Recreational Sports Director Julian Wright Earns SUNY Chancellor's Award

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Julian Wright

CORTLAND, NY (05/16/2012)(readMedia)-- Julian H. Wright, director of recreational sports at SUNY Cortland, was presented a prestigious State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence during the 2012 Undergraduate Commencement on Saturday, May 12, in the Park Center.

Wright received a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

The Chancellor's Awards are conferred to provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the pursuit of excellence at all 64 SUNY campuses. Each campus president submits nominations, which are reviewed by the SUNY Committee on Awards.

Wright, who joined SUNY Cortland in 1991, is the 24th staff member to receive the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

The honor recognizes his consistently superior professional service within and beyond his position description. During his 21 years in the campus community, he has developed a premier, state-of-the-art recreational sports program that includes intramural sports, sport clubs, open recreation and fitness facilities/programming.

"Julian established a dedicated fee for the Recreational Sports program, assumed management of and re-vamped the Sport Club program, developed two outstanding fitness facilities, created a department logo, and developed a non-credit instructional program," President Bitterbaum said. "In so doing, he has made a positive and enduring impact on students, faculty, staff and alumni who have benefited from his tireless efforts."

"Julian has worked exceptionally hard to build the most comprehensive student recreation program in the SUNY system," wrote one colleague in a letter supporting the nomination. "Our intramural, sport club and open recreation offerings are second to none in SUNY."

"He has built the Recreational Sports Program from the ground up, improving the number and variety of offerings as well as the quality of activities," wrote another nominator, Louise Mahar, assistant director for recreational sports for fitness.

Today, the program is extremely well rounded. It includes 37 sport clubs, more than 60 intramural and special events, fitness facilities that are open many hours per week, personal training, group exercise, and ample hours of opportunity for open recreation, Mahar wrote. Last year, the intramural sport program had close to 40,000 participations, the sport club program consisted of 38 clubs with more than 900 participants and the Tomik Fitness Facility had 150,000 recorded visits.

"Our students have consistently rated the Recreational Sports Program number one in student satisfaction in the SUNY Student Opinion Survey since 1994," Mahar wrote.

In addition to serving the student body, Wright advocated successfully for the free use of the campus fitness facilities for College faculty and staff.

Wright earned his associate of arts degree from Northeast Mississippi Community College, Booneville, Mississippi; Bachelor of Science in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from Mississippi State University in Starkville; and Master of Science in Health, Physical Education and Recreation, also from Mississippi State University. A Certified Recreational Sports Specialist, he graduated from the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association National School of Recreational Sports Management in 1997.

Three other SUNY Cortland faculty and administrators received Chancellor's Awards at the graduation exercises. Jeffrey J. Walkuski, an associate professor of physical education, received a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Melony Warwick, secretary II in the Division of Institutional Advancement, received a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Classified Service. Tiantian Zheng, a professor of sociology/anthropology, was presented a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

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