Page 6 - Annual Report 2012-2013

6 ❘ 2012-2013 Review of Accomplishments
2012-2013 Year in Review
Hurricane Sandy and Storm Relief Efforts. Hurricane Sandy was a significant
storm that heavily impacted the College and many of the communities we serve.
Although we were able to resume full operation one week after the storm, the college
community remained sensitive to the fact that not everyone’s situation immediately
returned to normal.
Due to the protracted clean-up and restoration activities that took place following the
storm, the College was closed for an entire week of classes. Such a closure has never
occurred in our institution’s history. Since the storm hit when we were already past the
midpoint for the semester, there was no way to create a make-up schedule that would
enable us to meet statewide SUNY requirements and deliver the required class contact
hours. we chose to petition, and subsequently received approval, from the State
University of New York, the State Department of education and the U.S. Department
of education for relief in order to shorten our semester by seven days.
fortunately, the College’s planning and storm preparation enabled our institution to
come through the storm successfully. e College owes a huge debt of gratitude to its
essential staff members. Many of these individuals worked literally around the clock to
bring our campuses back to full operation, even while dealing with the restoration of
their own homes and neighborhoods. e College is fortunate to have such dedicated
individuals on our staff, supporting our work in these key roles. i commend the work
and effort put forth by our public safety and maintenance and ground crews from the
Association of Municipal employees (AMe) units. ey worked diligently to ensure
the campuses would be safe when students, faculty and staff were able to return. i am
also grateful for the conscientious work of our networking and telecommunications
staff as they brought our systems back online. Select members from our Guild of
Administrative officers and exempt staff were also tapped as “essential” during the
course of our recovery and did not hesitate to deliver on the work requested from them. e College collected donations and raised funds for those
impacted by Hurricane Sandy.