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Second SUNY Potsdam administrator targeted by student protestors to take new position at school's Student Success Center

Posted 3/30/16

By MATT LINDSEY POTSDAM -- A second administrator who SUNY Potsdam student protestors wanted removed from the school will take on a new role at the college, having accepted a position in SUNY …

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Second SUNY Potsdam administrator targeted by student protestors to take new position at school's Student Success Center

Posted

By MATT LINDSEY

POTSDAM -- A second administrator who SUNY Potsdam student protestors wanted removed from the school will take on a new role at the college, having accepted a position in SUNY Potsdam’s Student Success Center.

Annette Robins, who will work as the school’s director of student conduct and community standards through May 31, was one of two administrators that protesters called upon to be fired, according to SUNY Potsdam Director of Public Relations Alexandra Jacobs-Wilke.

School officials did not say what led to the decision for Robbins to take on a new role at the college.

“I can confirm that Annette Robbins has accepted a position in SUNY Potsdam’s Student Success Center, where she will be integral in developing and implementing the college’s orientation programs, first-year success seminars and Family Weekend programs," Jacobs-Wilke said. "Ms. Robbins brings 19 years of experience in student affairs to this programming, which is critical to the recruitment and retention goals of the college. She will continue to serve as the director of student and community standards through May 31, as the search process for her replacement continues.”

In January, school officials had said Robbins would keep her post but report to the director of residence life on an interim basis.

“Nothing has changed with Annette Robbins’ employment or duties at the college, except that due to this realignment, she now reports to Eric Duchscherer in the interim,” Jacobs-Wilke said at the time. “In the interim, he now also oversees the offices of Residence Life, Student Conduct and the Counseling Center and Student Health Services.”

On Jan. 22, the school announced Dean of Students Chip Morris decided to take a leave of absence for the spring semester. Upon his return, he will be moved to handle the school’s risk management instead of his former job.

Morris was the dean of students at the college.

The student protestors, calling themselves POWER (Potsdam’s Oppressed Working Every Resource), blocked traffic 200 strong during a downtown protest Dec. 4, 2015, and confronted Morris en masse in his office. They were responding to what they saw as the school’s inadequately handling racial tension on campus in the wake of death threats made against a black LGBTQ professor, John Youngblood, as well as minority students on campus.

For more about Morris taking a leave of absence and taking on a new role, see story.

Read more about the protest and the group’s demands here.