SUNY forms search committee for new chancellor

ALBANY, N.Y. — The SUNY board of trustees has announced the members of the chancellor search committee.

It includes key stakeholders from the SUNY board of trustees, campus presidents, students, faculty, alumni, as well as state and national leaders.

The 19-member group includes Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University; Martha Pollack, president of Cornell University; Wendell Weeks, chairman, CEO, and president of Corning Inc.; and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D–New York City), a 1992 graduate of Binghamton University.

Merryl Tisch, who chairs the SUNY board and Cesar Perales, the SUNY board’s vice-chairman, will co-chair the search committee, SUNY said.

The executive-search firm Isaacson, Miller, which is headquartered in Boston, will help the committee, with assistance from multiple workgroups made up of SUNY students, alumni, faculty representatives, and labor and community leaders bringing together diverse viewpoints from SUNY campuses and the communities in which they serve, SUNY said.

In the coming weeks, Isaacson, Miller will recruit candidates for the search committee’s consideration, who will then prepare a list of recommended finalists to advance to the SUNY board of trustees.

The board of trustees will consider the finalists and then vote in public session to name the 15th chancellor of SUNY.

Deborah Stanley, who retired as president of SUNY Oswego at the end of 2021, has been serving as the system’s interim chancellor. The SUNY board of trustees appointed Stanley as interim chancellor to lead SUNY after Chancellor Jim Malatras stepped down Jan. 14.

Malatras announced his resignation on Dec. 9 after documents pertaining to the sexual-harassment probe of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed that Malatras had conversations that included comments about Lindsey Boylan, a Cuomo accuser and a former Malatras co-worker that used language involving an expletive. The New York State Attorney General’s office the previous week had released the documents on the sexual-harassment probe of Cuomo.

Malatras noted in his resignation letter that “the recent events surrounding me over the past week have become a distraction.”