With a nod to the start of its second century, SUNY Cobleskill Friday brought together the past and the present to talk about the future.
President Emeritus Thomas Haas, who served from 2003-2006, joined current President Donald Zingale in the President’s Forum panel discussion.
President Emeritus Neal Robbins, who led the college from 1986-1991, had also been invited to share his thoughts, but canceled because of illness.
He was replaced at the forum by Debra Thatcher, provost and vice president for academic affairs since January.
Perry Odak, president of US Portfolio and a SUNY Cobleskill graduate, moderated the “casual conversation.”
Dr. Zingale told the invitation-only gathering that even as the college focuses of what employers want and students need, they’ll be doing it in a time of fiscal challenges that will require different ways of thinking.
“For 100 years, we’ve withstood these kinds of challenges,” he said. “We’ll continue to do so. SUNY Cobleskill is resilient, maybe because at its roots is the agricultural perspective.”
Dr. Haas pointed out that all levels of education everywhere are dealing with the same challenges and the need to develop workable business models for doing their job.
“State support is a concept of the past,” agreed Dr. Zingale.
“The demand it places on us is to begin to assume a business stance in a lot of ways…we have to pay as much attention to the business of knowledge as the body of knowledge.”
Dr. Thatcher picked up on that thought and said she sees more efficiencies and more partnerships, not only locally, but nationally and internationally for institutions like SUNY Cobleskill.
In the past, when times got tough, good ideas and programs were put on hold, Dr. Zingale said.
That can no longer be the case.
“If the state is not going to give us money, then we need to go after it ourselves,” he said.
Dr. Haas remembered with a smile the days when he’d “go downtown to solve all of the world’s problems right here in Schoharie County over a cup of coffee” with community leaders.
That has to be an ongoing relationship, he said, and the others agreed.
“We can’t exist without a close relationship with the community,” Dr. Thatcher said. “We’re all in this together. The town and gown relationship is essential.”
Dr. Haas said he as president, he was able to take Cobleskill’s concerns to Albany; Dr. Zingale said his goal is to bring Albany to Cobleskill.
A tighter bottom line will make recruiting out-of-state students even more important, Dr. Zingale added.
He also promised SUNY Cobleskill will remain agriculturally-based—even as the definition of agriculture changes and programs grow and expand to fill that need—“because that’s what we are.”
“Our programs are dynamic,” agreed Dr. Thatcher. “The advantage we have as an ag and tech school is that we’re poised to offer answers to the kind of questions over food, energy, sustainability that the world is asking today.”