CALL SA TODAY 518 442 5640 and back us up!

Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at 8:37 AM
From: "James Lamb" <JimLamb@usa.com>
To: emadappatt@albany.edu, sewheeler@albany.edu, amattupurath@albany.edu, agomez6@albany.edu, mkavalunas@albany.edu, egish@albany.edu, frifenberg-stempel@albany.edu, gsmith7@albany.edu, gkitt@albany.edu, gaugenstern@albany.edu, jacooper@albany.edu, jharris20@albany.edu, jchen49@albany.edu, jbontemps@albany.edu, kbechand@albany.edu, pcataldo@albany.edu, lrjohnson@albany.edu, lkohout@albany.edu, mperez7@albany.edu, mahmad4@albany.edu, mrosenbaum@albany.edu, nyevko@albany.edu, nfeldman@albany.edu, pvaidya@albany.edu, rjgoldstein@albany.edu, rszepek@albany.edu, tpettit@albany.edu, tserao@albany.edu, zgondal@albany.edu, tbarletta@albany.edu, pthakoordial@albany.edu, cnobles@albany.edu, sejimenez@albany.edu, sblair2@albany.edu, iblauvelt-mercado@albany.edu
Cc: sapresident@albany.edu, sa@albany.edu, james.lamb@alumni.albany.edu, mchristakis@albany.edu, "Editor-In-Chief" <theasp.eic@gmail.com>, "Moore, Kathleen" <kathleen.moore@timesunion.com>
Subject: A Message to SA from the Former SA Presidents' Coalition of 19 former SA Presidents
This is a message to the Student Association from the coordinator of the SA Presidents' Coalition of 19 former SA Presidents and the SA Alumni Society.

Today, we formally hereby file our www.Change.org/SaveDippikill petition signed by over 700 Dippikill Stakeholders since December imploring you to please immediately reopen Dippikill and abort any attempts to sell the property.

We are disaapointed that the SA President has ignored SA Alumni concerns for months and has refused to enage us. We find this disrespectful and suspicious as no SA President has ever shunned former SA Presidents in this fashion. Frankly, Mr. Rose should be ashamed of himself. So, today, we will engage the SA President through good old-fashioned 80's-style activism to get his attention through our CALL SA DAY campaign:

Petition update · Tomorrow is Call SA Day & Demand they Reopen Dippikill · Change.org · Change.org

We also have filed four FOIL records to obtain Dippikill and other SA-releated records to determine why the University told us SA was planning on selling Dippikill and then back-pedaled on the record in classic Orwellian style. SOmething is not right here and it has caused us to discover what we believe is misuse of SAF funds, which we have reported to SUNY Central.

There are five recommendations we would make to you Honorable members of the SA Senate.

First, every member of the 501c3 nonprofit Dippikill Board, especially, students should receive Legal advice about their fiduciary duty from the SA Attorney before taking office.

This guide is a good primer. https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/fiduciary-responsibilities-nonprofit-board-directors/

Second, there are ways to hold non-profit Boards accountable through oversight mechanisms.

See: https://www.morethangiving.co/blog/these-six-steps-help-keep-nonprofit-boards-accountable

Third, this 20-year-old court case (see footnote one) discusses how SA can and cannot use student referendums regarding funding for Dippikill.

https://content.next.westlaw.com/Document/I679652764fc411dab072a248d584787d/View/FullText.html

Fourth, those SA Senators who are not happy with the Dippikill closure can push for a student Dippikill referendum that does not talk about funding levels, but just affirms students' wishes for SA to continue to fund (and thereby not sell or underfund) Dippikill. This sends a clear message to SA as to how students feel about Dippikill. 

Lastly, the minimum funding level in the SA bylaws can be increased to a level commensurate with what it actually costs to run the facility in 2025 and there can be a corresponding increase in cabin rental fees and SA promotion of Dippikill to mitigate the alleged underutilization of the property.

SA can also create additional transportation opportunities for students who do not have personal cars to get to Dippikill.

As of the 2018 version of the SA bylaws there is a section in which minimum funding levels could be raised to adjust for inflation:

506.6 – A minimum sum of $210,000 (dates back to at least 2015) shall be allocated for Dippikill Operating (Dept. 0100).

According to the Consumer Price Index, https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm $210k in Dec 2015 adjusts to $280,211.61 as of Dec. 2024.

SA could also reinstate in the bylawys this section (2015 edition) apparently removed:

303.13 – Director of Dippikill Outreach and Environmental Sustainability 303.13.1 – Also referred to Assistant Director of Marketing. This Director is to head a special task force whose duty is to the marketing, outreach, and engagement of the student body in regards to all things Dippikill. These endeavors include but are not limited to, holding monthly informational meetings, updating the Dippikill website, and create and expand the overall Dippikill marketing initiative. 3

03.13.2 – This Director shall be appointed by the Student Association President, with consultation of the Vice President and the Director of Marketing and approved with a two-thirds vote of the Senate. 303.13.4 – The Director of Dippikill Outreach and Environmental Sustainability shall report weekly to the Senate.

It appears this position was in place in 2023 but was removed by Mr. Rose.

Director of Dippikill — Student Association

This page was recently taken down by SA after we publicly referenced it.

Lack of interest in marketing by SA could be the cause of "underuntilization" by students.

We have offered SA assistance, both in terms of fundraising donations to Dippikill and guidance such as the recommendations above, including legal, business, and marketing expertise from SA Alumni.

We do not understand why the SA President has refused to engage us and why the current Dippikill Board Chair Dylan Klein ran and hid when we contacted him rather then engage in discussions. We suspect the University's FOIL responses will shed light on this strange handling of alumni.

We hope those of you students who share our concerns about preserving and reopening Dippikill will welcome these recommendations and work with us in the future on the welfare of Dippikill. Enjoy your college experience because it goes by in a blink of an eye. Perhaps we will be welcoming some of you soon as you graduates into the SA Alumni Society, which will enable you to celebrate your time as undergrads in SA through lifetime bonds across the generations.

Thank you for your attention and time.

Our fundraiser is now in full swing through the UAlbany Fund. We hope this helps and that you will join us in encouraging transparency and reopen Dippikill soon as we believe it is currently being recklessly run into the ground by cutting off revenue and incurring expenses.

Sincerely,

/s/ JAMES LAMB
Class of 1991
SA President 1988-89