SUNY Senate Conference Call June 13, 2013 at 3PM
Present: Mike Hoffmann (Cornell), Deb Howard (SUNY Central). Shishir Sing (ESC),
Michael Sperazza (Stony Brook) and Rick Smardon (SUNY/ESF) plus Sean Nicholson
(SUNY/ESF/Outreach)
R. Smardon started the call with a few announcements:
 We now have a web page for all previous call summaries and other
announcements at http://www.esf.edu/outreach/pd/2012/sunysenate

The Research Foundation collaborative grants were due mid-may and are
now being reviewed.

There were four new research hubs identified for RF research and economic
development – and one of these includes SUNY/ESF and Upstate medical
focuses on environmental health and technology.
Work group summaries:
Mark Bremer was not on the call but R. Smardon reported that they are progressing
on the energy education interpretative trail work.
Michael Sperazza reports that he has two graduate students reaching out to SUNY
schools for non-traditional climate records. He has already had a couple of
responses, but expects slow responses during the summer months. He is also
working on GIS presentation of the data for visualization purposes. He also
summarized the RF Collaborative grant proposal now being reviewed. Mike
Hoffman asked who the target population was for the climate change impact
perception and R. Smardon responded that we are targeting climate dependent
livelihoods such as farmers and recreation vendors/operators. Mike also asked
about connecting to the Network for Environment and Weather Applications
http://newa.cornell.edu/ for data sources.
Deb Howard stated that she had not heard anything more about the food systems
group soil testing results for urban gardening mini-grant with SUNY Cobleskill et al.
Rick Smardon stated that the Fredonia/Oswego/Brockport behavioral change group
is pulling together the data results for the food waste /recycling project.
The next issue addressing was – where do we go from here? Michael Sperazza
opined the need to rejuvenate, and need more faculty involved. He did also say that
there might be more faculty involved in the non-traditional climate change data
project.
Deb Howard offered that we need to tie into the SUNY Research Foundation 4E
network and will work with Tim Killeen to identify the appropriate contact
pathway.
Mike Hoffmann stated that the Secretary of Agriculture has proposed seven climate
hubs in the US to address research and education focus for climate adaptation. He
would like to share this development with SUNY campuses such as Alfred,
Cobleskill, and Morrisville and to build a collaborative network with Cornell faculty
in anticipation of such a development. Mike is planning summer visits to these same
SUNY campuses and Deb Howard asked if she could coordinate such visits with
Mike.
Mike was asked, by Rick Smardon, for the possibility of SUNY faculty working with
Cornell faculty for access to the Atkins Center for Sustainable Future grants. The
Center has $800,000 for innovative high risk, big payoff grants. Mike subsequently
investigated this and grants have to go to Cornell faculty members but here can be
non-Cornell faculty co-investigators.
Rick Smardon updates the group on the formation of several NYS sustainability
education networks and he is co-coordinating the CNY region with Rachel May and
Shere Abbott of Syracuse University. Michael Sperazza reminded everyone that
SUNY Stonybrook is a leader in sustainability education program development. Rick
will forward this material calling for formation of these networks to all.
Call was ended at 3:45 PM./RCS