#SUNY Board set to appoint Cuomo right-hand Jim Malatras next chancellor: source

ALBANY — Being the right hand man to Gov. Andrew Cuomo throughout the coronavirus pandemic is about to pay off big time for Jim Malatras.

The 42-year-old, a key official on Cuomo’s COVID-19 task force who sat beside the governor during his daily press conferences, is set to be appointed chancellor of the State University of New York after the board of the state college system decided to scrap a national search to fill the post.

His predecessor raked in an annual salary of $560,000, but it’s unclear how much he’ll be paid.

During a closed-door board meeting Monday night, SUNY board officials showed “overwhelming” support for the Cuomo-loyalist, who also served as the state operations director and is currently president of SUNY Empire State College.

“Jim Malatras has the overwhelming support of the Board,” said a source close to the deliberations who said he will be formally interviewed by SUNY’s board of trustees on Tuesday.

No other candidate is scheduled to be interviewed and the SUNY board could vote Malatras the new chancellor as early as Wednesday, the source said.

But the board is skipping what’s customarily a months-long, national search for the new SUNY chief — a move one education source decried.

“SUNY is no longer a public university. It has become a state agency,” said one public education official who requested anonymity of skipping a national search for a chancellor.

“It’s a sad day for equality of opportunity and affirmative action.”

But another insider justified the choice, arguing to The Post that besides the fiscal crisis confronting SUNY thanks to coronavirus, the system seeks leadership heading into the fall session where classes will be conducted remotely amid fears of COVID-19’s spread.

The source compared the logic to Regents chancellor Betty Rosa’s recently announced appointment as interim head of the state Education Department.

“That search took months and they ended up hiring someone from the office next door,” an anonymous education source told The Post, as Rosa’s departure from her position makes her the fourth official to hold the position in the past year alone.

A SUNY insider said the board has the discretion on whether it wants to hold a broader search or not.

“We need someone at this time who knows his way around New York State. I don’t think we could have found a better person than Jim,” the insider said.

“Jim is a strong operations guy, a strong manager. People are fairly confident that Jim can handle the academics and the operations side of things.”

The source said the optics of hiring a Cuomo loyalist was not raised as a problem.

“We’re in a pandemic. The University of North Carolina opened and then closed their dorms,” the source said.

Malatras earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the State University at Albany.

He also served a stint as chief of staff to former SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher.

The governor’s office and SUNY did not immediately return calls for comment.