Mary Bonderoff’s goal as SUNY Delhi’s 11th president is to make the school the premier technology college in the SUNY system and in the state of New York.
“We have what it takes to achieve this goal,” she said. “It will mean delivering strong, equitable outcomes for all students, improving retention and graduation rates, maintaining academic excellence and strategically growing enrollment while building opportunities in high-demand programs aligned with employment.”
Bonderoff outlined her goals for SUNY Delhi shortly after SUNY Chancellor John King Jr., with help from Bonderoff’s niece Delaney Holohan and nephew Finn Holohan, performed the ceremony of investiture. Delaney Holohan first placed the presidential hood, then Finn Holohan placed the presidential medallion around Bonderoff’s neck during the ceremony.
Bonderoff said her path to SUNY Delhi was “anything but traditional. In many ways it mirrors the paths of countless students here at SUNY Delhi. Like many of them, my journey was not straightforward or predictable.”
When she was a sophomore at SUNY Oneonta, she worked in the mailroom and delivered mail.
“I was seriously considering leaving college,” she said. “My residential hall director at the time encouraged me to apply for an RA position that was opening that spring. That simple tap on the shoulder changed my entire life.”
The academic journeys of two SUNY Delhi alumni who spoke at the investiture also were not a straight path.
Afsha Diabate, who gave an invocation, said she immigrated to the country at 17 and then became a student at SUNY Delhi.
“As a Muslim, I never once felt out of place here,” she said. She thanked Bonderoff for making the college feel like a welcoming place for students to learn.
New York City Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, who graduated from SUNY Delhi in 2000, said she also came to the country at 17. She worked a few years at a factory and graduated from Bronx Community College.
She said she was looking for a college that offered a four-year degree in travel and tourism and ended up at SUNY Delhi’s “beautiful campus. Coming from Brooklyn, this was the whitest town I’ve ever been to. I was terrified.” She said she was lost the first day of class and was too afraid to ask anyone for directions, but a professor noticed and walked her to class.
Almanzar is a College Foundation at Delhi trustee and told King that he did a good job picking Bonderoff.
Throughout her 37-year career in higher education, Bonderoff worked at SUNY Delhi, SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Morrisville. She said she has learned a few key lessons that she wanted to pass along to the audience, including saying yes to opportunities which is how she ended up at SUNY Delhi.
She said she received a “call out of the blue” from the SUNY Chancellor’s office a couple of years ago asking if she would become the interim president at SUNY Delhi. She said they told her that her leadership style was exactly what was needed at the college.
“I knew at that moment that this was the opportunity I had been hoping for even if it sounded daunting,” she said.
King said each time he travels to SUNY Delhi is “an inspiration. I’ve hung out in the pole yard where students are preparing for careers in utilities. I’ve watched budding architects design some truly impressive work. I’ve snuggled puppies. Fed cows, alpacas and sheep, and as a kid from Brooklyn that is a very memorable experience. And at the end of the visit, I’ve gotten to eat treats lovingly prepared by students.”
King said SUNY Delhi’s hands on learning is what every SUNY school should have.
Bonderoff spent many years working at SUNY Oneonta, and after thanking her family and friends and former colleagues who were in the audience, she told people to “vote for Red” in the SUNY Mascot Madness competition, which concluded Thursday. (SUNY Oneonta’s Red the Dragon lost by a handful of votes to UAlbany’s Damien the Great Dane.)
Former colleagues Felicia Magnan, coordinator of tutorial services and Diane M. Williams, executive director of Oneonta Auxiliary Services SUNY Oneonta, spoke at her inauguration. Williams, who is retiring this year after 45 years of service to the college said she was Bonderoff’s favorite boss. King said he was Bonderoff’s second-favorite boss.
“I am convinced that similar transformative opportunities exist here at SUNY Delhi,” Bonderoff said. “We are a small, but mighty college.”