UR drops standardized tests from admission requirements

June 14, 2019 -- Students applying for admission to the University of Rochester are no longer required to submit standardized test results.

University officials say they will continue to consider test scores for applicants who submit them, but prospective enrollees can choose to be evaluated only on high school grades, coursework rigor, essays, achievements, community contributions, recommendations, and interviews.

The admissions policy since 2011 had allowed candidates to submit at least one form of a standardized test score like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and national or international exams in place of the SAT or ACT.

UR suspends Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity

June 6, 2019 -- The University of Rochester announced the suspension of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity amid hazing allegations brought this past spring.

UR officials said the fraternity did not dispute the charges and the college is confident that no one was seriously injured.

The fraternity is suspended effective immediately and will not be recognized as a group at the school through June 1, 2022.

Nazareth's Braveman sets retirement date

April 11, 2019 -- Nazareth College President Daan Braveman announced to faculty and staff that he will retire next year.

Braveman, the college's ninth president and the longest-serving in Nazareth's history, was inaugurated in 2005.

"A change in leadership is beneficial for an institution," Braveman said. "It creates opportunities for fresh ideas, for new energy, and for heightened levels of excitement."

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School appoints new leader

April 10, 2019 -- Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School announced the appointment of Angela D. Sims as president.

Sims will be the first female president of the 200-year-old school and the first African-American woman to lead any Rochester-area college.

Her appointment is effective July 1. She replaces Marvin McMickle, who announced his retirement last year after eight years as Colgate president.

Sims is an ordained Baptist minister holding a doctorate in Christian social ethics from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va. She comes to CRCDS after 12 years with St. Paul School of Theology, a Methodist seminary school with campuses in Kansas and Oklahoma.

St. John Fisher suspends cheerleading squad

Jan. 11, 2019 -- St. John Fisher College suspended its cheerleading squad indefinitely after a video circulating on Twitter showed some members saying the N-word while singing along with a rap song.

The video shows a group of women singing along to Meek Mill's song "Dreams and Nightmares." The lyrics include the use of the N-word three times. The Fisher men's basketball team hosted a game hours after the suspensons were disclosed and one of the Cardinals' warmup songs was an edited version of that song.

"As a campus community, we will not support acts or behaviors that are not consistent with the values espoused in our mission statement and in the Fisher Creed," Fisher President Gerard Rooney wrote in a letter to students.

The development came on the heels of two Fisher students being suspended by the college after damaging a statue of Frederick Douglass in downtown Rochester last month.