Concerns about the recruitment practices and culture of the Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SBVAC) have come to light following an op-ed published by Katherine Martin, a writer under a pseudonym for their legal name, in The Statesman on April 21. Over the past year, The Statesman has investigated claims of exclusivity and unfair treatment of applicants and members in SBVAC.

According to their website, SBVAC is a New York State certified emergency ambulance agency primarily serving Stony Brook University and its surrounding areas at no cost to patients. 

Jayden Reilly, the former president of SBVAC and an alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in biology and applied mathematics and statistics, offered insight last October into how the organization operates. 

“We currently have three ambulances and a responder car functional up to the [advanced life support] level,” Reilly said. He noted that SBVAC is credentialed by New York State, allowing them to operate off campus and assist local fire departments like Setauket and Stony Brook Fire when needed.

In addition to providing free Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Reilly also emphasized the corps’ commitment to community engagement. “One of our other priorities is campus outreach, so we’re committed to teaching the campus [community] hands-on CPR and stop the bleed techniques,” he said. 

Ray Smith, a former member of SBVAC who joined in 2014 and graduated from Stony Brook in 2021, echoed this sentiment.

“We had this camaraderie and this bond, but it always came down to we need to do what’s right for the community and we need to make sure there are people around at all times,” Smith said. 

Reilly also noted the diversity of SBVAC’s membership.  

“Every one of SBVAC’s members really comes from a different background. We have a great diversity in our membership and where they come from,” Reilly said.

Despite this, and despite providing EMS services free-of-charge, SBVAC’s budget, provided by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), has been on the decline. Previous SBVAC funds have totaled $165,000 in 2011, $140,000 in 2012 and $62,000 during the 2022-2023 school year. For this upcoming year, the organization is currently receiving $52,000 with the same operational costs as previous years.

SBVAC also receives money from the Stony Brook Athletics Department when their services are required at athletic games.

“Athletics pay SBVAC on a game-by-game basis. We spent more during the 2023-[20]24 season on their services than we ever have in the past,” Jack Clark, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, wrote in an email to The Statesman. 

In addition to financial pressure, maintaining a robust membership base has also proven difficult. SBVAC specifically faced challenges in sustaining membership numbers due to the impacts of COVID-19.  

“For a lot of those COVID semesters we took in a lot fewer new members than we usually would have, so that led to us having [much] smaller membership than we usually would,” Reilly said. He is optimistic that as the pandemic years are dying down, membership numbers will grow, helping with staffing for emergency calls.

The application process for prospective members of SBVAC involves attending open houses and undergoing an interview process, with about 10 to 15 new members accepted each semester from a pool of around 100 applicants. 

Reilly said that every applicant is evaluated fairly and equally. However, this process has been criticized by some former applicants, who claim that personal connections and bias play significant roles in the admission procedure.

When asked about these claims, Reilly emphasized the organization’s commitment to equal opportunity and being a welcoming community. He also said that they are always looking for passionate individuals who are eager to contribute to EMS services.

One such applicant who requested anonymity due to being a medical school applicant reflected on her frustrating experiences when applying to SBVAC in 2018 and 2019. 

“At the time, I remember it feeling very discouraging, especially with [Stony Brook] being a big commuter school. It was one of the few things I was really looking forward to getting involved in on campus,” she wrote in an email to The Statesman.

She expressed concerns about SBVAC’s reputation for exclusivity and what she felt was an unfair application process. 

“It’s like a clique a little bit. If your friends are in it you’re guaranteed in and if they’re not [then] not really and they all sort of think of themselves … really highly when they don’t really do anything,” she said. “They [also] used to take your picture when you applied … and the guys would just then hire the girls they thought were cute. Those were things I heard in my freshman  [and] sophomore year[s].”

When she applied during her freshman year, her application was denied because she did not attend one of their open houses, which she said was never stated as a requirement.

“[The president at the time] said that if I had communicated earlier … we could’ve worked something out and I was like well I’m communicating now is there any way to make an exception … so that you guys can consider my application because it never said anywhere that it was mandatory,” she said.

However, her application was denied, and she went on to work for Port Jefferson Emergency Medical Services (PJEMS).

“Ultimately I’m glad that it didn’t work out [because] of what a positive experience I had working at PJEMS,” she said. “[SBVAC] was just sort of negative and toxic to a lot of people.”

SBVAC did not respond to requests for comment about these incidents. 

Those who gain entry into SBVAC start the probationary class and must complete a series of requirements, including skill tests, written exams, a mid-semester practical, supervised practice driving an ambulance and a Basic Life Support (BLS) certification class.

While some members of SBVAC come in already certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), the organization does not offer the certification training course for new members. Instead, all new members — regardless of their licensing status — must participate in SBVAC’s own training program. New members who are not licensed can obtain certification through external programs and SBVAC will reimburse them for the costs once they achieve certification. However, this is not required.

Gallery • 1 Photos

Stony Brook University's EMS team. SBVAC received three awards, including recognition of Stony Brook University as a HeartSafe Campus for the first time in the 2024 National Collegiate EMS Conference in Baltimore. SCREENSHOT VIA INSTAGRAM @stonybrookems

Concerns regarding the culture within SBVAC, particularly for probationary members, have also been raised. Echoing sentiments expressed in Katherine Martin’s op-ed, a former member who requested anonymity due to being a medical school applicant, described SBVAC as having a “frat-like” atmosphere, where recruits, or “probies,” face pressure and isolation if they struggle to meet expectations.

“The culture within the department for new members [was] particularly toxic when I was there and completely unlike anything I ever experienced elsewhere. I can only call it what it is, a fraternity that does EMS on the side,” he wrote to The Statesman.

Smith argues that SBVAC should not be compared to a frat. 

“I think that the comparison to a frat is kind of silly because just like when you have any group of 18 to 22-year-olds they’re gonna have fun … but that wasn’t a priority, doing what we had to do came first above everything else,” Smith said.

The former member elaborated on the inequality between probies and senior members.

“Probies weren’t allowed to sit on the couches, [and senior members] were obsessed with [probies] having [their] binder on [them] at all times. Like if you stepped away to go to the bathroom they would take your binder, hide it or threaten to start ripping out all the sign offs you worked desperately for,” he wrote to The Statesman.

According to him, “sign offs” were a way of keeping track of completing EMT skills and practice sessions.

“Probies would have to stay at base and practice skills[;] we’d show an instructor a skill and if it was not done to complete perfection (variable what perfection was), we had to redo the skill and there was an hour cool off period between testing the same skill. So, getting these skill sign offs became an enormous effort that took away from our studies,” he wrote to The Statesman. 

When the former member started noticing his grade point average (GPA) slipping, he tried explaining to the instructors that he was on a partial scholarship that had a specific GPA requirement. He recalled, “there was no support from the instructors,” during this difficult situation.

Ultimately, he was kicked out of the organization after prioritizing his academics. 

“There was always this warning that once you were dropped from the program as a probie, that was it, [and senior members] were not supposed to associate with that person ever again,” he wrote. “The second I was not part of SBVAC, I was avoided on campus by all of them.”

SBVAC leaders did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

In September 2023, SBVAC had about 60 active members and several adjunct members (alumni and staff members who are not active every week but can staff alarms if they choose to). They also have three active Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedics. 

In addition to these concerns over SBVAC’s culture and recruitment practices, the organization experienced a significant operational setback in the summer of 2023 when it temporarily lost its ALS certification.

“There was an unannounced, routine inspection from the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Medical Services … and, as a result, a handful of administrative deficiencies were identified. As such, an immediate corrective action plan was put into effect and corrected the concerns promptly,” Lawrence Zacarese, the vice president for Enterprise Risk Management and chief security officer at Stony Brook, said in a statement to The Statesman.

According to Ahmed Belazi, SBVAC’s advisor and Executive Director of Strategic Analytics and Technologies at Stony Brook, this did not impact SBVAC’s service to the campus community.

“A handful of administrative deficiencies were identified. As such, an immediate corrective action plan was put into effect and corrected the concerns promptly. There was no impact to campus and EMS service,” Belazi said.  

At the time, there was no communication to the campus community about the loss of the ALS certification. When an ambulance service loses its ALS certification, they have to return their narcotics to the Department of Health (DOH) and remove any ALS equipment from their ambulances. They are not authorized to administer certain medications and are limited to providing BLS services such as CPR and transporting patients.

According to Reilly, Stony Brook University Hospital formed a mutual aid agreement last year with SBVAC in order to help dispatch an ALS ambulance to all higher-priority calls they receive.

When The Statesman asked if SBVAC was still under any ongoing investigations during the September 2023 interview, Reilly said that there were no ongoing investigations into the organization. 

However, the DOH told The Statesman that SBVAC was still under an ongoing investigation in September 2023. When revealing this, Reilly then said, “There may be investigations regarding particular providers but I couldn’t comment on that.”

SBVAC was also under a Title IX investigation on Feb. 2, 2023 after Martin filed a complaint. The claim alleged discriminatory conduct against her by SBVAC, Ishika Patel and Captain Joseph Cline. The allegations were found to be unsubstantiated by the University’s Title IX investigator.

Reilly refused to comment on the investigation.

Martin, who has consistently applied to SBVAC for multiple semesters, explained that her ongoing applications stem from her love for the University. However, she has also had personal experiences that have made her discontent with the organization’s practices. 

In particular, she recalls feeling “disgust” at what she perceived as negligence on SBVAC’s behalf when she had to perform CPR on her own family member who experienced cardiac arrest on campus.

“One of my family members went into cardiac arrest on campus. I started CPR immediately. The cops showed up, SBVAC showed up with a male EMT, a female driver and fire marshal Tyler Danowski and I was doing CPR in the back [of the ambulance],” she said. “The male … was [using a bag valve mask to manually ventilate] my family member and I had to tell him at one point, ‘call the hospital, call Stony Brook,’ and so I took over and he called Stony Brook.”

Following the incident, Martin claims that she has faced slander from SBVAC members after they discovered her identity as the author of the op-ed. She alleges that one member spread false rumors about her, damaging her reputation within the organization.

Brian Anderson, a paramedic for Suffolk County who worked with Martin, defended her qualifications. 

“I had a very complicated job with her a couple years ago where it was a life or death situation with a young female child and she came on, and she came on kind of like a second set of hands for me to help me out and we had a very positive result where the child survived this nearly catastrophic brain traumatic injury,” he said. “She’s a very good medic.” 

Earlier this fall semester, Martin applied to rejoin SBVAC.

“During the interview, the other emergency management person asked me if I … waved or said ‘hi’ to an SBVAC member on campus,” she wrote in an email to The Statesman. “I was asked questions that others were definitely not asked.”

Martin also expressed how unsafe she feels on campus because of SBVAC’s treatment of her. 

“I feel very unsafe on campus and try to avoid it at all costs,” she wrote to The Statesman. “I don’t know what makes them think that healthcare professionals should be this aggressive.”

The Statesman reached out to Teresa Melfi, the current president of SBVAC for the 2024-25 academic year, but she refused to comment.