Stony Brook University will hold  graduation; oversight board has 'total confidence' in school president

Stony Brook University will go ahead with its main graduation ceremony, school officials said Tuesday, despite the turmoil on campus over the 29 arrests of students and faculty during a pro-Palestinian protest last week.

The head of the university’s main governing body also said it has full faith in Stony Brook’s president, even with the possibility of a “no-confidence” vote by the Faculty Senate expected next week.

The responses came a day after a heated two-hour meeting of the Faculty Senate. That group overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that the university drop charges of disorderly conduct against students and faculty members who were arrested last Thursday after a standoff involving their encampment on campus.

The university did not respond directly to a question Tuesday about whether President Maurie McInnis will move to have the charges dropped and arrest records expunged, as the faculty demanded. It did say that of the 20 students who received interim academic suspensions, 15 appealed, 12 of those were granted, and three are pending. If the remaining five appeal their cases, they will be decided rapidly, the school said.

The university referred questions about the charges to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. It said its campus police department “works in close consultation” with the DA’s office. District attorney officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Stony Brook said its graduation ceremony scheduled for May 17 is on track. A few colleges, including Columbia University in Manhattan, have canceled their main ceremonies because of upheaval over the protests.

“All ceremonies including departmental school graduations and the main commencement ceremony will continue as scheduled,” Kelly Drossel, the university's senior director of media relations, said in a statement. “Our students have worked hard and they and their families have waited years for this moment where their tremendous accomplishments will be recognized.”

Kevin Law, head of the Stony Brook Council, which serves as an oversight and advisory board for the university, said Tuesday the council “has total confidence in Maurie McInnis as president.”

“We believe Stony Brook has handled this properly … a lot better than other universities across the country,” he said.

The Faculty Senate resolution, introduced Monday and to be voted on next week, declares “no confidence in President McInnis’s capacity to perform the ongoing duties of her office in a wise and humane manner.”

Many professors who spoke at the meeting, during which McInnis was present, criticized the arrests. They contended the police were heavy handed and characterized the university’s approach as an attack on free speech.

“This is a critical point in time and in my view, the best thing our administration can do at this critical point is to take a clear stand in favor of freedom of speech, especially to forgive all the charges against the protesters,” Susan Brennan, a professor in the Department of Psychology, said at the meeting.

“We must accept that the very point of protest is to make people stop and think, to ‘make good trouble’ as the late John Lewis said,” she added.

McInnis said the demonstrators were asked numerous times to move their protest to another location, but they refused, leading to the arrests.

In her statement, Drossel said McInnis “is completely committed to Stony Brook University and continuing the momentum and the successes over the past four years.”

Drossel pointed to a record including Stony Brook being named the anchor institution of The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island, receiving a historic $500 million unrestricted endowment from the Simons Foundation and achieving its highest rankings ever from U.S. News & World Report.