What's going on at SUNY?

Ira Margolis has been a tireless advocate for opening all meetings by local government to the public - even those that aren't covered by the letter of the Open Meetings Law, like the stuff that happens on campus.  SUNY New Paltz is nestled in the village, but thanks to state law is immune to local public scrutiny.  As I mentioned to Toni Hokanson not long ago, it would probably take lobbying by town supervisors and mayors in all SUNY towns to get the laws to be changed so that the SUNY system was required to participate as members of those communities, instead of the monolithic and inpenetrable powers they have become.  Like any other large company, SUNY should have to interact with local authorities and community members, particularly since it happens to be immune to our medieval taxation system.

SUNY news that comes to me is usually in the form of rumor, innuendo, and Facebook chatter.  Here are some recent tidbits:

• The Students for Sustainable Agriculture are expecting their garden to be bulldozed this summer, when they're mostly out of town.  This is an organic garden that has been cultivated since 2005 in keeping with the club's mission to get the college to support local agriculture.
• The college is planning to kill its resident geese this summer (it's a great time to "do nefarious deeds" according to Rachel Lagodka).  Canada geese enjoy the lawns and open spaces of the campus, and alternatives that have been proposed, such as plantings that would discourage them from landing, have been passed on.
• The proposed expansion of the college southwards may end up being in the Village after all - I've heard they would like to hook up to our water and sewer, which would require annexation.  Our backwards system of taxing land will influence how this pans out, because the development would be taxable for the first forty years before returning the the taxless vacuum of state-owned land.

I've sent President Poskanzer an email asking for comment on the garden issue specifically - it's the one that I have the most credible information about.  I'm very curious to see if he decides it's better PR to reply or to ignore gadflies as insignificant pests.