While the Student Association prepares to withdraw funding from Sub-Board I, Inc., discussions are heating up as the corporation questions its fate and employees of Health Education and Human Services - an office funded by SBI - plan to flood SA president-elect George Pape with letters of protest.
Pape, a former president of SBI, sent a letter to the undergraduate student population Tuesday, stating, "the current and incoming Student Association officers all stand in unanimous agreement that, under the current circumstances, we will not renew our allocation to Sub-Board I, Inc., for programs and services as of Aug. 1, 2003."
SBI Executive Director Bill Hooley said the idea behind SBI's formation 33 years ago was to serve the 25,000 students, regardless of government or monetary allocation.
"I think that the mission that George sees for the corporation is not what the intended mission was," Hooley said. "The goal was not to segment the population."
Hooley said Pape has a right to his opinion, but if Pape felt that the bylaws should be amended to give SA a larger percentage of the vote on the board of directors, he should have brought his concerns to the bylaw committee.
According to Hooley, the remaining board members would have to decide which services it will continue to offer and which will be terminated if SA decides to pull out of SBI.
However, Hooley said he hopes the governments can reach an agreement without harming the corporation.
"If Sub-Board ceased to exist," he said, "the student experience at UB would become ordinary, rather than remarkable."
If SA pulls out of SBI, Pape said the services it provides, such as the Anti-Rape Task Force, Health Education and Human Services, medical insurance and the pharmacy, will not be affected.
"What we're doing is try to optimize these services," Pape said. "We're not trying to cut back these services."
However, some employees of services currently funded by SBI disagree.
"They say they're going to pull their money out and services won't be affected, but I don't see how," said Melissa Kleinman, counseling supervisor at the HEHS sexual education center.
Among the services the HEHS center currently provides are free HIV testing, free pregnancy testing and the Anti-Rape Task Force.
"I have little confidence that if they were to pull out they'd be able to provide the services," said Kleinman.
"Students will incur more charges and there will be less venues to go to," she added.
Kleinman said that should the HEHS center close or have its finances restructured in a way that lowered funding, she believed student health needs would be more expensive and less confidential.
"If university runs student health center, prices will go up", Kleinman said.
A loss of SBI funds would cause the health center to raise the costs of medical exams, Kleinman said, and if they university takes control of pregnancy and HIV testing, confidentiality could be compromised. Currently, the HEHS center offers a strict confidentiality and shreds personal information after six months.
According to Kleinman, employees in HEHS will write letters to Pape protesting the withdrawal and will ask friends and family members to do the same.
"We'll evaluate the letters once they come through," Pape said. "I understand they're all Sub-Board I employees and they have more to worry about if we do pull out."
Pape said HEHS workers should not worry about SA withdrawing from the corporation because SA will provide the services currently available from SBI.
"Obviously we're going to keep that service," Pape said.
Pape said HEHS could benefit from SA's withdrawal from SBI because, he said, "There can be an increase for funding in health education services if we feel it's appropriate."
While Pape said he understands the concerns of HEHS employees, he still believes withdrawal is the best option.
"The status quo is no longer acceptable in my mind," Pape said. "There should not be a student service corporation on campus because that's what individual student governments should be doing."
"They've become their own student government," he added.
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
