(originally published in the Stony Brook Press, October 15, 1997)

By Stephen Preston

 
Ever hear of the Campus Village? Probably not; the Administration has been quite secretive about the whole plan. In the Administration's private documents, it is referred to as the Retail Village, though in public (i.e. in brief mentions in Kenny's speeches) it is always referred to as the Campus Village. I will refer to it as the Retail Village to avoid confusion, since it seems that the plan of the Kenny Regime is basically to build a shopping center somewhere on campus.

The questions of why the Administration wants a mall on campus, and why they're being so secretive about it, must wait. But I can attempt to answer several other questions, based on some preliminary research I've done on the subject. The Kenny Regime seems to have the following scheme in mind: it wants the state to privatize University property so that Kenny can lease it to the developers, and let the developers build their own structure, which both enables them to build without using the state's construction company, and which also (and more importantly) enables the University or the owners of the Retail Village to operate without any oversight from the Faculty Student Association. This is roughly the same sort of scheme that was used to enable Charles Wang to build his Asian-American center.

The Administration has already proposed legislation to privatize some of its land and is waiting for approval from the state. Though Kenny has not made any public announcements or held any open meetings (which may be in violation of the Open Meetings Law of the State of New York, though the Administration will deny it) in six months, it is well-known that Dick Mann (one of Kenny's newest henchmen, the Vice President for Administration) has been working just about full-time on it.

Now ordinarily, when the campus wishes to run some kind of store or service on the campus, it goes through the Faculty Student Association, the non-profit organization responsible for the food service, bookstore, computer store, vending services, etc. Generally FSA either runs the service itself or contracts out and oversees the private contractor. In particular, the Retail Services Committee of the FSA would oversee the retail stores on campus.

Now the Administration has very aggressively, since last Spring at least, been trying to weaken the FSA. Historically, according to Bill Wiesner (chair of the Retail Services Committee and a faculty member), new Administrations generally are combative with the FSA, feeling they would be able to make higher profits off campus services than FSA could. FSA also has been belligerent to the Administration in the past, since it used to be mostly composed of faculty and students, whose interests often conflicted with Administration's.

But no longer. The FSA Board of Directors, which ultimately makes all of FSA's decisions, had 14 members last year, 7 of whom were students (4 undergrads, 2 grads, and 1 alumni), 3 of whom were faculty, and 4 of whom were administrative. Dick Mann, Henchman Extraordinaire, demanded that the FSA eliminate the alumni position and 2 other student positions, and since this happened at the very end of the semester with several students absent from the final meetings, the proposal was approved. Of course, it would have been hard to deny such a proposal, since the Administration has the authority to demand a restructuring of the Board at any time and can dissolve the FSA if it does not comply.

The Administration's significant influence on the new 11-member Board was evident from the first meeting of the semester. Dick Mann sat in the corner, all 4 administrators showed up, though only two students did (the GSO representative, Marc Colosimo, had requested a different time due to a conflict, but was and is still being ignored). Stan Altman, the Kenny Regime's Mercenary Henchman, spent most of the meeting denouncing the FSA's structure. He and Daniel Melucci (Assistant Henchman) were concerned that there were too many students on the various committees (Dining Service, Retail Service, Budget, and Center Campus Facility Development), that "FSA should not be a tutorial for students; it must function as a business to serve the needs of the President." Melucci worried that committee chairs were not board members and that they might have too much freedom to make decisions with which the Kenny Administration disagreed. All Administrators present expressed concern that the FSA should not be able to make decisions or even recommendations on the Center Campus Facility (FSA is interested in getting student ideas on what sort of meals they'd like if or when a large dining facility is finally built in the center of campus; this is Phase 3 of the Student Activities Center planning.). Dick Mann announced from his corner that "FSA is not the forum to argue issues of broader extent"; it should do what the University asks of it and nothing more, and should not attempt to direct policy.

I and an occasional faculty member spent much of the meeting arguing with Altman about student rights and the need for representation of the entire campus in Administrative decisions. Because of this (I'm not on the Board), the Administration tried to get the next Board meeting to be an Executive Session, which means the Board will be closed to the public. I cannot tell how other Board members feel about these tactics. The students have generally just observed passively, as Polity appointees often have on such committees. The faculty appear intimidated, and have offered that FSA will be "tied more closely to Administration than ever before." In the face of more extreme challenges to the independence of the FSA, faculty like Judy Lum (FSA President) and Jim Mackin (FSA Vice President) have been willing to oppose the Administration. However, the aggressiveness of the Kenny Regime in attempting to crush FSA is truly disturbing. Though the FSA has not always been efficient in defending student concerns, without it we'd have no control at all.

Even more interesting than the Administration's attack on FSA is Shirley Kenny's personal connections to developers. The Corporate Advisory Board is a group hand-picked by Kenny (presumably they are personal friends, but one can't be sure) to advise her on campus matters. Obtaining the membership of this board turned out to be a bit of a chore; after getting dismissed by George Meyer, I had to demand it through the Freedom of Information Law. I have not had much time to actually investigate everyone on this Board, since the Administration stalled it for over a week after I asked. But here's what I have:

 
Corporate Advisory Board Members

Richard D. Goldstein: There are several Richard Goldsteins, and I cannot be sure which one this is. One writes for the Long Island Voice on homosexuality issues, one is CEO of Unilever, but the most likely candidate is a guy who runs a business called "Richard Goldstein Investments," located in the Long Island area.

John Belle: Architect, was head of the group which restored Ellis Island, and possibly other projects.

Jeffrey Cohen: Republican, ran for State Assembly in Nassau County; won in 1990, lost in 1992. There is more of interest, but I have had trouble accessing it.

Milton Glaser: The graphic designer who recently designed Stony Brook's new signs "for free." Rumor has it he then collected money for actually building the signs, but this is unsubstantiated.

Richard Lippe: Lawyer, member of Project Long Island Steering Committee, a group whose purpose is to encourage technological and other businesses in the area.

Michael Minikes: Treasurer of the well-known investment firm Bear, Stearns and Co. Bear Stearns was recently sued for illegal trading practices, but I don't know much other information about Minikes in particular.

Richard Nasti: Doubtless the most interesting member of the board. Dick Nasti graduated from Stony Brook in the late seventies and worked on Al D'Amato's Senate campaigns. Apparently he impressed the Republican party, for Pataki appointed him as a Board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (which oversees the LIRR, among other things), as well as other transportation groups. He was then given a position at the New York Post, whose owner was close friends with D'Amato. Soon after, the Post was discovered to be involved with the mob (no, seriously!) in a scheme to steal newspapers to make circulation appear higher, or something like that. Nasti ended up being prosecuted for a misdemeanor (though there were grounds for felony charges) because D'Amato was also friends with the New York State District Attorney. He appears to be no longer with the MTA (perhaps because of the Post incident), but there is one organization willing to hire him... Yes, Nasti is now back at Stony Brook, and he serves as the Chair of the Stony Brook Council and on the Corporate Board. I would recommend the interested reader to look at issues of Newsday from around 1988-1992 or so, in which there are a lot of stories about this whole scandal.

Leonard Riggio: CEO of Barnes & Noble. Riggio recently gained notoriety as one of the members of the corrupt Board of Trustees of Adelphi University. He and 17 other Trustees out of a Board of 19 were dismissed and then sued by the state Attorney General for allowing Adelphi President Peter Diamondopoulos to steal money from the University for Manhattan apartments and other luxuries. Two members of the Board had been reportedly benefitting from connections to the University with increased business, though the media has so far said little of Riggio's connections. I attempted to find out which bookstore managed Adelphi, but could not. Barnes and Noble does not currently run Stony Brook's store, but it did five years ago, until it was ejected for service generally regarded as atrocious. Many members of the FSA believe that Kenny's announcement of plans for a new bookstore in the Retail Village is a scheme to get Barnes & Noble back on campus, and that her attempt to weaken FSA is primarily to keep it from interfering with these plans.

Robert A. Rosen: Naval Rear Admiral, retired. Is either President or CEO of a corporation (Robro, I believe) which develops retail shopping centers.

Cary F. Staller: Probably has something to do with the Staller Center, but I didn't find much publicity on him.

The data above is sketchy because I was trying to get it done quickly. It is obvious that nearly all the members have a vested interest in the Retail Village, including the retail developer, the two investment brokers, and of course the bookstore owner. Administration (in the person of Gary Matthews) has announced that no further information will be provided about Dick Mann's and the Corporate Advisory Board's planning of the Retail Village. We have to demand that Administrative decisions be made public. We cannot let them do this unhindered. I encourage everyone to go to the President's Office (3rd floor of Administration) or to Gary Matthews' office (2nd floor, Campus Services) and demand to know what is being planned, because it doesn't look like the Retail Services Committee or anyone else will challenge them.