Students protest building Stony Brook hotel

Nearly 40 Stony Brook University students marched across the school's campus Wednesday, hoping their chants against a planned hotel would reach the ear of university president Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr.

After a standoff with campus police, the students expressed their opposition to the project - which critics say will raze part of a green belt and harm a local salamander habitat - by filing silently past the closed door of the president's office, signs in hand.

"Stony Brook could theoretically start cutting down the trees any time they want," Andrew Greco, vice president of the university environmental club, shouted into a megaphone near the administration building, before the students took their protest inside. "We can't let that happen."

The planned construction of a five-story hotel on an 11-acre parcel of university property near Nicolls Road is the subject of a pending lawsuit.

The Stony Brook Environmental Conservancy and others filed suit last year against the State University of New York, seeking to void the ground lease - first approved by the State Legislature in 1986 - arguing the lease had expired in 1990, and the university had not abided by its terms.

Last month, a State Supreme Court judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order to prevent the university from clearing the site. Both sides are to present oral arguments at the next court date scheduled for February, but it could be held sooner, said George Locker, a Manhattan attorney representing the plaintiffs.

The protesters Wednesday called on Stanley to pledge not to clear the site until the court case has been resolved.

University spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow offered a statement: "The university and the developer are interested in proceeding with the hotel project, but as yet have not discussed the court's ruling."

Stony Brook, on its website, says it is working with Port Jefferson developer Harbor Construction Management "to ensure that surrounding environmental vistas and existing natural vegetation along Nicolls Road are preserved."

The eastern red-backed salamander is not endangered. But students said the school should keep to its mission of sustainability by seeking state legislative approval for an alternate site.

Protesters Wednesday were at first blocked by campus police from entering the student activity center, where they believed Stanley was present. After graduate student Mike Carley quoted state law permitting peaceful demonstrations in public areas, the students were allowed to enter.