Sub-Board I, Inc. (SBI)

Sub-Board I, Inc. (SBI) was a student-run nonprofit organization at the University at Buffalo that served as the fiscal agent for student governments and provided student services from 1971 until 2019. Established around 1970-1971 by UB's student leaders, SBI was owned and managed by the university's student governments (undergraduate, graduate, and professional student associations). For nearly five decades, SBI oversaw the allocation and use of mandatory student activity fees, operating independently of the university administration. The organization's mission was to enhance student life by offering services funded by these fees, under student control. SBI, as an organization, was student-owned and student-run, with students holding most leadership positions and a focus on services for the students.

Services and Operations

Sub-Board I managed a wide range of services for UB students. These included a Student Legal Service that provided free legal consultations, a Safety Shuttle bus on South Campus for late-night transportation, a student-run pharmacy, coordination of the university's student health insurance plan, the funding and administering of WRUB (the student radio station), SBI Gaming, a dry cleaning service, and operation of the campus Ticket Office for discount event and transit tickets.

Legally, Sub-Board I, Inc. was set up as a nonprofit corporation separate from the university. It was governed by a board composed of representatives from the seven student governments at UB (including the undergraduate Student Association, the Graduate Student Association, and the student governments of other professional schools). This structure meant that student leaders directly decided how to spend student fees, under the umbrella of SBI. Each year, SBI received the collected student activity fees from the university and became responsible for disbursing funds to student clubs, organizing events (through the Student Association), and maintaining the services it offered. By the late 2010s, the annual student activity fee funds under SBI's management totaled in the millions of dollars, funding hundreds of clubs and events.

Dissolution

In May 2019, the University at Buffalo's administration announced that it would cut Sub-Board I from the university and replace it with the Faculty-Student Association (FSA) as the fiscal agent handling student funds, effectively stripping SBI of its core function. This decision ended SBI's 49-year role overseeing student government finances and removed a significant degree of freedom that student organizations had from the university administration's control. University officials argued that moving fiscal agency to the FSA (a university-affiliated organization) would free more money for student programs. Vice President for Student Life A. Scott Weber stated that under FSA, student governments would be "paying less in fees and having more revenues to invest in programs and services for UB students throughout the university"

The announcement resulted in significant controversy and protest from student leaders and the SBI organization itself, as students and alumni understood SBI as an important vehicle of student autonomy and freedom. In the Spring of 2019, SBI supporters organized rallies (including one on the 5th floor of Capen Hall where protesters chanted "Save SBI"). SBI's supporters pointed out that the organization had provided valuable services that would be lost or reduced. For example, the free legal advice program, used by many students, and the health insurance office were programs students feared might not receive the same emphasis under FSA. The Graduate Student Association, which was heavily affected by the transition, even pursued legal action - the GSA joined a lawsuit against UB, claiming the decision to dissolve SBI violated agreements - UB won against this lawsuit, however.

Despite these efforts against the destruction of Sub-Board I, the change went forward. Effective July 1st, 2019, the Faculty-Student Association took over custody of student activity fee funds and many SBI services by FSA were discontinued, ranging from the free legal counsel to the WRUB radio station, and from the safety shuttle bus to the Generation magazine. Dozens of students employed by SBI (in roles such as the pharmacy, office, etc.) may have lost their campus jobs in this incident.

UB's administration had grown more skeptical of SBI after the departure of a key figure who had historically supported it. In particular, longtime Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Black - who had started his career working with Sub-Board I in the 1970s - was seen as an advocate for keeping SBI intact. After Dennis Black resigned amid an unrelated scandal in 2017, new administrators moved swiftly to review and ultimately end UB's relationship with SBI. University officials claim that the change was purely to improve governance of student funds. However, SBI supporters viewed it as an erosion of student control. A 2019 editorial from The Spectrum called UB's decision "out of touch with student needs," pointing to SBI's decades of service and arguing that students, not faculty or administrators, should oversee their own fees that they are required to pay for.

It is possible that SBI and FSA have had a history of conflict. For example, in 2018, SBI had formally requested that FSA return a $1.5 million asset to student control - proceeds from a 1987 land sale that, according to SBI records, was originally purchased using student fees in 1964. The land had been bought by FSA (when it managed student funds before SBI's creation) for a proposed student golf course that was never built, then sold, with the money kept in FSA's accounts as a restricted fund. SBI pointed out that those funds should rightfully belong to the students now that SBI existed as the student fiscal agent. FSA's board did not listen, claiming that the investment belonged to FSA and questioning whether it could definitively be traced to student fees. With SBI's dissolution, the likelihood of that $1.5 million being transferred to student government control diminished, though the issue showed students the principle of ownership for their fees.