Alberto J.F. Cardelle

President Alberto Cardelle was appointed by the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees as the ninth president of SUNY Oneonta on July 20, 2021, and took office on September 6, 2021. ​

In his first year at SUNY Oneonta, Dr. Cardelle focused on rejuvenating a nurturing community by holding college-wide dialogue sessions and open forums with employees, students, and families of students. Conversations at these sessions led to the development of an agenda titled Regaining Momentum, which outlines prioritized opportunities to guide the college’s actions between May 2022 – December 2023. The basis of the agenda is an integrated approach to support student success, build community and make connections through engaged learning, scholarship, service, leadership, decision making and cross-divisional collaboration.

Resulting from the strategic opportunities for success summarized in Regaining Momentum, Dr. Cardelle has established the Regional Innovation Council for local Oneonta and area community leaders, recruitment, retention and enrollment working groups, the Faculty Academy focused on developing inclusive pedagogy, the President’s Advisory Council on Internal Communication, a common meeting hour and an engagement program for employees who were hired during the pandemic. Due to excellent teamwork with faculty and staff across the college, Dr. Cardelle’s first year has also seen progress toward updating the general education program, the creation of a first-year academic experience course (expected to launch in Fall 2023) and development of a Student Success Leadership Team. Particular points of pride for Dr. Cardelle are the partnership with governance in the college joining The University Global Coalition in Spring 2022, the reinstatement of a summer orientation program in 2022, extended support for second-year students and that the College Foundation reached full endowment for the Student Emergency Fund as part of the Grow.Thrive.Live.The Future of SUNY Oneonta fundraising campaign in October 2022.

Before coming to SUNY Oneonta, as Fitchburg State University’s (FSU) provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Cardelle provided vision, leadership, and strategic direction to the faculty and staff in academic affairs that includes the schools of Arts & Sciences, Health & Natural Sciences, Business, Education, and Online, Graduate & Continuing Education. He also oversaw admissions, student success services, international education, the library, and the registrar. Before FSU, Dr. Cardelle spent 15 years at East Stroudsburg University (ESU) where he began his academic career as an assistant professor of public health in 1999, became department chair in 2001 and served as vice-provost, dean of the Graduate College and dean of the College of Health Sciences.

During his previous appointments, Dr. Cardelle championed academic excellence. As provost, he led the development and implementation of the university’s outcome-based general education curriculum which includes a first-year experience course for first-time students and a requirement that all students complete a high impact practice course involving internships, undergraduate research, international education, or civic engagement. At both FSU and ESU he worked with faculty to develop more than 20 new degree programs including certificates, minors, bachelor degrees, master degrees and a doctoral degree in the fields of health sciences, criminal justice, education, business, computer science and the humanities.

With a strong commitment to accessible higher education, Dr. Cardelle has focused on developing student-centered programs across academic units that encourage innovative approaches to student learning and teaching such as residential learning communities, first year experience programming, peer mentoring, the FSU Faculty Academy for Inclusive Pedagogy, and advising using predictive analytics.

A staunch champion of the core values of diversity, equity and inclusion, Dr. Cardelle worked with colleagues at FSU to create the Leading for Change Initiative, which focused on establishing a broad array of institution-wide initiatives aimed at inclusion and diversity with the long-term goal of student success and equity. This led to the creation of a campus climate survey, a Deans’ Anti-Racism fund, the Hispanic Male Mentoring program, and an expansion of summer-bridge programs for students requiring additional support before beginning their college career. With a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, he created the Heritage Language Program, aimed at providing high achieving bilingual students with English support services and celebrating their linguistic asset of being bilingual.

As a faculty member, Dr. Cardelle authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, chapters and conference presentations. He and a colleague established FSU’s first faculty-led consulting group, The Center for Public Health Research and Innovation, with more than 2.5 million dollars of funding.

An advocate for the role of anchor institutions, Dr. Cardelle has worked throughout his career to establish a meaningful link between the academic enterprise and the university’s community development initiatives. This has included the creation of a community co-working space to encourage economic development, seed funds to start student community businesses, a business incubator, a training institute for community leadership and workforce development programs in business leadership and entrepreneurship.