Our UB AAUP chapter’s current work in support of UBF transparency builds on the 2014 Faculty Senate Resolution requesting transparency in UBF revenue and spending. Excerpts from the UB Reporter are below. In his official  response to that Resolution, (available at this link Tripathi-Response) , President Tripathi declined on the ground that he lacks authority over disclosure of UBF records.  President Tripathi is a member of the Board of Trustees of UBF, and according to several UBF public statements and web site postings, the UBF delegates much of its decision making about spending to President Tripathi.

See:  UB Reporter Campus News, Faculty Senate asks that UBF ‘open its books’,By SUE WUETCHER and CHARLOTTE HSU, Published June 19, 2014:

The Faculty Senate voted at its meeting Tuesday to ask the university administration to make the UB Foundation’s budget public.

The 38-17 vote in favor of the resolution asking that the UBF “open its books” — the senate achieved a quorum for the first time in recent memory — was on the second reading of the resolution. It now goes to President Satish K. Tripathi, who will review it and make a final decision on whether the resolution becomes university policy. . . .

In response to the resolution, UB issued a statement saying that the university “values transparency and understands the importance of being transparent and forthright in its endeavors and communications“This is an important and useful discussion for the university community to be having,” the statement read. “The university will review and consider the Faculty Senate resolution after it has been formally presented to the president.

…

The Faculty Senate resolution, drafted by Kenneth Dauber, professor of English, stated that the Faculty Senate is responsible for providing oversight of UB’s budget and recommending funding priorities — a task, he said, that may be difficult when the senate does not have complete information about how money is being used on behalf of the university. The resolution asks that the budget of UBF and its associated foundations be made available “as if it were subject to FOIL.”