PSTV Alumni

The Future Of PSTValumni.com

2009-05-14T22:40:00.002-04:00

As many of you know Mike officially transferred over pstvalumni.com to me a few days ago. My goal for now is just to keep the site up and running until i can come up with some brilliant new ideas to make it a site people come to and use on a regular basis. This of course will have to wait until I take full ownership of all aspects of the site and have time to sit down and learn how it is all connected together in this artwork that Mike has created for us over the years. My request to you is for ideas; I need to know what features you would like the site to have in order to get you back here more often. The forums are a great way to stay connected but with the use of facebook and other social media outlets pstvalumni.com needs something MORE. So please let me know what you think the site needs by discussing it here. Also if you have a great idea and have a great way to implement it as well then I would love to hear that too! Thanks everyone and I hope to see you around the site soon!

A New Life For PSTValumni.com

2009-05-12T00:25:00.007-04:00

PSTValumni.com is not dead yet. Ownership of the domain pstvalumni.com and the website itself has been transferred to Ryan Dillenbeck, class of 2006. Ryan plans to evigorate new life into this website and hopefully add some new features as well. Welcome Ryan, to the leadership role. This doesn't mean I won't still be around and helping out however is necessary.

The domain transfer is now complete. I am still donating my server space to host the website, where it may remain indefinitely, so there will be no interruption in service. It will take a little time to transfer control over the many different parts of the website to Ryan, and for Ryan to become familiar with how everything is currently set up, so users will likely not see any changes for a little while, but changes will come.

The cost of this transfer was zero dollars. I'm just happy that somebody else will be enthusiastically carrying on the PSTV Alumni torch.

More information will likely come to the forums soon (but that'll be up to Ryan now).

The End

2009-04-02T20:08:00.000-04:00

After 13 years on the internet, I plan to shut down the PSTV Alumni website.

Please read this post.

Homecoming Is Coming

2008-09-05T22:11:00.002-04:00

Start making plans now.

SUNY Plattsburgh Homecoming 2008 - "Aloha"

Save the Date: October 17, 18 & 19

Homecoming weekend is a wonderful time to reconnect with your alma mater. It will be fun-filled, with many exciting events encouraging alumni to visit with fellow classmates, professors and current students.

Download Homecoming Registration Form
(PDF file size 780Kb)

If you would like to help gather your classmates for a reunion please contact the Office of Alumni Affairs. Also, start looking for those old photos for the Homecoming Slide Show (please label your photos if you would like them returned). Anniversary years of '3 & '8.

Also, check out the schedule of Homecoming Events.

The Plattsburgh Alumni Association is a vibrant and welcoming community - ever ready to support you when you need it. We offer many benefits for undergraduates and alums and we are adding new services all the time. We invite you to join us and we hope to see you at Homecoming 2008!

New York City Plattsburgh Reunion....

2008-08-14T16:03:00.004-04:00

UPDATED 8/31/08
-----------
courtesy of facebook -
(thanks, Joe Walsh)

Subject: Plattsburgh Alumni Reunion Calling All Classes!!!!!!!!!!!!!NYC

Come mingle with old Classmates you havn't seen in years.
Friday Sep 26th, 2008 @ The Flatotel Located at 135 West 52nd Street.NYC, 10019.

Meet and greet/Hors doeuvres from 6:30pm - ~~8:30Pm~~ 9:00pm ~~8:30pm-11:30pm LIVE DJ~~
FREE FOR ALL ALUMNI AND ALUMNI FAMILY ... CASH BAR

For more info please contact Elijah Wells Class of 95 @ 917 327-3268
This event will start and end on time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please RSVP to the Alumni Office via phone: 800-964-1889 or email alumni@plattsburgh.edu by September 17, 2008 as space is limited.

Sad news to pass along

2008-07-18T09:45:00.002-04:00

I received the following e-mail from Peter Ensel this morning...

I know many of you had interactions with Larry Cowan during your time at PSU. So, it's with great sorrow that I tell you of his death. Larry passed away Thursday in Missouri where he had been working as Vice President of Development at Central Missouri University. At Plattsburgh, Larry was a long time basketball coach and later, worked as Athletic Director and Director of Athletic and Corporate giving. In 2002 he left Plattsburgh to become Assistant VP of Development at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. before moving to Missouri last year.
Our thoughts are with his family at this time.

Coach Cowan, of course, was coaching the men's basketball team when PSTV first started carrying the games. He was also a frequent guest on Cardinal Sports, Sports Rap and other PSTV programs.

Spring 2008 Sorell Awards

2008-07-01T00:11:00.002-04:00

Belated congratulations to the Spring 2008 Sorrell Award winners for best PSTV promos.

#1 - "What Are You Watching"
Mike Mueller, Audrey Joyal, Carrie Miller, Vanessa Arthurton, Fiona Daniels

#2 - "Stop and Watch"
Suzanne Giordano, Keith LaPlante, Ashley Gella, Craig McGuire, Luke Flagler

Tied for #3 - "What?" (Wonder Years spoof for BLTV)
Ryan Favaro, Joey Landes, Ellen Canglialosi

Tied for #3 - "Bringing People Together"
Josh Tuper, Sean McCluskey, Erica Wilkens, Shanell Campbell, Bobby Albrecht

See the Awards section for links to each of these videos, as well as previous Sorrell Award winners.

Peter Ensel Wins 2008 SUNY Chancellor's Award

2008-06-23T21:01:00.003-04:00

Peter Ensel is one of six SUNY Plattsburgh faculty members who will be honored with State University of New York Chancellor's Awards. Ceremonies for the award will be held during the President's Opening Day Welcome prior to the start of the fall semester in late August.

Peter Ensel, an associate professor and the chair of the communications department, has taught a variety of classes, including television production, electronic media management and writing for television and radio. Student responses from these courses indicate that students not only value his knowledge and enthusiasm, they also find his courses challenging and feel that they have learned from them.

"His effectiveness as a teacher and mentor is shown through the number of his students who win awards, secure competitive internships and establish successful and satisfying careers in their field," said SUNY Plattsburgh President John Ettling.

In addition, Ensel has won more than a dozen fellowships and grant competitions. He has also held the titles of state coordinator of the year from the National Broadcasting Association and advisor of the year from the National Broadcasting Society.

He headed the recent restructuring of the department's curriculum, creating new majors, and has worked with the journalism department to create the Center for Communication and Journalism Studies.

http://plattsburgh.edu/about/profiles/faculty/chancellorsaward.php

We're Back!

2008-04-28T23:58:00.005-04:00

Welcome back. After more than a month of technical problems, PSTValumni.com is finally 99% back and running as normal. I've just completed moving the entire website to a new (more expensive*) host server which should hopefully eliminate the reoccurring technical issues. The only remaining issue that I know of is missing avatar graphics in the forum, but I'm looking into that too.

I've been unable to update the alumni database for more than a month, but now I can once again. If you've been trying to update your directory information please try again.

Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By

2008-03-24T22:26:00.004-04:00

My apologies. PTSValumni.com was down for three days last week, and as it turns out, that was the easy part.

The site is obviously back up and running again but there's a lot that's still totally screwed up (putting it nicely). The PSTV Alumni Directory and the PSTV Alumni Forums were both database-driven and have been lost. Whether that means they've been lost forever or just a few more days remains to be seen. The databases that were restored from daily backups made by my hosting company (the ones who couldn't get the site back online for three days) appear to be corrupt and therefore don't work. There's a chance they can be salvaged but I'm not holding my breath. Since my host was making daily backups, I rarely made manual backups of the databases myself. My last backups were made three months ago in December. On the bright side, something is better than nothing.

The Alumni Directory
This database of over 350 names is completely missing on the server, but I have my 3-month-old backup. I can restore it and then re-update the last 3 months of missing alumni updates from my old emails. That'll be loads of fun. ;-)

Also, if you try to update your directory information you'll see that it doesn't work at all either. I haven't looked into the reason why yet but fixing that (which has nothing to do with databases) is also on my to-do list. If you need to update your info (which isn't even there right now), please come back in a week or two and try again.

The Forums
There is a recent database backup but it's not working and I have absolutely no idea why. Fixing/Restoring the forums is definitely another high priority but the forums are a lot more complicated than the Alumni Directory and hence harder to do. I'll try what I can.

The Bottom Line
Sorry once again for all the problems. I don't know how long it will take but bear with me and I'll try to fix as much as I can.

Mark Your Calendars

2008-02-14T17:03:00.004-05:00

The Communication Alumni gathering in Albany was already scheduled for April 5th, 2008, but the SUNY Plattsburgh Alumni Association has now finalized the remaining details of the event.

The event will cost $25 and include dinner. It will be held at the Italian American Community Center located at 257 Washington Avenue Extension in Albany. R.S.V.P.s to the alumni office are required by March 28th.

Below is the invitation. I will post any additional details that become available as the gathering draws closer. You can discuss the planned Communications Alumni Gathering in Albany in this message thread on the PSTV Alumni forums.

Plattsburgh Alumni Association & The Center for Communication and Journalism

Cordially invite you to an

Alumni Reception in Albany, NY

Italian American Community Center

257 Washington Avenue Extension

Albany, NY 12205

518-456-0292

Saturday, April 5, 2008

6:00 p.m. Dinner

Cost: $25

R.S.V.P by Friday, March 28, 2008 to

Alumni Office: 800-964-1889 or alumni@plattsburgh.edu

Map provided by the Italian American Community Center

The Tradition Is Dead

2008-01-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

On Friday night, January 25th 2008, the infamous Plattsburgh/Oswego tennis ball tradition came to and end.

For 18 years, it was a Cardinal Hockey tradition for fans to throw thousands of tennis balls on to the ice after the first goal is scored against the Oswego Lakers. The tradition began in 1990 but the exact reasons are up for debate. Some say that the Cardinal Boosters Club chose tennis balls simply because the Oswego uniforms were an ugly yellow. Others claim that it was because the Lakers' Head Coach was also the school's tennis coach. Perhaps both reasons contribute to the origins of the choice of tennis balls.

In 1998, Oswego Goaltender Carl Antifonario shut-out the Cardinals in Plattsburgh. This sparked a new tradition for Lakers fans to throw bagels on to their home ice with Oswego's first goal against the Cardinals. As with Plattsburgh's tennis balls, it wasn't long before the tradition got out of hand and objects were thrown after every home goal. But in February of 2006, a bagel-induced penalty in a playoff game led to a Plattsburgh power-play goal, costing Oswego a shot at the NCAA tournament. In October of the same year, Oswego moved into a new arena but left the bagel-tossing tradition behind.

SUNY Plattsburgh has always discouraged the Oswego tennis ball tradition, yet were unable to stop it for 18 years. In part due to Oswego's success in ending their bagel tradition a few years earlier, SUNY Plattsburgh decided to get serious about ending the tennis ball tradition this year. Other reasons for the increased crackdown is that Oswego is the reigning NCAA Division III National Champions and currently ranked in the top 10, and Plattsburgh can't afford unnecessary penalties. Another reason is that Plattsburgh is currently ranked #1 in the nation and they want to end the tradition now, before it jeopardizes their post-season hopes come SUNYAC time.

Head Coach Bob Emory wrote this open letter to all Cardinal Hockey fans, which was also signed by all team captains. Then to enforce the ban, Plattsburgh State hired extra security to search fans, and brought in extra police officers to possibly charge anybody caught throwing objects on to the ice with disorderly conduct.

After the first Plattsburgh goal, less than a dozen tennis balls were thrown on to the ice (substantially less than the typical thousands). Those individuals were promptly removed from the arena by security, and two individuals were arrested for trespassing after attempting to reenter the building. The Cardinals scored two more times, including an exciting over-time game winner to keep the Cardinals a perfect 10-0-0 in conference play - but no more tennis balls were thrown. The tradition is dead.

PSTV Alumni on Facebook

2007-12-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

In October we created a PSTV Alumni Group on LinkedIn, the popular professional networking website. Recently, PSTV alumnus Chris Rooney took the initiative to start a PSTV Alumni Group on Facebook, the popular social networking website. Thanks Chris. In less than a month the group already has 75 members and counting. If you're not one of them and want to join, click this link (you'll need to be logged in) and then click the Join Group link.

Watch PSTV Live This Weekend

2007-11-19T17:27:00.000-05:00

Live PSTV broadcasts of Cardinal Hockey (and other tournament teams) will be available on the internet this Thanksgiving weekend!

Cardinal Hockey

2007 PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout

Live Webcast of Men's DIII Tourney

http://www.primelink1.net/shootout/

During Thanksgiving weekend, fans of Cardinal Hockey can catch the action on the ice during the 2007 PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout, a men's Division III college ice hockey tournament. On Nov. 23-24 the following teams will face off at the Stafford Ice Arena: SUNY Plattsburgh, Middlebury College, Norwich University, and St. John's University of Minnesota.

Thanks to a partnership with PrimeLink, four senior students from the college's Center for Communication and Journalism will have the opportunity to produce live coverage of the tournament to be broadcast over the web. The students involved in the production are: Ashley Gela, producer; Eric Hoffman, play-by play announcer; Sean McCluskey, color analyst; and Colleen Sheehy, between-period host.

2007 PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout

Live Webcast
http://www.primelink1.net/shootout/

All times are Eastern Standard (EST)

Friday, November 23, 2007
Middlebury Panthers vs. Norwich Cadets, 4 p.m.
Plattsburgh State Cardinals vs. Saint John's Johnnies, 7 p.m.

Saturday, November 24, 2007
3rd Place Game, 4 p.m.
Championship Game, 7 p.m.

The PSTV Fund

2007-10-22T21:14:00.000-04:00

I just received a letter from SUNY Plattsburgh today, asking for a donation to The Plattsburgh Fund. This seems like the perfect time to reminded everybody that if they were thinking about making a donation to the college anyway, why not apply your money directly towards the Plattsburgh State Television via The PSTV Fund. The PSTV Fund was established in 2004 as a subset of the general The Plattsburgh Fund. All you need to do is simply write "For PSTV" in the memo area, but it would probably be a good idea to also include a brief note with your check to make sure they know that you want your donation to go to The PSTV Fund. You can still use the same return envelope the school provided to send it to The Plattsburgh Fund.

Read more about the PSTV Fund here.

Update:

Gifts can now be made online by going to plattsburgh.edu/makeagift. If someone wants to make a gift to PSTV they can select "other" in the drop down menu marked "I Designate My Gift Towards" and then note PSTV in the memo field.

Feed Refeed

2007-10-18T01:08:00.000-04:00

Dear "any website visitors who subscribe to the PSTV Alumni News blog's RSS or Atom Feeds, including anybody who may have added the blog feeds as a widget to your iGoogle or MyYahoo homepage",

Sorry for the trouble, but can you please unsubscribe from those old blog feeds and replace it with a new blog feed?
1) Unsubscribe (remove) the old blog feed
2) Click on one of these links subscribe to (add) the new PSTV Alumni News Blog feed
RSS/Atom Blog Feed

For many reasons not worth mentioning I've decided it would be better to utilize FeedBurner instead of the old RSS and Atom Feeds. We've actually been using FeedBurner on the homepage for years, but never as the primary source feed. Thanks for the help.

Of course, anybody else who didn't previously subscribe to the PSTV Alumni News Blog feed before is encouraged to click one of the links above too to add it to your newsreader or homepage. Subscribing to the feed means you don't have to keep checking PSTValumni.com to manually see if anything new is happening.

New LinkedIn Groups Created

2007-10-02T23:25:00.001-04:00

LinkedIn, the popular website for establishing and maintaining professional business connections, now has a PSTV Alumni Group available.

In the past you could only connect with other PSTV alumni on LinkedIn if you found their name on your own and recognized it as a fellow PSTV alumnus, or if you got lucky with one of the very few members who manually added PSTV to their profile. This new LinkedIn Group makes finding fellow PSTV alumni much easier. Anybody who joins the group can then easily find others who have also joined the group. You won't automatically be connected with all other PSTV alumni but you can now have a direct means of forming that bond.

If you're not already a member of LinkedIn perhaps you should consider it. Unlike networking websites that concentrate on social interaction, LinkedIn focuses only on professional business connections. It is a great resource because it can connect you with people you don't know, who worked with a common contact. For example, you never met the manager at that station you applied to, but apparently he used to work with somebody that you went to school with. Bingo, you know have common connection that you didn't even know you had before.

• To join LinkedIn, click here and set up your profile.

• To join the PSTV Alumni Group on LinkedIn, click here.

• To join an unrelated Plattsburgh State University Alumni Group that is also on LinkedIn, click here.

Of course, don't forget the #1 resource for PSTV networking, PSTValumni.com ;-)

Cardinal Points Among The Best

2007-09-24T16:09:00.000-04:00

Cardinal Points has been named a finalist for a prestigious National Pacemaker Award, one of only 40 college newspapers in all of North America in the running for this lofty honor. Congratulations Cardinal Points.

From The Press Republican, Cheers & Jeers: Sept. 24, 2007:

The Pacemaker, the highest award given to college media and considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, will be awarded to the top 20 newspapers at the National College Media Convention in Washington, D.C., Oct. 24 to 28.

SUNY Plattsburgh Sets Record Low

2007-09-23T00:05:00.000-04:00

From Cardinal Points:

PSUC accepted a record-setting low 49.4 percent of applicants for the incoming class of 2007. The numbers represent a more than 13 percent drop in acceptance in just two years.

This is good news for SUNY Plattsburgh. Ex-president Horace Judson intentionally lowered enrollment standards between 1994 and 2003. Setting higher standards for the college is better for all of us, as the perceived worth of our diplomas are in direct correlation to SUNY Plattsburgh's reputation for a high quality education. Kudos to current President John Ettling for raising the bar.

Communication Alumni Gathering Scheduled in Albany

2007-08-07T21:40:00.000-04:00

There will be a SUNY Plattsburgh Communication Alumni gathering in Albany, New York on Saturday, April 5th 2008. This meeting was originally planned for November but many in the television industry expressed reservations about it being held during fall sweeps.

The event is being organized by SUNY Plattsburgh Alumni Director, Rose Anderson, with the assistance of the Director of the Center for Communication and Journalism Peter Ensel. More details will follow here at PSTValumni.com, and in SUNY Plattsburgh alumni publications as well.

Los Angeles Gathering

2007-06-25T15:07:00.000-04:00

There will be a gathering of SUNY Plattsburgh alumni in Los Angeles on July 10th at the Sheraton Gateway at 6101 West Century Boulevard, between 6:30 an 8:30 pm. Alumni interested in attending should contact contact Ronna Bosko in the alumni office at (518) 564- 2090 or ronna.bosko@plattsburgh.edu.

Peter Ensel, Director of the Center for Communication and Journalism, will be attending the event and would like to meet up with as many former Communication students as possible and hear how they're doing. (Several Communication alumni currently plan on attending the event.)

Communication Students Named National Finalists

2007-06-14T14:22:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to three communications students who were recently awarded first place in the NBS National Student Production Awards Competition.

The following excerpt is from an article which appears in Plattsburgh Magazine, page 5 of the Spring 2007 issue.

Three communications students have been awarded first place in the National Broadcasting Society National Student Production Awards Competition. The winners were announced at the organization's national convention in Chicago, Ill.

A total of eight communication students were named finalists in six categories.

"This was the largest number of finalists and award winners we have ever had," said Peter Ensel '80, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Communication and Journalism. "The three winners all came from different areas, including video, audio and script writing, which indicate we have well-rounded programs.

These honors further exhibit the strength of our communication programs and their competitiveness in both a national and international arena."

In the Video Promo category, Justin Halstead from Albany, N.Y., Ashley Kelley from Stanley, N.C., and Nicole Vitallo from Schenectady, N.Y., won first place for their piece, "U Filthy Animal."

Damien Quinlan from Plattsburgh, N.Y., won first place for his audio drama, "Johnny Sauro: Private Eye." He was also nominated in the audio PSA category for "Aggressive Driving #1."

In the comedy script category, Halstead won for his work, "Midnight Stockers of the Graveyard Shift."

.....continued.....

P.S. It is ridiculous that there is no online version of Plattsburgh Magazine.

New Look

2007-06-12T23:55:00.000-04:00

As you can already see, the PSTV Alumni website has a new look. Gone are the multitude of different styles that users can choose from, replaced by a single simplified design. Those styles included Yokum Hall (red), Lake Champlain (blue), Adirondack Mountains (green), Avid Keyboard (yellow), and a Minimalist Web 2.0 design (white). While choosing your own website theme was a cool trick, it wasn't really very useful. Plus it also caused a few minor glitches with cookie conflicts. So I focused on making just one good design that works well.

The most obvious new design feature is the new header image of Amity Plaza at SUNY Plattsburgh. I altered the image with some PhotoShop effects and overlays, but I want to thank SUNY Plattsburgh student, Erik Graham, for providing the original panoramic shot, and for sharing his work through a Creative Commons license.

The other notable new design feature is a horizontal navigation menu with expandable submenus. This layout opens up more page width for actual content. Plus it's able to hide lesser-used menu items to reduce clutter.

Also worth noting, I finally got around to updating the PSTV History page to reflect that PSTV has had Faculty Co-Advisors since 2003 (a fact that I was unaware of until this year). There are still many other additional website changes on my to-do list, but most of those are not high-priorities.

P.S. Some of you may have noticed that I copied myself. The horizontal navigation menu is the same script that I also use on my own personal website.

Update 6/13/07: I'm now noticing some problems that show up only in Internet Explorer browsers. There shouldn't be a gray space between the header graphic and the navigation menu. There's also an issue with the forum not being centered in IE too. I'll try to fix those bugs when I get a chance.

Spring 2007 Sorrell Awards

2007-05-06T22:11:00.000-04:00

After a brief hiatus, the PSTV Sorrell Awards are back and PSTV Alumni were glad to lend a hand, volunteering their time and expertise to judging the best student-produced promos. I am happy to now announce this semester's best PSTV promos.

First Place
"Davezilla"
Produced by Chris Infante, Ken Fung, and Ryan Favaro

Runner Up
"Cold Turkey"
Produced by Phil Ada, DJ Miranda, Joey Painter, and Ric Slatter

Third Place
"All In"
Produced by Damien Quinlan, Brian McMahon, Marlo Carroll, Ashley Gela, and Jennie Andersen

Plattsburgh Capital District Alumni Golf Tournament

2007-04-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

The annual Plattsburgh Capital District Alumni Golf Tournament will be held June 8th, 2007. If any former PSTVers are golfers, perhaps a PSTV Alumni foursome can team up on the links.

The Plattsburgh Capital District Alumni Golf Tournament brings together alumni, parents and friends of SUNY Plattsburgh. Proceeds from the tournament help to establish the Capital District Student Scholarship Endowment.

This year's tournament will be held at the Van Patten Golf Club at 924 main Street in Clifton, New York. For more information or to register, click here. Communications Department Chairman Peter Ensel has already signed up to play in the tournament.