Dan's Papers - March 28, 2008 - College To Build $6.9 Million Marine Center Here

If proposed state funding remains intact, a new $6.9 million Marine Science Center will be built at Stony Brook Southampton, SUNY Stony Brook University's Southampton campus. The new center would significantly expand, or replace, the existing Marine Station on Old Fort Pond in Shinnecock Bay, a short walk from the main Southampton campus.

The Marine Science Field Station, operated by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), is one of the most unique aspects of Stony Brook Southampton. For students interested in the marine and environmental sciences, this center is a gem - providing support and research facilities such as tables with running seawater and aquariums that maintain live marine animals. At this facility, students can actually take an undergrad or graduate class in what is essentially a floating classroom. Three large vessels are used in this capacity for research in the ocean, bays and rivers. Research includes examinations into brown tide, lobster and clam populations among many other areas.

Both the State Senate and Assembly have passed bills allocating funding for the proposed new center, said Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (R-Sag Harbor). The Assembly's budget plan itemizes the $6.9 million for the new Marine Science Center as part of $1.6 billion overall designated for SUNY capital projects. "I am very pleased we were able to itemize the funding for this project and I am very hopeful that this appropriation will remain in the enacted state budget," said Thiele. Governor David Patterson is expected to sign the final state budget in April. "We can't speak about what exact funding means yet until the budget is signed, but the Marine Center definitely needs an upgrade," Stony Brook Southampton spokesman Darren Johnson said on Monday. "The labs are old, so we need new equipment and expanded space - the center is used to capacity on some days for about 170 undergraduate students, and we're expecting to grow in the next five or six years to a total of 2,000 students overall on the campus. This center will also be important to fishermen, naturalists and environmentalists who care about our waterways."

The curriculum at Stony Brook Southampton is unique. Rather than being organized by departments, it is driven by issues related to environmental sustainability, public policy and natural resource management. Classes are shaped around an interdisciplinary core and students explore how political, economic and social issues relate to the environment. The major program in Environmental Studies prepares students for careers in ecotourism, environmental conservation, journalism, law, public service and television documentary production.

The proposed upgrade for the Marine Science Center is not the only progress that administrators at Stony Brook Southampton seek - recently, the university announced an ambitious five-year improvement plan, which includes the goal of making the university a multi-campus research institution. The university began making strides in 2006 after it acquired the 82-acre former Southampton campus of Long Island University for $35 million. The major programs at the new Stony Brook Southampton are environmental studies, the marine program and the writers' program. About 100 students are pursuing a major in environmental studies and the writers' program has about 35 students aiming for a master's degree.

At Stony Brook Southampton, students may pursue two new B.S. majors in Marine Sciences and Marine Vertebrate Biology, which the school announced in January. In the B.A. in Environmental Studies program, students delve into the ethical, legal, political, scientific and socioeconomic aspects of environmental issues. There are also study abroad opportunities in Jamaica's Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory in the West Indies for students interested in Tropical Marine Ecology. Not to mention the program in Madagascar, where Stony Brook operates a lab in conjunction with the United States Government that includes learning near the rainforest.

The major gives students the broad background needed to understand our world's most urgent challenges, combined with focused study in ecology, environmental economics, public policy or marine environmental studies.

The B.S. in Marine Sciences major gives students a comprehensive background in biology, as well as in the physics and chemistry of the ocean. Upper-division electives provide a deeper understanding of particular organisms such as algae, fish, marine invertebrates, marine mammals and microorganisms and of habitats including barrier islands, dunes, estuaries, open ocean, rocky intertidal and salt marshes. This rigorous program is preparation for graduate study and research in marine sciences.

The B.S. in Marine Vertebrate Biology major offers a background in basic biology with an emphasis on marine vertebrate organisms such as birds, fish, marine mammals, sharks and turtles. This program includes more intensive training in zoology than the Marine Sciences degree.

Students at Stony Brook Southampton have many options and with the coming of a new Marine Science Center, the campus will be abuzz with new discoveries and memories of field experiences to come.