After 14 years, Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny’s term is in its final months.

Prior to the worldwide economic crisis we face today, President Kenny spoke at her inauguration and said, “It is my goal that Stony Brook will not merely adapt to an increasingly hostile environment, but will take the lead in creating the American research university of the twenty-first century.”

Since taking office, Kenny witnessed growth and improvements through the university’s educational standing, demographics, and constructional development.

Retired faculty member Manuel Lerdau, who worked at the university through Kenny’s 14-year term, reflected on Kenny’s desire for improvement at the university.

“Her positive contributions involved her interest in undergraduates and her efforts to raise the caliber of the undergraduate student body,” Lerdau said.

In a recent interview, Kenny expressed her excitement upon first arriving at Stony Brook. “The opportunity to grow, to develop, to change, to be come a human institution, which we did, I could see all that potential here,” Kenny said. “It was very young and yet it had become such a strong and respected university and it had to keep moving forward.”

According to Kenny, the university has changed since 1994. In her 2008 convocation speech she referred to the grounds as a “blacktop desert,” enrollment was at 17,600 and the standards of acceptance into the university were much lower. Since then Stony Brook has seen an increase of enrollment by 6,400 students and S.A.T. scores have increased by 128 points.

Under Kenny’s presidency, Stony Brook joined the Association of American Universities, an association categorizing the top 62 research universities in the nation.

“That really put us in a very special league. Just the fact that we were members of that says this is one of the best institutions in the country,” Kenny said.

Kenny explained how Stony Brook would deal with an influx of applications. “Every year [we] set a number of freshmen that we accept and we have not let that number rise in the last couple of years?we’re bringing in about 2,700 freshmen a year and that will be true next year too.”

With an increase in applicants, the standards are rising for incoming undergraduates.

“We have been becoming more selective over the past years,” Kenny said. “Our applications for last year were the largest over any SUNY school, although we’re not the largest population school.”

According to Kenny, the selectivity of the number of applicants accepted has decreased to 40 percent.

Faculty members such as Norman Goodman, a teaching and service professor, have seen Kenny’s involvement here at Stony Brook as honorary. Goodman, a 45-year member of the faculty at Stony Brook has earned the title department chair of Sociology, president of the Senate of the College of Arts and Sciences and twice president of the University Faculty Senate.

“Just look at the accomplishments since she’s come,” Goodman said. “She spearheaded a major national commission, called the Boyer Report to define education for undergraduates at research universities. That has been a blue print for Stony Brook and other major research universities in how they educate undergraduate students.”

While some faculty and administration are pleased with Kenny, others are not.

Last year, the College of Arts and Sciences started an online petition and survey that stated a “loss of confidence in the academic leadership of President Kenny.” The survey, conducted by the Committee of Concerned Faculty, questioned 257 respondents, all faculty members. According to the College of Arts and Sciences faculty, studies reported larger classes caused a decrease in the quality of education.

“That was interesting,” Kenny said in regards to the petition. “That was one of these petitions that was put up on the Internet to get people to sign, and four percent of the faculty signed but I think it was a tempest in a teapot.”

According to Patricia M. Whitaker, a faculty member of the Department of Psychology and the director of the Committee of Concerned Faculty who started the petition, “the quality of education was suffering because of some decisions made during Dr. Kenny’s presidency.”

Whitaker said that class sizes were too big, preventing faculty to get to know students, and that recommendations for graduate school and internships became more difficult.

“It made teaching less rewarding,” Whitaker said.

“I felt that the President was not supporting the faculty enough. Too much money was spent on unnecessary projects, like buying Southampton College when more faculty should have been hired and more classrooms built,” she said.

Manuel Lerdau supported this idea.

“Kenny never appreciated the depth and breadth of loyalty that her faculty had toward the university,” he said.

Professor Jeffrey Levinton spoke about his desire for more careful spending with Stony Brook’s new cut budget.

“I would hope the new president will strongly consider the burdens, relative to benefits, imposed by Stony Brook Southampton and Stony Brook Manhattan,” he said.

According to Levinton, the campus is in need of facilities and development. According to Kenny, development will be difficult due to budget cuts and a decrease in finance.

Ironically, Stony Brook University faced similar budgetary difficulties in the first and last years of Kenny’s presidency.

In 1994 Kenny realized the significance of the university’s economic struggles.

“During that year we discovered a very serious budgetary situation in which we had significant debt,” she said. “Every year was getting significantly worse than the year before.” The latest financial crisis and budget cut has resulted in a freeze on all hiring and construction at the university.

“It’s going to be a lean period but we will do everything in our power to protect the academic program as much as possible,” Kenny said.

On Tuesday, the SUNY board of trustees approved the first tuition increase in five years. The increase would total $620 between now and next fall and include a number of smaller hikes over the next three years.

Kenny was in favor of the increase. “I feel strongly that tuition increase should go to improve the education we’re able to offer to the students,” she said prior to the decision made by the board of trustees.

Goodman, a member of the Budget Advisory Committee, said, “I would have preferred more transparency in budget. She’s been much more transparent this year, but over the years I think she could have been more transparent.”

“Also, I wish she’d consulted more, prior to making a decision,” he said. “She does consult, but I think there were times she could have consulted earlier and gotten good advice from faculty.”

With Kenny’s position as president ending in June, the members of a search committee have been in the process of narrowing down those that are qualified for the position.

According to Kenny, there have been a number of town hall meetings on campus for specific constituencies, but nothing has been placed. Requests for interviews with individual members of the committee were not granted.

“The next president will have wonderful opportunities and should feel joyous about the future,” Kenny said. “There is every reason for a new person to be delighted to be at this place at this time.”

Kenny was very optimistic about the future for Stony Brook.

“The person who comes in will have the sense of the potential that he finds in this place and the excitement of the intellectual enterprise here and a vision of what that next set of steps should be,” she said.