Episode: 8 Air Date: September 12th, 2025
Editor’s Note: This podcast reflects the opinions and perspectives of the host and guests and is not a product of our editorial staff, including Central Current’s editors and reporters. The program may be edited in post-production for length and clarity.
After a decade of declining enrollment, Onondaga Community College is seeing a surge of interest. Record high student loan debt rates, new state tuition subsidies, and spikes in job demand for healthcare and manufacturing is drawing more students to their campus.
SUNY OCC President Warren Hilton joins hosts Dr. Roosevelt “Rick” Wright and Maximilian Eyle to discuss their new Micron clean room, their most popular degrees among incoming students, and how New York State’s Reconnect program will provide free tuition for adult learners.
Read more of Central Current’s coverage
Sean Kirst: Eileen Gannon’s product was ice cream. Her brilliant legacy is a place of true community, in Syracuse.
Whatever brought you to Gannon’s for the first time, she understood how quality, warmth and humor were the means to bring you back.
Sean Kirst: A Land Cruiser for Ukraine is Brad Clarry’s Navarino tribute to Hawaiian-born brother
The extraordinary tale of a Syracuse family with one foot in Elmwood and the other always rooted on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii.
Syracuse lawmakers pass law banning biometric surveillance in public places
The ban follows the 2026 discovery that grocery giant Wegmans has been using biometric surveillance in its New York City stores.
‘You must live’: Syracuse musicians, poet laureate to tell slain Gazan scholar Refaat Alareer’s story at benefit concert
Alareer, renowned for his depiction of life in Gaza under Israeli occupation, died in an Israeli airstrike. “Music for Palestine” is meant to spread the message of Alareer’s writings, organizers said.
Introducing our board: Meredith Ouderkirk
Meredith Ouderkirk joined Central Current’s board in March 2026, bringing expertise in organizational development, public relations, and more.
