By James Laudano

In a mass e-mail sent to all Stony Brook students University President Shirley Strum Kenny announced her upcoming retirement, effective June 2009. Kenny was the first female President of Stony Brook University and has served in the position for fourteen years. The announcement comes on the heels of a few particularly difficult academic years for Kenny, during which she came under intense scrutiny from New York officials for her handling of a controversy involving infant mortality rates at the University Hospital and also from hundreds of faculty, students and staff for her decision to under-fund the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I take great satisfaction in Stony Brook’s achievements over these past fourteen years,” said Kenny. In fact, the Kenny era can be seen as one of unparalleled expansion in our University’s history. The campus expanded to include Stony Brook Southhampton and Stony Brook Manhattan. Buildings such as the Wang Center, the new Humanities Building and the rebuilt Heavy Engineering Building have gone up during her tenure. However, there has been some backlash from students and faculty over the past few years when Kenny made the choice to enroll at over 100% of the school’s capacity each subsequent year. The resulting strain on dormitory and facility space has left some questioning whether Stony Brook University should be expanding into places like Southhampton while there remains much that needs to be done on our main campus.

In the past, Kenny has taught at the Universities of Texas, Delaware and Maryland. She holds degrees in English and Journalism and earned her Ph.D from the University of Chicago. She has published five books, primarily concerning 18th century English drama.

Stony Brook has undoubtedly seen many academic, athletic and aesthetic improvements during Kenny’s time as President. However, as mentioned above, her tenure did not come without its fair share of contentious issues. It remains to be seen who will be in contention for the Presidency upon Kenny’s leaving office, and it is perhaps likely we will not know who will take the position until shortly before June 2009.

New Stony Brook Presidents are appointed by the State University Board of Trustees in Albany, based on a recommendation from the Stony Brook Council, a sort of local stand-in trustee board. As a result of historic student activism, students are represented by one member of the ten-person board. This seat usually alternates between the presidents of the undergraduate and graduate student governments. If that pattern holds, incoming Undergraduate Student Government President Jeffery Akita will be the voice of all students in the presidential selection process.