Dorothy "Dottie" Arnsdorff, a Cortland faculty member from 1947 until her retirement in 1982, was a beacon of professionalism and a caring mentor to the thousands of Cortland women physical education majors she taught at the College. "It's been said that a good coach is an excellent teacher, but the opposite is also true," noted Hall of Fame member Mary Morgan Hosking '53. "Dorothy Arnsdorff was an excellent teacher and two generations of coaches have benefitted by having her touch their lives. Every women member of the C-Club Hall of Fame who attended Cortland during the Arnsdorff years was positively affected by her teaching standards. Her guidance, motivational skills, performance, ethical and academic standards were the model for women graduates privileged to have had her as an instructor."
"We did not have interscholastic athletics, as we know it today, but she instilled in us the importance of going out into the public schools to establish physical education and after-school programs, including interschool sports," recalled Barbara DiPalma '62, another C-Club Hall of Fame member. "She planted the seeds. She encouraged, through example and word, many of us to be good role models, set high standards, to teach and encourage every child, regardless of skill level, and to believe that providing various levels of competition for girls was important."
A native of Savannah, Ga., Arnsdorff earned a bachelor's degree from Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., a master's degree from Columbia University, and an Ed.D. from Stanford University. Arnsdorff taught physical education at Randolph-Macon College in Lynchburg, Va., before coming to SUNY Cortland where she attained the rank of full professor in 1960. Arnsdorff served on countless campus committees, coordinated student teachers and wrote a student teaching handbook, advised graduate students, edited the College Bulletin for a year, served twice as interim department chair, and was active with the College's Outdoor Education Program. She edited several editions of a camp manual used for years and, in 1978, she received a special appreciation award by the College's staff at Raquette Lake. On the occasion of her retirement, the College created an award in her name for an outstanding graduating senior physical education major.
Prior to intercollegiate athletics, collegiate women in New York State competed on a limited basis under rules and structures created by the Association of Women in Physical Education in New York State (AWPENYS), the forerunner of today's New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA). Arnsdorff was active in the organization's many committees, in particular, the Dorothy Dietz Scholarship Committee, and earned honorary membership in 1983.
UPDATE: Arnsdorff passed away on May 4, 2007 at age 85.
