EDITORIAL: Reaction over Southampton campus is over the top

The emotional wounds are still raw over the decision by Stony Brook University to close the dorms at its Southampton campus. But that doesn't justify an over-the-top call for the university's president to resign.

The campus wasn't making it financially when it was Southampton College of Long Island University. So LIU sold it to SUNY. That gave Stony Brook's marine scientists an outlet to the ocean. And the goal of making the campus a college of environmental sustainability was a laudable one.

Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) and Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) helped make the purchase happen. But they haven't reacted wisely to the decision by Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr. that, in tough budget times, he can't spend more than twice as much per student there as on the main campus. Stanley closed the dorms - not the campus.

LaValle and Thiele proposed using the Town of Southampton's community preservation fund to buy the campus and make it a separate SUNY campus. Now they want a task force to study the new SUNY campus notion. Oh, and Thiele has demanded that Stanley resign. That's just plain loopy.

A committee is examining the future of the campus, looking at all options. Example: Suffolk County Community College is bursting. Could Southampton be an answer? Why not? Whatever it decides, the committee should finish soon, before more bad reactions bubble angrily to the surface. hN