Trees Murdered: No One Allowed to Hear Them Scream

By Sam Goldman
Staff Writer

Only a couple of weeks after faculty members, students, and community residents alike loudly voiced their complaints over the proposed reconstruction of the main entrance of the University, with barely any acknowledgement of the controversy, the trees lining the current entrance were razed earlier this week in preparation of the reconstruction.


This comes after protests by members of the University Senate, three separate petitions signed by 600 students during finals week, the faculty and staff of the Ecology Department, and 23 Distinguished Professors, including the well-respected Dr. Malcolm Bowman. It comes after a rare public e-mail exchange by University Senate Chairman W. Brent Lundquist and member Robert Aller, which is significant because the University Senate is rarely - if ever - heard from in public.

It is a shame that a few simple things could have very easily defused a lot of the enmity that currently exists. The University did not attempt to sell the main entrance plan to anyone. There was no effort made in talking to anyone at all. All parties were treated, essentially, like they did not exist and that their opinion was immaterial. Lundquist's email was offensive in its "trust us, we're experts" tone, and Aller rightly called him out for sending out an e-mail that said absolutely nothing of substance and did not address the complaints of the community. The e-mail could have said, "we wish to hear from students, faculty, staff, and community residents to make sure everyone is on board before we proceed," and this would have been so much better received. As would at least one public hearing.

The University has made it very clear what they think of dissenting opinions. And with rumors of a second hotel being in the works and the University's looming takeover of the Gyrodyne property, they will not endear themselves to anyone in the near future unless they begin to understand that there is an actual community with real people who live around the campus.

Over the past year, Stony Brook University has: dissolved the Citizens Advisory Council, a group of community residents who would speak to SBU officials to promote good University/community relations; used eminent domain proceedings to try and take over a significant patch of land; held a public hearing on that land grab where several residents overheard an SBU official say offhandedly that their opinions do not matter; promise to build a new walkway to the Union based on a student's design, then turned around and let an outside firm design it; and now, destroyed a patch of trees which breaks a buffer between the school and Nicolls Road that, allegedly at Ward Melville's insistence, has existed since Melville donated the land in 1962.

Now attention must shift to the faculty and community's only real success story - the Ashley Schiff preserve. It's located in an area that must be considered prime real estate. While Shirley Strum Kenny has given assurances that the preserve will not be touched during her time as President, one wonders how long that will last. The University is expanding, there is no doubt about that. How long before they look at the preserve as the perfect place for new construction? And how can anyone trust the University to even acknowledge the existence of dissenting opinions by now?

More pictures of the trees falling