Hundreds of students protest Southampton campus cuts

In a rancorous meeting Wednesday with nearly 500 students at Stony Brook University's Southampton campus, the school's president defended his decision to move most classes to the main campus and shutter dorms, the cafeteria, most classrooms and possibly the library.

The 90-minute meeting was interrupted by shouts from students and pleas that Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, the president, allow students to raise money to keep the campus afloat.

Closing much of Southampton - which Stanley described as a small, inefficient campus - will save an estimated $6.7 million a year, he said.

The meeting came a day after word leaked that Stony Brook had decided to virtually shut down the Southampton campus. The school has invested $78 million in purchasing the campus from Long Island University four years ago, completing the library and refurbishing dorms.

The plan calls for preserving the marine science and writing programs, which enroll about 360 of the campus' 525 students, Stanley said.

Stanley said students would be welcome to relocate to the main campus after most of Southampton's buildings close in August, and the admissions office would help the rest transfer to other colleges. He promised Stony Brook will offer as many as possible of Southampton's highly regarded environmental programs.

Earlier, in a separate meeting with stunned-looking faculty, Stanley acknowledged the school will be laying off an undetermined number of nontenured instructors and workers.

"These kinds of cuts are devastating," Stanley said, noting Stony Brook's main campus endured $25 million in state budget reductions last year and the university expects another $33 million cut in the year ahead. In all, Stony Brook is reducing its budget nearly 20 percent in two years, he said.

Facing the prospect of more budget cuts statewide, SUNY officials couldn't say Wednesday whether other campuses or facilities would be shut down.

As one student after another stood up to talk about the inconveniences, cost and emotional heartache of moving to other campuses, Stanley said, "I understand what you're going through."

"No, you don't!" one young woman shot back.

John Botos, a senior from Oceanside who had hoped to earn a master's degree in an environmental program at Southampton, told Stanley he considered his professors and classmates an extended family. "We as a family want the opportunity to raise money - just give us that opportunity," Botos said.

Stanley said he would not give the campus a reprieve.

Students hugged and cried in the theater where Stanley and four other administrators revealed vague plans for housing students at Stony Brook and continuing some on-campus jobs. Provost Eric Kaler said Stony Brook simply doesn't know what other cuts it will have to make.

Students angrily denounced Stanley for keeping his plans secret while they were signing leases on Southampton apartments for next year and making plans for studying. But Stanley said he waited in vain for the State Legislature to restore tens of millions of dollars eliminated in Gov. David A. Paterson's proposed budget; the 2010-11 state budget still is unresolved.

"Why don't you take a salary cut?" a young man shouted at Stanley, who noted top administrators have seen their pay frozen for two years.

Stanley left the theater flanked by five campus police officers, but he thanked students for being respectful.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), who spent 29 years on the campus when it was part of LIU, including six years as provost, said in a phone interview that Stanley is in an "absurdly impossible position" of making cuts while facing record demand for classes. But, he added, he and other politicians are trying to figure out how to get funding to keep Southampton going. "I haven't given up hope at all," he said.

With James T. Madore