Nassau Community College faculty union president leaving

Daily Point

David Stern to replace Faren Siminoff as acting president

Faren Siminoff, the president of the Nassau Community College faculty union, is resigning from that post, effective Wednesday, citing concerns over her health, The Point has learned.

In a letter announcing the decision, Siminoff noted that the position "has become a 24/7 job," making it difficult to recover from a "series of health issues" she has experienced.

"This has been a very difficult decision for me due to my abiding commitment to this faculty and institution," she wrote.

Siminoff, a professor of history, political science and geography, has been at the college for decades. In 2010, she was the recipient of the State University of New York’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.

But with her Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers hat on, Siminoff has long been a vocal opponent of many of NCC’s policies and the college's presidents.

Siminoff said in her letter that David Stern, who previously served as the union’s vice president, will become acting president. Elections for the president and secretary positions, which were already scheduled to be held this year, will occur "within the month," Siminoff said. Sources said Stern is expected to run for president in those elections.

"David Stern is going to be just as aggressive in representing his members as Faren is and the mission continues," a source close to the union told The Point Wednesday.

In a statement, Stern said Siminoff was "tenacious, loving, [and] respected" and had "dedicated every waking minute to fight for our members."

"I intend to continue the important work that Faren started to ensure that our members are provided the resources they need and make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely to protect and enhance NCC’s academics, programs, and the quality education that our students deserve," he said. "I ask each of you for your help at this time. Together, we will restore NCC as the best community college in the state."

Siminoff’s resignation comes just weeks after a teachers union lawsuit that sought to stop the college’s department consolidation efforts was dismissed.

Siminoff said she had prepared for the possibility of her departure and that the union’s work would not be affected.

"The two contract proposals, our legal option for the lawsuit, and many, many other union matters are in order, prepared, and ready for execution," she wrote. "The NCCFT Executive Committee is cohesive, well prepared and committed to this faculty’s well-being and future."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

The sky is falling

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Reference Point

Pleas for a Hub

The general societal admonition about not beating a dead horse does not necessarily apply to editorial boards, for whom hammering away on what might sometimes seem a lost cause can be something of an occupational hazard.

Such has been the case for Newsday’s board when it comes to the piece of property known loosely as the Nassau Hub.

In recent years, the Newsday board has written frequently on myriad suggestions and failed attempts to renovate the area around and including Nassau Coliseum, most recently the proposal by Las Vegas Sands to build a casino.

But the board has been weighing in on the topic for decades. During this week in 1971, the board was griping about Nassau County’s inability to devise a good plan for the area — a stretch of futility that at that point had reached nearly 10 years since the federal government shut down Mitchel Field and gave the county the historic airfield and U.S. Air Force base in what the board termed a "real estate windfall."

"For almost 10 years now, a series of committees and elected officials have demonstrated an abiding ignorance of either the potential or the real value of Mitchel Field," the board wrote on March 6, 1971. "Mitchel Field is more than a barren plain; it’s a reprieve."

The board castigated the nature of development in Nassau up to that point as following "a blind commercial imperative."

"Where there was a chance to make a buck, the bulldozers moved in and up went another housing development or gas station, office building or shopping center," the board wrote. "These land uses were separated according to the wildly varying structures of town and village zoning codes. The result was sprawl."

That sprawl produced myriad downtowns across the county — the board cited Hempstead, Great Neck, Lynbrook and Garden City — but no downtown Nassau. Hence, the Mitchel Field reprieve, what the board called "a chance for an already developed community to make up for past mistakes, a chance to give Nassau a focal point."

By March 6, 1971, that had not happened, though the Coliseum was under construction. Nor has it happened in the years since. Much was built on the old Mitchel Field site, including the Coliseum, Nassau Community College, the Cradle of Aviation Museum, and the Mitchel Field Athletic Complex. But none of that produced the kind of county center Newsday and municipal planners envisioned.

Newsday’s editorial 54 years ago was prompted by yet another new proposal — to build a garbage incinerator, which the board perhaps snarkily termed "inevitable."

That, of course, came to pass.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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