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SU to use more than $2M donation for ECS student center
SYRACUSE — Syracuse University (SU) says it will use a more than $2 million donation for a student center in its College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS). The funding comes from the Campos Foundation and its founders, Marcos Campos and his sister, Deanna Compos-Miller. Marcos Campos’ son is a third-year student in SU’s College […]
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SYRACUSE — Syracuse University (SU) says it will use a more than $2 million donation for a student center in its College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS).
The funding comes from the Campos Foundation and its founders, Marcos Campos and his sister, Deanna Compos-Miller. Marcos Campos’ son is a third-year student in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The Campos Student Center will be housed on the second floor of the Center for Science and Technology. The student center will offer programming designed to attract underrepresented students to the college and “support the academic success of all ECS students,” SU said.
It comes at a “time of tremendous growth” for ECS. As part of SU’s academic strategic plan, ECS will grow its enrollment and faculty ranks by 50 percent by 2028, per the university’s announcement.
“The Campos Student Center will provide dedicated space for our students with a home for collaboration, community and access to resources that maximize their success,” J. Cole Smith, dean of the SU College of Engineering and Computer Science, said in a news release. “This space will facilitate club activities that enhance the experience of our diverse student body. More than that, it will be a home on campus that is inviting and welcoming to all.”
Campos’ donation was inspired by a recent visit to the SU campus and by the success of an earlier gift made by his foundation to the University of Colorado in Boulder.
He says he saw the geography and the demographics of Syracuse and “thought he could make a similar impact,” SU noted.
Campos believes the new student center will be a welcoming and inclusive home where engineering, computer science, and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students can go for academic support, financial advice, and career direction.
Campos’ career began with an internship at Texaco during his college years, and he joined the firm after graduation.
By age 30, he had accumulated enough work and consulting experience, confidence, and wealth to start his own company and start giving back, SU said. Campos EPC, established in 2005 with headquarters in Denver, offers engineering, procurement and construction counsel for utility, energy and midstream organizations.
New orders, shipments slip in New York manufacturing sector in April
For New York manufacturers, new orders and shipments both declined substantially and unfilled orders “continued to shrink.” That’s according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which released the monthly Empire State Manufacturing Survey on April 15. The survey’s general business-conditions index rose 7 points in April, but remained underwater at -14.3, pointing to
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For New York manufacturers, new orders and shipments both declined substantially and unfilled orders “continued to shrink.”
That’s according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which released the monthly Empire State Manufacturing Survey on April 15.
The survey’s general business-conditions index rose 7 points in April, but remained underwater at -14.3, pointing to continued contraction in the state’s manufacturing sector. The result was worse than the consensus economists’ expectation for a reading of -5.2, according to a Seeking Alpha article.
The index has been volatile in recent months. It declined 19 points to -20.9 in March after rising 41 points in February to -2.4, rebounding from a nearly four-year low in January but still remaining in negative territory.
The general business-conditions index is the monthly gauge of New York’s manufacturing sector. Based on firms responding to the survey, the April reading indicates business activity “continued to decline” in New York state, the New York Fed said in its April 15 report.
A negative index number indicates a decline in the state’s manufacturing sector, while a positive number shows expansion or growth in manufacturing activity.
Besides the decline in new orders and shipments, the Empire State Survey also found the six-month outlook for manufacturers improved, though optimism “remained subdued.”
The new-orders index was little changed at -16.2, and the shipments index fell 8 points to -14.4, pointing to an ongoing decline in both orders and shipments, the New York Fed said.
The unfilled-orders index held steady at -10.1, a sign that unfilled orders “continued to fall.” The inventories index moved up 16 points to 3.4, indicating that inventories edged higher for the first time in several months, and the delivery-times index fell to -7.9, suggesting that delivery times shortened.
The index for number of employees came in at -5.1 and the average-workweek index was little changed at -10.6, pointing to an ongoing decline in employment levels and hours worked.
The prices-paid index moved up 5 points to 33.7, indicating that input price increases “picked up slightly,” and the prices-received index held steady at 16.9.
The index for future business conditions dipped 5 points to 16.7, with only 37 percent of respondents expecting conditions to improve in the next six months.
The outlook for employment growth “weakened noticeably.” The capital-spending index fell to 6.7, suggesting that capital-spending plans remained soft.
The New York Fed distributes the Empire State Manufacturing Survey on the first day of each month to the same pool of about 200 manufacturing executives in New York. On average, about 100 executives return responses.
Solvay Bank to pay quarterly dividend of 43 cents a share at end of April
SOLVAY — Solvay Bank Corp. (ticker: SOBS), the holding company for Solvay Bank, recently announced that its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of 43 cents per share of its common stock for the first quarter of this year. The dividend is payable on April 30, to shareholders of record at the close
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SOLVAY — Solvay Bank Corp. (ticker: SOBS), the holding company for Solvay Bank, recently announced that its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of 43 cents per share of its common stock for the first quarter of this year.
The dividend is payable on April 30, to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 5.
This marks the 32nd straight year of the bank increasing the dividends it pays to shareholders, according to a Solvay Bank news release.
Founded in 1917, Solvay Bank says it is the oldest community bank established in Onondaga County. Solvay Bank has nine branch offices in Solvay, Baldwinsville, Camillus, Cicero, DeWitt, Liverpool, North Syracuse, Westvale, and downtown Syracuse (State Tower Building), , and a commercial-lending presence in the Mohawk Valley.
Solvay Bank Insurance Agency, Inc., a full-service general insurance agency, is also part of Solvay Bank Corp.
Recapping the 2024 CenterState CEO annual meeting in Syracuse
SYRACUSE — More than 800 business and community leaders watched the announcements of the Business of the Year Awards, a keynote address, and remarks from Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, at the April 11 annual meeting of CenterState CEO at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter in Syracuse. Awards In
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SYRACUSE — More than 800 business and community leaders watched the announcements of the Business of the Year Awards, a keynote address, and remarks from Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, at the April 11 annual meeting of CenterState CEO at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter in Syracuse.
In the Business of the Year Awards, the economic development and chamber of commerce organization recognized Crouse Health in the “More than 50 Employees” category. The finalists in the category also included Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC; Tompkins Community Bank; and Woodford Bros., Inc.
Drakos Dynamics prevailed in the “Fewer than 50 Employees” category. The additional finalists in that grouping included 325 Productions; Potter Heating & AC – Perrone Plumbing Services; and ResilienX.
CenterState CEO recognized Food Bank of Central New York in the “Nonprofit” category. The additional finalists included Catholic Charities of Onondaga County; ConnextCare; and Housing Visions.
SGTR LLC was honored with the “Minority-owned Business” Award, which CenterState CEO presented in partnership with the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance. Additional finalists in the category included Brackens Financial Solutions Network; Cocoa’s Candle Bar; and La Liga.
In addition, CenterState CEO recognized NBT Bank with the “Community Involvement” award. The category’s additional finalists included CPS Recruitment, Inc.; Firley, Moran, Freer & Eassa, CPA, P.C.; and Novelis, Inc.
CenterState CEO President Robert Simpson talked about the opportunity for Central New York to “think bigger about its own economic future and to shape the growth that is coming.”
“As humans, we are so deeply rooted in what we’ve known … stagnation, population loss, progress that can sometimes feel glacially slow. But the moment we have now entered is entirely different,” Simpson said as he addressed the gathering at the annual meeting. “In a world of data, it’s an outlier, a full standard deviation or two from our past and even recent experience. Don’t believe me? Consider this: by the end of this decade there will be more people living in Central New York than at any other time in history. Over the next 15 years, projected job growth with Micron’s investment alone will drive our population up by nearly 8 percent, create as many as 50,000 new jobs. Can anyone tell me the last time we had 50,000 more jobs in this community than we have today? Of course not. It’s a trick question. We’ve never had 50,000 more jobs in this community than we have today.”
Simpson went on to say that Micron’s investment isn’t just reshaping the economic landscape, it’s “reshaping our nation’s economic competitiveness and vaulting upstate New York into an entirely new tier of criticality to our nation’s future.”
“Within the next decade, when Micron has just two of its four fabs up and operating, one in four American-made chips will be produced within 350 miles of this corridor,” Simpson said. “No other area of the country will account for a greater share of domestic production of one of the most fundamental inputs to the modern economy that there is. This region matters.”
He also noted that the moment is “so much bigger” than Central New York alone, which is why CenterState CEO has joined with partners in Buffalo, Rochester, Ithaca, and Syracuse to compete for the designation as one of 31 tech hubs nationwide. It works with almost 100 private-sector partners, academic partners, and community organizations across upstate New York.
“The Smart-I corridor has a generational opportunity to build a globally leading semiconductor cluster to advance not just our region’s economic prosperity but our national security as well,” he said.
Simpson also says he understands why some might be anxious about future possibilities because they come with immediate challenges, such as housing with rent prices rising 57 percent in Onondaga County in the last seven years. The figure makes Syracuse “one of the places with the fastest rising rents in the country.”
“Every single city and town and village in Central New York will benefit from our evolution from stagnation to growth and therefore we all share a responsibility for delivering real solutions in the form of more and more affordable housing for the people who live here and the people we want to move here,” Simpson said in his remarks.
And it’s not just housing that’s “under pressure,” but the region’s health-care system as well, he said.
“Aging facilities. A lack of necessary IT [information technology] infrastructure and an acute shortage of nurses and doctors that are going to require massive investments to modernize and to scale with the growth of our community,” Simpson said.
He also talked about Syracuse Hancock International Airport, which is now the fourth busiest in the state, surpassing Albany and Rochester within the last year.
“And yet, we will need more than a billion dollars of investment in that airport just to accommodate traffic that we can accurately foresee and plan for today,” Simpson said.
He also mentioned the energy grid, which he said faces the simultaneous challenges of growth in energy-intensive industries like semiconductor manufacturing and advanced manufacturing.
“But also an electrification and a decarbonization mandate from New York State that, absent rational debate and new carbon-free generation, will actually slow or stall the growth that we anticipate,” he said.
Housing, transportation, energy, he added, are just a few of the systems “that are going to be strained by this moment that we’re in.”
Simpson went on to say it was the region’s “civic cohesion” that allowed it to fight back from economic collapse.
“Our civic leadership and our collaboration and our creativity and our willingness to work together is what brought us back to this moment, and it is that civic cohesion that must not only hold but strengthen for us to maximize this moment,” Simpson said.
Prior to Simpson’s remarks, Elizabeth Kelly, CEO of the U.S. AI Safety Institute at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), delivered the keynote presentation, speaking about the positive power of AI and the need for safeguards.
“First and foremost, AI holds transformative potential. We would not be having any of the conversations we are having today if we did not recognize the tremendous potential and want to harness it. The number of positive uses for AI truly has no limit but the human imagination.”
She then elaborated using Syracuse as an example. She pointed to chemical manufacturing, one of Syracuse’s earliest industries.
“Today, AI holds the potential to revolutionize chemical discovery and engineering processes. It has the ability to digitally synthesize tens of thousands of different chemicals and then choose among them [to] select the best one for the job. That makes chemical [research & development (R&D)], like other types of R&D, go a lot faster,” Kelly said in her remarks.
NIST is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which Kelly said works to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness and advancing AI safety is a “key part of that.”
Community Living Advocates provides a network for senior care
SALINA— After years of helping her mother take care of her elderly grandmother, Nancy Aureli figured there had to be an easier way to find and manage the care loved ones require as they age. “I am an RN and still didn’t understand what to do,” she recalls of those years providing care. Even though
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SALINA— After years of helping her mother take care of her elderly grandmother, Nancy Aureli figured there had to be an easier way to find and manage the care loved ones require as they age.
“I am an RN and still didn’t understand what to do,” she recalls of those years providing care. Even though she worked as an oncology nurse and routinely dealt with end-of-life care at work, Aureli says it was so challenging to figure out where to go for the different services and care her grandmother required.
“There’s got to be a better way of helping people take care of their loved ones,” she recalls thinking, so she set out to create one.
In 2017, Aureli took over an informal networking group in Onondaga County and turned it into Community Living Advocates (CLA), a network of more than 140 businesses, nonprofits, organizations, and others that provide services for seniors.
“I took it and I just decided to grow it into something that was a lot bigger,” she recalls.
CLA members include businesses like pharmacies, medical-equipment suppliers, and transportation providers; professionals serving the senior population including lawyers, insurance companies, and real-estate agents; nonprofits and agencies providing services including housing, rehabilitation, therapy, and at-home care; and even small businesses that provide services like installing ramps.
“We have someone who actually will go in and do gardening for seniors,” Aureli says.
The CLA network has helped connect seniors to members for the services they need, which, in turn, helps the member organizations thrive.
But more importantly, working together means seniors — or those caring for them — are never turned away without a connection to services they need, says Tess Kenney, community relations manager at Touching Hearts at Home and CLA’s Onondaga County coordinator.
“It gives us the opportunity to help our clients better, because we can’t do it all,” she says. So, if Touching Hearts at Home receives a request for something it can help with, Kenney is able to go right to the CLA member directly and steer the person in need toward a business or organization that can help them.
Along with maintaining an active network for referrals, CLA also provides regular networking events for members to build relationships and boost that referral network.
CLA, which has an office at 220 Beechwood Ave. in the town of Salina, also hosts several events throughout the year that give members a chance to get into the community and connect with people who may need their services. Its annual expo, scheduled this year for May, attracts several hundred attendees, Aureli notes. CLA also hosts senior fairs at senior centers with more than 100 people typically attending and holds a retirement showcase every fall.
“We also [provide] resource bags for discharge planners at the hospitals,” Aureli says. Discharge planners are employees who help coordinate continuing care for patients who are well enough to leave the hospital, but still need care going forward.
Often, Aureli says, these employees have to develop their own network of care providers, so CLA gives them the resource bags to give them a head start.
The organization also provides a resource page on its website (www.communitylivingadvocates.com) for each county it serves — Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego.
“People don’t know what they don’t know,” when they are overwhelmed by caring for a loved one, Kenney says. “They don’t even know what to ask.”
CLA is making sure to provide the questions — and the answers — that seniors and their caregivers need.
Ithaca College professor named to lead George W. Bush Presidential Library
ITHACA — Ithaca College Professor of History Pearl Ponce has been named director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas. In that
Broome County readies for annual airshow in July
MAINE, N.Y. — The Greater Binghamton Airshow returns to the Southern Tier July 6-7 at the Greater Binghamton Airport, 2534 Airport Road. Gates open at 9 a.m. with performances scheduled for noon-4 p.m. each day. Airport officials estimate between 15,000 and 25,000 visitors will attend the event each day. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight
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MAINE, N.Y. — The Greater Binghamton Airshow returns to the Southern Tier July 6–7 at the Greater Binghamton Airport, 2534 Airport Road.
Gates open at 9 a.m. with performances scheduled for noon-4 p.m. each day. Airport officials estimate between 15,000 and 25,000 visitors will attend the event each day.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron headlines this year’s show, which returns to its classic airshow format. The Broome County Department of Aviation will release information about more performers in the coming weeks.
Tickets are available online at binghamtonairshow.com and will cost $25 for adults and $20 for youth ages 6-18 when purchased before July 1. Children ages 5 and under are admitted free. Ticket prices increase by $5 after July 1. Onsite parking will cost $20, while offsite parking is available for $5.
ALBANY, N.Y. — The new state budget includes a $200 million investment to support four ON-RAMP advanced–manufacturing training centers and prepare New Yorkers for the
New state budget includes funding for the Empire AI consortium
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York State has established Empire AI as part of the newly enacted state budget. Empire AI is described as a “first-of-its-kind consortium to secure New York’s place at the forefront” of artificial intelligence (AI) research, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochulannounced on Monday. The consortium will leverage a $275 million state
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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York State has established Empire AI as part of the newly enacted state budget.
Empire AI is described as a “first-of-its-kind consortium to secure New York’s place at the forefront” of artificial intelligence (AI) research, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochulannounced on Monday.
The consortium will leverage a $275 million state investment to create and launch a “state-of-the-art” AI computing center on the University at Buffalo’s campus. The center will be used by New York institutions to “promote responsible research and development, create jobs, and advance AI for the public good.”
The Empire AI consortium will include seven New York–based founding institutions: Cornell University, SUNY, CUNY, Columbia University, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the Flatiron Institute.
“Whoever is at the forefront of artificial intelligence will dominate the next chapter of human history — and I’m committed to seizing that opportunity here in New York,” Hochul said in the announcement. “AI will have a transformational effect on our economy and industries, and these investments ensure that we are using the extraordinary growth opportunity to benefit New Yorkers.”
The initiative will be funded by more than $400 million in public and private investment, including a $250 million state capital–grant investment, and $25 million over 10 years in SUNY funding. The project will also receive more than $125 million from the founding institutions and other private partners. They include the Simons Foundation, whose Flatiron Institute works to advance research through computational methods, and Tom Secunda, co-founder of Bloomberg LP and the Secunda Family Foundation, which provides millions of dollars a year in grants to conservation, health care, scientific advancement, and other causes.
In addition, as part of the budget, Hochul signed legislation to prioritize “safe, ethical”uses as the state continues to build its AI footprint. The legislation includes a requirement that all forms of political communication — including image, video, audio, text or any technological representation of speech or conduct — “disclose the use of materially deceptive media.”
Loretto offers LPN training program that helps younger employees develop soft skills
SYRACUSE — A Loretto staff member believes soft skills — especially emotional intelligence and managing relationships — are among the most important skills that a professional can possess. But what if a job candidate never developed these soft skills? Loretto says it’s a trend that’s linked to Gen Z workers, or those born between 1997
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SYRACUSE — A Loretto staff member believes soft skills — especially emotional intelligence and managing relationships — are among the most important skills that a professional can possess.
But what if a job candidate never developed these soft skills? Loretto says it’s a trend that’s linked to Gen Z workers, or those born between 1997 and 2012.
Loretto cited a December 2022 article “9 Future Work Trends for 2023” on the website of Gartner, which indicated 46 percent of Gen Z employees that it surveyed said the pandemic made pursuing their educational or career goals “more difficult,” and 51 percent said that their education has “not prepared them to enter the workforce.”
Gartner is an information-services firm based in Stamford, Connecticut.
Johaun Jackson, Loretto’s director of nursing education and development for skilled nursing, developed a paid training program that teaches emotional intelligence and managerial skills in addition to the necessary medical curricula as well.
Jackson spoke with CNYBJ in a March 27 phone interview.
The nonprofit Loretto is a health-care organization providing services for older adults throughout Central New York. It serves close to 10,000 individuals each year through 19 locations in Onondaga and Cayuga counties.
Loretto’s training programs typically include participants who Jackson describes as African-American females, single mothers between the ages of 25 and 35.
“That would represent a majority of the population that we’ve been serving in our training programs. But that Gen-Z population [also] comprises a lot [as well] … be they male, female or from other countries or different denominations,” says Jackson.
Those who were born or raised within that generation “communicate much differently” than people from earlier generations, he added.
“…where a handshake had value; where a discussion had value; and they find themselves, unfortunately, in a place of emotional destitution,” says Jackson.
He went on to say the unfortunate part of that is almost 90 percent of our communication has an “emotional component.” When Gen-Z employees enter an organization with co-workers who are older and supervisors who are also older and have that emotional component as a part of their decision-making process, they view the Gen-Z employee as “detached or uninterested.”
“In my estimation, what needs to happen … we put into place mechanisms that allow for an older generation to be able to receive, understand, and accept the younger generation, so that way we can bridge that communication gap,” says Jackson.
Jackson says he developed the training program after he started working for Loretto in 2019.
He was tasked with creating a bridge program that coincides with the LPN (licensed practical nurse) program at OCM BOCES. Loretto wanted to build a nursing apprenticeship program.
The only way that federal recognition through the U.S. Department of Labor could happen is if the program worked in conjunction with state curriculum-approved nursing programs. Jackson says he had some choices to make.
“Do I create a program that duplicates the services that a student will receive in a nursing program, or can I … design a program that gives something to the student/employee that they will not receive from a nursing program,” he explained.
Educators focus on three particular domains of education that they can teach in: cognitive domain; the psychomotor domain; and the affective domain, or as Jackson put it, “what you know, what you can do, and how you feel.”
Instructors in nursing programs teach cognitive and psychomotor domains “ad nauseum,” says Jackson.
“We test you to death and we throw you out there into the fire in front of the patient … so you can show us that you have skills,” he adds.
But the affective domain, because it is so difficult to measure, is typically abandoned in all nursing curricula. “We do not measure how a student feels, or how they respond in terms of their feeling,” he notes,
With that in mind, Jackson says he decided to write a curriculum that focused on teaching in the affective domain, and over the last four years, Loretto had almost 97 percent compliance and success in its LPN graduates.
Loretto’s nursing-apprenticeship program spans over the course of the time that those involved are in the OCM BOCES program. “We teach it slowly over the course of 11 months,” says Jackson.
When asked about the results of the training program, he tells CNYBJ, “We have graduated successfully 34 students, 22 of them still remain, so we have 66 percent of our class still operating in the licensed roles … that’s over four years.”
He went on to say that Loretto is injecting emotional intelligence into many of its discussions with new employees and its other training programs, such as the nurse’s aide training program and its EDGE program, which involves training leaders coming into the organization.
“One of the things I hear more often than not is the term soft skill,” he says. “It makes for a microcosm of insanity because the skills are not necessarily soft. The skills are integrated into everything that a person does.”
Jackson went on to say that if you’re describing a person’s efficacy in an organization and put it on a scale of 100 percent … 10 percent would come from the person’s education; 20 percent would come from previous experiences.
“But 70 percent of an individual’s efficacy on a job or in an organization stems from the way that they make connections with other people. How they engage effectively, and we typically engage one another emotionally, so emotional intelligence is not a soft skill. It is an essential skill and it commonly overlooked and overshadowed by what individuals can do cognitively.”
Jackson describes what he does as “empowering talent for battle,” saying he sees working on the frontlines in health care as literally going to battle because nurses are dealing with a lot. That includes managing care for their patients; needing to have difficult conversations with patients’ families; and making sure they’re able to deal with all the pressure of the job, so they can continue handling the workload.
“On one side of the line, you have the health-care [workers] and they are fighting off, warding off sickness and death,” Jackson says. “On the opposite side of that line, that is exactly what you have … the presence of sickness and death and if those individuals are not frequently replenished … we just end recycling individuals and creating a conveyor belt, per se, of new employees. They need to be replenished in their ability to remain resilient and stay.”
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