LOCH SHELDRAKE  — According to research recently released by the SUNY System Admin Office of Institutional Research and Data Analytics, SUNY Sullivan had the highest increase of first-time enrollment for all community colleges of the State University of New York (SUNY) from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023. 

Over that time period, the community college of Sullivan County had an enrollment increase of 20.3 percent. That increase beat out Onondaga Community College by just 0.3 percent (20 percent).

“Two things made me happy about this,” said Casey Crabill, Officer in Charge of SUNY Sullivan. “One is that the work of Christiana Buckler (Director of Admissions & Recruiting) and her team has been extraordinary. [Their] Focus, like laser, every Monday on data, backed up by Ellen [Galligan]’s assistance all summer. That retention cannot be forgotten, it has yielded really good results.”

The second thing that Crabill joked about making the data even sweeter was beating out Onondaga, her former employer, where she was President for nine years. 

For total enrollment changes, SUNY Sullivan was also ranked seventh among SUNY community colleges with a 6.2 percent increase, per that same research. Only Tompkins Cortland CC, Orange, Niagara, Onondaga, Broome and Columbia-Greene CC were ahead of them in that data. 

Presidential search 

ramping up

The search for a new President of the college is also beginning to ramp up, as they held a dinner on Wednesday night as part of their outreach to the community on the search. Board Member, the Honorable Judge Anthony Kane reported that the search committee will meet on December 5 to formulate a series of questions to pose to applicants of the position. 

“We’re moving along very well,” Kane said. “The search committee timeline is doing great so far.”

Then in mid-January, Kane said they will begin receiving applications and the selection process will begin. He said that they narrow down to three candidates to go in front of the SUNY Sullivan Board of Trustees by the end of February, and then have their choice of new President go through the full SUNY process shortly thereafter. 

Kane stated that they are working towards having the entire process complete by April and appointing a new President at that time.