POTSDAM -- SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson had her first visit to the SUNY Potsdam campus Tuesday (Nov. 6).

Johnson met with faculty, staff and students during a campus tour, accompanied by President Kristin G. Esterberg, as she got to know more about SUNY Potsdam's unique history and programs.

"What I saw here was that the students were very cross-disciplinary in their degrees. I thought that was interesting, and pretty exciting to be doing in your undergraduate studies. The student-faculty ratio is about 11 to 1, and so that gives a very unique connection between the students and professors," Johnson said. "It's just been a fabulous trip."

The chancellor's first stop was the Donald and Kathryn Lougheed Center for Applied Learning, where she learned about the college's opportunities for graduates to complete an internship, study abroad, conduct research or complete a service learning project.

Johnson met with the center's staff, as well as some of the students and faculty who have benefited from its programs. Students Alexa Mani, Paul Dougall and Samantha McComb told the chancellor that they chose SUNY Potsdam because of the opportunities the College offers to engage in interdisciplinary study, field research and international service learning.

Later, biology faculty members Jan Trybula and Ray Bowdish spoke with Johnson about their work engaging with students and the community through the Wagner Institute for Sustainability and Ecological Research.

Faculty Senate chair Kimberley Bouchard, a professor of theatre and dance, gave the chancellor a behind-the-scenes glance of her department's upcoming mainstage production after a tour of the Performing Arts Center.

The chancellor said that the true "high note" of the visit was getting to see a scene from the new opera, "Mayo," by Tom Cipullo, which is set to have its world premiere at The Crane School of Music later this week. Soprano Emma Marhefka took to the stage to perform an aria, in which her character Valeria gushes about falling in love for the first time, with the opera's title character, Mayo Buckner.

"Wasn't that amazing? That was the first time I've seen something like that on a campus," Johnson said afterward.

She also met the directors of the opera, as well as the donor who made the Pellicciotti Prize-winning production possible, Gary C. Jaquay.

Following her visit to SUNY Potsdam, Johnson traveled to nearby SUNY Canton, as she continues her 64-campus tour.