Reader’s Write: Merchant Marine Academy leadership adrift at sea

The Island Now

It is with great concern and distress that I write about the deterioration of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the seeming administrative incompetence or blundering in the management of its resources by Superintendent Helis.  His most recent action concerns kicking the alumni office off campus.   Universities and colleges cherish their alumni; donations support a myriad of student activities. The Kings Point alumni give about $2 million annually, and local chapters actively support the Academy and help with recruiting. I know; I am an alumnus of Kings Point.  

During my 40-year career as a college and university administrator and faculty member, I was a faculty member at Kings Point for over a decade, I have been chair of the Engineering Department and of the Computer Science Department at Hofstra University, where I am a full professor, and I created and currently co-direct the Center for STEM Research at Hofstra. I have been immersed in academia all of my adult life.

Colleges and universities seek to establish ties with local communities, building good will, creating partnerships; another area where Helis is failing. He oversaw the closing of Melville Hall, formerly the Officer’s Club, where functions accommodating over 200 people were held. As a former mayor of the Village of Kensington (1990-2000), I often attended community events at Melville Hall; Gary Ackerman held holiday parties there; my daughters had their bat mitzvah there and one had her wedding there.  Now, nothing.  A vital part of the community has been shuttered, and a revenue stream for the academy has dried up.  

Fortunately, the midshipmen remain a very positive asset to Long Island and Great Neck.  Recently, they helped when Sandy hit Long Island, both in Great Neck and on the South Shore.  I hope Helis’s destabilizing efforts don’t reach them.   Or is there another plan, unannounced, for the Academy?

 

David Burghardt

Professor of Engineering

Co-director, Center for STEM Research

Hofstra University

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