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ESF Begins Centennial Celebration
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) will begin a yearlong Centennial Celebration this week with convocations at Syracuse University, where the first ESF classes were held, and on the ESF campus.
ESF President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., and SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor will open the first event at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, in Room 132 of Lyman Hall on the SU campus.
When ESF was founded in 1911 as the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, the college did not have a permanent home and the first classes were held in the basement of Lyman Hall. Faculty and students moved into Bray Hall when the building was completed in 1917.
"We wanted to return to our academic beginning, which was in Lyman Hall, for the start of this celebration," said Elizabeth A. Elkins, ESF librarian emerita and co-chair of the ESF Centennial Committee. "ESF was founded in partnership with Syracuse University so it seemed fitting to begin our Centennial Celebration there."
Members of the ESF and SU communities who have been invited to Thursday's convocation will be addressed by both Murphy and Cantor as well as SU archivist Edward Galvin. They will also see a presentation on the history of ESF by Dr. Hugh Canham, ESF professor emeritus.
Canham will repeat the presentation at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, in Marshall Hall on the ESF campus. The larger facility will allow for a bigger audience than the more limited space in Lyman Hall. The ESF student body has been invited to attend Friday's event and to attend a reception afterward.
The highlight of the Centennial Celebration will be July 28, when the college holds a celebration on the ESF Quad and a formal dinner in Moon Library on the ESF campus. The July date was chosen because it marks the 100-year anniversary of the week in 1911 when the college was formally established.