SUNY Chancellor

[UAalum72]

Former insider seeks post Times-Union story says the Trustees chair's goal is to choose the new chancellor 'by August'. Field narrowed to six candidates, but more could emerge.

 

One candidate is Lloyd Constantine, Spitzer aide who favored the two-flagship setup.

[Clickclack]

Former insider seeks post Times-Union story says the Trustees chair's goal is to choose the new chancellor 'by August'. Field narrowed to six candidates, but more could emerge.

 

One candidate is Lloyd Constantine, Spitzer aide who favored the two-flagship setup.

 

Constantine would be BAD news....

[danefan]

Please not Constantine. We would be in a world of hurt if he was chosen.

[danefan]

But after the state of the state speech -- when Spitzer, in words written by Constantine, crowned Buffalo and Stony Brook flagships -- he put down a college president who was yelling at him about that plan. His advice: "Grow up."

 

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...&TextPage=2

 

[ATL_DANE]

But after the state of the state speech -- when Spitzer, in words written by Constantine, crowned Buffalo and Stony Brook flagships -- he put down a college president who was yelling at him about that plan. His advice: "Grow up."

 

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...&TextPage=2

 

 

 

I hope to god he's not selected.

 

If he were selected, do you think he would really try to pursue the two flagship option? It really seemed to get a lot of bad press, at least in the Capitol District. And for very good reason! It would be a disaster. I would hope he learned his lesson.

 

I wonder if we learned our lesson? It does look like UA has been forming alliances and trying to expand. The alliance with Albany Med is great for us. The nano deal is good but we were already number one there. I think the next targets ought to be Albany Law and Albany Pharmacy. Mergers would be good for everyone in the Capitol District. The lobbying power and national exposure Albany would have if UA, Albany Law, Albany Pharmacy and Albany Med were under one flag would be astounding (It would be a U of Texas). If we can't merge at least go for more of these alliances. Let the Albany Med deal be the model.

[UAalum72]

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

[ATL_DANE]

I emailed the UA Provost and Albany Law President about six weeks ago when this became news. I told them that both could win with a merger. Albany Law has two options. They can do nothing and remain an independent law school. This will result in as many as three new law schools being added. Not only does that add to the supply of lawyers, it adds to their competition. Expensive Albany Law, which is tire three, would have to compete with cheaper state options. Bad news for them. The other option is to join UA. They may be able to stop theses new schools. New York gets an upstate law school without adding to capacity. SUNY gets another law school. Its win-win. The provost and president both resonded with a thank you. Let's see if they save themselves or let pride destroy them.

 

Sorry if there are typing errors. I'm on my blackberry.

 

 

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

[danefan]

I emailed the UA Provost and Albany Law President about six weeks ago when this became news. I told them that both could win with a merger. Albany Law has two options. They can do nothing and remain an independent law school. This will result in as many as three new law schools being added. Not only does that add to the supply of lawyers, it adds to their competition. Expensive Albany Law, which is tire three, would have to compete with cheaper state options. Bad news for them. The other option is to join UA. They may be able to stop theses new schools. New York gets an upstate law school without adding to capacity. SUNY gets another law school. Its win-win. The provost and president both resonded with a thank you. Let's see if they save themselves or let pride destroy them.

 

Sorry if there are typing errors. I'm on my blackberry.

 

 

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

 

 

 

Being an Albany Law alumni I wouldn't mind the connection there. Most people think Albany Law is already affiliated with UAlbany. However, with that being said, the Albany Law ego of being the oldest indepedent private law school in the nation is something that won't be easily dealt with.

[uofalbany]

Constantine's experience in education is a review of SUNY by traveling to the suny institutions in his bmw suv and writing a recommendation. His anti trust lawyership and his close friendship with ladylover Spitzer doesn't make him qualified to manage such an instituion, in my opinion. Funny how Spitzer's best friend ends up as a 'special advisor', writing his higher education platform. Special interest appointments? I'm not sure a law school at Binghamton moves them anywhere, as quoted by Consty... they are already a flagship / pillar of the SUNY system, just as the University of Albany is a flagship of the State University of New York system. This guy needs to start coming from a different perspective.

 

Nick Donofrio, the IBM executive vice president and an RPI trustee also considered a candidate for the chancellorship, would be a much better choice, in my opinion. World leading business leadership experience is what SUNY needs, giving the system a true leader's vision and a competitive nature. OF course, this is all my OPINION. And, he has experience in the educational realm as a trustee at RPI. The strong IBM / University of Albany tie with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, along with the recent multi billion dollar Ibm committment to the University / Albany region helps support his candidacy as well.

 

I hope the SUNY Board sees it this way as well.

 

I'd be very excited to see a merger with Albany Law. Atl dane, thanks for your effort in writing to them, and I agree with your analysis.

[MRSGDG]

check out the "flagship thread" for more articles about the flagship stuff... 3 different articles from today

[UA_MA_2000]

I emailed the UA Provost and Albany Law President about six weeks ago when this became news. I told them that both could win with a merger. Albany Law has two options. They can do nothing and remain an independent law school. This will result in as many as three new law schools being added. Not only does that add to the supply of lawyers, it adds to their competition. Expensive Albany Law, which is tire three, would have to compete with cheaper state options. Bad news for them. The other option is to join UA. They may be able to stop theses new schools. New York gets an upstate law school without adding to capacity. SUNY gets another law school. Its win-win. The provost and president both resonded with a thank you. Let's see if they save themselves or let pride destroy them.

 

Sorry if there are typing errors. I'm on my blackberry.

 

 

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

 

 

I emailed the UA Provost and Albany Law President about six weeks ago when this became news. I told them that both could win with a merger. Albany Law has two options. They can do nothing and remain an independent law school. This will result in as many as three new law schools being added. Not only does that add to the supply of lawyers, it adds to their competition. Expensive Albany Law, which is tire three, would have to compete with cheaper state options. Bad news for them. The other option is to join UA. They may be able to stop theses new schools. New York gets an upstate law school without adding to capacity. SUNY gets another law school. Its win-win. The provost and president both resonded with a thank you. Let's see if they save themselves or let pride destroy them.

 

Sorry if there are typing errors. I'm on my blackberry.

 

 

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

 

 

 

Being an Albany Law alumni I wouldn't mind the connection there. Most people think Albany Law is already affiliated with UAlbany. However, with that being said, the Albany Law ego of being the oldest indepedent private law school in the nation is something that won't be easily dealt with.

 

 

What if we started a petition for an Albany Law School and UAlbany merger? You might not find support from Siena/ALS alumni, but so what. They only make up a small portion of alumni from ALS (and no more than the number of UA people who graduated from ALS).

 

ATL_DANE, did you ever hear back from the people you e-mailed?

 

I think I'll start a group on facebook, and look into starting a blog/website dedicated to a merger. What does everyone think?

[danefan]

I think you'll be hard pressed to find a lot of alumni in support.

The merger really doesn't do much for the alumni of Albany law.

 

It would be a huge boom for the UAlbany Alumns and for future Albany Law students, but not necessarily for Albany law alumns.

 

The people who should be pushing for a merger are all the local and uninterested politicians (read anyone but Binghamton pols). It would be cheaper and more cost effective to create another SUNY upstate law school by merging with an existing private law school than it would be to create one from scratch.

 

I cannot believe that people would even consider building a law school from scratch in this economy. I totally agree with E. Stewart Jones's comments in that article that this is a silly idea that some politician is going to use to get his name on a monument.

[UA_MA_2000]

I think you'll be hard pressed to find a lot of alumni in support.

The merger really doesn't do much for the alumni of Albany law.

 

It would be a huge boom for the UAlbany Alumns and for future Albany Law students, but not necessarily for Albany law alumns.

 

The people who should be pushing for a merger are all the local and uninterested politicians (read anyone but Binghamton pols). It would be cheaper and more cost effective to create another SUNY upstate law school by merging with an existing private law school than it would be to create one from scratch.

 

I cannot believe that people would even consider building a law school from scratch in this economy. I totally agree with E. Stewart Jones's comments in that article that this is a silly idea that some politician is going to use to get his name on a monument.

 

Perhaps you're right. The idea that I am simply advocating, at a minimum, is to drop the illusory naming association with Union University and adopt a naming association agreement with UAlbany. ALS could still remain "independent" of UAlbany and charge its 40K a year for tuition. All I'm advocating is that if we feel the need, as ALS people, to be associated with something larger, make it UAlbany and not the outdated concept of Union University that served its purpose decades and decades ago. After all, the real Union University is in Jackson, Tennessee!! Check out what happens when one types in Union University in Google. This is the first result:

 

http://www.uu.edu/

[danefan]

I agree with dropping Union University. They only have it because you need to have an affiliation with a University to be accredited by the ABA.

 

Here's what I would do. I would make Albany Law a quasi-public law school.

 

-Drop Union and officially assoicate Albany law with UAlbany.

-Continue to run and manage Albany Law the exact same way it is run now. Meaning no SUNY Board of Trustees involvement in management except maybe two or three Albany Law trustee positions that SUNY Trustees get to fill with whomever they want.

-Continue to charge $40,000 a year for tuition, but break it down like this: $15,000 (or whatever UB charges) to the student. The rest ($25,000) will be subsidized by the state of NY. That works out to be at most $7 million a year in state funding. That is MUCH MUCH MUCH less than it would cost the state to build and run a new law school at Bing.

 

That gives you what is essentially the second upstate public law school but its doesn't remove the independence of Albany law. The only reason people want another public law school is to decrease tuition costs. That is achieved here. Albany law is still technically independent because it isn't being governed by the state or UAlbany.

[ATL_DANE]

Times-Union story on funding for three law schools Let deliberations begin has Constantine supporting a new one at Binghamton, saying it would help move Bing to become "another flagship in the system" !

 

 

ATL_DANE, did you ever hear back from the people you e-mailed?

 

I heard back from both the UA Provost and the Albany Law President concerning my hope that they would partner. Both leaders thanked me for my time and said it was an "interesting idea"... or something to that effect. The President of Albany Law did mention that he wasn't sure it it would be well received by his community.

 

I emailed the Chair of Albany Law a few days ago, since I've been having good feedback from others. I gave him the same argument, which went something like this.

 

Albany Law can try to resist change or they can embrace it as an opportunity for growth. SUNY will be getting additional law schools, that is a fact. The additional law schools will add to capacity, while quality applicants will remain stagnant. This supply/demand change will negatively effect Albany Law. Add to that shift that the new law schools will be SUNY schools and therefore will be significantly more affordable and therefore attractive to applicants. This will add to the aforementioned negative effect on Albany Law. Albany Law can attempt to head this situation off by partnering with it's own SUNY Center, which if successful would reduce the argument for adding new law schools. It's much cheaper for New York State to partner with an existing law school than create new law schools. A UAlbany-Albany Law partnership would achieve New York's stated goals of adding more affordable law school options under the SUNY umbrella in the least expensive way possible. This partnership would eliminate everyone's stated concerns about adding more law schools to a saturated maket. Albany Law would be able to offer lower tuition and therefore be more attractive to applicants. Albany Law could more easily dip into state funding to grow their school by partnering or being part of SUNY, the Albany Med deal comes to mind. UAlbany also gains from a partnership. We have very few professional schools relative to SBU and UB and that almost cost us in the flagship fight. If Constantine is hired, we may yet lose out on being a flagship! Finally, both UAlbany and Albany Law are stronger together than they are apart. Unfortunately, I'm guessing Albany Law would rather be stubborn and slip to 4th tier rather than partner to build a better university. Just a guess.

 

On a different topic, I was told that the Nano College is preparing a range of undergraduate offerings. I think this is critical to our hopes to be included as a flagship next time that issue arises. Unfortunately, I think it will arise again. Engineering students should help UA beef up our SAT scores and more importantly give us a professional school.. US News and World Reports doesn't rank doctoral nano programs. They do rank undergraduate engineering! Scoring well there would be nice.