Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher’s effort to streamline the administration and programs at campuses across the State University of New York is off to a rough start.
A decision to have the system’s campus at Canton led by the president of the campus at nearby Potsdam has sparked a protest by employees at Canton and local town officials, who have formed a group to try to stop the move. Worse, donors to the college are already canceling pledges, officials there say.
What has most outraged faculty members and staff at Canton is the forced retirement of their president, Joseph L. Kennedy, whom many credit with helping to significantly increase the enrollment and programs offered at the college during his 18-year tenure. Mr. Kennedy has been asked to step down as president at the end of the 2011-12 academic year.
“It’s a disappointment and a shock,” said Janice C. Robinson, an associate professor of accounting at Canton, who added that faculty members found out about the situation from news accounts. “From my viewpoint, it was unethical the way it was done and how it was presented to our campus.”
The changes being prescribed at Canton are part of a broader effort by SUNY administrators to make the 64-campus system more efficient so they can spend more on student support and academic programs.
“What we are doing is being proactive in terms of organizing campuses with partners for the express purpose of finding efficiencies so they can spend more money on instruction and student services,” said David K. Lavallee, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost of SUNY.
Over all, the system hopes to save $25-million to $30-million annually, not just by eliminating the salaries of three presidents and their executive staffs but through collaborating in various ways at campuses across the system, including by purchasing supplies collectively, combining information technology or library services, and, possibly, sharing athletic facilities and staff.
Long-term efficiency has become crucial as the state has cut about a third of the system’s appropriations in recent years. At the same time, the governor has raised expectations that the SUNY colleges will be key to the state’s future economic-development efforts.
Ms. Zimpher, who took office as chancellor in 2009, announced early in her tenure her plans to try to trim the administration and coordinate program offerings at the system’s 64 colleges and universities, stressing that preserving the campuses was a key priority.
In addition to the colleges at Canton and Potsdam, two other pairs of institutions will share a single president. The president of the technology college at Delhi will also lead the campus at Cobleskill, and the president of the SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica-Rome will also oversee SUNY A&T College at Morrisville. Those particular colleges were chosen because they all enroll 4,000 students or fewer and are relatively close to each other. The system has been giving most of the colleges about $1.75-million annually to hire a full complement of administrators.
While putting one president in charge of two previously independent institutions is unusual, Mr. Lavallee said, the situation will not be that different from a president who runs a large university with several different colleges.
Controversy at Canton
That’s not the way folks in Canton see it. Though the Potsdam campus is only about 10 miles away, Canton’s mission and Potsdam’s mission are starkly different, they say: SUNY Canton-College of Technology offers both two- and four-year degrees, mostly in technical fields, while SUNY College at Potsdam is primarily a liberal-arts college specializing in education and music.
Potsdam produces opera stars and Canton produces cops and nurses, says Canton’s town supervisor, David T. Button, who has assembled a half-dozen community leaders from the town to try to persuade the university system to rescind Mr. Kennedy’s dismissal.
Mr. Button said the town has a vested interest in protecting the independence of the college and should have been consulted. “We are surprised that SUNY central has decided it can bypass the people of Canton.”
Canton faculty members say that their college requires a leader who understands the specialized accreditations that several of their programs require. And they are concerned that the new president’s fund-raising efforts will favor his original campus.
In fact, Mr. Kennedy said, the decision to share a president has already had a negative impact on fund raising at the Canton campus. A few donors with planned gifts totaling about $200,000 have already announced they were canceling their pledges, he said.
John F. Schwaller, president of the Potsdam campus, said the music and education programs at his college also have separate accreditation, so he is familiar with that process. And a president often must deal with donors who have varying interests.
Mr. Schwaller explains that there has been no official announcement about whether he will also be president of the college at Canton, but he said he is excited about the possibilities that arrangement could provide for both institutions.
Not everyone at the Potsdam campus is happy about Mr. Schwaller’s expanded duties either. Laura Rhoads, a professor of biology there, said consolidating administrative staff will mean more work for the employees who remain. And it’s far from certain that the cost savings from eliminating administrators will result in significantly more being spent on academic programs, she said.
In addition, the changes raise questions about how union negotiations will be handled, said Ms. Rhoads, who is the Potsdam campus representative of United University Professions, the union that represents many faculty and staff on system campuses. For example, will the union members from each campus negotiate separately with the administration, or will they be lumped together?
Reaction to sharing presidents has been more subdued on other campuses, but that could change, some leaders say.
Richard Couch, president of the alumni association of Morrisville, said he generally supports the plan and thinks it’s necessary for the system to try to save taxpayers’ money. But he warns that “the chancellor will have 36,000 angry alumni,” if the Morrisville college identity is threatened or its signature programs are put in jeopardy.
Richard J. Carreno, interim president of the Morrisville campus, said the idea of cutting costs plays well with the politicians and public, but the reality of putting the plan into place is very different. “This plan assumes that these campuses have groups of people that aren’t being used efficiently,” he said. But after three years of budget cuts, he said, most of the efficiencies have already been wrung out of the system.
John Taylor, a professor of building trades at SUNY’s campus in Delhi, said it’s too soon to tell whether the plan to share a president with the college at Cobleskill will work. But he has faith that Delhi’s president, Candace S. Vancko, is up to the job of splitting her time and loyalty between institutions.
Kenneth A. Shaw, author of The Successful President: ‘Buzzwords’ on Leadership, who spent 27 years as a campus or system president, said such an arrangement can be successful. But it will require other strong leaders, including provosts, who can handle day-to-day issues. But if provosts have to hire more staff to be successful, then the savings from the effort could be lost.
Ms. Zimpher said more details on how the plans will be carried out will be available after a September 8 meeting with all of the system’s presidents.
