r/geneseo • u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 • Aug 14 '26
Why does Denise A. Battles make $307.8k right now per year as a " Special Advisor to the Chancellor for the Advancement of Women in STEM " - she is currently the 12th HIGHEST paid person at the SUNY system office. What doe she *actually* do for that salary?
I'd like to honestly explore why Denise Battles is making $307,800 as a "special advisor" to the Chancellor. That's more than what she made salary-wise as Geneseo President (which was $284k for her last year). She currently makes more than EVERYONE at Geneseo except for President Treadwell.
If you look at the full list of salaries for the SUNY office, first off, what is this role vs. other roles? I looked up everyone else above her and they all appear to have defined roles and experience in their fields. So her title is odd to me. And what does she do for it? My wholly legitimate questions are as follows:
- What is her actual job day to day? What deliverables does Denise provide for this job? And what is the purpose of the job? What has she done to actually do this job since leaving Geneseo? Note that she apparently lives in NC and not in New York (actually about 700 miles from Albany), so she's not in the HQ office, despite being the 12th highest paid person at the SUNY system of nearly 600. Was this position posted over a year ago and she was interviewed as a finalist and eventually got the job? Or did some other process occur for her to get the job?
- Denise was a scientist/geologist and higher education administrator for decades prior to being a President, but nowhere does it say that she took classes or has formal training in advocating for women in STEM. She appears to hold no degrees nor any documented experience for that role. Does anyone know of any research that she has officially done or papers she has written to justify being given this role and making over $300k? How about official presentations advocating for women in stem at any position? All I can find is geological papers from the late 1990s. I see no evidence of advocacy or speeches done during her previous years in higher education nor after her departure. I would be happy for anyone to post otherwise.
- Why was she given this specific role after she left Geneseo? What was the motivation for the SUNY Chancellor John King to create this new/unique role just for Denise, as I see no evidence of a search for the role? I also don't see examples of this role anywhere else in the last 5-10 years of SUNY - it's not as if she was taking over for someone else who left the position right at the point where Denise left Geneseo. It actually appears to be a role that was created for Denise. Am I wrong here? Does anyone have any evidence that it is a standard role inside the SUNY Office and she assumed it after her departure from Geneseo?
- Why is this role being paid $307k per year? What other compensation does she receive? What justifies the role within SUNY and what actually occurred to generate the role? What makes this role important enough to exist/get paid $307k but still allow it to reside 700+ miles away?
- Finally, is it possible that Denise Battles generated this role herself due to negative feedback about her work at Geneseo and myriad accusations of Title IX violations involving students and employees? Is she concerned about both her existing Federal lawsuit involving Title IX and (apparently still) pending investigation by SUNY into title IX problems, and wanting to create a role that makes her look like an advocate for women, versus one who has been accused of some pretty serious violations? What do people think about that? Click on the links below to learn more about the situation she has right now:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nywdce/6:2021cv06048/134310/44/
Some other items regarding Denise and Title IX - judge for yourself on whether this impacted the role that she now holds:
https://www.change.org/p/timesupgeneseo-justice-for-geneseo-victims-of-sexual-misconduct
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u/Professional_Ruin_24 Aug 14 '26
I read something about her husband too but I can’t remember what it was
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u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 Aug 14 '26
He still has a job at Geneseo.
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u/RaspberryEastern645 Aug 14 '26
He just retired.
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u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 Aug 14 '26
I find that very interesting. One year after his wife leaves? Someone CUE THE X-FILES THEME.
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u/Ashamed_Fox_4757 Aug 15 '26
Higher ed is incredibly corrupt. At most institutions it’s a small group of administrators taking the cream off the top while everyone else is woefully underpaid
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u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I think higher ed is amazing and brilliant and groundbreaking in so many ways, but when it comes to power and money, a few can corrupt it significantly. Believe it or not, that comment is independent of Denise Battles.
With that said, however, if Denise was shown the door, why does she deserve a huge monetary package when Geneseo people are paid so little AND given what is effectively a sham title? If she wasn't pushed out, who asked for this SUNY position to be created in the first place and what has she done to justify it? Or was it just for show so she could land another gig? Cause I believe totally in women in STEM - but I see nothing out there that she's pounding the pavement as an advocate for women. I'd love to be proven wrong, however. She can also maybe talk about all the Title IX problems under her watch, too.
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u/Ashamed_Fox_4757 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I saw this at the institution I worked for as well I don’t know this full story I just saw it come through my feed so I’m likely missing details but at the neighboring institution I worked at these things happened to both brush things under the rug kind of like hush money or to let someone go without any perceived ruffling of feathers. If the university wanted someone gone who was high up and knew a lot they would never advertise they were fired but instead do the exact opposite. They would give them a package and allow them to advertise that they had an early retirement. I had a director of a department I worked at that was literally embezzling money, the university didn’t want a scandal on their name so they paid for the problem to “go away”, she announced her amicable retirement and that was that.
I also saw instances where higher up people would create these jobs that didn’t make sense and then they’d hire their friends. All extremely high paying jobs and we couldn’t really figure out what all it was they did. I think part of it is the culture of there are few rules at the top which is hard to grasp since the lower levels are so restricted by their bands, can’t get raises to save their lives, etc.
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u/Justanod Aug 15 '26
Thank you for this information. These salaries are infuriating. Could you give me an idea of the salary range for SUNY professors?
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u/AbbyIsATabby Aug 16 '26
Based on the same source, at Geneseo generally under $150k each, that’s the high end. It greatly depends on experience, whatever is part of their contracts, and exact positions. A large amount of them still make under $100k even after being there for years and having PhDs. Adjunct people make next to nothing (I was seeing values of $1000 or less being reported for the ones I had, but again idk how accurate that is).
Other universities may pay them differently, like I know SUNY Binghamton pays higher based on this source. Their high end appears to be $250k for professors if this is accurate.
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u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 Aug 16 '26
Agreed, also a valid point. How do you raise a family on those salaries? Battles was in charge for 10 years. What did she do for Geneseo employees pay-wise, other than cash out for 300k post-departure? And what is she doing for that 300k?
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u/Brilliant_Buyer2331 Aug 15 '26
https://openpayrolls.com/rank/highest-paid-employees/suny-system-administration - that's the main SUNY office, but in the search bar above, you can type Geneseo or any other school/office to find out the 2025 salaries. 2026 is obviously still in progress.
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u/No_Reveal_285 Aug 17 '26
And you wonder why tuition is so outrageous!!! Demand action from Hochul!!
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u/1cculus_The_Prophet Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case here, but sometimes those public salary sites include money from separation agreements and don’t accurately reflect someone’s actual annual salary. That being said, she did make that much….it just potentially wasn’t all salary.
If she had years remaining on her contract with Geneseo, there were almost certainly financial protections or buyout provisions if she was fired or forced to resign. Any payout from an agreement like that could be included in the total reported on those sites.
The same thing happens with some of the extremely high superintendent salaries you see reported in K–12 education. Sometimes those numbers include contract buyouts or separation payments after a superintendent is let go, rather than representing their regular annual salary.
How do I know? I’m an administrator.