Alum gives Stony Brook $4.3M for athletic facility

A Stony Brook University alum has given the school the largest-ever private donation to an athletics department within the SUNY system, university officials said Tuesday.

Glenn Dubin, class of 1978, has pledged $4.3 million to construct a new strength and conditioning facility.

The money would be welcome anytime, said university president Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr., but is particularly important now because of recent state aid cuts.

"It's harder right now to develop programs, expand existing strengths," Stanley said. "That's why these gifts are so valuable."

The Dubin Family Athletic Performance Center will benefit current and future athletes, said athletic director Jim Fiore, and is a significant improvement over the university's current small, outdated facility.

"It was a wart in terms of recruiting," Fiore said. "We would hide it."

Some athletes, Fiore said, refer to the 2,000-square-foot facility as a dungeon.

"It's kind of gloomy," said Craig Richardson, a sophomore linebacker.

The new 8,000-square-foot facility will be built at the Indoor Sports Complex, and include weightlifting racks, dumbbell sets, cardiovascular exercise equipment and an office for staff.

State aid cuts, which Stanley has said contributed to Stony Brook cutting $30 million from its budget this year, were cited when the university scaled back its Southampton campus, but Dubin's dollars were targeted and can only be used for their intended purpose.

"Donors give to things that interest them," Stanley said. "This type of gift is restricted to that area, and that's how we view it."

Alumni donations, which make up about 25 percent of gifts to colleges and universities, declined 18 percent nationally in the 2009 fiscal year, according to the Council for Aid to Education. But gifts rose at Stony Brook, which completed a successful seven-year capital campaign last year.

Dubin played football and lacrosse at Stony Brook before co-founding Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund and private equity firm. Dubin, who declined to be interviewed, is the 252nd wealthiest American and is worth about $1.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In 2005, he donated $1 million to Stony Brook to create the Glenn Dubin Endowed Scholarship Fund, offering scholarships to students from Washington Heights, where he grew up.

Construction is expected to begin in February and be completed next fall.

"We're pumped for it," Richardson said. "We can't wait to get it all nice and sweaty."