Staff Report
May 16, 2008 04:00 am Carl Hayden, chairman of the State University Board of Trustees, will be the keynote speaker for SUNY Delhi's 91st annual commencement exercise at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Clark Field House. The State University College of Technology will award 395 associate degrees, 82 baccalaureate degrees and 25 certificates at commencement, according to a media release from the college. All graduates will cross the stage and be recognized individually by school President Candace Vancko. Graduates will include students enrolled in SUNY Delhi baccalaureate programs offered on the campus of Schenectady County Community College. Hayden and Vancko will present an honorary doctor of humane letters degree to Carl V. Petronio of Waterport. Petronio, a 1958 SUNY Delhi graduate, is a partner and principal of the Allied Group Inc., which he founded with three partners in 1984. The Allied Group, with offices in Brockport and Buffalo, includes four corporations and 14 partnerships specializing in construction, real-estate development, industrial park operations, regional distribution services and low-temperature warehousing, the release said. Vancko will give opening remarks and recognize students who have completed exceptional levels of community service, the release said, and students who have earned academic honors will be recognized by Provost Dennis Callas. Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, will deliver greetings to the graduates. Student speakers will be introduced by Barbara Jones, vice president for student life. Honorees include Dale LeBar, a computer-aided drafting and design major from Derby, Kan., who is associate degree student of the year, and Matthew Santoro, a hotel and resort management major from Wappingers Falls, who is baccalaureate degree student of the year. SUNY Cobleskill commencement set At 11 a.m. Saturday, SUNY Cobleskill will hold its 90th spring commencement exercises in the college's Iorio Gymnasium in Bouck Hall. More than 550 students are expected to be eligible to participate, with nearly 170 expected to receive bachelor's degrees from the State University College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, according to a media release. Also, Donald Zingale, whose first official day as college president was May 1, will be at the ceremony. SUNY Cobleskill will present former Plug Power President and Chief Executive Officer Roger Saillant with an honorary degree during the spring commencement. Saillant has worked with the school on its on-campus sustainability initiative on campus and has served on the advisory board for the college's School of Business, the school said. State Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, will deliver the keynote address during commencement. Seward has served the 51st District since 1986 and serves on the Senate standing committees for higher education, agriculture, finance and transportation. He is chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Insurance. Zingale, the college's 11th president, most recently served as vice president for academic affairs at The California Maritime Academy, a campus of the California State University. He was the founding dean of the College of Health & Human Services at San Francisco State University. Zingale said in a media release that his immediate plans are to continue to orient himself to the college and the community through the summer, share his observations with campus leaders and determine immediate initiatives for the college's fall convocation. "SUNY Cobleskill is an unusual institution, in the very best sense of that word," he said in a prepared statement. "The most immediate challenge will be to find the common ground that will unify the campus in a seamless way."
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.