By Vince Gasparini | January 14, 2025
After over two months of closure, the University at Albany Student Association has made no indication of when its 1,000-acre Adirondack wilderness retreat, Dippikill, will reopen.
The camp was closed in early November over what SA President Jalen Rose and Dippikill Inc., a subsidiary organization tasked with maintaining the retreat, said was “significant financial strain” due to overall rising costs and increased maintenance needs. Rose and Dippikill Inc. also stated at the time that they intended to reopen by the winter and that they would be in contact with those interested in using the facility.
View from Dippikill Pond.
Photo Credit: Tommaso Dizon
Since the closure, however, SA leadership has been largely silent about the camp’s status - former SA President James Lamb (‘91), who held the position in the 1988-89 school year, said that despite multiple attempts to reach out to Rose with offers of help towards the financial strain, he has received no response from SA leadership, calling the communication “nonexistent.”
“Rose just does not return any correspondence,” Lamb told the ASP.
Lamb said that his outreach was on behalf of The SA Presidents’ Coalition - a group of 19 former SA Presidents who offer help to current officeholders.
“When we popped up back in November, we said, ‘Hey, we hear Dippikill is closed. We hear that it’s financial difficulties. What can we do to help,’” Lamb said. “SA just didn’t respond to us, and we found that unusual because that’s the first time an SA President was not intrigued to talk to one former SA President, let alone a group of 19.”
Lamb also reached out to UAlbany administration, who he alleges told him that SA was looking into selling the property; the allegations were denied by a university spokesperson, who said “we have heard from the Student Association’s representatives that Dippikill is not for sale.”
After hearing of the sale allegations, Lamb created a “Save Dippikill” petition in early December, which garnered almost 650 signatures.
In the petition, Lamb addresses Rose in an open letter, where he says that the losses Dippikill has sustained over the past two years are not unusual for a nonprofit, and that the camp is only going deeper into financial trouble by remaining closed during the winter.
According to tax filings posted to ProPublica, Dippikill Inc. lost almost $60,000 in the fiscal year ending in June 2023.
Lamb also states in the letter that Dippikill is “an integral part of the University at Albany educational experience” and asks that if SA is looking to sell the property to “please reconsider.”
Lamb also told the ASP that he attempted to contact Dippikill Inc. Chairman - and former SA Senator - Dylan Klein over LinkedIn to offer help, after which he received no response and was subsequently blocked.
Klein assumed the role of Chairman in November after Ciarra Medrano - who also held the role of SA Vice President in the 2022-23 academic year - stepped down. Medrano ran and lost against Rose in the 2023 SA Presidential election, during which one of her campaign promises was to decrease the amount of money that SA was putting into Dippikill.
Neither Rose nor Klein responded to requests for comment from the ASP.
Lamb, who was an incorporator of Dippikill Inc. and served on the Board of Directors for 15 years, told the ASP that he wrote in the nonprofit’s corporate bylaws that in order for the camp to be sold, it would first have to be approved by a two-thirds referendum among the student body and then subsequently approved by two consecutive SA governments; he also said he sent in a Freedom of Information request to determine whether these requirements still exist in the bylaws.
“I’m an old guy, I have plenty of things to do other than get involved in Student Association business or drama 36 years later,” Lamb said. “But, I have a history with Dippikill. It’s an important place to me and my friends and family.”