Stony Brook Southampton is a campus location of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, located in Southampton, New York between the Shinnecock Indian Reservation and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the eastern end of Long Island. The campus features an innovative curriculum devoted to issues of sustainability and the environment. As one of the nation's first, and New York's only, college solely dedicated to sustainability and a fully "green" campus, students also learned sustainability concepts in their daily lives on campus. The college's unique, cutting-edge programs attracted students from all over the nation and enrollment for Fall 2010 saw a 54% increase, with a total of 800 students registered. The college was on track to soon reach its full capacity of over 2,000 students and was thriving. Astonishingly, in April 2010, the new president of Stony Brook University abruptly announced his decision to shut down the branch, due to major budget cuts received from the New York state and the need for better targeting of funds. The academica programs and students were relocated to the main campus. Six undergraduate students and a non-profit community group filed a lawsuit in NY State Supreme Court to block the closure of the college. On August 30, 2010, the judge decided in the students' favor. The Court ruled that the university violated regulations and improperly closed the campus. The final verdict on the restoration of the college to full operations for the Spring 2011 semester is pending.[1]
Stony Brook Southampton is Stony Brook University’s newest campus location, and opened with its first class of around 200 students in August 2007. Located on 82 acres (330,000 m2) seaside on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., Stony Brook Southampton’s interdisciplinary academic programs focus on issues of ecological sustainability, with undergraduate majors in Environmental Studies, Marine Sciences, Marine Vertebrate Biology, Ecosystems and Human Impact, Environmental Design, Policy and Planning and Sustainability Studies. A minor in Business Management with a focus on environmental sustainability is also offered through Stony Brook University's College of Business, and a five-year Fast Track BA/BS-MBA program is also offered in partnership with the College of Business. Students may apply for undergraduate programs online using either the SUNY Application or the Common Application.
The Stony Brook Southampton campus is also home to a nationally recognized graduate program in Creative Writing and Literature, Stony Brook’s Center for Wine, Food and Culture, the Pollock-Krasner Library and the nearby Pollock-Krasner House, the Avram Theater, and the three-decades-old Summer Writers Conference, which annually attracts many of the country’s literary stars. In 2008, the Writers Conference expanded to include a Children's Literature Conference and a Screenwriting Conference.
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Southampton College was founded in 1963 by Long Island University. It had a separate stop on the Long Island Rail Road until 1998 when the station was dismantled because it was lightly used.
From 1993, Robert F.X. Sillerman served as the Chancellor, replacing Angier Biddle Duke, ambassador to Spain under Lyndon Johnson. Sillerman took the job on two conditions: that the college scrap ill-defined liberal-arts programs and focus on marine science and creative writing. And that he lead publicity - he named Kermit the Frog as the 1996 commencement speaker: 31 newspapers picked up the story, a free marketing bonanza that raised the college's profile and drew hundreds of new admissions.
The refocusing on the marine science curriculum garnered the campus several accolades, including being named in 1998 as the Cousteau Society's sole North American Affiliate.[2] In the course of the campus's tenure under Long Island University, it produced 34 Fulbright scholars, most of which hailed from the Marine Science program.
After many years of fiscal mismanagement, the University announced a multi-million dollar capital campaign, launched a new interdisciplinary CORE curriculum and the construction of a new library (almost completed) to re-vamp the campus. After one year of a 10-year plan however, Long Island University officials ceased all plans and Long Island University decided to effectively close the campus. This forced most students to either move to University's Nassau County location, C.W. Post Campus or transfer elsewhere.
Although protests and advocacy including a rally by the non-profit Save The College at Southampton and the student-led organization The Orphans of L.I.U. (Long Island University) made numerous headlines with their actions, Undergraduate Programs ceased and all but a few campus buildings were shuttered by the end of Summer 2005.
When Long Island University announced its plans to close the campus, in 2005 the Shinnecock Indian Nation filed a suit seeking return of 3,500 acres (14 km2) including both the campus and the golf club. There were local concerns that either the land would be taken over by the Shinnecocks for a casino, or that the land would be used for a housing development in the Hamptons.
The undergraduate Marine Biology department was moved to the control of State University of New York at Stony Brook in summer 2005, and from the fall 2005 SUNY began offering an undergraduate marine sciences program, with teaching and research facilities at the campus leased from LIU.
On March 24, 2006 the State University of New York (SUNY) announced a final agreement for the purchase of the 81-acre (330,000 m2) Southampton College property from Long Island University (LIU). SUNY paid US $35 million for the 84-acre (340,000 m2) campus and its waterfront facility for its famed Marine Biology department, as well as the NPR affiliated WLIU-FM 88.3 radio station.[3] In the agreement to take over WLIU is to continue its LIU affiliation and move from its broadcasting studios in Chancellors Hall by April 2010 to another location on Hill Street in Southampton. The station has an agreement to have its broadcast tower on the campus through 2024.[4]
Stony Brook is developing the campus into a college focusing on academic programs related to the environment and sustainability. An enrollment of about 2,000 students is expected within the next five years. On August 3, 2006, Professor Martin Schoonen was appointed interim dean of the Southampton campus, rebranded Stony Brook Southampton. The curriculum is organized not into departments but around issues related to environmental sustainability, public policy, and natural resource management. Classes are shaped around an interdisciplinary core, with its students exploring how political, economic, and social issues relate to the environment.
In addition, Stony Brook Southampton offers an MFA creative writing program, headed by Robert Reeves, who directed the writing program at Southampton for LIU. The Writers Conference, the 30-year institution on the East End, annually attracting leading authors and artists from across the country continues to be held on the Southampton campus.[5] Stony Brook also offers courses and events at Southampton related to its Center for Wine, Food, and Culture.
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