Dr. Young formally welcomed to the SUNY system by Senior Vice Chancellor
Johanna Duncan-Poitier (right)
MIDDLETOWN – Dr. Kristine Young is no stranger to the SUNY Orange system. She has been on the job as president for 10 months.
Her formal investiture ceremony was held Friday afternoon.
The college’s eighth president talked of changing perceptions of what is “worthy” in a community college curriculum, and how that can change in time, including since Orange County Community College’s beginning in 1955.
“So it won’t be long before all of you hear from me, with a little fire and urgency, to take an honest inventory of what we do, and as importantly, to engage with our community to determine the answers to our questions of worthiness,” Young told the more than 200 faculty, staff and some students who gathered for the investiture.
Among many speaking during the almost two‐hour ceremony was the president of Dr. Young’s last venue, Parkland College in Illinois.
In his keynote remarks, Dr. Tom Ramage spoke of Young’s “all too rare compunction to think before she speaks.”
He also spoke of how Dr. Young quickly rose to the top at Parkland, and how it comes as no surprise that she would top the list as the new leader of SUNY Orange.
“These things did not occur by accident or happenstance, but rather, hard work, preparation, perseverance and of course, courage,” Ramage said.
“Courage” was in part, a reference to what Young, and her now wife, Cari, faced, in the Midwest, at a time when attitudes were a bit different than they are today.
Dr. Young is looking ahead, and for full engagement with her new community, as SUNY Orange defines the future.
“The questions that I will be asking of you and I hope you will be asking of me, are in service to these ideals. I hope that together, we will challenge each other and then take action and find ways to make SUNY Orange entirely accessible to the youth and adults of today and then make the most of their time while they are here to successfully engage them in instruction of all things worthy.”
Several speakers addressed the relationship with the new president and the sense of direction she brings.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said he is seeing great things out of the county’s top educational institution.
Students coming out of the college “really have the world by the palm of their hands,” Neuhaus said.
