College hall of fame adds four
Business awards at SUNY-New Paltz
By JIM GORDON
In a cheery ceremony celebrating the
link between local higher education and a strong economy,
the School of Business at SUNY-New Paltz added four
new inductees to its Hall of Fame last week.
William Spearman, president and CEO of the Mid-Hudson
Valley Federal Credit Union, was named Business Person
of the Year. Daniel Devine, an institutional investment
specialist with Affinity Group, a wealth management
company, won the Dean’s Award of Excellence; Jeannie
Henriques won the Student of the Year Award and Art
Palmiotti, program director of the IBM worldwide design
center and integration team in Poughkeepsie, was honored
as Alumnus of the Year.
About 200 people attended the ceremony May 8 at the
Wiltwyck Country Club in Kingston. They heard college
President Steven Poskanzer extol SUNY-New Paltz as
the “hottest small school in the country, according
to Newsweek. And we’re going to build on that,” Poskanzer
said. He was referring to an August 2007 college guide
published by Newsweek that ranked New Paltz as the
nation’s “hottest small state school.”
The school with 6,400 undergraduates has reformed its
image over the last decade from an institution specializing
in arts to one more interested in business and engineering.
Poskanzer said the success of that transition is evident
in the average SAT score of students applying to the
college, 1170, and even more vividly the fact that
while the national average of enrollees at colleges
is 18 percent of those accepted at any college,
this year almost 25 percent of those accepted at New
Paltz subsequently enrolled.
Dean of the School of Business Hadi Salavitabar said
the event celebrated “the strong ties our School of
Business has forged with our business community. It
is mutually beneficial; we know our success is your
success. Together we will make sure the Hudson Valley
flourishes.”
SUNY-New Paltz Provost Dr. David Lavallee noted that
the ceremony was the seventh annual Hall of Fame induction
and indicated the strengthening ties between the college
and the business community. “Every year this ceremony
has gotten larger and we’ve gotten to meet more friends.”
He said the growing partnership between the school
of business and local business was shown with growing
numbers of business internships and college graduates
going to work locally, but said the college and local
business must work in knowledge of a global economy.
Thus, he said, the college had embarked on seeking
accreditation from the AACSB International, which has
the mission, according to its Web site, of “advancing
quality management education worldwide.”
The process is two years into a five to seven year
process, Dr. Lavallee said, and expressed confidence
that SUNY-New Paltz would join the 550 schools to attain
the coveted accreditation. “We are in a place where
we are really ready for the next level.”
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