Stony Brook almost got 22 million in state money for a stadium upgrade

[ubbullrun]

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2015/4/13/8403223/stony-brook-tries-to-trick-tax-payers-into-a-stadium-upgrad

 

In this years state budget Stony Brook had just over 22 million dollars earmarked for a "computational biomedicine visualization and drug development magnet facility". And really why wound't they. After all biomedicine computational fields are sexy. In fact UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences is a feather in the cap of our university.

The problem is that at the last hour somebody in the New York State Senate changed that the purpose of this $22.2 million dollars. The school tried to put that money towards more facilities upgrades to their football stadium.

If I had to guess I would say that senator Kenneth Lavalle had something to do with it. Yes it's a wild guess a this point but Lavalle has aimed a lot of state money at Stony Brook athletics over the years.

But wait! There's more!

If you thought it would stop there than you don't know Empire state politics.

There’s another $2 million which magically found it's way from academic purposes to Stony Brook Athletics. That money was originally allocated to the SUNY Stony Brook magnet facility but was converted this year to cover an indoor practice facility/exam center.

[Clickclack]

This is a disgrace...who made the change needs to be released. I understand asking for money for athletics, we all do it...but this shady business is a disgrace.

 

This is why people will continue to hate SBU, BS program that is nothing more than regular season warriors (except for baseball) unjustifiably continuing to rip NY State off, had an AD fired for inappropriate conduct and yet has the nerve lie and obfuscate to get even more funding.

 

Early in the day when I initially saw this story, it didn't click that they changed the purpose at the last second.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Clickclack

[MRSGDG]

Yeah this is being discussed in the fix sefcu thread.

[madDOG]

Now we know how they were able to get such disproportionate funding for athletics in the past. Glad they were finally called out on it. I wonder if Newsday will dig into this further. If it was UA there would be a 12 page exposé in the Times Union.

[Michigan_Dane]

What is in the budget for UA specifically?

 

Also any general funding that while not specifically for athletics could be used for SEFCU or Bob Ford Field expansion?

[Eli]

We're not ready to expand BoFo yet. Some games last year had the stadium 50% full (being optimistic). Expand when you are 90% consistently...otherwise your bigger stadium will look like it has 5 people in it. Me, myself, I and our two friends.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Ilko

[Clickclack]

There should be ZERO conversation about any further work on the football stadium until SEFCU is brought up to appropriate standards. There simply is no need considering we didn't sell the facility out last year.

[MRSGDG]

What is in the budget for UA specifically?

 

Also any general funding that while not specifically for athletics could be used for SEFCU or Bob Ford Field expansion?

NYS would never use General Fund for capital projects as the state doesn't have enough cash in the first place for operating and non bondable costs. They are bonding as much as they can. I would be super surprised, almost in shock if they did not bond facilities improvements. Edited April 15, 2015 by MsGDG

[Michigan_Dane]

To answer my own question

 

"Cuomo left untouched other programs such as $5.9 million for classroom renovations and $25 million for "campus revitalization" at SUNY Albany. There is also $35 million for the biotechnology and cancer research center on the SUNY Albany East Campus in Rensselaer County, a facility that once housed the Sterling Winthrop pharmaceutical laboratories."

[danefan]

There should be ZERO conversation about any further work on the football stadium until SEFCU is brought up to appropriate standards. There simply is no need considering we didn't sell the facility out last year.

I agree with this. we do need SEFCU upgrades and we absolutely need an indoor fieldturf facility for our outdoor sports to use. I would like to see something very modest. Even turf in the bubble is good for me.