Governor Cuomo ejects students from CUNY and SUNY dorm rooms to be triaged for COVD-19 patients

NY Post

Students who reside at CUNY and SUNY colleges have been kicked out of their dorms as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and health authorities eye the campuses as sites for make-shift emergency medical centers to help treat a wave of coronavirus patients, officials said.

“New York State is sending its CUNY and SUNY students out into pandemic through dorm closures,” fumed Petra Gregory, a student government representative at the College of Staten Island.

Dorm students at CUNY’s Hunter and City College campuses were also ordered to vacate as were resident-students at several SUNY campuses — including Stony Brook, which the Army Corps. of 
 Engineers has chosen as one of Long Island’s emergency medical sites.

Stony Brook already has a hospital on campus and already serves as a Suffolk County COVID-19 drive-thru testing center.

Gregory said dorms residents at CUNY’s Staten Island campus were abruptly told that they were getting the boot Monday night when a resident assistant knocked on their doors.

“I am currently being unfairly evicted out of my dorms, and I have a mother who is immunocompromised and a 6-month-old baby sister. My family is unable to pick me up, and I have to travel with my support animal and pack for him on this short notice as well,” one of the college’s resident-students, Jasmine Shaikh, said.

A CSI official sent an email to students on Tuesday confirming the state ordered the students booted to make room.

“Governor Cuomo has asked private and public universities across New York State to be ready for the possibility that dormitories might need to be converted into temporary emergency medical centers,” said Jennifer Borrero, CSI’s vice president of student affairs.

Wonder if there has been any discussion about triaging empty condos that haven't been sold or that are being used as pie-e-terre's in all those luxury towers and empty "affordable" apartments in mixed use buildings that the state and city gave tax breaks to.

Bharara investigating de Blasio link to sale of closed hospital

From the Daily News:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is looking into Mayor de Blasio’s involvement in the sale of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned.

Bharara's office recently issued a subpoena to the State University of New York, which had owned the hospital, seeking all communications between the university system and City Hall regarding the sale of LICH dating to Jan. 2, 2014, when de Blasio took office, said two sources familiar with the matter.

One source close to SUNY confirmed the subpoena and said “the clear target seems to be de Blasio.” But the specifics of what Bharara is looking into were unclear.

The subpoena specifically seeks emails and other communication from de Blasio and top aides Tony Shorris, Emma Wolfe, Dominic Williams, Avi Fink and Henry Berger, the two sources said.

It also seeks all communication regarding the hospital dating to 2013 between SUNY and de Blasio’s campaign and his fundraiser Ross Offinger, as well as various groups tied to the mayor such as the Campaign For One New York, UPKNYC, and United for Affordable NYC, the sources said.

The subpoena demands emails and other communication between SUNY and de Blasio from 2013, when he was the city’s public advocate, they said.

Yet another city hospital likely to close

From Capital New York:

SUNY's board of trustees may be forced in the next two months to consider closing Downstate Medical Center, given the financial picture at Long Island College Hospital, a SUNY official said Monday.

The hospital continues to cost the state about $13 million per month and SUNY has been borrowing cash from Downstate Medical Center to pay the bills. That money isn't expected to last beyond March, said Bob Haelen, SUNY's interim Chief Financial Officer at a meeting of the trustees.

Lora Lefebvre, SUNY's associate vice chancellor for health affairs, said, “The numbers are so large that closing a campus will have to be discussed. That is going to be a difficult discussion.”

Selling the hospital won't solve all of SUNY's problem. If the property were bought for its appraised value, SUNY would still take a $300 million loss.

Condos proposed on site of dying hospital, then plan withdrawn

From the NY Times:

Long Island College Hospital, which became a symbol of New York City’s struggling community hospitals during the mayoral race, is considering an offer to redevelop the property to include condominiums and an urgent care center.

The hospital, in Cobble Hill, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, has been emptied of all but a small number of patients over the last several months, as the State University of New York has tried to shut it down and doctors, unions and community groups have successfully sued to keep it open. The state has said it cannot afford to continue operating the hospital at a loss, but the unions have said it is needed by the community.

SUNY officials said on Monday that a developer has offered to buy the property and lease much of the block that now houses the hospital back to one or more health care providers, who would run an urgent care center, a fitness center and other non-hospital facilities. The facilities would not receive ambulance calls. Other nearby buildings — the hospital comprises about 20 structures — would be turned into condominiums.

Yes, because an urgent care center and a bunch of luxury condos makes up for the hospital that was there. Well, they changed their mind about the whole thing. Once again, it's not in Queens.

Another hospital closure?

From the NY Post:

Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn faces closure -- just two years after the state approved a merger to save the financially ailing 155-year old facility, source told the Post.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which acquired LICH in 2011, has sent out word that its eying shutting down the Cobble Hill hospital — the only one that provides emergency room service in Brownstone Brooklyn.

A New York State Nurses Association rep visited the hospital to warn staffers that the hospital could close as soon as March 15.

State jumps on chance to save Brooklyn hospital

From the Daily News:

Embattled Long Island College Hospital is being taken over by the state - and is hoping to stem the exodus of Brownstone Brooklyn residents to Manhattan for medical care.

Cash-strapped LICH will become part of SUNY Downstate Medical Center under a deal Gov. Paterson announced yesterday at the Cobble Hill hospital.

SUNY Downstate President John LaRosa promised that the pediatrics and obstetrics departments - which current owner Continuum Health Partners tried to shutter - and other basic services would stay open at LICH.

While core departments will stay in place, LaRosa said some services could be moved between LICH and SUNY's East Flatbush campus, but no decisions have been made.

"It is our every intention to expand, not to contract services here," he said. "We are going to operate as one hospital."

SUNY will get $40 million in grants from the state - on top of $22 million awarded last year - to ease the takeover. The state hospital will take on LICH's $170 million debt. LaRosa said he expected required state approvals for the deal to come through by early next year.

Wow, 3 Queens hospitals close and the state, and especially Governor Paterson didn't give a shit, but the stroller set loses one and they take urgent action?

I guess being vibrant and diverse and chock full of 3rd worlders who don't vote isn't all its cracked up to be.

Oh, and I'm sure there will be a rally called by our Queens elected reps to call attention to this hypocritical and racist action any day now.

Break open those piggy banks, kids!

From WNYC:

New York Senate Democrats are trying again to come up with a way to let State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) campuses charge more for tuition without getting legislative approval. The Democrats' latest proposal would allow the SUNY campuses at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook to raise tuition by as much as 7 percent, with lower rate increases at the other SUNY and CUNY campuses.

The colleges support the proposed tuition hike as it would make them less dependent on Albany. But many Assembly Democrats oppose the increase.

Manhattan Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, who is on the Assembly's Higher Education Committee, says even a pilot program raising tuition is dangerous because college could become too expensive.

It's good to be the president!

From the NY Post:

Matthew Goldstein, the CUNY chancellor, earns $450,000 and gets an extra $90,000 a year for housing, giving him the highest allowance in the nation along with the new State University of New York chancellor and a college administrator in Kentucky.

The president of Queens College, James Muyskens, and CUNY Law School dean Michelle Anderson, live in the tony Douglas Manor enclave that was once home to tennis great John McEnroe. Muysken's house is about seven miles from campus.

The president of Brooklyn College lives in a 1918 neoclassical home in the borough's Prospect Heights South historic district, is valued at $1.6 million and is two miles from the college.

The Medgar Evers College president lives in a prewar co-op across from the Brooklyn Museum, about a mile from the Brooklyn campus. The head of the College of Staten Island lives on tony Todt Hill about three miles from his campus, and the president of Lehman College in The Bronx lives in leafy Riverdale, three miles from Lehman.

The perks don't stop at the city line.

The SUNY board of trustees last week authorized a $90,000 a year housing allowance for chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who earns $490,000 and also gets an apartment in the university's Albany headquarters plus a car and driver.

Each SUNY president gets either a free house or a housing allowance that ranges from $3,500 to $5,500.

CUNY defends the housing, saying its leaders are on call day and night for university business, plus they host alumni, business and community leaders in their homes.

Interesting how they all live in "devalued" landmarked areas. Why do you think that is?