Speaker Series Featuring SUNY Plattsburgh Faculty, Staff Kicks off at Plattsburgh Public Library

Members of the local community don’t often get to sit in on SUNY Plattsburgh classes.

But locals were treated to the next best thing on Sept. 4 at the Plattsburgh Public Library at “Supreme Court Year in Review: Experts Explain It All,” the first in a new monthly speaker series called Life-long Learning for All.

‘Free and Accessible’

“This is totally free. It’s totally accessible. You can have a face-to-face conversation with an expert on a topic,” said Ben Carman, director of the Public Library.

Carman said speakers will deliver half-hour presentations geared to a general audience and then take questions.

He devised the idea with his partner, Dr. Raymond Carman, associate professor and chair of political science, who opened the speaker series with an analysis of three Supreme Court cases from the court’s most recent term and information about the increasing polarization of the court and Americans’ opinions about it.

Nearly 30 people turned out for the talk, including faculty, staff, students and community members.

While the Public Library hosts poetry readings, author lectures and other events, a speaker series with a regular time each month presented an ongoing opportunity to bring experts to current library patrons and attract more residents to the library, Ben said.

“Somebody mentioned to me on the way out that ‘I really like that you’re doing this’ because obviously we have talks that are open to the community at the college, but community members … (sometimes) don’t know where to go” on campus and the library might be easier to navigate,” he said.

The speaker series is intended to include a wide range of experts — not only those from SUNY Plattsburgh. January’s program will feature a life coach, and Ben said he hopes to book a doctor from Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital for a future presentation.

‘Strong Interest from Faculty and Staff Speakers’

Raymond said when he sent a call out in the employee digest for SUNY Plattsburgh faculty and staff interested in participating in the speaker series, he was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses.

There was so much interest from faculty and staff that speakers are booked out through May 2025, he said.

“The response has been just amazing,” Raymond said. “It so happened that there was a such a great response to this that I couldn’t turn people (faculty and staff) away. And the topics are so far-ranging.”

While faculty love to teach their students, they don’t often get to take on the role of expert out in the community, Raymond said.

“We’re in a time where getting knowledge and facts and dialogue out there is really important. I think that’s the reason there was a such a positive response.”

‘Bring Office Hours to the People’

As public employees, faculty have a responsibility not only to teach their students and generate knowledge but also to share that knowledge with the larger community outside of campus.

“I’m trying to get us into the community to kind of bring office hours to the people.”

Cooper Scherer, a junior from Schuyler Falls who is taking an introduction to law class with Raymond this semester decided to take advantage of the opportunity to hear more from the associate professor.

“I was also very impressed by the number of Dr. Carman’s colleagues who appeared to show up, said the double history and political science major. She was also impressed by the “engagement of the students and other members of the public, like my mother, in regards to asking questions.”

Scherer’s mom, Dedra Scherer, learned about the talk online and asked if her daughter wanted to go with her before Scherer let her know she had already planned on attending, she said.

‘Students and Community Can Learn Together’

One of the best parts of the program, she said, was that the numerous SUNY Plattsburgh students who attended were “put next to people who actually live here if they (students), allowing the communities to kind of fraternize rather than just be separate, distinct groups and learn together rather than apart.”

Senior Tori Graves said she took classes with Raymond in past semesters. The double major in political science, and gender and women’s studies, said she was glad for another opportunity to hear him speak.

“It (the Supreme Court) is a very daunting topic to most people and to have somebody be able to explain it and also take questions about it in a smaller group is quite nice,” said Graves, who is from Plattsburgh.

“The Public Library is a great place to host something like this because it’s accessible to the community. And it also brings awareness to why the Public Library is so important, especially with everything that’s going on with funding for public libraries currently in our country.”

‘Can Bring People Together’

Graves brought her friend, junior Ella Liberty, a criminal justice major from Plattsburgh.

“If people were more knowledgeable about what’s going on (in the community,) and we make it more known around the area, I think we can bring a lot of people together. A lot of people would be interested in this,” Liberty said, adding that some of her family members might want to attend future events in the speaker series.

Raymond said the Q&A portion of the program could be a learning opportunity for faculty. He’s not always able to get robust participation in his classes, and when he does, the questions and opinions often come from similar beliefs, preferences and areas of interest, he said.

“So, coming out into the public allows you to get a sense of what different demographics and people with different experiences, what they like, what they’re interested in, what questions they have, which can really help make you think about things in different ways.”

‘Excited by the Turnout’

Raymond said he hoped his talk was the beginning of an enlightening experience for the community at the library.

“I’m really excited by the turnout tonight, by the overwhelming response of people interested in presenting. I hope more and more people will come,” he said.

“I’m going to come each month because I want to learn what people have to say, and I want to learn something new, so I hope members of the community will do that too — members of the college community and members of the community at large.”

Speaker Schedule

The Life-long Learning for All speaker series and Q&A is on the first Wednesday of each month from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the second-floor auditorium at the Plattsburgh Public Library.

The speaker schedule is as follows. All faculty are from SUNY Plattsburgh.

• Oct. 2, 2024 – Dr. Kylie King, director of institutional effectiveness at SUNY Plattsburgh, will discuss how millennials, Generation Z and older generations differ in their ideas about entrepreneurship, business, work, free enterprise, markets, trade, redistribution and other economic concepts
• Nov. 6, 2024 – On the day after Election Day, this presentation will feature an analysis of the 2024 election returns by three faculty from the political science department: Dr. Daniel Lake, associate professor; Dr. John McMahon, associate professor; and Dr. Raymond Carman, associate professor and department chair
• Dec. 4, 2024 – Dr. Mark Richard, professor of history
• Jan. 8, 2025 – Michelle St. Onge, life coach. Note this is the second Wednesday in January.
• Feb. 5, 2025 – Dr. Meg Pearson, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
• March 5, 2025 – Dr. Daniel Lake, associate professor of political science
• April 2, 2025 – Dr. Connie Shemo, professor of history
• May 7, 2025 – Dr. Jan Plaza, associate professor of computer science

For more information about the speaker series, contact Dr. Raymond Carman at [email protected] or Ben Carman at [email protected].

— Story, Photos by Assistant Director of Communications Felicia Krieg