Robert L. Payton

After two years as ambassador, he was then named the Interim President of C.W. Post College on September 9, 1969.[9] His tenure was not without a fair share of mishaps, including salary freezes that were incurred and also the halting of a planned library at the Brooklyn campus.[10] Additionally, a dispute with campus radio station WCWP for allegedly reading pornographic material live on air would culminate in a 45 day sit-in by students. Payton have given the go ahead to reinstate the radio station, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by LIU trustees.[11][12] Faculty salary was also an issue at Post, as classes were cancelled for 3 hours in March 1973 to discuss such matters. Ultimately, Payton would resign as president of Post, submitting his letter on 27 March and it being effective on 1 August. While he said the dispute was not part of his resignation, he tended to have an uphill battle with himself and the trustees of the university, mainly chancellor Albert Bush-Brown as he was unable to get the trustees to get a pay raise for the faculty during his tenure.[13][14]

Payton was then named the president of Hofstra University and assumed his post in June 1973. After former president and then-chancellor Clifford Lee Lord had gone to the Hudson Institute, chancellors were phased out of the university and Payton had only the board of trustees to deal with.[6] In 1973, the Hofstra Law Review had begun publication, the university launched a charter with Phi Beta Kappa, and the first gay rights organization Hofstra United Gays (HUG) was established.[15] Payton's tenure started with a plan for Hofstra and the Polytechnic Institute of New York to merge their engineering programs, but remain two separate institutional identities. It is unclear if this ever came to fruition, as financial problems would plague the university in 1974.[16] These financial issues had almost resulted in the majority termination of all athletic activities at Hofstra, but Payton had only managed to cut the soccer, track, and golf programs form the university despite a $1.8 million university wide deficit.[17][18] In 1975, Hofstra began a partnership with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America to offer classes in Judaism, to which Payton responded that it is best for students to "...make each student sensitively aware of a culture other than her or his own".[19] However, with another $1.4 million deficit and a cut of over 111 staff members, trustees had felt that Payton "didn't feel as heavily comfortable with the heavily financial orientation of his position" and thus resigned on June 18, 1976.[20][21]