Feb. 24, 2016 news story (click link for full article; excerpts below) :

“According to a report critical of the University at Buffalo Foundation’s spending, about 7 percent of the organization’s expenditures in 2013 were for student scholarships.”

“That was one of the findings of a new document by a UB faculty organization renewing calls for the foundation to open its books and provide a more transparent accounting of how it receives and spends money. The UB chapter of the American Association of University Professors on Tuesday began circulating a petition urging the university and foundation administration to reveal a more detailed accounting of revenues, expenditures and investments – from the current year and past years.

Requests for more transparency from the foundation were misguided, since it is the university that determines how all of the foundation funds are spent, he said [UB Foundation Executive Director Ed Schneider].”

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The report also raises concerns about the people who control the foundation as trustees and directors on its board and the boards of seven affiliated nonprofit entities. Many of those board members have direct, indirect or potential private business interests in the foundation’s spending and investment, according to the report.”

The New York Committee on Open Government, in the NY Dept. of State, has issued an advisory opinion that the UB Foundation is subject to FOIL.  The opinion advises that the contrary lower court ruling in 2011 is not consistent with precedent.

We have posted and will be circulating our report and petition in support of transparency at the UB Foundation. Please sign and circulate to others!  Signatures can be sent to ubaaup@gmail.com.