New UAlbany president's residence

The UAlbany Foundation has bought a new president's residence -- in Guilderland -- and university president Robert Jones will be moving there, at the foundation's request, from the downtown Albany apartment he had been leasing, the Times Union reports. (The Foundation says it needs the new residence for hosting events.) Didn't UAlbany already have a president's residence? Yep -- a 6,000-square-foot house near Washington Park in Albany that was put up for sale by the foundation last year after Jones chose to live downtown. [TU]

Comments

Why does the president have to host events at his home?

Instead they could have kept the house on Washington Park, and hosted the events there.

The upkeep on a 5,000+ sqft home in Guilderland is going to also be costly to maintain, especially if someone is living there with staff year round. Not to mention the gigantic pool.

This is absurd.

The president of a university is expected to entertain high net worth donors. In fact, it's usually written into the president's contract -- part of their job is as a functional tool of the development office. That's how schools raise money, and there is nothing strange about the university owning a house that is used by the president to entertain donors.

I have no idea how much it cost to maintain the Washington Park house, but it's worth noting that it is 5k+ square feet and has a pool.

I am very disappointed in this development, especially since I was thrilled that President Jones reaffirmed a tradition of living in Albany and was ecstatic that he choose downtown, having him at the heart of renewed growth in a section of the city (and for many cities) that has started to see a rebirth as more and more Americans opt for diverse, walkable, active communities.

As a UAlbany alum, I don't doubt the President's role as a fundraiser, but I think this move is real short-sighted and undercuts UAlbany's own priorities and objectives, to include: a recommitment to our region’s urban centers; the fostering of a sustainable and cleaner campus; the nurturing of a K-19 pipeline, specifically with high needs school districts, like Albany’s; and the creation of companies and jobs that will connect the Albany and the region to the 21st century economy.

Finally, this move separates the President from his community, the students. I feel like they were ignored in the equation, and they will now face a hassle of a commute, who like myself, are often reliant on public transit to attend an event he may host at his residence beyond fundraising (the closest bus drops you off about a mile from his home).

I've seen President Jones speak passionately about urban living and all of the positives of being downtown and have to believe he's not happy about this. I do hope the University at Albany Foundation reconsiders this ill-conceived relocation. There are plenty of properties in Albany to consider and I will personally contribute to the Foundation if capital is need to rehab or maintain them.

UAlbany campus has no "gracious venues" to entertain potential donors (approx. 8-50 guests as cited in the article)? This is hugely wasteful as much of the grand house will be unused much of the time. It would be better to create on campus some multi-use spaces that could accommodate these kinds of affairs, but possibly be used in other ways. They are going to be catered anyway so what kinds of other lux amenities are necessary to woo the One Percent? It strikes me that the Foundation is stuck in an antiquated modality on how they conduct business.

Incidentally, the various Commissioners of the State Education Dept. also had a grand house in Loudonville that went along with their benefit package, also with the justification of having to entertain notables. It got sold in 1995 in a cost cutting measure under Pataki and somehow SED has muddled along without a mansion for entertaining. I suspect UAlbany could also make do with the spaces it currently has.

The school's endowment is laughably small when compared to the other major SUNY research universities.

Buffalo: $620mm
Stony Brook: $180mm
Binghamton: $87mm
UAlbany: $40mm

Personally, I'm disgusted that institutions of higher education are essentially untaxable for-profit institutions. But that's how we do it here in the USA! There is no reason to handicap UAlbany. President Johnson and the Development Office need to bring in seven figure gifts to stay competitive.

That said, they clearly should not have sold the Washington Park residence.

SUNY institutions have to raise private money because state-support is now at record lows - about 20% - it's barely a public university system anymore.

I wonder how all of this work was carried out by CEOs, presidents and the like 20 or thirty years ago, without the inflated perks and the outrageous pay scales. The pool of smart people has gotten real small, since nowadays the common excuse is that it's hard to find the "talent" and to "retain it," thus the absurd payments. Think about it, every year some of these presidents are made millionaires many times over (RPI) or are on their way to become millionaires, while everybody else gets screwed (adjuncts).

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