FA President Dante Morelli thanks SCCC Interim President Lou Petrizzo, at left in this 2019 photo, for keeping our members safe during the pandemic and welcomes our new president, Dr. Ed Bonahue. (photo by Victoria Pendzick)

This week marks a new chapter in the history of the college. President Ed Bonahue will now be serving as the seventh president of SCCC. On behalf of the Faculty Association, we want to welcome President Bonahue and his family to our community.

President Bonahue comes to SCCC with exceptional experience in academic affairs. He served as provost at Santa Fe College in Florida and has held academic posts as dean, department chair and a tenured, full professor of English.

President Bonahue’s leadership comes at a critical moment in our institution’s history. Over the last five years, we have experienced a number of challenges. Our membership and institution has experienced the following:

• A major drop in enrollment
• The continued, unapologetic expansion of administrative positions and hierarchy
• The continued reliance on adjunct faculty who now comprise nearly 75% of our membership
• Over 60 retirements of full-time faculty over the past few years that have not been replaced
• Dysfunctional leadership that was rewarded with more than $600,000 for negligence on the job
• Further expansion and protection of what I call "the four-college model," that is, policies and practices that are not consistent between and among our campuses
• Steep decrease in faculty morale

And now, we are coming out of a pandemic and there is important work to do.

The good news for President Bonahue is there no place to go but up. Our institution has been starving for solid, academic leadership. It has been too long, and we are unfortunately adrift from our institutional mission and vision.

Recognizing and acknowledging the extraordinarily difficult years we've just come through, the FA thanks Interim President Lou Petrizzo for leading our institution through it. It's no small matter to see a college of this size through a difficult budget cycle and a deadly pandemic. SCCC boasted an extremely low positivity rate, and important safety and testing measures were put in place. We are grateful for that. Interim President Petrizzo also did not expect to be in the position for as long as he been. When there are times of crisis we need strong leadership, and Interim President Petrizzo saw us through this stressful time. Thank so much for keeping us safe and for the leadership you provided, Interim President Petrizzo.

Finally, I invite our members to join us in giving President Bonahue a big FA welcome. Let’s show him the incredible work we perform with students on a daily basis. Let’s show him what each and every one of us do for Suffolk County Community College. Let’s show him the incredible work we perform outside of the college for our communities. Finally, let’s show him how we come together, through almost any crisis, to show our unbreakable solidarity.

President Bonahue, welcome to our community. We are thrilled to have you serve Suffolk County Community College and look forward to working with you in the years to come.