Southampton College Ceremony Marks New Era

By Alan Michael Braverman

October fourth was a glorious celebratory day for Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny, the President of Stony Brook University. She was glowing as she stepped to the podium to welcome the assembled guests. She thanked State Senator Ken LaValle for his dogged determination in acquiring the financial resources to buy the Southampton campus from LIU. Senator LaValle recalled how the idea of taking over the campus first came to him at luncheon meeting with Dr. David Steinberg and Roger Tillis of Long Island University's board of directors as they casually told him that they were closing the campus because it was too expensive to run. Senator LaValle related that he came up with the idea of Stony Brook taking it over in a "nano-second" and ran it by Dr. Shirley Kenny immediately. The rest is history.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, a graduate of Southampton College recalled how he had been bowled over by the concept of Stony Brook taking over the campus and how it turned out to be such a great fit for his alma mater. Dr. Kenny thanked Congressman Tim Bishop and town Supervisor Skip Heaney for their super-human efforts and unflagging support of Stony Brook's work to acquire the campus for a reasonable price and thereby prevent Long Island University from turning the campus into McMansions. Special praise was given to Supervisor Heany for his work in bringing about the "land moratorium that nailed LIU to the only future educational institutions" concept.

The zeal and enthusiasm for making this dream into reality was shared by everyone present and when the new campus sign was finally presented to the audience it was met with an overwhelming roar of approval. The speed with which the signs on county road 39 were replaced to read "Stony Brook Southampton" was also not lost on the happy group of well wishers. The members of the SAVE group, who were so vocal and active in helping sway public opinion and helped move the sale forward, were also individually thanked by Dr. Kenny as was their President Harry Marmion. The Southampton College Alumni Association President was also singled out for special thanks.

Carol Gilbert the former director of Alumni Relations at Southampton College sported a hand written T-Shirt that thanked SUNY for saving the college and presented Dr. Kenny with a bouquet of flowers.

Dr. Donald Baker, one of the first teachers hired at Southampton College when it opened who now teaches at LIU's CW Post campus said, "It is not the end but a new beginning," with an enormous grin on his face. His remarks were echoed by Robert Reeves, who formerly headed the famous MFA creative writing program at Southampton and will now head it at Stony Brook Southampton. "It's a wonderful day for the East End and for our writing programs that will flourish here and create for the east end the kind of activity it deserves."

It was heartwarming to see the unbridled enthusiasm on all the faces of everyone present when the blue ceremonial hammers came out and the signs went up all over the campus and the front gate of the college was shorn of it s Long Island University label.

It is over, the war is won and everyone involved can now get on with the task of making a new, better, and more responsive college. Stony Brook has shown enormous sensitivity towards the community, former faculty, alumni and the town's people. New students will come to the campus and bring with them the missing vitality and sprit that cast a pall over the entire east ends community the last two years. Dr. Kenny, referring to Stony Brook Southampton's planned curriculum, stated "environment and sustainability are the most critical issues for the 21st century, and Stony Brook Southampton will offer an extraordinary opportunity for students to help shape our response to the global challenges we face, especially here on the east end of Long Island."

Dr. Kenny reiterated her invitation to everyone to come to the big "Blast "on the campus on Oct 14th from 11 to 2 p.m. She wants everyone to join her at the picnic with food, wine and music on the great lawn behind Chancellors Hall. A real Texas style welcome to the East End community

Someone once said that a "that a leopard never changes it spots." So Long Island University right to the end was annoying, venial and divisive. After two years of procrastination and threatening to "sell the 110 acre campus for the highest financial return and best possible usage. "LIU finally signed off on their March agreement with Stony Brook University this past week. The Southampton Campus (turns out it was only 82 acres) and all its buildings were part of the Oct 3rd contentious closing where the seller (LIU) failed to present a " broom clean" campus as per agreement but agreed to clean it up after the transfer of funds, $35 million into their coffers. Some of the funds were held in escrow to ensure LIUs performance. Rather then donate the mountains of desks, chairs, tables, filling cabinets, pianos, beds, telephones, assorted office machines, and cartoons of books, LIU simply dumped them on the lawns outside the various buildings for pick up by a caravan of trucks they had to hire to clean up the campus. Along with the mountain of provocative materials were boxes of private financial aid records that contained social security numbers, names, addresses and historical data of students who had applied for aid over the 40-year history of Southampton College. No attempt seems to have been made to safe guard this information or to destroy it. In addition the interior of most of the buildings was simply filthy. Dan Rattiner the publisher of Dan's Paper's, summed it up best when he noted that the campus looked like "a place where an unwanted tenant had finally been evicted and all their crap was out on the street."

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