On Thursday, Officer in Charge Louis Coplin retired (for the final time) after more than three decades of service to the college. The Times Union reported on his farewell gathering and his career. Read Tyler McNeil’s story below:
TROY — Louis Coplin II spent his last day as a reporter with the Amsterdam Recorder on July 31, 1986. At the time, he was headed to work at Hudson Valley Community College.
On the same day, 39 years later, Coplin retired from the top job at HVCC.
“Bizarre,” said a handlebar-mustachioed Coplin, sitting with a can of Mountain Dew in hand.
Coplin, 65, made his final exit on Thursday as officer-in-charge, a temporary leadership role assumed in the fallout of then-president Roger Ramsammy’s June 2024 firing by the college board amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Coplin’s successor, former Hilbert College President Michael S. Brophy, arrived on campus on Friday. Coplin plans on making himself available to the new president for help in the coming months. But he doesn’t mind if that never occurs, based on his own experience succeeding HVCC administrators.
“I always maintain good relationships, but I never call them,” Coplin said. “I think, ‘I’ll figure this thing out.’”
This is the second time Coplin has pursued full-time retirement. He originally stepped down as student affairs vice president in February 2024 and briefly helped manage HVCC’S Capital South Campus Center.
After several months, according to him, he started receiving calls from college officials to potentially come back and fill in for Ramsammy in light of claims that the president groped an employee during a work event at a Kentucky hotel, according to a person familiar with the matter.
For Coplin, it was easy to return.
“I hadn’t established a retirement routine yet,” the Glenmont man recalled. “I was still kind of antsy, so when I was asked, I was happy to come back to a special place called work.”
HVCC was the cornerstone of Coplin’s career. He came close to quitting once in 1987 for a job as SUNY Schenectady’s communications director but turned it down after getting a higher-paying counteroffer.
Academia was his second route in life. After graduating from SUNY Fredonia in 1983, the Buffalo native got a job as a news assistant at the Times Union. He left that gig after two years to work as a reporter with the Amsterdam Recorder, where he covered affairs spanning from Gloversville to Schoharie for another two years.
By the end of his journalism career, he recounted that his quality of life was terrible and he wanted to head back to an urban setting after “chasing cows.”
“I was making no money, wasn’t married and didn’t have any children at the time, which was great. (I was) eating bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch and Rice-A-Roni for dinner,” Coplin said. “I said, ‘I got to get out of here.’”
Coplin was offered a job at the end of an interview with HVCC’s information services department, the predecessor to the marketing and communications office. The unbudgeted role was originally created through a temporary work agency and made permanent about one year later.
At the time, the Troy and North Greenbush campus was far less developed, and — minus a dip during the coronavirus pandemic — had about 2,000 fewer students compared to 10,000 in 2025.
Coplin and Willie Hammet, vice president of student services, were among the only Black employees working in the college administration in the 1980s. The two quickly became acquainted.
“He’s older, but we happened to favor one another, which helped immensely and our personalities were similar,” Coplin said.
Hammett, who retired in 2003, helped get Coplin promoted to an interim position as coordinator of the school’s Educational Opportunity Program, an initiative designed to provide financial and tutoring services to low-income students.
That position, which became permanent, was a building block en route to Coplin replacing Arden Piper, director of student life, in 1995. At the time, his EOP position was threatened by proposed cuts from former Gov. George Pataki’s administration. But such cuts were ultimately avoided and HVCC officials opted to have Coplin serve both offices.
With the new role came teaching moments, according to Coplin. In 2000, his shutdown of the Hudsonian student newspaper office over a strip club advertisement led to protest, eventually resulting in Coplin opening the office back up under orders from the administration. Student Senate President Clifton Dixon sued the student activities office over alleged abuses of power during his 2009-2010 term.
“While there have been mishaps since 2010, that office is far better than it’s ever been in terms of fact-finding, crossing i’s and dotting t’s,” Coplin said.
The 2001 SUNY Chancellor’s Award-winner briefly stepped out of student activities and EOP in the mid-2000s to serve as a vice president for student services after Hammett retired.
He recalled feeling like a “favorite choice” of Hammett and a “puppy dog” from the get-go. Coplin opted to go back into his prior role as director of student life, where he felt established.
Things changed again when Alex Popovics retired as vice president of student affairs in 2017. Then-HVCC President Andrew Matonak approached a reluctant Coplin about taking the position on a temporary basis. He remembers engaging in a brief “staring contest” with him before accepting the position.
“It was completely awkward and just before we reached that 61st second, I said ‘I’ll take it,’” Coplin said. “He said, ‘I’m glad because the board already approved it the night before.’”
Coplin decided to stay in the cabinet when Ramsammy succeeded Matonak in 2017. Coplin befriended the president. The two, according to Coplin, spoke about personal matters prior to “s__t hitting the fans so to speak.”
“It was working well,” Coplin said. “Obviously things did not work out well for him, but I was oblivious to all of that going on.”
When the sexual misconduct allegations broke, Coplin recalled telling Ramsammy that the president would likely face a “slap on the wrist” or suspension if accusations were false, but things would “spiral out of control” and not “bode well” if it was determined credible or others came forward.
“And that’s the best advice I gave him, what would be the last piece of advice prior to his demise,” Coplin said.
Ramsammy’s lawyer, Kevin Luibrand, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
Ramsammy’s administration was one of six Coplin has served under since he began working for the college in 1986. At the time of his retirement on Thursday, he was the longest-serving employee in the administration. The second-longest is Judith DiLorenzo, vice president for academic affairs.
HVCC Board of Trustees President Neil Kelleher has described Coplin as a “Viking through and through,” a reference to the college’s mascot.
His successor, Brophy, was appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees in June. He’ll receive a salary of $290,000.
“I wish Louis all the best as he begins an exciting new chapter,” Brophy said. “There’s no question that the college community has benefited immensely from his decades of service and unwavering dedication to student success.”
Don’t expect Coplin to make a full-time return again: The father of three children plans on spending more time with his grandchildren, golfing and possibly volunteering at the South Campus in Albany.
“I can cut the front lawn today and the back lawn tomorrow or water the front lawn one day, the back lawn maybe tomorrow,” Coplin said.
Published: Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:22:47 +0000 by t.farrell1