Judge signs order against Stony Brook campus closing

A State Supreme Court judge signed legal papers Friday affirming that Stony Brook University failed to follow state education law when it decided last spring to shutter most of its Southampton campus. Some called the judge's action a victory for campus supporters.

"The focus should be on a resolution that reopens the Southampton campus as a four-year residential college," Assemb. Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) said in a statement Friday.

Russell Penzer, an attorney for six students and a nonprofit opposed to the closing, said the judgment signed by Justice Paul J. Baisley Jr. affirmed Baisley's August ruling that Stony Brook officials erred by closing the campus without approval from the 10-member Stony Brook Council, as required for any "major plan."

The university had submitted a motion saying it did follow proper procedure by informing the council at its May 11 meeting, five weeks after president Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr.'s closure announcement. But the judge rejected the university's request that the court delay enforcing its ruling, according to Penzer.

"As we sit here today, there is no legally valid decision to close the Southampton campus," he said. "If they do not comply with the court's order and the order is not amended or stayed by a higher court, we will have to bring enforcement proceedings . . . "

The judge did not set a deadline for reopening the campus.

The judgment read that Stony Brook is "enjoined from proceeding with the plan to close the Southampton campus . . . until such time as they comply with the mandates of state Education Law."

The council's next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 4.

Stony Brook spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow said Friday "we have received the court's judgment and will respond accordingly at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner."

With Dave Marcus