Quoted from bumblethru

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Aug 11,2007 gazette article:
County officials want to add more foot traffic to downtown, believing students are a key to its continued revitalization

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Sept 15 2007 gazette article
by Susan Savage:
Representatives of the college have also stated incorrectly that county leaders want to create foot traffic downtown. While this may have been the case many years ago when leaders searched for anyone to locate downtown, the picture has changed dramatically in the past four years. Proctors, the new Bow Tie Cinema, and new restaurants and cafés, such as the Muddy Cup, have all transformed downtown Schenectady into a vibrant arts and entertainment area that students would enjoy.

Does old Suzie know what she is talking about? What the heck does she mean when she says that increasing foot traffic may have been the case years ago when leaders searched for 'anyone' to locate downtown? Downtown was GREAT! The so called leaders didn't have to 'look' for anyone! They came knocking on Schenectady's door. And my dear Suzie, that was only because of GE! Clearly not the great leaders of the city. Suzie talks about 'foot traffic', GE supplied all the foot traffic you needed. God, they employed just about everyone in the cite/county and beyond! She is truly a dimwhit!

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Savage’s op-ed was filled with
logical fallacies

   In their Sept. 16 op-eds about Schenectady County Community College’s music program, [chairwoman of the county Legislature] Susan Savage and [chairman of the Department of Music at SCCC] William Meckley offered arguments that differ not just in their positions but, more importantly, in their validity.
   Ms. Savage’s argument is severely hurt by its many logical fallacies and unsupported claims. Although I can’t cover them all, I’ll address a few of the major problems.
   Her op-ed tries to influence readers through their emotions — not their ability to think. One instance of this is the very opening which, instead of addressing SCCC’s argument, attacks college offi cials by painting them as closed-minded naysayers (this is an ad hominem fallacy).
   Another subtle emotional technique plays with labels. For example, the oped invokes “the local county taxpayers,” pitting their “needs” against the college’s “desires.” It’s not SCCC, but (allegedly) the county whose plan “invests taxpayer dollars” for “something spectacular” that will “serve the needs” of students; however, the op-ed provides no evidence of this claim, expecting readers to take it at face value.
   In trying to justify the county plan, Ms. Savage’s op-ed often illogically overgeneralizes about students and colleges, offering no proof. One example it does provide is Fordham — a very different type of academic institution from SCCC. Comparing a residential metropolitan university with a small-city, commuter, two-year college is an illogical basis for an argument. Further, her op-ed’s characterization of Fordham is factually incorrect: Fordham Lincoln Center isn’t a satellite campus for the university, separating the arts programs from the others. It’s a self-contained, degree-offering college within Fordham University.
   In contrast, Dr. Meckley’s op-ed presents a strong argument, supporting its claims with logic and many specific details; if I had room to enumerate them, I would. Besides addressing readers’ ability to think, his op-ed’s argument also cites his national expertise in music program evaluation and offers readers an invitation to come to the college and discover facts for themselves.
   While I’m sure the readers themselves have been able to judge the validity of Dr. Meckley’s argument and the severe weaknesses of Ms. Savage’s, I wanted to offer my analysis to reinforce their judgments.
   CONSTANCE J. OSTROWSKI
   Schenectady
The writer is a professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of SCCC.  

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SCCC’s Meckley made more convincing case

   Based on my reading of the two Sept. 16 Sunday Viewpoints, “Moving SCCC music program a discordant discussion,” by chairwoman of the county Legislature Susan Savage and chairman of the Department of Music at SCCC William Meckley, I came away with this thought: As an objective reader of the columns, I would trust the expert, Mr. Meckley, over the county Legislature’s suggestions.
   The Legislature’s suggestions do sound exciting. However, knowledge, expertise, experience and common sense gained through working in the college’s music program day in and day out, gets my vote of confidence. From the Viewpoints, there was no evidence that the college was closed to new ideas. Apparently, the SCCC was excluded from full participation in any of the proposals made by the Legislature.
   Oversight by the county is one thing, but the Legislature, presuming that they should design the music program, is another.
   As time goes on, other alternatives could be considered, but for the present time, it is Mr. Meckley’s perspective that sounds realistic, achievable, and in the best interest of the music students.
   BILL SHAPIRO
   Niskayuna  

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Savage’s team concept: ‘my way or the highway’

   On the Schenectady County Web site [www.schenectadycounty.com], County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage has an article extolling the virtues of the Legislature’s team approach to problem solving in Schenectady County; but where is the team approach?
   There are, in addition to the Muddy Cup cafe, two outstanding attractions in downtown Schenectady, Proctor’s Theatre and Schenectady County Community College. Lately the community college has been the “hostage” in an apparent power play by the county Legislature and Proctors to “expand” music department facilities to the Proctor’s complex. The logistics of such a diversification seem to be self-evident; much time spent walking (or riding) back and forth to practice facilities and classrooms where the time might be better spent in the campus-based practice rooms.
   The team approach, proffered by the Legislature on its Web site, seems to have excluded the music department faculty whose ideas (they claim) have neither been sought, nor heeded. This is the faculty responsible for the development of a first-rate community college program and one that in so doing has demonstrated its competence. Listen to them!
Instead of listening, Susan Savage, in her [Sept. 16] op-ed piece accuses the college faculty of being closed-minded and unwilling to entertain new ideas. Show some respect to the faculty; listen to what they have to say!
Keep the expansion on the campus; Proctor’s doesn’t have to be into everything.
GEORGE C. GOULD
Scotia

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EDITORIALS
Compromise with SCCC

   In an editorial Aug. 14, we supported the idea of Schenectady County Community College moving some or all of its music program downtown to become part of the arts district there. We still think the idea has potential, provided there were a well-thought-out plan that everyone supported. But that’s hardly the case here. College officials and many college supporters are strenuously opposed, raising enough good arguments about the merits of the plan to call it into question — and even better ones about the process.
   In fact, there is no plan at this point. That’s not only because the college is opposed, but because the county hasn’t said exactly where the new facilities would be (maybe Center City, maybe above the Carl Co. or movie theater), how much they would cost, how Proctors’ facilities would be shared, etc. When it became clear that there were logistical problems with splitting up the program, county leaders all of a sudden started talking about moving the whole program — without even communicating with college officials. Which is the way much of this has gone.
   Chairwoman Susan Savage, the leading proponent of the idea, says that college officials were told two years ago, when they were given $250,000 to design an addition to the Begley Building on campus, to “consider” locating downtown. It is unclear how clear or forceful that suggestion was. In any case, the college decided to go ahead with the $5.7 million Begley expansion, $2.7 million for which the Legislature subsequently approved in the capital budget (the rest would come from the state).
   And the Legislature now is holding back the $2.7 million. Savage refuses to say this is to force the college to move downtown; she still maintains that she only wants the college to “consider” moving. But one doesn’t have to be able to read music to figure out what’s going on here, especially when combined with Savage’s recent Viewpoint in this newspaper in which she suggested that college officials were close-minded and had to learn to accept change. No money until you “get your minds right,” guys.
   This shouldn’t be about who is going to get his or her way, but about meeting halfway with a compromise that would benefit the college, downtown and the community. The college has proposed such a compromise, offering to locate its new sound recording program in the arts district and start some unspecified community program there, presumably utilizing students, faculty or both. The county should accept it.  

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Chairwoman Susan Savage, the leading proponent of the idea.....

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And the Legislature now is holding back the $2.7 million. Savage refuses to say this is to force the college to move downtown; she still maintains that she only wants the college to “consider” moving. But one doesn’t have to be able to read music to figure out what’s going on here, especially when combined with Savage’s recent Viewpoint in this newspaper in which she suggested that college officials were close-minded and had to learn to accept change. No money until you “get your minds right,” guys.

Quoted from bumblethru

I LOVE that Suzie is behind this one too. You'd have thought that she would have learned from the rediculous sex offender law. Susan Savage is clearly on the way down the white ivory tower! And I'd bet that Eddy is on her shirt tails. OH MY...what will ever happen to Mr. Morris at Proctors once they're gone?