SUNY Trustees meeting to draw voices from Canton community, college

CANTON — It’s going to take a seven-hour road trip, but the community is determined to make its voice heard.

On Monday and Tuesday, the SUNY Board of Trustees will hold an open meeting at the SUNY Global Center in New York City to review their proposed new guidelines for presidential searches. More than fifty SUNY Canton students and five Save Our SUNY Canton task force members are planning to attend, with Supervisor David T. Button giving a presentation at the Trustees’ public hearing at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’ve always asked for a seat at the table, and it’s the only way we can guarantee there’s transparency and openness in the process. That is our primary objective,” said Mr. Button, who will speaking at the hearing on behalf of the Canton community, the task force and most of the municipalities and school districts in St. Lawrence County. “We’ve got a number of things we want to get on the table, including our concern about how one president for two colleges might degrade the education of our students at SUNY Canton.”

The most notable of the proposed changes to the presidential search process include separate procedures for single campus and joint campus searches, a specific procedure for a “closed search” and a new process for the president of one campus to begin leading another college. According to emailed information from SUNY Canton College Council Chairman Ronald M. O’Neill, who will also be attending the meeting on Tuesday, the trustees decided at the last minute not to vote on these guidelines, only to seek comment.

Mr. Button explained such a vote would have been premature, as the one college-one president bill proposed by State Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, has been receiving strong bipartisan support in the state legislature. Although he has not yet received confirmation from SUNY Central that he will be allowed to speak at the hearing, Mr. Button said he hopes to invite the Board of Trustees to hold one of its upcoming meetings in Canton to increase the transparency of their proceedings.

“We’ve reached out to the SUNY Trustees on a number of occasions, we’ve reached out to the chancellor,” he said. “I think we’d like some formal acknowledgement that Canton’s concerns are going to be considered and that Canton’s going to have a seat at the table.”

At the hearing, Mr. Button also plans to highlight the community’s objection to policy revisions that would make it easier for SUNY Central to mandate a joint presidency without sufficient community consultation. He will present a collection of resolutions from area villages, towns and school districts in support of the one college-one president legislation.

Mr. Button said he further hopes to correct the misconception that SUNY Canton only spends 39 percent of its budget on academic programs. According to Mr. Button, the college actually spends in excess of 52 percent of its budget on academic programs — more than many other colleges in the state — when excess funds from tuition are taken into account.

“I’d like for them to say, yeah, we probably jumped the gun, and we need to take two steps back and we’re going to give the college council permission to begin its search for a new president,” Mr. Button said. “Until the college council has permission to proceed with the replacement of Dr. Kennedy, it is pretty evident to most of us here that (the Board) has already decided the outcome of their proposal.”

In addition to Mr. Button and Mr. O’Neill, many SUNY Canton students are also planning to attend Tuesday’s meeting. According to Daynelle N. Richards, a senior healthcare management major and president of SUNY Canton’s Student Government Association, the association will be sponsoring a bus ride to New York City to carry out an organized protest at the SUNY Global Center.

“Our message is: one, to continue protesting that we want our own presidents and one president for each campus; two, we do support Chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s shared services; and three, the new guidelines of the presidential search process eliminate the voice of the college council and the students,” she said.

Ms. Richards said that approximately 50 students and community members are expected to travel to New York on Tuesday. While the student protesters will declare that each campus should have its own president, they will also note that they hope other administrative services can be shared between SUNY schools.

“I hope that the Board of Trustees will change their mind and listen to us,” Ms. Richards said. “We’re dedicated to our cause, and we want our voices to be heard.”