This 2025, UAlbany’s Great Dane “Damien” reached first place in the SUNY Mascot Madness bracket after a frenzy of online voting finally pushed UAlbany ahead. We got into it when UAlbany was a finalist and I know that many of you jumped in as well and helped cast the winning votes. Obviously, this vote has no real consequence, but it’s good for school spirit and recognition!
But this message is actually about the runner-up. To get to that first-place spot, UAlbany’s Damien had to pull ahead of SUNY Oneonta’s “Red” Dragon. That was far from easy! We were neck & neck with Oneonta for those final days, literally a percentage point apart, and it came down to a couple hundred votes at most. Damien won, but barely. It was that close.
Which begs the question: Why was it so hard to beat Oneonta? UAlbany has 3x the student population on Oneonta, maybe even more than 3x. And more faculty, many more alumni, and we have a larger local community surrounding us. By sheer numbers UAlbany should’ve pulled far ahead of a much smaller SUNY school. What kept Oneonta so close in a race with much bigger UAlbany?
In English language Oneonta starts with an O and Albany with an A. But spelling them in Hebrew would both be with the Hebrew letter Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
This week we begin the Book of Leviticus, and the opening title word is Vayikra. The most distinctive and best-known feature of this word is that it is written in a Torah scroll with a small Aleph. The letter Aleph in the word Vayikra is written in a much smaller font size than the rest of the word. This is deliberate and it has its reasons.
Perhaps we can envision UAlbany as a big Aleph and Oneonta as a small Aleph. But don’t underestimate small Aleph power!
In big schools and in big communities, people don’t always feel the same sense of investment and personal responsibility as small schools and communities do. Less is taken for granted, and people feel more needed and depended on. When more people have buy-in and feel a sense of ownership. There’s less of a sense that someone else will do it. Perhaps this gave little Oneonta a leg up, and more student investment. And they came so close!
UAlbany may be a bigger school but our Jewish campus community here has a smaller feel. Everyone is needed, everyone makes a difference, each and every one matters. There’s a close-knit feel and more students feel a sense of involvement. We have a little Aleph spirit going strong inside a broader bigger Aleph school!