Over the course of the month of April the SUNY Plattsburgh Center for Community Engagement is rolling out a full calendar of events as a part the Plattsburgh Big Read Festival.
The events are sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts through a $13,500 grant secured by Center for Community Engagement Coordinator Julia Devine over a year ago.
The events include movie screenings, story readings and festivals all centered around educating people about the local Akwesasne Mohawk community and Native American Culture in general.
The Big Read as a whole will likely do a good job of educating the community about a minority that they might not have a full understanding of.
The cutting of Julia Devine and the Center for Community Engagement following this semester, though, means that Plattsburgh probably won’t be seeing as many of these events in the future.
Under Devine’s leadership, the CCE worked to bridge the gap between the campus and the wider Plattsburgh area with events like the CommUNITY @ the Pond Night at Hawkins Pond in the fall of 2016 and 2017.
On a campus that has had vocal discontent towards its administration since February, now more than ever seems like a useful time to have an organization focused on bringing unity.
PSUC is under tremendous budgetary pressure and has to find cuts somewhere, but the fact that cuts will see the disbanding of the CCE will be a huge loss for campus and city.
