Seven months after budget cuts devastated Stony Brook Southampton, stripping the campus of most of its academic programs and undergraduate students, Stony Brook University officials on Monday announced plans to roll out expanded arts and marine science programs this fall.
The university will add theater, film and visual arts courses to the long-standing graduate creative writing program at the 82-acre satellite campus in Shinnecock Hills, under the banner of “Southampton Arts.” A new undergraduate residency program in the marine sciences, “Semester by the Shore,” will grant students from across the country access to the campus’s research vessels and waterfront marine lab and allow them to live on campus, according to a press release from the university.
The announcement carries the first solid plans the university has made public since last April, when it abruptly unveiled budget cuts that closed the campus’s dormitories and forced most of its undergraduate students to relocate to the university’s main campus that August. Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., has said the campus had been atrophying financially since the university took it over in 2006 and began running it as a small residential college centered on undergraduate environmental sustainability studies.
In Monday’s press release, the university stressed that Southampton Arts will “leverage the successful business model” of the graduate creative writing program under director Robert Reeves. An associated undergraduate arts residency program for students from other institutions, which the university said it is looking to unveil in the fall of 2012, “will avoid the administrative costs associated with four-year undergraduate resident and academic life,” Provost Eric Kaler is quoted as saying.
“These short-term residencies are the most cost-effective way to restore an undergraduate presence and to build enrollment quickly,” he continued.
The announcement came days after State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced that the parties involved in a legal dispute over the budget cuts had put their litigation on hold for 30 days as negotiations over the future of the campus progressed.
Students who were forced to relocate and supporters of the campus filed suit last May, claiming that the cuts were illegal. As the litigation went on, university officials and local lawmakers, including Mr. LaValle, Mr. Thiele and U.S. Representative Tim Bishop, were in talks over the future of the campus. Discussions were known to have long focused on many of the ideas Stony Brook announced on Monday, including the expansion of graduate arts programs and a marine sciences residency program for outside students.
That announcement, made in the form of a press release from Mr. LaValle’s office last Friday, marked a shift in tone for the legislators, who lambasted the university for months after the cuts first became public last April.
“I am pleased that the administration understands the importance of the Southampton campus to the community and [the State University of New York] itself,” Mr. LaValle said in the release. “We have made important strides in the past three months.”
Although a State Supreme Court Justice ruled in favor of the students last August, stating that the university shirked a legal requirement when it failed to consult with a state-appointed advisory committee before announcing the cuts, there were still motions pending on either side of the litigation.
“With today’s agreement to adjourn all litigation for 30 days, I believe we have taken a major step forward,” Mr. Thiele said. “There are still intricate discussions remaining about the future of the Southampton campus. Any resolution must fulfill the potential of the Southampton campus. I am optimistic that we can find such a resolution.”
When reached on Monday, shortly before Stony Brook University’s announcement, Katie Osiecki, a 19-year-old Sag Harbor native who is one of the six plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said it appears unlikely that she and her fellow sustainability students would be returned to Stony Brook Southampton as part of the negotiations. The university, she said, is considering giving the sustainability program a permanent home at the chemistry building in Stony Brook. Still, she said, she will see victory in the revival of her former campus, whatever form it takes.
“I think the most important thing is to have a college on the East End,” said Ms. Osiecki, who is enrolled at the main campus in a major called Environmental Design, Policy and Planning.
Here's to fiscal responsibilty and sound planning.
I Like the sound of that! It has a good name.
What would it take for Soutampton to be created as its own SUNY?
It's really "college lite" with short-term programs. It doesn't appear that there will actually be any degrees awarded from the Southampton campus. Clearly, SUNY is using name recognition of the college in THE HAMPTONS to attract paying students for a semester or two. But what's wrong with that?
And, the undergraduate program - Semester by the Sea - will provide credits for a semester of study.
Will the semester by the sea be offered only in the summer when the beaches are open and the social scene is hot? Will the facilities for semester by the sea and the dormitories for housing the students otherwise be mothballed for the remainder of the ...more year?
The announcement seemed to me to describe a business plan of low-cost, low-overhead, short-term tutelage for people who can afford to go to college in a resort destination.
That's better than nothing. And certainly better than opening the property to development. I'd like to see a four-year liberal arts college in Southampton as much as anyone but I think that idea is dead. As I said previously, small liberal arts colleges are closing all over the US unless they have enormous endowments. For the state to subsidize a small liberal arts college in the Hamptons would be an expense that would be hard to justify.
I hope that I am wrong.
There are no guarantees in life - at this point it would be silly to try and bring that whole program up to speed since it has been fatally fractured with students leaving the SUNY system or pursuing other majors.
Undergraduate business programs at good schools are difficult to get in to. The reason being, the overwhelming number of applicants to undergraduate business programs. Schools get to be picky, in other words. The SUNY Stony Brook business program is one of the top public school business programs ...more in the nation. I think that if the Southampton Campus were to re-open that program it would go a long way towards helping financial sustainability.
Things like textbooks and insurances, etc. could be purchased from the Stony Brook campus, meaning that there would be very little overhead for Southampton to institute online ...more programs and collect the tuitions. I take a mix of online and traditional courses at Suffolk. Let me tell you that the online courses are usually filled to capacity, unlike many of the traditional classroom coures that I'm taking.
The classes don't take much for a professor to maintain, you can almost go as far as to say that an adjuct could run a single online class in supplement to their regular courses with very little impact upon that professor's time. More time goes into creating the course and grading work than actually monitoring the classes, to a large degree online courses are self sufficient, for the students.
I think that in general, SUNY Stony Brook is missing the boat on this, they don't offer that much in regards to online programs. I also think that this would have a low risk, high reward impact on the Southampton campus. From a college's perspective, this seems like a good way to generate income at very little cost to the institution itself.
SUNY Stony Brook, Adelphi and Hofstra all offer terrific 4 year business programs for me to transfer to (honorable mention to LIUand St. Joe's). The problem is, as a commuter that would be difficult for me to do, as well as expensive. I'd prefer ...more to go to a public chool just because of the cost of attending private schools.
A SUNY Stony Brook campus in Southampton would solve a lot of the problems that I have. It' a low cost school in comparison to the private schools, it has a great business program and the commute would be negligible.
I think that all parties concerned have similar interest. Those interests are to see whatever school that operates out of the Southampton campus needs to be profitable and the East End could use a residental campus, locally situated and preferrably public.
I think that the Southampton site could be profitable, but it requires some out of the box thinking, especially in today's economy. Schools need to be creative in order to weather the storm, so to speak. If being creative means starting off-campus based online degree programs, look into the most profitable ones. If being creative means making the Southampton campus communter based rather than residential, do that.
SUNY Stony Brook has a VERY good name. Off the top of my head, the research facitities, nursing program, and business program rate amongst the best in the nation. There's no reason that they can't take that name and leverage it into something that makes money and fills a void in the community at the same time.
Where does one get a master's degree in two semesters? Mine took two years, which was four semesters. Everyone else I know with a master's had to go to school for a minimum of two years.