AUGUST 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 19
Edward Bonahue Maurie McInnis Jermaine Williams
LONG ISLAND’S NEW CLASS OF COLLEGE PRESIDENTS LOOK BEYOND THE PANDEMIC HEAD OF THE CLASS
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
Jim Lentini was as prepared as one can be to take the helm as president of Molloy College.
He had served as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost – a frequent
stepping stone to college president — at Oakland University from 2013-2020. Then the
pandemic hit, right before he arrived on campus.
“Every day was a new decision on how to manage things on campus,” said Lentini, who took
the helm of Molloy on July 1, 2020. “It wasn’t a normal way for any president including me to
experience the campus. Almost no one was on campus. It was a test in crisis management
for me and all new new presidents."
Every year brings a new freshman or first year (freshman is a distinctly male term) class to
colleges, but the past year brought a new class of college presidents to Long Island schools,
facing new challenges.
All confronted a crash course in how to run a college amid Covid-19 as they and their
schools developed new playbooks to deal with a pandemic. It was a huge changing of the
guard amid a massive changing of society – and it occurred at many of the region’s higher
education institutions.
Just weeks after Lentini arrived, Maurie McInnis took over as Stony Brook University’s
sixth president on July 1, 2020. Timothy E. Sams took over as the sixth full president of
SUNY Old Westbury on January 11, 2021. Edward Bonahue, a native of Long Island, took
over at Suffolk County Community College in June. Jermaine F. Williams became Nassau
Community College’s seventh president on July 1, 2019, before the pandemic struck.
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WHOLLY MOLI: MADE
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