- Texts show SUNY chancellor in feud with future Cuomo accuser
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This report details aspects of the toxic work environment that was tolerated by Andrew M. Cuomo while serving as New York's governor. It specifically involves the contributions to that hostile environment by James Malatras, who has appeared in the timeline previously because of his role in reviewing and editing the 6 July 2020 report by New York's Department of Health, in which Cuomo administration officials concealed the full extent of COVID deaths among nursing home residents that occurred while the administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect.
Future SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras took part in online heckling of Lindsey Boylan, an ex-aide to then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, after she first spoke in May 2019 about what she described as a difficult work environment in the Executive Chamber, according to transcripts and evidence released by the state attorney general's office.
Her remarks came more than a year and a half before she leveled far more serious sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
"Let’s release some of her cray emails!" Malatras wrote in response to another colleague in Cuomo's inner circle after Boylan criticized the Cuomo administration as a toxic workplace. ("Cray" is slang for "crazy.")
Malatras' comments get more offensive, please do click through to the report to get a sense of them and their context, which is too long to excerpt here. Several of the comments were made after he had started working at lower levels within the State University of New York, ahead of his unusual appointment as SUNY's chancellor by Andrew M. Cuomo. His continuing in that position is now at question.
- Malatras under fire in Cuomo scandal
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This report indicates SUNY Chancellor James Malatras is relying on the "mistakes were made" trope to try to avoid the consequences of the toxic work environment to which he contributed as a key member of the Cuomo administration.
The leader of the 64-campus State University system acknowledged Tuesday he "should have used different language" when he employed profanity to curse a woman after she described the Cuomo administration as toxic.
Chancellor James Malatras, in early 2019, wrote acidic comments regarding Lindsey Boylan, then his colleague in the Cuomo administration, in an email to other administration aides.
Boylan would later become the first of a string of women to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment in the workplace. Those allegations sparked investigations which culminated with Cuomo's resignation in August.
In a separate text message, Malatras encouraged Cuomo aides to smear Boylan by releasing confidential documents in an act of retaliation.
"Let’s release some of her cray emails!" Malatras said, using a slang word for "crazy."
The transcripts were part of the voluminous documents that James' office has been releasing following the completion of an investigation into various scandals centering on Cuomo.
The released transcripts of Malatras' texts indicate he contributed to creating the toxic work environment that has come to define New York's state government under the Cuomo administration. They directly contradict his self-serving statements as he tries to hold onto his job as SUNY Chancellor. The questions are which statements reflects the true Malatras and shall he be allowed to remain employed in the position to which he was appointed by Andrew M. Cuomo as a reward for his participation in his administration?
- EDITORIAL: SUNY must dump Malatras
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The editors of Schenectady's Daily Gazette have reviewed Malatras' text messages and find his ability to function as a leader to be lacking, calling for a proper replacement:
When you’re associated with terms like “toxic and demoralizing work environment,” accused of sending a text to staff quoting himself saying to the Cuomo accuser “go f— yourself,” when you threaten to “release some of her cray (crazy) emails” and when you’re yukking it up over insulting comments made by other government staff about her, you’re clearly not qualified to lead.
Gov. Hochul can’t remove Malatras as SUNY chancellor herself. But she can exert her clout by calling on the SUNY Board of Trustees to remove Malatras and to conduct the thorough nationwide search for a chancellor that Malatras managed to avoid.
Malatras shouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place, given his thin resume in higher education. His appointment, which touted his management experience in state government, came at the height of the first wave of covid. That was used as the excuse to install someone in the job quickly.
With the SUNY board stacked with Cuomo appointees and loyalists, his appointment was an easy sell, even over the objections of SUNY faculty and the student body.
In supporting Malatras’ appointment, the SUNY board bypassed a national pool of prominent educators, administrators and higher-education leaders, as well as any opportunity to consider a woman or a candidate of color for the post.
This a chance for trustees to rid the state of one of the last remaining lieutenants of the disgraced Cuomo administration and a chance for them to right the earlier wrong, by conducting a thorough search for the best-qualified candidate to be the next chancellor.
Toxic behavior spreads like a virus in an organization. SUNY's board would do well to heed the editors' advice.
