Albany

The SUNY board of trustees voted on Tuesday to separate the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering from the University at Albany and make it fully independent.

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher called the change "disruptive innovation" and a worthy experiment to see if the new structure will allow the unique NanoCollege to reach its lofty goals.

She will establish a committee to help figure out the nuts and bolts of the arrangement in which CNSE will become a degree-granting school. Both she and board Chairman H. Carl McCall strongly endorsed the new status for CNSE and said more steps will be taken to smooth the transition.

A report recommending the breakup was put together by seven people appointed by Zimpher and was distributed late last week to the trustees.

The Zimpher panel unanimously agreed that the NanoCollege should be split from UAlbany while continuing to collaborate with UAlbany, as well as other upstate SUNY schools.

Thirteen trustees voted in favor of the split. Linda Sanford, an IBM Corp. executive involved in enterprise transformation, was one of those who said that spinning off CNSE is a necessary step in keeping the campus and the larger system competitive.

Some trustees, however, said the report did not answer their questions about the need for the breakup.

Trustee Cary Staller, who runs a commercial real estate company, said the document was not up to the standards of a first-class university, citing inaccuracies such as overstating the academic accomplishments of students attending CNSE.

Staller is one of three trustees who voted against the separation, which he said amounted to "rewarding bad behavior" and allowing an "unhappy marriage" to end in divorce. He also cautioned that CNSE is on a path of moving beyond the control of the board.

He was joined by Tremayne Price, a UAlbany student trustee, and Marshall Lichtman, a medical professor at the University of Rochester, in opposing the plan.

Staller, from Long Island, said the arrangement flies in the face of Zimpher's goal of more sharing within the SUNY system.

Alain Kaloyeros, senior vice president and chief executive officer of the NanoCollege, said Staller seems to be overly protective of Stony Brook University, and that may be the reason for his "misrepresentations" about CNSE.

Kaloyeros said the break from UAlbany is necessary at this stage of the NanoCollege's development because of the off-campus projects at Canandaigua, Rochester, Malta and Utica-Rome.

"You have two campuses with conflicting missions," he said, noting the school's role as a prototype for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's START-UP NY initiative, which will try to draw businesses to campuses around the state through tax-free zones. "Once you have that, you can't have (businesses) go through a layer of management that is focused on a local campus," Kaloyeros said.

UAlbany President Robert Jones wrote to McCall and Zimpher saying he is pleased with the "bold new partnership" with CNSE that will result from the break. He also made several requests, including a recurring fund to invest in the campus, funding to offer a broad spectrum of academic programs, a new formula of funding from the Research Foundation of SUNY, and replacing land lost when CNSE becomes its own campus.

"My question is, where are all these resources coming from?" Staller asked after listing Jones' items.

Zimpher said SUNY may seek professional consulting assistance, but promised an "open and transparent process."

Kaloyeros said about $18 billion has been invested in CNSE, including corporate funds. He said he expects to reach $500 million in sponsored grants in 2015 because of the new structure, up from $300 million this year.

jodato@timesunion.com • @JamesMOdato