Dowling shuts its policy institute

Dowling College in Oakdale has axed the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute and its director, Martin Cantor, due to budgetary pressures, Cantor said earlier this week. A Dowling spokeswoman, Heather Shivokevich, confirmed the college has closed the institute but would not comment on Cantor, saying his status was a personnel matter.

Cantor, who was economic development chief in the Democratic administration of Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin in the 1980s, had been the institute's director for the past 41/2 years and was an adjunct associate professor of economics at the college. But he said on May 27 he was told by a Dowling human relations official his position as director, and the institute itself, would be eliminated.

"I asked how many others" were being eliminated, Cantor said, "and I was the only one."

Cantor said he brought in over $300,000 to the college in the form of grants and gifts to support the institute, which held regular symposiums and lectures on a variety of economic topics. Cantor said the sessions attracted about 3,200 people in the 41/2 years.

But, he said, he has started a consulting business with virtually the same name -- the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy. And, he said, he's already got a client, Nassau County, which has hired him to be a consultant on County Executive Ed Mangano's plan to rebuild the Coliseum and develop the surrounding parking lot.

At the end, Cantor said, "There was nobody to explain my value to the college."