This story is part of a series marking the 50th anniversary of SUNY Jamestown Community College's Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean and its impact on the region. Visit sunyjcc.edu/News to read additional articles.
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As SUNY Jamestown Community College’s Cattaraugus County Campus continued to grow through the 1980s and into the 1990s, it needed someone to take care of the physical and mental health of the hundreds of students that walked the halls of its downtown Olean buildings each day.
In stepped Paula Snyder. She stayed for 33 years, becoming one of the longest tenured employes of the Cattaraugus County Campus, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
County Campus in 2003.
“I thought I’ll do JCC for a few years and I’ll move on,” Snyder said recently. “I came to love the job so much. I loved the faculty. I so respect our faculty. I loved who I worked with. I loved our administration. I walked to work and walked home every day for 25 years. I never wanted to leave until I was almost 70 and it was time to go.”
Snyder retired in December, capping more than three decades of service to JCC. She led the college's health centers before serving as executive director of the Cattaraugus County Campus from 2019 to 2025.
When Snyder joined JCC, she was hired by President Tim Davies and Peg Cornell, the college's director of Health Services, who later served on JCC's Board of Trustees.
At the time, the Olean campus enrolled nearly 1,300 full- and part-time students and sponsored five athletic teams.
“There were so many students on this campus that they wanted a health center and a health center nurse,” Snyder recalled. “They demanded it. Peg was very into the holistic model of healing, with health, wellness, mind, body, and spirit. She guided me the whole way. She was my mentor and still a dear friend.”
JCC's busy health center was located on the top floor of the Library and Liberal Arts Center before moving to the College Center when the current campus opened in 2003.
“We had a bang-up health and wellness program,” Snyder said. “It was busy because we had a lot of students. We had a full menu of sports, too.”
Before joining JCC, Snyder worked as a nurse for HomeCare & Hospice in Olean, a job she loved.
But in the early 1990s, she had two young children and was newly married to Jim Snyder, the longtime Cattaraugus County Legislature chairman who played a key role in helping establish and grow JCC in Olean. The opportunity to spend summers with her family made the move an easy decision.
“My husband really encouraged me to take this job because he loved JCC so much,” Snyder said.
In August 2019, Snyder was named campus executive director following the retirement of John Sayegh.
“Things were changing on this campus,” Snyder remembered. “Daniel (DeMarte, JCC president) was looking at this campus different. I thought I needed to look at my career differently too. I thought maybe I have something to offer with my political experience, my experience with community boards, my experience with students, my respect for faculty and administration, and maybe I could succeed John in continuing JCC having a presence in the community and make sure JCC was part of community decisions, which we had lagged in. We weren’t part of them. I thought we could do better. I said maybe it’s time I do something different and see if I can help. I was so honored that Daniel chose me and put faith and confidence in me, as did the board.”
Months into her Sndyer’s new role, COVID changed everything. In addition to leading the Cattaraugus County Campus, she was also charged with guiding the entire college through the pandemic.
“When COVID hit, I hoped I helped,” she said. “I had to learn COVID right along with everybody else. I was going to do everything in my power as a nurse to be able to relate to the laws that were enacted, to the process, but make sure that the loss of life would be minimal, and life-threatening illnesses would be minimal. That was such a scary time.”
Snyder is proud that only two JCC employees or students were hospitalized during the pandemic, and there were no deaths. Snyder, a college nurse, and administrative assistant made more than 6,000 calls over two years to check up on employees and students who tested positive for COVID-19.
“We worked day and night, weekends and holidays, right through with phone calls to everyone who was ill at the time,” Snyder said. “At one point in time, three of us were calling 24, 25 people a day just to make sure they were alright. What do you need? What are your symptoms? How are you doing? Just to make sure they got through it.”
After the pandemic, Snyder helped oversee several major projects at the Cattaraugus County Campus, including the renovation of the historic train depot into a modern eSports arena, improvements to Cutco Theater, the installation of the exterior mural on the Library and Liberal Arts Center by artist Meg Saligman, and the additions of the Hatch Cafe and a childcare center managed by the Olean YMCA.
She also partnered with St. Bonaventure University's Jim Mahar to bring the Remote Area Medical clinic to Olean, first at JCC and later at the Olean YMCA.
“I’ll be continuing that,” she said. “I can’t let go of it. That was a highlight of my life, these last four RAMs.”
It’s hard for Snyder to let go of JCC, too. In retirement, she continues to serve the college as a part-time consultant.
“Having a college that is reasonably priced for people to change their lives and have a better quality of life and to be part of the team that does that, it was a wonderful honor,” she said. “There’s nothing that our employees won’t do for our students. I can’t say that about every college I’ve interacted with. JCC does that, and I hope it does so well after I’m gone.”