Student Association Senate Votes to Keep Dippikill Closed

By Mattie Fitzpatrick | April 28, 2025

Student Association (SA) Senators discuss the fate of Dippikill and the SA budget for the upcoming academic year. 

Photo Credit: Mattie Fitzpatrick / The ASP

During the University at Albany Student Association Senate meeting on Wednesday (4/23), Senators voted to keep Camp Dippikill closed despite pleas from alumni in attendance. Senators cited that support for Camp Dippikill comes from the student activity fee every student pays despite approximately 15% of reservations being made by undergraduate students. 

Other concerns included the fiscal impact of transporting students to the property and the general fiscal impact of keeping the property. 

Camp Dippikill is an 853-acre wilderness retreat owned and operated by the SA for more than 60 years. Camp Dippikill however has become a contentious point in recent months as SA has been optioning selling or closing down the property for the future due to fiscal strains. 

“We answer to the student activity fee paying students and no one else…I think this proposal is, quite frankly, a rip off to them. And it is not in the Student Association’s best interest to fund it at this level,” said Senator Carter Schum. 

Alumni however focused on the value of Camp Dippikill as both property and an experience for current students and alumni. Rachael Rejiester, ‘01, said in a statement to the ASP, “I believe students should know that this is something they could access for the rest of their lives. I have met people up there who are into their 70's and 80's, who are former faculty or alumni, who continue to come to Dippikill (from all over the country!) on a yearly basis, as well as meeting many others over the years who continue to come to Dippikill as often as possible.”

This meeting ensured that Dippikill would remain closed for the following academic year but left next steps to be decided in the following week’s meeting. UAlbany has offered to pay for a consultant to establish a long term solution for Dippikill although this proposal was not yet voted on. 

Other contentious issues brought up over the course of the meeting included the 2025-2026 SA budget. Despite President Elect Trevor Pettit’s campaign promise to “cut my stipend down to $0” until budget cuts had been rectified, the stipend was only cut by 5 percent, as many were. The President’s stipend remains at $8,070 in President Elect Pettit’s fiscal plan.

The Comptroller’s stipend was additionally a contentious point of debate during the meeting as well as club supplemental funds and the Chief Justice’s stipend. The remainder of the budget is scheduled to be discussed at next week’s meeting.