Sea Changes

A few months ago, The Express News Group tackled a project to discuss the past, present and future of the college campus in Shinnecock Hills, now Stony Brook Southampton. One big conclusion: The college there has had its struggles ever since the first Southampton College opened its doors in the fall of 1963. Put another way: If it weren’t for bad luck, that college would have no luck at all.

And so, in the late spring of 2024, comes the latest bit of bad news: Stony Brook University President Dr. Maurie D. McInnis will be leaving shortly to become the first female president of Yale University.

It could turn out to have little impact on the Southampton campus and its future. McInnis, a cultural historian, had a brief tenure as president of Stony Brook — less than four years, much of it during the pandemic — but the campus to the east regularly got her attention. She spoke of finding “unique alignments” for Stony Brook University and the local community through the 82-acre campus, beyond the 600 students attending classes there.

During her tenure, the university invested $42 million in capital projects at the campus, established a rebranded Lichtenstein Center to reinforce its commitment to the arts, has built a new health care education infrastructure with a heavy presence in Southampton, and talks positively about an ambitious new hospital on the campus. McInnis noted that Southampton faculty were essential in the university getting support from the state through the New York Climate Exchange, which brought an investment that should pay returns here as well.

In early May, the university’s Stony Brook Council spoke favorably of plans to add affordable housing on the Southampton campus, for students, faculty, staff and even the community in general. McInnis touted the hiring of a new vice president for strategic initiatives, Wendy Pearson, as an important step forward, pitching her as a kind of quarterback for the future of the campus.

All of that — and it really is a lot — likely will have momentum that will carry it forward even as McInnis goes on to a higher-profile Ivy League post. But the past is prologue, and there are reasons to worry.

Three decades ago, Shirley Strum Kenny — the first female president of Stony Brook — brought a humanities background and an eye toward making something more of the Southampton campus. She envisioned an ambitious “sustainability” curriculum that parlayed the local programs that were so successful, including marine biology and the beginnings of climate studies, into an innovative presence for the campus.

But when she left in 2009, and Samuel L. Stanley Jr., a biomedical researcher, became president, it left skid marks on the campus. The new curriculum was absorbed into the main campus offerings. A year later, the campus closed — revived in large part due to a legal effort by students and alumni who refused to accept its demise.

It shows just how significant a change of leadership can be. This time could well be different — there are many reasons to be confident that Stony Brook officials now see genuine promise in a campus that at times felt like a white elephant. As the seas change once again, it’s important that the local community, which made such an impression on a busload of Stony Brook faculty and staff back in January, when an Express Sessions event kindled a spark of excitement, keeps fanning the flames. A new president may see the potential drifting in the skies to the east.