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Potsdam resident working with SUNY Cortland officials on recommendations following damage from party

Posted 4/2/14

A Potsdam native is one of 21 people who have been working since December on recommendations for Cortland and SUNY Cortland officials in the wake of the Nov. 13 Cortaca parties that led to damage and …

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Potsdam resident working with SUNY Cortland officials on recommendations following damage from party

Posted

A Potsdam native is one of 21 people who have been working since December on recommendations for Cortland and SUNY Cortland officials in the wake of the Nov. 13 Cortaca parties that led to damage and media images of chaos.

Scott Conroe, a freelance writer, was appointed by Mayor Brian Tobin to the College and Community Commission, partly due to his experience with town-gown issues when he served as a SUNY Potsdam's public relations officer from 1994 to 1996.

Conroe was most recently the education reporter for the Cortland Standard newspaper.

Prior to that, he taught journalism at Cornell University, where he still advises a fraternity.

About 4,000 young people gathered on a two-block street in Cortland the day of the Cortaca Jug football game between SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College, with police unable to disperse them.

The partying -- much of it involving people with no connection to SUNY Cortland, many of them in town just for drinking -- led to bottles being thrown, assaults, a car being turned over, property damage and bad publicity for the college that spread as far as Europe.

Residents complained of being unable to drive on certain streets and having their property damaged by students.

The commission is expected to make recommendations in April.