Ribbon-cutting set for SUNY Cortland's newly renovated Brown Auditorium

Old Main at SUNY Cortland

SUNY Cortland will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the reopening of the newly renovated Ralph A. Brown Auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 16.

The ceremony will take place from 11 a.m. to noon inside the auditorium located in Old Main. The program will include remarks by Erik J. Bitterbaum, SUNY Cortland president; Robin Shutts, director of facilities planning, design and construction; and Gloria Hulede, executive vice president of the Student Government Association. Afterward they and Nasrin Parvizi, associate vice president for facilities management, will cut the ribbon.

A reception will follow the ceremony in the Old Main Dorothea Kreig Allen Fowler ’52, M ’74 Grand Entrance Hall.

The event is free and open to the public. Guests should RSVP by Friday, Nov. 10, by contacting the College’s Special Events Office at 607-753-5453.

The Brown Auditorium has been a center of cultural life for the campus and the community for many years and has undergone a number of renovations to keep up-to-date with changing technology.

A major renovation completed in 1989 was made possible by a major gift from alumnus John Fantauzzi ’58, M ’60. At the request of Fantauzzi, the space was named in honor of Ralph Adams Brown, the College’s first SUNY distinguished teaching professor, who taught history at the College from 1947 to 1975.