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Suffolk Closeup: Signs of life at Stony Brook Southampton

The Stony Brook Southampton campus has been sitting there, very lightly used, ever since the administration of Stony Brook University pulled the plug on it two years ago. A campus on which the State of New York spent nearly $80 million, its dormitories are empty, its classrooms largely vacant. It’s a far cry from what it had been in the years when it was Long Island University’s active, bustling Southampton College or Stony Brook Southampton in its first days.

Stony Brook took over the campus after LIU decided in 2005 to close Southampton College. It opened in August 2007 with an enrollment of 200. “As one of the nation’s first, and New York’s only, colleges solely dedicated to sustainability and a fully ‘green’ campus,” according to the Wikipedia entry on Stony Brook Southampton, “students … learned sustainability concepts in their daily lives on campus. The college’s unique, cutting-edge programs attracted students from all over the nation and enrollment for fall 2010 [was] … a total of 800 students registered.

“The college was on track to soon reach its full capacity of over 2,000 students and was thriving. Astonishingly, in April 2010, the new president of Stony Brook University abruptly announced his decision to shut down the branch, due to major budget cuts received from New York State.”

Six undergraduate students and a non-profit community group filed suit in State Supreme Court, challenging the move, and on August 30, 2010, the court ruled that the university had violated state regulations in closing the campus.

Now there are new signs of life. Two weeks ago, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for an $8.3 million Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook Southampton. Dr. Samuel Stanley, the Stony Brook University president who decided to all but close the campus, was there and praised the project.

Also present were State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor and State Senator Kenneth LaValle of Port Jefferson, long-time chairman of the Senate Committee on Higher Education. Said Mr. Thiele: “The sun is shining on the Southampton campus today.” Mr. LaValle said the center was “a big win” and there would be “other announcements down the road” about the campus. In ordering Stony Brook Southampton nearly shut down, Dr. Stanley had outraged them both. They had been instrumental in getting the state to acquire the 84-acre campus for $35 million after LIU had abandoned it, and then in getting the state to invest in renovating it.

Moreover, they helped define the mission of Stony Brook Southampton: to be dedicated to studies in environmental sustainability.

Meanwhile, an MFA program in creative writing and literature, which was started by Southampton College, has continued. It was expanded last year to include film and theatre. Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences also has survived from LIU days.

But what about Stony Brook Southampton’s original mission of sustainability?

On the same day, June 8, as the groundbreaking, Peconic Institute held its first organizational meeting. Messrs. Thiele and LaValle were involved in setting up this non-profit entity. It is “to guide and promote an ecologically sustainable way of life within the Peconic Region … by providing a neutral, nonpartisan forum for public participation, research, policy discussions and consensus building on the critical issues affecting the region’s economy and environment,” according to its mission statement.

To be based at Stony Brook Southampton, the institute’s “initial directors” include leading East End environmentalists: Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End; Peconic Baykeeper Kevin McAllister; Kevin McDonald of The Nature Conservancy; Water Mill solar architect Bill Chaleff; and former East Hampton Natural Resources Commissioner Larry Penny.

Also among the 23 are historian Elizabeth Haile, attorney Marguerite Smith and Reverend Mike Smith, pastor of the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church, all of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Also “interim directors” are shellfish aquaculturist Karen Rivara of Southold; Joseph Gergela III, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau; and John Botos of Southampton, who will serve as executive director. Mr. Botos is a graduate of Stony Brook Southampton’s sustainability program.

“I think through a lot of effort and a lot of battling, we’re getting the campus back on the map,” said Mr. Thiele. “Make no mistake about it. We haven’t given up on it being a residential campus again.” He said his “ultimate goal is to see the campus as an independent SUNY college.”