First, the public was told Dippikill had closed due to financial difficulties. The University then said they couldn't work with the Past SA Presidents' Coalition (of 19 former SA Presidents including NY State Senator Steve Rhoads) to launch an SA Presidents' Appeal fundraiser for Dippikill so long as SA was planning on selling Dippikill. Then the University told the Times Union Dippikill was "not for sale." Then we said if there is no sale, why not work with us on the proposed fundraiser effort? After we went to SUNY Central and the Times Union, they were shamed into giving us a Dippikill-specific UAlbany Fund fundraiser link, which it turns out they always had (we later found it on Dippikill's Facebook page), one not specific, however, to our SA Alumni Society efforts so that we cannot run reports on the progress and track what should be going to Dippikill. Now, alums have reported to us they have sent in donations to Dippikill in December, an amount to be determined via a FOIL request to make sure Dippikill is indeed getting the money donated. I sent $1,000 myself to Dippikill through the link in December. So now what is the problem that justifies keeping it closed? It's not being sold, donations are pouring in. Why is it still closed during peak ski season causing Dippikill to lose revenue while SA is still incurring costs to staff and maintain the property? Are they intentionally running it into the ground to manufacture a huge loss that justifies a sale?

As we have dug deeper, we have learned that the last Dippikill chair who resigned in October apparently right after effecting the Dippikill closure actually had a campaign agenda in 2023 to defund --or rather underfund-- Dippikill when she ran for SA President against Jalen Rose because more alumni use Dippikill than students: 

"In another question relating to making SA more fiscally responsible, Rose focused on holding people accountable for any misuse of funds as well as having a strong Board of Finance and Appropriations Committee that know the rules of the Financial Literacy Handbook. Medrano discussed SA’s wilderness retreat, Dippikill, which is intended for students of UAlbany. In reality, less than 10% of Dippikill’s bookings are from students, even though SA spends $300,000 a year on Dippikill, according to Medrano. With Dippikill, Medrano believes it best to decrease the amount of money put in while also increasing profitability for the property." 

So, it appears there was an agenda to decimate Dippikill from within the Board itself, which is a big no-no from a fiduciary perspective if you ask any lawyer. 

The new Dippikill chair Dylan Klein has now gone into immediate hiding after we issued a call to action yesterday for Dippikill stakeholders to post comments on his now-deleted LinkedIn post about becoming the new Dippikill chair on November 1st just as Dippikill was closed. He now joins SA President Jalen Rose who is the first SA President to strangely shun and ignore past SA Presidents who are offering to help with the alleged Dippikill financial situation. We find this very suspicious and problematic.

Rose is now the subject, ironically, of a misuse of funds complaint himself which alleges violation of 8 NYCRR 302.14 for apparently using student activity fee funds to throw a lavish "free dinner" at an off-campus community church in downtown Albany for non-student residents, which if true would be beyond the scope of allowable state regulatory uses of SAF monies. The University has not responded to this complaint, which has now been escalated to the SUNY Central Fraud Hotline Auditors, bringing into question whether the local campus approved the expenditure and is complicit in a 302.14 misuse of funds violation.

While at best, the Dippikill closure could be a malicious retaliation against Dippikill employees who are apparently seeking overtime through legal channels for hours worked over 40 hours per week, according to one local member of the Town of Thurman community where Dippikill is located in Warren County, it seems there is more to this than meets the eye.

It may very well be that there have indeed been secret discussions over the past year between SA and the University about how Dippikill can be sold to another component of the University such as UAS or the Alumni Association, without formally putting the property up for sale to private buyers on the market to keep it under the auspices of a UAlbany organization.

Watch for a Times Union investigative reporter expose into this saga shortly.

In the meantime, please keep circulating the www.change.org/SaveDippikill petition and consider making a donation to the UAlbany Fund Dippikill Appeal.

Regards,

/s/ JAMES LAMB

Class of 1991

SA President 1988-89