May 01, 2020

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Our guest today is on the front lines of the community response. Jay Quaintance is the president of SUNY Sullivan. Jay, thank you so much for joining us today for “Sullivan 180 Presents.. Take Five!” How are you doing?

Jay Quaintance:
Thank you, Meghan. I’m doing really well. You know, it’s a new time, but we’re trying to figure out how to Excel and make the most of it and still stay really relevant and serve our community.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Yeah. So can you tell us a little bit about your position at SUNY Sullivan?

Jay Quaintance:
Sure. As President of SUNY Sullivan, I’m ultimately responsible for every bit of the operation of the place, and in the best of times it’s a challenge. It’s a complex organization. We are the only point of postsecondary education in Sullivan County, which means that not only are we responsible for maybe ‘the first step to college’ or ‘workforce training’, but we’re also a community resource in a way that, counties that have, or areas that have multiple colleges wouldn’t have to rely on one.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
So what does the day to day operation look like if I’m a student and knowing that graduation is coming up, how has the day to day changed?

Jay Quaintance:
Well, instead of having a seated class at a particular time, the faculty and the students have been working together to figure out a solution. So a lot of Zoom meetings are taking place. They are coordinated with timing. Many of them are doing them at the same time that their class was normally scheduled so that it kind of keeps a regular rhythm going with that. Then others it’s more asynchronous. So if you need to be able to do some work, and then turn it in late at night, that’s fine as well, which is we’re trying to figure out solutions that work for all of our students and what their patterns are as well as our faculty.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Right. It sounds like flexibility is key in this.

Jay Quaintance:
Absolutely. So there are people that have to go to the building periodically just to do essential services, but we’re really trying to not be onsite as much as possible. Although the community garden is open and people can go and still tend to their gardens. And the New Hope Farm is still in process because it’s coming up on planting season and New Hope community really relies on the produce there for serving their clientele.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Wow. That’s great. So you’ve told us about some of the issues or hardships with students or with faculty, but what are some of the positives that have come out of this situation?

Jay Quaintance:
It’s interesting because maybe every cloud has a silver lining, I don’t know, but it really has brought people closer together and that greater sense of community. One of the things that I heard on a call yesterday, we were talking about the dorm students, and how disconnected they feel from the institution at this point, they’re back in their home communities. Most of those students are not from Sullivan County, so they’re really at a distance, but our staff has been reaching out to them. And our residence hall has been calling them at least once or twice a week, just checking in. And initially those calls were really about just making sure you’re okay, touching base, making sure that they don’t lose track of their academics, making sure that we have a plan for them to be able to pick up the remainder of their possessions. But the tenor of those calls has really changed, and it’s become much more personal and they are reaching out about the stresses that they’re experiencing. So our counseling staff has now been much more engaged in working with them through Zoom counseling sessions and seeing if we can help reduce their stress level, take away some of the anxiety that they’re feeling and make sure that they have kind of the emotional protection that they need in order to be able to excel in their studies.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
So I kind of have the inside scoop knowing some of the faculty at SUNY Sullivan. And I know that you guys have taken on some innovative ways of staying engaged, especially with staff with virtual walks together. Can you tell us a little bit more of how things have shifted? You have some new, online learning opportunities?

Jay Quaintance:
Sure. So in terms of supporting our faculty and staff, we had just started a wellness program when this whole thing came undone. And immediately we started brainstorming and we have really just amazing staff who are very bright and very creative. And so they’ve been able to come up with some great ideas. So, we are hosts holding virtual walks, right? So, the team that put that together, led by Maura has done a fantastic job in getting people outside. And fortunately the weather has been pretty good, so we’ve been able to get outside. And we also, at that same time, we’re moving to a smoke free campus, a tobacco free campus. And so we’ve been able to shift some of that. So providing people resources for smoking cessation and kicking the habit so that when we do get to come back on campus, we will be totally smoke-free and, and much healthier. We hope. We’ve worked with our community partners, such as Sullivan 180 to support the work that you folks are doing with the community health partners. We’ve moved a lot of those courses to our online platforms so that the people associated with 180 can still reach out and support the people that they’ve been involved with. We’re providing all of that at no cost.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
So can you provide us with a way for the community to stay up to date on what’s going on at SUNY Sullivan? And in addition to that, how they might be able to help, is there any way that they could help with any of your efforts?

Jay Quaintance:
Sure. So there’s a couple of things in terms of the first part of your question, the best way to stay up to date with what we’re doing is to go to our website, which is www.SUNYsullivan.edu. Additionally, we keep trying to get information out through the Sullivan County Democrat, through social media, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. In terms of how the community can help, one thing that we did is polled our students to find out what the impact of COVID-19 has been on them. So are they experiencing financial difficulties because they, or some member of their family may have lost a job, or multiple members of their family have lost their jobs. Do they, are they suffering from food insecurity? Are they suffering from housing conditions that are subpar? So our foundation, the SUNYSullivan Foundation and the college are working to start a student relief fund, which we’ll be rolling out, probably I would say next week. The foundation is going to commit $10,000 in seed money to that, and then we’re going to be soliciting donations for that. And it’ll be direct aid to students. It won’t be associated with any costs that they have associated with the college. We’re working on that through the US Department of Ed and the SUNY system administration. But this will be really more for, you know, food insecurity issues. Do you just need a little money to tide you over? If you can’t pay for your phone bill, but your phone is your only hotspot for internet, that’s a problem. We want to make sure that we can try to provide as much support for them in those ways.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Okay. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Jay Quaintance:
What I’d like to do is thank our partners more than anything else. I mean, it really has been gratifying to see how Sullivan County has come together. We were able to work with the hospital. They’ve been very supportive of what we do. Sullivan 180, Cornell Cooperative Extension. Everyone is really coming together! Sullivan Renaissance…it looks like they’re going to be able to put some videos up for what they’re trying to keep people engaged in keeping our County going and keeping it beautiful. So I think there’s a lot of good work that’s happening and it’s just.. I don’t know. It really speaks to the quality of people that live in Sullivan County. They’ve really come together in a way that is super gratifying to be a part of. One thing I would pitch right now is that if you’re interested in starting or pursuing the rest of your education, enrollment is open for summer courses as well as for fall courses.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Well, thank you again for joining me today for our interview. And one more time, Jay, could you share your website with us?

Jay Quaintance:
Sure. We’re at www.sunysullivan.edu.

Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Okay, great. And this is Meghan Mullally-Gorr from Sullivan 180 Sullivan Presents…. TakeFive! Thank you.