“It sounds like an easy thing to do; just walk out the door and shut off the lights,” says Bonnie Cornick, who’s retiring as assistant to the chair of the department of systems science and industrial engineering. “But there’s 40 years of history here.”
Cornick came to Binghamton University in 1970 as a temp just out of Broome Community College. “I was only helping for two weeks. But those two weeks went on forever,” she says with a laugh.
When she started here, it was State University of New York at Binghamton, and what’s now the Watson School was the School of Advanced Technology. “This was a parking lot,” she notes of her office in the Engineering Building.
Since then, she has proudly watched Binghamton University and the Watson School grow. “To see us go from a School of Advanced Technology without departments, to having many departments, to becoming the Watson School, and now the construction of a new Engineering and Science building, has been amazing.”
And, her love for the University and students left her eager to be a part of campus activities. She volunteered as cheering coach in the late ’70s, and has helped with the Special Olympics, the Empire State Games, Commencement and Advocacy Day.
Cornick has also worked under four University presidents in her four decades at Binghamton. And with President Lois B. DeFleur also saying adieu to the campus, Cornick is quick to recognize DeFleur’s impact. “She was so visible on campus and her vision was great,” says Cornick. “She made it a place where parents want to send their kids, and where kids want to be.”
But what will she miss the most? “Probably the everyday working environment. It’s a team effort,” she says. “Hari [Watson School Dean Hari Srihari] is a worker and he instills that in everyone who works with him. I have been so lucky to be a part of the Watson School.”
