Stony Brook University “Biggest Slumlord in the East End”: Assemblyman

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — New York State Rep. Fred Thiel, appalled by what he said has been the University of Southampton's less-than-stellar management of the Southampton campus, has come out of the blue, calling the university the “biggest slum in the East End.” .

Thiele recently accused SBU of failing to honor its commitments to the educational facility since it bought the former Southampton College in 2006.

“Thanks to the teamwork of then-Senator Ken LaValle and myself, the Southampton College campus was acquired by the State University of New York in 2006. Since then, Stony Brook University has had a checkered record as a steward of the campus,” Thiele said.

First, Thiele charged, the university “abandoned its new undergraduate sustainability program on campus in 2009 in an effort to close the campus. Only when the Thieles and Southampton students successfully sued Stony Brook University did they reverse course and renew efforts to develop programming on campus as a graduate center.”

At the time, Thiele said, the university put Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Matthew Whelan in charge of campus planning. During his tenure, there has been “steady progress” on campus, including the construction of the new marine sciences building and the establishment of several health sciences graduate programs at Southampton, Thiele said.

“Coupled with the continued growth of the established fine arts program on campus under the leadership of Robert Reeves, campus enrollment has grown to 800 students a year at Southampton,” he said.

At the same time, Southampton Hospital completed its partnership agreement with Stony Brook University Hospital, including plans to build a new state-of-the-art hospital on campus, Thiele said, adding, “The future of the campus was bright.”

The next step in the regeneration of the campus was the restoration of Southampton Hall, which had always anchored campus activities. In 2018 to 2019, Stony Brook University, in a memorandum of understanding signed by the university's president, committed an initial capital outlay of $5 million to Southampton Hall and undertook a comprehensive feasibility study at a cost of $200,000, he said.

Since that study, nothing has happened on campus and no one has been assigned Whelan's duties, Thiele said.

“No action has been taken on Southampton Hall. There is no long-term plan for the future of the campus. Instead, the campus is once again languishing in neglect” and has been condemned, he said.

In July 2022, Thiele and state Sen. Anthony Palumbo urged the president to seek funding for Southampton Hall from the $350 million Long Island Investment Fund, established by the state Legislature, Thiele said.

“The university has failed to even apply and has taken no further action to improve the Southampton campus,” he said.

He added: “The Southampton campus may be one of Stony Brook University's greatest assets. However, it is being lost. The university has managed the property for 17 years. Their lack of action over the past four years is inexcusable and cannot No Southampton Hall alone is a potential economic driver for eastern Long Island as an arts and culture center, but the abandoned housing complex has a great opportunity for community housing.”

Thiele then proposed a 3-point plan for the future of the Southampton campus that included the following principles:

1. Appointment of a senior executive member of the university administration to re-assume responsibility for the campus.

2. Immediate plan by the university to meet its commitment to refurbish Southampton Hall.

3. Establishment of a comprehensive plan committee to develop a 5-year plan for the remainder of the campus, including community housing opportunities where the dorms are now located.

“The friends of the Southampton campus have waited long enough for Stony Brook University to fulfill its responsibility to Southampton. We will not wait any longer,” Thiele said.

University officials told Patch in a statement, “Stony Brook has been and will continue to be committed to Southampton — the campus and the community. In recent years, we've expanded our presence on the Southampton campus, from growing our programs to arts and sciences to deliver cutting-edge environmental research'.

The statement continued: “In 2021, we celebrated the expansion of the speech pathology program in the School of Health Professions. Last year, scientists from Stony Brook's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Southampton announced the successful results of their 10-year-long effort to improve of water quality and restoration of the clam population in Shinnecock Bay.”

This month, officials said, work on the Stony Brook Medicine East Hampton emergency department is scheduled to begin, and plans continue to build a new Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on campus.

“Additionally, we will soon begin the search for a new vice president of strategic initiatives, whose work will include a focus on defining an overall strategy for the Southampton campus. We appreciate our long-standing relationship with Assemblyman Thiele and his continued support of our campus in Southampton and the entire East End community. We respect his passion for the campus, demonstrated recently by securing support for the repair of the historic windmill on campus, and we look forward to continuing to work with him on issues important to the East End , ” university officials said.