Students and faculty from Tech Valley High School stand up to be recognized during an event at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 in Albany, NY. It was announced at the event that Tech Valley High School, currently located in East Greenbush, would be moving into space at CNSE
ALBANY ? Wednesday?s news that an innovative regional high school will move from the University at Albany?s East Campus in Rensselaer to UAlbany?s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering across the Hudson River seemed like a typical announcement about education and economic development efforts in the Capital Region.
Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy was at the NanoCollege to hail the shift as a ?move forward for the state? and a local education official said it would be a game-changer for the high school.
But some key officials in the region?s economic development movement were puzzled and less than pleased.
That?s because the planned 2014 move by Tech Valley High School may leave a major player at UAlbany, the University at Albany Foundation, in a financial bind.
The foundation owns East Campus, and the approximately $400,000 annual rent from Tech Valley High helps it carry out its mission of awarding scholarships to needy students and providing training for academics.
Moreover, the move by Tech Valley came without warning.
?We had no knowledge of that, and we?ll be looking to understand it,? said George R. Hearst III, president of the UAlbany Foundation, which didn?t learn of the impending move until Wednesday?s announcement. Hearst is publisher of the Times Union.
Even top administrators at SUNY said they hadn?t been told until the day before the news broke. ?SUNY administration became aware of the announcement on Tuesday,? said SUNY system spokesman David Doyle.
The NanoCollege is the brainchild of its CEO and senior vice president, Alain E. Kaloyeros ? who also serves on board of the UAlbany Foundation.
On Thursday, he defended the way the move was disclosed, saying it was similar to other announcements of the same nature. Last week, Kaloyeros said, the NanoCollege made a similar disclosure about plans for the Children?s Museum of Science & Technology, which is also moving to the NanoCollege from its current home in Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush.
?It was the same process,? said Kaloyeros, who said the new tenants like the idea of being part of a high-tech center.
NanoCollege officials and the high school negotiated a 20-year lease for $630,000 annually, including utilities.
The school will occupy 22,000 square feet in a future addition to the NanoCollege campus called the ZEN Building ? an acronym for Zero Energy Nanotech, a reference to the solar panels that will make it an energy-neutral structure.
ZEN or not, however, some suggested the move amounts to shifting the pieces in an economic development board game: The ZEN building has a major tenant, but East Campus, which had been renovated to accommodate the high school, has to find a new occupant.
Tech Valley High spokesman Mike McCagg pointed out that the school is giving more than a year?s notice before the move; its lease expires in August 2014.
Besides the announcement?s timing, it didn?t go unnoticed that the news release alluded to the ?SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering,? although local officials usually add ?University at Albany? to the college?s name.
While SUNY and UAlbany may be interchangeable in some venues, the difference speaks to the inherent tensions that exist within the sprawling SUNY system, where individual campuses ? from Binghamton and Buffalo to Albany and Stony Brook ? compete for dollars and recognition.
rkarlin@timesunion.com ? 518-454-5758 ? @RickKarlinTU
Earlier article: Tech Valley High moving up: School plans to relocate to NanoCollege campus in 2014
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