ALBANY, New York (WWNY) – SUNY’s chancellor is resigning amid a furor over comments he made toward a coworker who later accused then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.
In a letter to the SUNY board Thursday morning, Jim Malatras said he is resigning effective January 14. You can read that letter below. The board has scheduled a special meeting for noon Thursday.
Malatras said he is proud he was the first SUNY student to become chancellor and he’s proud of the team he’s worked with to get the public university system through much of the pandemic.
“But, the recent events surround me over the past week have become a distraction over the important work that needs to be accomplished as SUNY emerges from COVID-19,” he wrote.
Malatras was facing calls to resign after the release of text messages showing he mocked Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo who later accused him of sexual harassment.
A text exchange from 2019 involving Malatras and other Cuomo allies showed them privately mocking Boylan.
“Let’s release some of her cray emails,” Malatras texted, using slang for crazy.
Boylan had departed the administration after some of her subordinates complained about her own workplace behavior, saying they felt bullied.
Also, the Times Union of Albany reported this week that when Malatras led the SUNY Rockefeller Institute, he called a female employee “a misery” and “[expletive] impossible.”
Malatras was named SUNY chancellor in August 2020. Before that, he was Cuomo’s director of state operations and was instrumental in helping with the state’s pandemic response.
He issued an apology last week that the SUNY Board of Trustees accepted, but calls from others for him to resign continued.
The board issued this statement shortly after he submitted his resignation:
“We want to thank Dr. Jim Malatras for his extraordinary service to the entire SUNY system. The past two years have been among the most trying in SUNY’s history—and Jim’s leadership and collaboration with our faculty and staff have allowed our institution to continue to thrive and serve our nearly 400,000 students at 64 campuses across our state safely and in person. He has been a champion for our students, for access, for equity, and for deeper public investment in this great institution. The entire board expresses our gratitude for his dedication and leadership.”
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