Suffolk County Community College faculty groups censure president over proposed HS program

A proposed new program that would allow Islip teens to earn a two-year degree from Suffolk County Community College while still in high school has sparked a conflict at the college, with instructors criticizing what they called an “egregious” lack of faculty involvement in planning for the initiative.

Two faculty governance groups, which advise the administration on academic matters, voted last week to censure the college’s president, Edward Bonahue, and its vice president for academic affairs, Irene Rios, and call for a “pause” in planning to include more faculty input.

Bonahue and Rios “have been repeatedly asked to engage openly and transparently with the faculty,” the censure resolution stated. Planning for the high school program, the measure said, “represents the most recent and egregious instance of circumventing established shared governance structures” for academic matters.

The faculty groups have never previously censured Bonahue, said Dante Morelli, president of the college’s faculty union, which represents about 1,300 full-time and adjunct instructors. Bonahue was appointed in 2021.

The censure vote count was 15-4 among faculty who voted at the Selden campus and 36-5 among those who voted at the Brentwood campus, Morelli said. Faculty at the Riverhead campus did not vote on the measure, Morelli said.

“Offering some college courses, I think, is appropriate to give that student an idea of what college expectations are,” Morelli said in an interview. “But to put the academic responsibility on them to earn their high school diploma in addition to an associate degree at the same time, it's just not academically sound or appropriate.”

College administrators and board members have been “receptive” to the faculty’s concerns, Morelli said.

In a statement Tuesday, Bonahue said, “I respect the right of our faculty governance bodies to bring forward their concerns. ... I support the need for regular collaboration and consultation; and I welcome the values-based approach to shared governance. I know that when the faculty take this step, it is coming from a desire to improve what we do and how we work together.”

The college “has not formally endorsed” the high school program, he said. The faculty, he said, has “communicated several concerns, which we will work through.”

The proposed program “is still in discussion,” Shirley Coverdale, chair of the college's board of trustees, said in an interview. “That's really something that is the president and the faculty association's purview. … They work together on matters of curriculum” and related matters, she said. The plans are likely to be discussed at the board of trustees meeting on Thursday afternoon, she said. The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. on the Selden campus, and it will be livestreamed on the college's website. 

The college already offers the Beacon Program, which allows students to get credit for college-level courses taught by SCCC-certified teachers at local high schools. Students pay a reduced fee of $70 per credit, less than one-third the usual in-county cost. SCCC also offers an early college program for high schoolers, with courses taught by college professors.

In the last five years, one high school student earned an associate degree from SCCC while still in high school, Bonahue said at a presentation about the proposed new program at the March 10 Islip school board meeting. “We're optimistic that there could be more,” he said. “We have to figure out how to do it.”

Bonahue said at the meeting that such programs are “highly regulated” by the State University of New York and the state Department of Education. The presentation of “an outline of a plan” was intended to solicit questions and suggestions, he said. “We're excited about it and so we're here to put it in front of you,” he said.

Tentatively, the program was set to begin as soon as this summer, according to the presentation. High schoolers would earn credits through Advanced Placement classes starting in ninth grade, as well as college-level classes taught through the high school’s existing partnership with SCCC and on-campus or online classes. The program would include summer and evening classes.

“What we've been working on is a pathway that can change students’ life trajectories by combining rigorous coursework, strong support and truly affordable credit,” Islip schools Superintendent Dennis O’Hara said at the meeting. The program, he said, “would be really, really challenging, and we also think would be very worth it.”

O'Hara did not respond this week to requests for comment.

Newsday's Darwin Yanes contributed to this story.