SUNY Oneonta President Nancy Kleniewski leads a breakout group that includes, clockwise from her right, Ernesto Henriquez from SUNY’s Psychology Department; Southside Mall Manager and Foothills board president Luisa Montanti; Kelly Place from the Oneonta Arts Council; Ellen Sokolow, an architect now living in Franklin, and Joyce Miller, who chairs the city’s Community Relations & Human Rights Commission. (Jim Kevlin/allotsego.com)City Superintendent of Schools Joseph Yelich reports back on his breakout session.Julia Goff, Destination Oneonta (formerly MSO) director, discusses the challenges a newcomer can face with Mark Vaugh of Corning Inc., keynoter at today’s Inclusivity Summit. Lynne Sessons of ARC Otsego listens.
ONEONTA – Sixty citizens spent half a day today “envisioneering” – a term coined by late Mayor Dick Miller – on what ONE-onta ought to look like in 2025. “You have unity in your name,” observed the keynote speaker, Corning Inc. Ph.D. Mark Vaughn.
The occasion was an Inclusivity Summit, hosted in Foothills Performing Arts Center, and while discussion included the need to make a diverse population welcome, also discussed was how to make everybody – college students, homeowners, natives and newcomers, the well-off and less well-off – be at home in the “City of the Hills.” One simple suggestion: Encourage everyone to say “good morning” to everyone they meet.
