Erik J. Bitterbaum Will Become SUNY Cortland's Tenth President
The State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees approved the hiring of Erik J. Bitterbaum to replace Judson H. Taylor as SUNY Cortland president, who will retire on July 1.
SUNY Trustees endorsed Bitterbaum at their regularly scheduled board meeting April 29, 2003 at Nassau Community College.
The 50-year-old Bitterbaum has been the president of West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVUP) since 2000, and also serves as a regional vice president for West Virginia University at Morgantown with responsibilities for the educational and economic development of western West Virginia.
A 16-member SUNY Cortland search committee, led by SUNY Cortland College Council Chair Stephen Hunt, conducted a national search after Taylor announced his impending retirement last August. Bitterbaum was one of three finalists, from a pool of 73 candidates, endorsed by the College Council on April 11. The candidates were then reviewed by SUNY Chancellor Robert King.
Bitterbaum, a native of New York City, will become the 10th president at Cortland since its founding in 1868. Taylor has served as SUNY Cortland’s president since July 1, 1995.
As WVUP president, Bitterbaum secured a $2 million gift in the university’s first capital campaign, instituted a new admission program resulting in an applications increase, increased student retention, improved distance learning, created a Council of Grants to bring external dollars to campus, and created a Center for Teaching Innovation to assist faculty and K-12 educators improve the learning environment for elementary, secondary and university students.
Bitterbaum has been involved with numerous grants at WVUP. He received a $125,000 Claude W. Benedum Foundation grant to implement a Professional Development School between Wood County Schools and the WVUP Department of Education. He acquired a $62,000 Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant to send 14 WVUP faculty members to study for a month in Bulgaria at the University of Roussse.
In 2001, he helped WVUP get a $30,000 National Science Foundation Planning Grant to encourage high school women to enter the sciences, mathematics and engineering. He helped secure a $126,000 West Virginia State Grant for economic development at Century Aluminum.
After attending Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bitterbaum graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Biology from Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif. He spent his junior year abroad at Sussex University in Falmer, England. He earned a M.A. in Biology from Occidental and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Florida, where he was an instructor in the Department of Zoology.
From 1981-90, Bitterbaum was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb. He concurrently became assistant provost for lifelong learning at NWU from 1983-87 and associate provost from 1987-90. He served on the President’s Cabinet there for seven years.
In 1990, Bitterbaum accepted the position of vice president for academic affairs at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., where he also held the rank of professor in the Department of Biology. As vice president, he was responsible for academic administration of 78 full-time faculty members, as well as a renowned ROTC program, Evening College and the Atlantic Coast Center for Language and Culture.
He joined Missouri Southern State College in Joplin in 1994 as vice president for academic affairs and a fully tenured professor of biology. He remained there until 2000. While at Missouri Southern, he received an $800,000 U.S. Department of Education grant to develop the Upward Bound program on campus.
As the chief academic officer at the 5,800-student college, he oversaw 215 full-time and 65 part-time faculty. His responsibilities also included: the offices of four deans; Registrar; Library; Student Learning Center; Counseling Services; International Education; Honors Program; Grants; Evening College; Admissions; Career Services; the Center for Teaching and Learning; Financial Aid; and Institutional Research and Assessment. He was a fully tenured professor of biology at Missouri Southern State College. A member of the Academy of American Poets, Bitterbaum won the 1997 Missouri Writers’ Award for Poetry.
He currently serves as director of both the American Red Cross and the Artsbridge of Parkersburg. Bitterbaum has been inducted into Beta Beta Beta national biology honorary, Kappa Delta Pi national education honorary, Phi Sigma Iota national foreign languages honorary, and Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honorary.
Bitterbaum and his wife, Ellen, a college instructor, deaf educator, and audiologist, have two children, David, 14, and Anna, 11.
