher and wife.

I did not know that would happen

as we planned the contract. In that

restaurant, I learned that sometimes

learning is mysterious, you cannot

always predict what will happen,

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or what you think might happen. To be

a life-long learner means to be open

to such possibilities, to take a chance,

to not let new opportunities go by.

As the faculty person, you have to be

comfortable with the possibilities of

ambiguity and unexpected outcomes.

What then have we learned at Empire

State College that can be transferred

to life after graduation? The search

for new purposes, personal as well as

professional, and the conventional and

unconventional resources for fulfilling

those purposes, seems tailored-made

for people invested in life-long learning.

The world is rich with the possibility of

new mentors and, even, the possibility

of becoming a mentor yourself

because much can be learned through

facilitating the learning of others. And

finally, although the tangible rewards

for learning are satisfying such as a

promotion or an A in a course, the

internal rewards from new learning are

the most rewarding.

One student told me recently that this

model of education was a valuable

experience for her, much more difficult

than she had anticipated but very

compelling. “I feel that if I can do this

thing, this thing called getting a degree

from Empire State College, I can do

anything, now I can go out and conquer

the world.”

We urge you as educated citizens to go

out to your communities, local, state,

and national, to activate for what you

believe is important. The challenge

facing undergraduate education today is

multicultural diversity, how to organize

the curriculum to include the range of

perspectives inherent in the pluralistic

fabric of American society, how to

design educational resources that relate

to differences in race, gender, class,

ethnic background, and religion. Not an

easy task.

We are trying to take on that task in

higher education, but it must also be

addressed in the communities in which

we live and work. We urge you to join

us as we try to forge some changes in

the social fabric of all of our lives, for

ourselves, for our children and for

our grandchildren.

Usually at graduation, the graduate

thanks his or her parents. And we

certainly wish to do that today, to all

the parents of our graduates, thank you

for helping. But in the context of the

adult learner, we also wish to thank the

immediate families, the spouses and the

children. On a daily basis you helped

forge the commitment, the success, the

opportunities for taking time to study.

You are indeed partly responsible for

your graduate’s accomplishments.

As you leave today, on behalf of the

administration, faculty and staff, I

wish to thank you, the graduates, for

expanding our horizons, for teaching us

the value of differences, for helping us

find ways to help you.

On behalf of all of us, I congratulate

you on this important achievement. We

hope you will use the ideas you have

learned at Empire State College in new

and unexpected ways. Good luck. You

have expanded and enriched our lives.

Thank you.

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From the Archives

An Introduction to Self-Directed Learning by George Moberg and Beverly Smirni,

edited by Frederic Mayo and Mary S. Mooney (n.d.)

Mentors at SUNY Empire State College

have always grappled with the best ways

to support our students. An Introduction

to Self-Directed Learning was developed

in the late 1980s to help students think

about what it means to be an independent

learner. This manual was often given

to students during their orientation

sessions and referred to throughout the

educational planning process in many

of our learning centers and locations.

The front cover reads: “Support for this

manual was provided by a grant from the

Lilly Foundation for the Religion in the City

Program, Urban Study Center, Center for

Statewide Programs, Empire State College.”

Pages 9 through 11 are reproduced here,

thanks to the assistance of Janay Jackson.

Thank you to Anastasia Pratt, SUNY Empire

archivist, for the selection of this text.

V. PURPOSEFUL READING

A. Since the time it will take you to

successfully complete the self-

directed study has definite limits,

and you have already blocked out

completion dates for each of the

learning activities, you may have

to develop new ways of reading,

and note-taking in order to make

the most efficient use of your time

for self-directed study. Students

often complain about the amount

of books they have to read and

the amount of time spent in

reading books for a study. Some

students may view this problem

as a mechanical one and decide

to increase their reading speed.

While it may not hurt to spend two

dollars on a paperback to increase

your reading speed, the issue is

one of learning how to read with a

purpose, not learning to read faster.

The purpose behind reading a

text or an article from a journal

is to extract the one or two main

ideas in the text. It may come as

a surprise to learn that books and

articles contain at the most one

or two central ideas and the rest

of the book or article consists of

elaboration of, evidence for, and

implications of, these central ideas.

Your task is to identify* these

central ideas and decide if the

source is an appropriate one for

your study. You can begin by asking

questions which will help to identify

the appropriateness of the source

for your study:

Why am I reading this manual,

text, or article? Do I hope that it

will become a major source of

information for my self-directed

study? What is the author’s

background? Is it a popular or

scholarly text? To answer these

questions, use the survey method

of reading.

1. Survey Method

a. Titles and subtitles of texts,

articles in journals should

be read to give you your first

hint about the

appropriateness of the

content. For example, on the

study of children’s

environmental health, our

student identified this text:

Living in the Environment —

Concepts, Problems

and Alternatives.

b. Jacket blurbs are often written

to sell the books, but they

can also give you much factual

information in a short space

of time. Quotes from book

reviews can be especially

informative, depending on the

reviewer of the magazine.

c. Table of Contents — glance

at the contents. You might

be disappointed or you might

find a couple of chapter

headings that seem

appropriate to your

learning objectives.

d. Introductions and conclusions

should be read. If they

are long read the first and

last paragraphs and skim

the middle. You should be

warned however, that this

method works only when the

author of the text or article

is highly organized. The

system of reading the first

and last paragraphs of

chapters or articles is a

cornerstone of the survey

method of reading.

2. Identifying the Main Point

The survey method depends

upon your ability to identify

the central idea. Any main point

— whether actually stated in a

topic sentence or not — is

supported by specific or

particular details. You should

approach all your readings

with the intent of identifying or

uncovering the main point as

quickly as possible. (It often

appears first or last in any text

passage) and then the supporting

details. Training in reading

involves comprehending the

material read. Plain

understanding, simply “getting

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

the point,” however, is not

the same as critical reading and

understanding. For example,

“Children have also suffered the

direct effects of lead poisoning

as a result of their parents’

bringing home lead-

contaminated clothes. This

phenomenon had earlier been

seen following exposure to

asbestos and beryllium

transported from factory to

home on work clothing. Children

who develop lead poisoning

are more likely to be left with

permanent brain damage.

Chronic effects of lead poisoning

in children can often show up

as “hyperactivity” in school —

children have short attention

spans, don’t do very well in

school, or are easily distracted,

among other more severe

disturbances.”**

What is the central idea in

this paragraph?

Children suffer lead poisoning

through the contaminated

clothing of their parents.

Understanding this paragraph

and identifying the central idea

is essential to the next step

criticizing it.

VI. CRITICAL READING

Critical reading as the most

advanced type of reading is the

most appropriate one for self-

directed studies on the college

level. A consciously critical approach

to thinking, listening and reading

can be a crucial matter in daily life

for it influences your beliefs and

actions. There are several tools of

critical reading:

1. Examine the Source and

Check for Bias

For example, in a news article

on the emission of dangerous

levels of*** lead oxide into

the atmosphere of a residential

section of Brooklyn, the owner

of the smelting plant was quoted

in a television newscast as saying

“that they had had a great deal

of difficulty in installing a

pollution control device in the

plant.” Since the emissions of

lead oxide have been released

into the atmosphere for the

past eleven years, the owner’s

explanation for the lack of a

pollution control device stems

from his basic position which is

to save his money interests. The

job of a critical reader is to

identify the people who give

information and the basic

position they have taken. It’s

not paranoia to search for

potential bias, it’s merely a

healthy critical stance.

2. Look for Assumptions in

the Material

In the same news article on the

Metal Plant emitting dangerous

doses of lead oxide, the news

reporter writes that “Although

3,000 adults live within the

half-mile radius, they will not

be screened unless the children’s

lead levels indicate a need.” The

assumption is that adults are less

susceptible to lead poisoning

than children.

3. Check Conclusions

Be alert against misguided

deductions and false conclusions.

For example, the owner’s

explanation for not having

any pollution control device in

his smelting plant was to point

out the difficulties he had had

in installing such a device. Does

this explanation adequately

explain the basic reasons for

the absence of a pollution

control device which was in

violation of the standards set

by the Federal Environmental

Protection Agency?

To summarize, there are three keys

to becoming a professional and

critical reader:

1. You must know the reason for

your reading and then select the

appropriate reading technique.

2. The purpose of reading

comprehension is to capture

main ideas in the text.

3. College level reading means critical

reading which means that you

should figure out what the author

wants you to believe, and how the

case is made, and then take your

own stand on the ideas in the text.

* Graham Gibbs, Learning To Study

Social Science (London, 1978), p. 22.

** Andrea Hricko and Melanie Brunt,

Working for Your Life: A Woman’s

Guide to Job Health Hazards (Berkley,

1976), p. C.9.

*** Laurie Johnson, ‘”Greenpoint

Children to Get Lead Tests,” The New

York Times, August 18, 1980, p. 42.

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Remembering Our Colleagues

and Friends of the College

Richard L. Burden

Richard L. Burden died on February

1, 2021. Richard taught for almost

four decades at Youngstown State

University (Ohio) where he co-founded

the computer science program and

became chair of the department of

mathematics and computer science.

He co-authored the text Numerical

Analysis (1978, Prindle, Weber &

Schmidt; now in its 10th edition). After

he retired from YSU, Richard came

to SUNY Empire State College where,

for more than 10 years, he created

and taught online mathematics and

statistics courses. As former dean of

the Center for Distance Learning (and

current program coordinator for Master

of Arts in Adult Learning), Meg Benke

noted: Richard and his wife Annette

(who remains an active and important

instructor in mathematics at SUNY

Empire) “were instrumental in building

our advanced math curricula.” And

Mathematics Department Chair Lynae

Warren commented: “The importance

of Richard’s involvement in the math

department was critical throughout his

time with us.”

Bruce L. Fassett

A graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, Bruce

L. Fassett, who died on September 20,

2020, was a high school math teacher at

Indian Lake Central School for 35 years,

a deputy sheriff, a Saratoga Race Course

security official, and a mentor for online

studies at SUNY Empire, especially in

algebra. Mentor Emerita Betty Hurley

noted: “Bruce’s enthusiasm rang through

his online entries. His announcements

and feedback to students were always

full of encouragement. He called

the students ‘math heroes.’ I believe

he attended every CDL [Center for

Distance Learning] Conference, where

his commitment to our students was

always apparent. Bruce impressed

all of us with his positive energy.” As

Mathematics Department Chair Lynae

Warren described: “Bruce had a really

good rapport with his students; he

interacted to support their success and

got really good results. Bruce was always

supportive of his students and was a

valuable and positive team member for

our other math department adjuncts. He

was working with those students who

may not have made it, if not for him.

We already miss Bruce. We missed him

from the moment we lost him and will

continue to miss him.”

Victor Friedman

Victor Friedman passed away on

February 14, 2021. Vic served as the

assistant director of information

systems for the Center for

Environmental Health at the New

York State Department of Health and

was active in local theater, music, and

other organizations. He began more

than 15 years ago as an instructor in

the college’s then-Center for Distance

Learning. He taught Database Systems,

Management Information Systems,

and Business Continuity Planning.

Mentor Emerita Betty Hurley described

Vic Friedman as “very devoted to his

teaching,” and Computer Science and

Technology Associate Department

Chair Diane Shichtman noted that

Vic’s “concern for the students was

wonderful and appreciated (as was

his sense of humor). One memory I

keep coming back to is the time he’d

landed in the hospital. He spoke with

me from the hospital, and all I kept

thinking was that he should be saving

his energy to get well, and we’d figure

things out, but he wanted to be sure I

knew what was coming up next for the

class he was teaching at the time. It was

important to him that his students were

well taken care of. He really cared.” As

Tracy Shannon, coordinator of online

operations, Empire Online, reported:

“Vic was a gem! His dedication is hard

to match.”

Arthur E. Imperatore

Arthur E. Imperatore Sr., an

entrepreneur who, with his brothers,

began an interstate freight trucking

company and later invented the modern

commuter ferry system, died on

November 18, 2020. Arthur Imperatore

received three honorary degrees,

including one from SUNY Empire; the

Horatio Alger Award; and the first U.S.

Senate Productivity Award, presented

by former New Jersey Senator Bill

Bradley. In 1990, Arthur Imperatore

generously endowed to the college

a “community forum fellowship” that

has supported the scholarship and

community outreach of 24 SUNY Empire

colleagues (from former mentor Bob

Seidel’s work on neighborhoods in the

Rochester area [1990-1991] to mentor

Heather Reynolds’ current Imperatore

Community Forum Fellowship studying

school safety in the Capital Region).

Retired mentor Susan McConnaughy,

an Imperatore fellow in 2017-2018,

used her Imperatore award to focus

on how parents can help their children

heal from trauma: “I was able to pull

together what is known about parent

interventions and draw lessons from

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clinical work that parents could adapt.

I also got training in a cutting-edge

trauma treatment method [and]

designed an online and in-person course

on childhood trauma.” Mentor Elaine

Handley, 2019-2020 Imperatore fellow,

reported that the award gave her “the

opportunity to work in the community

to support people who unexpectedly

find themselves in a caregiver role and

show them how to use writing as a tool

for wellness and resiliency.” Mentor

Rebecca Bonanno, Imperatore fellow

in 2016-2017, commented that the

fellowship “was an amazing opportunity

to learn more about my community,

both as a researcher and as a citizen.

My yearlong project helped start off my

work as a community-engaged scholar.

The connections that I made during

that year have led to new projects in

my community that are making a real

impact.” Mentor Eric Ball, who received

an Imperatore award in 2020-2021

and whose project focused on music

organizations in the Glens Falls-Lake

George region, commented: “The

award proved especially valuable in

2020-2021, and in unexpected ways,

as local music and arts organizations

found themselves scrambling to cope

with the consequences of the COVID-

19 pandemic, and all my original

Imperatore plans for collaborations with

these organizations had to be scrapped.

Even so, it remained possible to devise

an entirely new ‘pandemic-proof’

plan, resulting in an edited collection

developed in collaboration with an even

greater number of these organizations

and their leaders.”

Former SUNY Empire State College

President Jim Hall commented: “Arthur

Imperatore was a generous and

engaged, larger than life individual. On

many occasions over his long life, he

was honored for his humanitarianism.

His whole life experience — one of nine

children of Italian immigrants, an army

veteran, a successful entrepreneur,

and a business visionary — gave him a

special ability to understand why Empire

State College was important.”

Rhoda Miller

Mentor Emerita Rhoda Miller, a

longtime, spirited, and dedicated SUNY

Empire State College colleague, died

on October 15, 2020. Rhoda joined the

college in 1974 and retired as a full-time

mentor in 2000. She was the Community

and Human Services mentor in the New

Models for Career Education program

that was housed in the basement of the

library at Rockland Community College,

which became the basis for the Lower

Hudson Unit and later the Hudson Valley

Center of SUNY Empire. Over many

years in the college, she served as the

mentor-coordinator for the Middletown

Unit and later, as the director of the

NYNEX Corporate College Program

(later known as Verizon Corporate

College) in New York City. Rhoda Miller

was trained as a community organizer

at the Columbia University School of

Social Work, and before coming to

SUNY Empire, served as director of

social services at Planned Parenthood

of New York City, and as a Peace Corps

volunteer in Liberia.

Mentor Emerita Miriam Tatzel, in

consultation with Mentor Emerita Lois

Muzio, offered these reflections: “I see

Rhoda in the basement of the library

at Rockland Community College, where

she was the mentor in Community and

Human Services, and I was the Human

Development newbie. She and I shared

a cubicle(!) — not a bad way to learn

mentoring. I came to see Rhoda as the

consummate social worker. Social work

was her identity, her values, and what

she passed on to her mentees. I see

her in the Middletown Unit where, as

coordinator and assisted by Rosemary

Kearns, they ran a busy unit together

with the other mentors. While I didn’t

see her when she moved to the

innovative Verizon Corporate College

program as associate dean, I heard

again how she joined forces in friendly

cooperation with the others there.

Well known throughout the college

and easy to talk to, many of us shared

with Rhoda the things that were on

our minds. She was (excuse the jargon)

a sociometric star.”

Michele D. Ogle

Michele D. Ogle, retired part-time

instructor in computer science and

mathematics and divisional operational

coordinator in the School of Social and

Behavioral Sciences for a dozen years,

passed away on October 14, 2020.

Michele had a more than three-decade

career in the research and development

department at General Electric (with

30 patents to her name!) before coming

to SUNY Empire and beginning her

second career. Computer Science and

Technology Associate Department

Chair Diane Shichtman commented:

“Michele created the online Human-

Computer Interaction course, as well

as the online Software Engineering

course. In both courses, her concern

for making the workload reasonable

for students while ensuring they had

the opportunity to engage and learn

was evident. While the academic side

beyond direct teaching wasn’t Michele’s

responsibility, she was dedicated to

helping us serve our students. She

met with the faculty to talk about

guidelines and other matters for

computer science. Beyond the concrete

tasks she took on, she worked well with

many different people and handled

change calmly. I remember often

thinking about how Michele understood

organizations in a way that gave her

a very valuable sense of perspective.

She contributed to the college in many

tangible and intangible ways.”

Frank Vander Valk, dean of the School

of Social and Behavioral Sciences,

recalled that: “Michele was incredibly

knowledgeable, patient, and kind. She

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played a crucial role in setting up the

School of Social and Behavioral Sciences,

drawing on her deep understanding

of the college and her expertise

developed in previous phases of her

career. I knew, as did the rest of our

school, that if Michele was involved

in something it would be OK; even in

the chaotic days of setting up ESC 2.0,

Michele’s professionalism and good

nature provided a bedrock of calm

and stability. In a very literal sense, we

could not have done it without her. Her

contributions were highly valued at the

time and will be long remembered.” As

Mentor Emerita Betty Hurley described:

“Through her years with Empire State,

we experienced Michele’s many gifts.

She possessed an unusual combination

of analytical and administrative skills.

Few demonstrated the combination of

skills to both teach and develop courses

that she did on a regular basis. Blend

those with a positive outlook and a dry

sense of humor and you have some

sense of what made Michele so special.

She often had visitors to her office and

was always generous with her expertise

and stories. I especially loved her stories

of her sons and their achievements.

When she was diagnosed, I marveled

at how she faced her treatments with

determination and optimism mixed

with a pragmatic approach. Through

her actions, she showed us a way to

live when faced with a disease that

eventually claimed her life, but not

her spirit.”

“To live an entirely private life means above all to be deprived of the reality that comes

from being seen and heard by others, to be deprived of an ‘objective’ relationship

with them that comes from being related to and separated from them through

the intermediary of a common world of things, to be deprived of the

possibility of achieving something more permanent than life itself.”

— Hannah Arendt, 1958

The Human Condition

The University of Chicago Press, p. 58

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

Core Values of SUNY Empire State College

SUNY Empire State College has had two

statements of “core values.”

The first was presented by a group of

faculty and administrators including Keith

Elkins, Walt Frykholm, Bob Carey, and Jim

Case at the 1993 All College Conference

and published in All About Mentoring,

issue 1, September 1993; the second (that

we have included in each issue of this

publication since 2005) grew out of the

work of a task force made up of Marianne

Arieux, Eric Ball, Joyce Elliott, Leslie Ellis,

Cathy Leaker, and Alan Mandell and was

endorsed by the college senate in 2005.

During this season of our 50th anniversary

celebration, we present both of these

documents as one way to honor the

college’s ongoing commitment to a set

of “core values.”

Core Values of the College, 1993

1. The student is at the center of all

educational decisions.

2. Mentoring is the best way to

implement these decisions.

3. The quality of the mentor/student

relationship largely determines the

quality of the student’s education.

4. We believe in making ourselves

and the College accessible to

students in terms of place, time

and programming.

5. The College works collaboratively

with students in a variety of

programs and studies and on a

number of levels: we believe in

serving individual students in a

manner appropriate to their needs.

6. Our goal is to foster the

development of self-directed

learners who are intellectually

curious, open to new ideas, own

their own learning, and have the

academic skills to continue learning

beyond college.

7. The College should be a diverse

academic community which serves a

diversity of students.

8. We believe in the mentor as an

adult learner, in collaborative

learning, in collegiality and

mutual support.

We need to be reflective

practitioners.

9. We believe in recognizing learning

wherever it occurs and however it

is acquired, and in the community

as a learning resource.

10. The College should serve the

community and the broader society

both directly and, through its

graduates, indirectly.

11. We should be open to new ways

of learning and teaching, and

innovative in pursuit of achieving

these core values.

Core Values of Empir

State College, 2005

The core values of SUNY Empire State

College reflect the commitments

of a dynamic, participatory and

experimenting institution accessible

and dedicated to the needs of a richly

diverse adult student body. These

values are woven into the decisions

we make about what we choose to do,

how we carry out our work in all parts

of the institution, and how we judge the

outcome of our individual and collective

efforts. More than a claim about what

we have already attained, the core

values support our continuing inquiry

about what learning means and how

it occurs.

We value learning-mentoring goals that:

• respond to the academic,

professional and personal needs of

each student;

• identify and build upon students’

existing knowledge and skills;

• sustain life-long curiosity and critical

inquiry;

• provide students with skills, insights

and competencies that support

successful college study.

We value learning-mentoring

processes that:

• emphasize dialogue and

collaborative approaches to study;

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SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 55 • AUTUMN 2021

• support critical exploration of

knowledge and experience;

• provide opportunities for active,

reflective and creative academic

engagement.

We value learning-mentoring

modes that:

• respond to a wide array of

student styles, levels, interests

and circumstances;

• foster self-direction, independence

and reflective inquiry;

• provide opportunities for ongoing

questioning and revising;

• reflect innovation and research.

We value a learning-mentoring

community that:

• defines each member as a learner,

encouraging and appreciating his/

her distinctive contributions;

• recognizes that learning occurs

in multiple communities,

environments and relationships as

well as in formal academic settings;

• attracts, respects and is enriched

by a wide range of people, ideas,

perspectives and experiences.

We value a learning-mentoring

organization and culture that:

• invites collaboration in the

multiple contexts of our work;

• fosters innovation and

experimentation;

• develops structures and policies

that encourage active participation

of all constituents in decision-

making processes;

• advocates for the interests of adult

learners in a variety of academic

and civic forums.

SUBMISSIONS TO ALL ABOUT MENTORING

f you have a scholarly paper-in-progress or a talk that you have presented, All About

Mentoring would welcome it. If you developed materials for your students that may

be of good use to others, or have a comment on any part of this issue, or on topics/

concerns relevant to our mentoring community, please send them along.

If you have a short story, poem, drawings or photographs, or have reports on your

reassignments and sabbaticals, All About Mentoring would like to include them in an

upcoming issue.

Email submissions to [email protected] and/or [email protected].

Submissions to All About Mentoring can be of varied length and take many forms.

(Typically, materials are between 1,500 to 3,500 words but no longer than 5,000 words.)

Materials should be emailed as Microsoft Word attachments. In terms of writing style and

referencing, All About Mentoring follows the Associated Press Stylebook, 55th ed. (2020, AP)

and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. (2020, APA).

All About Mentoring is published twice a year. Our next issue, #56, will be available

in 2022. Please submit all materials by January 17, 2022. Please turn to Alan Mandell if you

have a suggestion for or would like to have a discussion about a possible AAM submission.

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ALL ABOUT MENTORING

Issue 55 • Autumn 2021

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