Sgt. Nathan Leonard

Two SUNY Oneonta University Police officers will receive an international law enforcement association award for their heroism in rescuing an 81-year-old man who accidentally drove his car into a pond on campus last fall.

Sgt. Nathaniel Leonard and Officer Christopher Skovira have been selected to receive the annual Award for Valor given by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). The award will be presented in a ceremony on Saturday, June 16, at IACLEA’s annual conference in Reno, Nev.

Officer Christopher Skovira

On the evening of Nov. 10, 2011, Leonard and Skovira responded to a report that a car had plunged into the pond near the Hunt College Union. After hearing pounding from inside the sinking car, Leonard jumped into the pond with a baton and a flotation device and swam to the car, where he smashed the back window and pulled out the trapped motorist. While Leonard was in the water, Skovira untangled the rope attached to the flotation device and pulled the pair to safety.

Leonard experienced severe hypothermia from being in the near-freezing water. He was treated at the scene by the Oneonta Fire Department and taken to A.O. Fox Hospital, where he spent several hours. The victim was also treated for hypothermia.

The Award for Valor is presented annually to an employee of an IACLEA institutional member campus public safety, police or security department for an act or acts involving personal risk while acting on behalf of the institution or members of the campus community.

IACLEA provides educational resources, advocacy and professional development services to 1,200 colleges and universities in 20 countries. In addition to its institutional members, IACLEA has 2,000 individual memberships held by campus law enforcement staff, criminal justice faculty members and municipal chiefs of police.

Jason Smolinski captured this image of the Venus transit using a telescope with a solar filter.

Intrepid star-gazers were rewarded with a rare glimpse of Venus against the setting sun on Tuesday at the SUNY Oneonta Observatory. The college’s Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted a public viewing of the transit of Venus — an event that only occurs roughly twice every century —using telescopes fitted with solar filters.

The evening began with a solid cloud deck and rain, but by 6 p.m., the rain had stopped and the clouds had slightly thinned. “By that point, we had five or six people from the community in the observatory waiting for the weather to clear,” said Dr. Jason Smolinski, assistant professor of Physics & Astronomy. At about 6:10, the clouds thinned and the disk of the sun became visible. “Quickly, we pointed the 14-inch telescope at it and were greeted with a view showing Venus approximately halfway through its `entrance’ into the solar disk. It looked like a dark dimple in the edge of the sun,” Smolinski said.

Continue reading →

SUNY Oneonta student Shawn Dacey stands in front of the Monument for the Party Founding in Pyongyang, North Korea.

SUNY Oneonta student Shawn Dacey got a rare look at one of the world’s most isolated cultures during a two-week trip to North Korea planned as part of an independent study in Geography.

The Geography and Social Studies Education major from Delhi, N.Y., returned in May from a 25-day tour of North Korea, China and South Korea. One of only three Americans in a tour group of 22, Dacey said the most surprising thing about the trip was the access he had. In addition to touring national monuments and attending a patriotic celebration in the capitol city of Pyongyang, he visited the countryside, talked with people one-on-one, and took hundreds of uncensored photos. His group also saw the wall along the DMZ and received a rare invitation to watch a large military parade.

Though he felt angry at times, seeing the poverty North Koreans face with no knowledge of the outside world, he came away with a sense of respect for the people and culture. “They were very welcoming to me,” he said. “For how poor they are, they were happy with the way they live. They really do take pride in their country.”

After two weeks in North Korea, Dacey spent four days in Beijing and a week in South Korea, where he met some of the students who will be coming to SUNY Oneonta in the fall through the college’s 1+3 program with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Though Dacey planned the trip on his own, he tied it to his academic coursework with support from professors in several disciplines. Prior to the trip, he presented a paper on North Korea at SUNY Oneonta’s annual Undergraduate Political Science Conference. As part of his independent study, he is collaborating with Associate Professor of Geography Dr. James Mills on a paper about environmental sustainability in North Korea.

Next fall, Dacey plans to give presentations about his trip for the campus and local community. He said traveling is his passion, and he is thrilled to have achieved his goal of “22 by 21.” (At age 21, he has visited 22 countries!) But Dacey is far from finished seeing the world. A week after he returned from Asia, he was already fantasizing about his next adventure. “I’d like to go to South America: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay… or maybe Africa. My goal is to visit 100 countries before I die.”

2012 SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference – YouTube

Students from across the country presented papers on topics ranging from animal euthanasia to metaphysics at the SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference in April. Now in its 17^th year, the event is one of the longest-running and most prestigious student philosophy conferences in the country.