Vol. XXX, Issue 14 |Friday, May 8, 2009 news2 Stan the Man is Your New Prez named the next president of Stony able individual and an enthusiastic Brook University. A decision is ex- communicator. I am certain he will be By Caitlin Ferrell pected to be made soon. a favorite among both students and fac- Stanley’s background is firmly in ulty as he leads the university in the medical research. Besides having three years to come.” Stony Brook University will have a patents to his name, he is now serving Dr. Stanley responded to the deci- new president this June: Samuel Stan- as the Vice Chancellor of Research at sion. “I am honored to have been se- ley, Jr., Vice Chancellor for Research at Washington University, which is ranked lected as Stony Brook’s next president. Washington University. He will become third in the nation for its School of In its short life, Stony Brook has ac- the university’s fifth official president Medicine. His duties as chancellor in- complished some remarkable things. I when Shirley Strum Kenny resigns her clude overseeing a research portfolio of look forward to working with my new position. The decision was announced $548 million. colleagues on the faculty, staff and stu- in a press release last Thursday. He is also a professor of medicine dents in a collective and strategic way to “We are extremely pleased and ex- and molecular biology at the university. continue Stony Brook’s remarkable tra- cited that Dr. Stanley will serve as Stony His medical knowledge is exciting to Washington University’s School of jectory of increased excellence, and to Brook’s next president,” said Richard some faculty members. Nasti said, in Medicine. position the university to take its place Nasti, chair of the Stony Brook Council the same press release, “His depth of ex- In 2003, Dr. Stanley was appointed among the truly great research univer- and of the Presidential search commit- perience in attracting research funding as the Director of the Midwest Regional sities of the nation.” tee. “He is a dynamic leader with a will benefit Stony Brook tremendously Center for Excellence for Biodefense The 55-year-old is married to Dr. proven track record of success at one of as we climb in the ranks of major re- and Emerging Infectious Diseases Re- Ellen Li, with whom he has co-written the nation’s premier academic institu- search AAU universities.” search, a multidisciplinary research several medical papers. Li received her tions,” Nasti said in last week’s an- Stanley received his B.A. from the center. M.D. and Ph.D. from the Washington nouncement. University of Chicago and his M.D. Search committee member and University School of Medicine. The The Stony Brook presidential from Harvard Medical School. He soon chairman emeritus of the Stony Brook couple has four children. search committee recommended to the became a fellow in infectious diseases at Foundation, James Simons, said of Stan- SUNY Board of Trustees that Stanley be ley, “I found him to be a highly person- Le Budget I’m not aware that there are any signifi- SUNY is at a disadvan- By Aamer Qureshi cant academic programs being elimi- tage because, simply nated at this point,” said Melucci. put, it’s in an area that “The issue for me is that, as any re- is easier to cut in con- The tuition increase implemented spectful economist will tell you, you trast to the City Uni- this spring semester across the State can’t cut your way out of a recession – versity of New York University of New York system was an you have to invest your way out,” said system. “It’s not fair,” inevitable consequence of the fledgling Prof. Norman Goodman, a Sociology he said. economy. The subsequent disclosure professor at Stony Brook University Senator Kenneth that the state budget required 90 per- who is deeply involved in the issue. P.Lavalle, former long- cent of the $310 collected per student “Cutting from the university, in a time time chairman of the would go towards balancing the budget where more and more people want to New York Higher Edu- kindled a statewide argument over if come to state universities, is simply lay- cation Committee, is such measures were fair. Although not ing the foundation for extending the re- one of the driving officially announced, the budget for cession for a longer period of time.” forces to fight the cuts. 2009-2010 has implemented that ex- Prof. Goodman also spoke out against A republican who is Roman Sheydvasser actly 90 percent be taken this spring and the Bundy Aid, a system in which known to be a “friend” Students protesting the SUNY budget cuts. a reduced 80 percent be taken this fall money is taken from the state universi- to Stony Brook, and grab was.” with the remaining cash staying in the ties and given to the private universities the person the university stadium was To offset the cuts, the university ad- university system. – in these times it has only incurred a named after, he claims to be especially ministration has looked to programs “The difference between 20 percent minor cut. aggravated by the way Governor Pater- which Maciulaitis refers to as “money- and 50 percent that we’dhoped to nego- “You’re at Stony Brook for three son is handling the situation. “The re- makers.” “Certain programs are more tiate is six million dollars a year,” said years and then for your last year you go publicans would have handled this one expensive to teach than others so the ac- Dan Melucci, Associate Vice President to Hofstra, they get a fee for you even differently,”he said. “For one, we would- ademic areas are looking at some of the for Strategy, Planning and Analysis at though you’ve been in here for three n’t be taxing the hardworking students more profitable ones.” Stony Brook University. “If we have got- years and there for one year,” said and their families when it’s painfully ob- It seems ironic that only two odd ten 100 percent, which we should have Goodman. “It’s a political compromise vious that they will suffer the most.” years ago, former Governor Eliot gotten, that would mean 16 million dol- that was established in the early days of “The governor has not wanted to Spitzer was aptly speaking about mak- lars which would offset all the other the SUNY system.” He maintained that implement this millionaire’s tax because ing Stony Brook and the University of cuts in the 2009-2010 budget.” it should be eliminated. he thinks that all the millionaires will Buffalo the two flagship schools in the SUNY New Paltz recently cut their According to Stony Brook Director run out of New York but apparently he SUNY system with a lot of funding for nursing program as a result of a six mil- of Budget and Planning Mark Maciu- doesn’t have a problem with taxing our both. “He probably wouldn’t have been lion dollar deficit reduction plan. In laitis, the cuts to Stony Brook have the students,” said Maciulaitis. He said that able to give as much as he said he contrast Stony Brook University has, so potential to severely stunt its role as a although they’ve now implemented a would,” said Maciulaitis – speaking on far according to Melucci, cut two “rela- major economic engine on Long Island. gradual tax for people earning over the situation if Spitzer had not resigned tively small” programs – the Center for For every dollar spent on Stony Brook, $200,000 a year that they were talking following his scandal. “But he certainly Wine, Food and Culture and the Cy- he said, the amount of activities going about taxing the students before. “There would have treated us a lot better than totechnology from the Health Sciences. on at the time will convert the initial in- was a point where the millionaire’s tax Paterson, to whom SUNY is not as high “We haven’t cut any large programs and vestment by three to four times. He said was not discussable, but this 80 percent a priority.” The Stony Brook Press News 3 “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” land in Australia, said that the jaw and the Australian Research Council and is Modern humans, because of their elon- teeth of homo floresiensis show that it an expert on ancient tools, noted that gated scapulas, have a much wider By Raina Bedford is not a human, but a pre-hominid homo floresiensis made tools that were range of arm motion than apes and thus species. The premolar tooth is elon- more primitive than those made by later are more versatile. Homo floresiensis, On April 21, Stony Brook Univer- gated resembling a more primitive con- humans. He said that this was due to a though it has a scapula that rests on its sity’s Staller Center played host to the dition of development. Homo combination of things, including the side, had a slightly longer clavicle than Seventh Annual Human Evolution floresiensis’ teeth also had multiple less effective thumb, but also because primitive apes. Its arms, though not Symposium, hosted by the Turkana roots, whereas humans have just one homo floresiensis “lacked hierarchical having the wide range of motion of Basin Institute. Paleoanthropologists root. The more complex root system thinking.” Tool making, in ancient modern humans’,had a range of motion from around the world came to present combined with the elongated premolar times, consisted of knocking two rocks wider than a primitive ape.