The webcasts of SUNY Board of Trustees meetings are not exactly considered "must see TV", but Tuesday's session might be an exception, as it will be the first time trustees/frenemies H. Carl McCall and Carl T. Hayden (who is the panel's chairman) will be together in person since McCall tried to resign this week from the board in what has described as a power play to oust Hayden.
According to a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson, McCall, the former state comptroller, submitted a resignation letter earlier this week, but was convinced by the governor to reconsider. McCall's letter, according to Paterson Press Secretary Errol Cockfield, did not specify a reason. But at least one source within SUNY, and a report in today's Albany Times-Union, said that McCall, the former state comptroller and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, was hoping to convince Paterson to give him the chairmanship.
"He's been trying to become chairman from Day One," one source familiar with the workings of the SUNY trustees board said of McCall.
The T-U reports that McCall and Hayden, who were appointed to the board less than a year ago by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, have clashed about the board's search for a new chancellor. Neither McCall nor Hayden returned calls seeking comment, but SUNY spokesman David Henahan said: "Carl McCall is a Trustee of the University and is fully participating in that role."
We'll see how fully come Tuesday morning at the College of Optometry.
Karla Schuster