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Students and Employees Call for Removal of SUNY Chancellor Over Connections to Andrew Cuomo

Students and Employees Call for Removal of SUNY Chancellor Over Connections to Andrew Cuomo

“We find the chancellor unfit to lead our great SUNY system, which must uphold itself as an inclusive space for all students and faculty”

The chancellor apparently mocked a Cuomo aide who had complained about a toxic work environment.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

Calls Mount for SUNY Chancellor’s Removal

Students and employees at the State University of New York, as well as some state politicians and residents, are calling on Jim Malatras, chancellor of the state system, to resign after the New York attorney general released old text messages that showed Malatras mocking an aide to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

The text messages were released as part of an ongoing investigation by Attorney General Letitia James into alleged sexual misconduct by Cuomo. They show Malatras and other ex–Cuomo staffers ridiculing a former aide for calling out a toxic work environment.

A number of students at SUNY campuses across the state have joined the appeals for Malatras’s ouster. The College Democrats, a student-run political group, published a statement Tuesday that called Malatras’s behavior “toxic, unprofessional, and inexcusable.”

“We find the chancellor unfit to lead our great SUNY system, which must uphold itself as an inclusive space for all students and faculty,” the students wrote. “College Democrats of New York call on SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras to resign from his position, and strongly encourage governor [Kathy] Hochul and the SUNY Board of Trustees to remove Malatras and to conduct a thorough, nationwide search for a chancellor should he fail to cooperate.”

The editorial board of The Albany Times Union, which first reported on the texts, asked Malatras to step down—or the system board to fire him—in a letter Thursday.

“Yes, these were private communications. The test of a person’s character, though, is not how he behaves when he knows people are watching, but how he behaves when he thinks they aren’t,” the editorial board wrote. “Mr. Malatras failed that test. He should resign, or be fired.”

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Comments

Now, let’s do the private communications test on the entire editorial board of the Albany Times Union.

Eating their own?
I’d care, but I have to wash my hair tonight.

How do you like that? If you cover up Cuomo’s nursing home deaths or sexual harassment, no problem. But if you’re mean to a “working mom” by refusing her demands for a lighter workload, then BOOM! your head is on the chopping block.