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SUNY Canton College Foundation and Alumni Association reject shared presidency plans

Posted 10/4/11

CANTON -- Former SUNY Canton President Dr. Earl MacArthur and some of the college's largest donors have strongly voiced their opinions against the prospect of the college having to share a president …

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SUNY Canton College Foundation and Alumni Association reject shared presidency plans

Posted

CANTON -- Former SUNY Canton President Dr. Earl MacArthur and some of the college's largest donors have strongly voiced their opinions against the prospect of the college having to share a president with another college.

According to a statement following meetings of the SUNY Canton College Foundation and SUNY Canton Alumni Association last week, many key alumni, donors, and former college employees made heated remarks against SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher's plan to combine presidents at SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam. The board members said they felt that the decision was an affront to their hard work, dedication, and donations.

Last Friday, the College Foundation and Alumni Association voted unanimously for a joint resolution strongly opposing SUNY's plan for a shared presidency.

The resolution states that both boards insist that the Office of the College President should never be identified as a shared administrative function nor should any decisions that affect the recruitment or retention of students be impacted.

It also says that present and future SUNY Canton students deserve to be represented by their own college president who is solely dedicated to making their educational experience paramount, and that alumni and friends of SUNY Canton deserve to have a sole president to represent their commitment and investment in the longstanding educational values of the college.

MacArthur, addressing the group, said, “The Shared Services Concept is nothing new to SUNY – we tried it with Potsdam for trash collection and no one was happy with it. We also went three years with a consolidated police department at both campuses (Canton and Potsdam). It became very obvious that it was hard for the chief to be in two places at once. President Schwaller has said that his allegiance is to SUNY Potsdam. Who will speak for SUNY Canton students?”

MacArthur said that there is an obvious bias shown by the chancellor. "If you look at what she's proposing, the only colleges most affected by her decisions are the agricultural or technical colleges.”

SUNY Canton College Foundation Chairman Bernard Regan said, "We felt strongly that we needed to pass our own resolutions following the resolution made by the SUNY Canton College Council in August. As a whole, unified body, we support a college president for every college within the SUNY system and will advocate for legislation or any other efforts supporting that necessity."

Richard Miller, a retired college professor and one of the largest donors in college history said, "I will do my very best to fight against any resolution that the SUNY Board of Trustees approves eliminating campus presidents. Their resolutions make no managerial sense whatsoever. I did not give more than $1 million to this college to see it run by anyone but its own president. I'm 1,000 percent in favor of the Canton College Foundation's resolution."

The boards of directors of SUNY Canton College Foundation and Alumni Association felt that the timing was critical for action. Retired St. Lawrence University Vice President for Administration Thomas Coakley, also chair emeritus of the Canton College Foundation said, “I feel the timing is important that we let SUNY know our opposition to this effort.”

Alumni Association President Dale Major said that the alumni association would also continue to fight any further attempts to share administration between the two colleges and it was the opinion of the alumni board that they would back community support against shared presidencies.

Regan closed by saying, "The sentiment is overwhelmingly against this plan. I've spoken with groups on and off campus, and none of them who know about SUNY Canton, what it is and where it came from, believes that this can work. We will back the bodies opposing this measure in any way that we can."