Post Academic

If you thought the grad school humanities job market was bad, the entire academic job market just got bleaker. The State of New York has shut down an entire campus, Stony Brook Southampton.

The Stony Brook Southampton page has a few notes in tiny print: “Admissions events cancelled” and “Residential program and new undergraduate admissions at Stony Brook Southampton will be suspended.”

According to the NYT, the cuts will save $6 million dollars. Later in the article, however, the author points out that Stony Brook as a whole faces a staggering “$34 million budget gap in the coming year.”

How did this happen? Think Magazine noted that, “President Stanley alone makes $650,000 a year, and the combined salaries of those on stage totaled over $1.4 million based on 2008 figures.” High salaries alone didn’t cause this problem, but it makes you wonder if the administrators have been working hard enough to prevent this situation. They sure didn’t work hard enough to keep students informed, as many of those quoted in the Think Magazine article argued that they were blindsided by the announcement.

Maybe our commenter who said academia was most like “Battlestar Galactica” was right. In the “Battlestar Galactica” view of academia, “there’s never enough of anything,” and now there’s a whole lot less.

Stony Brook Southampton site
Facing Cuts, Stony Brook Will Close Programs [New York Times]
Administration Announces Decision to Close Most of SB Southampton [Think Magazine]