Over forty years ago, when the Amherst campus was in its planning stages, the Faculty Student Association spent $785,538.89 on a 505-acre parcel of land to be used for student recreation. The money for the sale, according to the 1978 FSA study FSA Land Use Options, was made up of student fees. “As shown by the accounting records of the association, funds used in the purchase were derived from that portion of the overall university fee charged students which had been allocated to the Administrative Division of the Association.” It continues, “The income added to this fund had been accumulated during the 1962-63 and 1963-64 academic years and designated accountingwise as the source of the funds used for the down payment on the land purchase.”

This was when FSA played a role in UB government similar to that currently held by the corporation Sub Board One. They were in charge of student services, and handled a student university fee that was designated for recreational and educational purposes. They were the custodial agent for distributing student fee monies and were in charge of the UB bookstore, now owned by Follett’s, a private corporation.

It is important to note that the land was bought in FSA’s infant stages and, according to FSA Land Use Options, “Student representation on the Board of Directors was extremely limited, and not inclusive of voting privileges.”

The land they bought a few miles north of campus on Sweet Home Road was purchased to provide students with a breath of the outdoors. The original plans called for an 18-hole golf course and a park.

But it wasn’t long before FSA realized their land was nearly useless. According to FSA Land Use Options, the architect hired for the job reported that under a foot of topsoil resided “quicksand, sand, and clay.” They couldn’t build any of the designs that had been drawn, and the land quickly went from a potential project to a subject of debate. SBI claimed that the land, since it was purchased partially with student fee dollars, should belong to the student corporation that most represented the students. This argument existed until the land was finally sold in 1988, over twenty years after it was bought.

The debate continues today, as FSA and SBI prepare to renegotiate the contract that was drawn at the land’s sale. The twenty-year contract expires at the end of 2008, and both groups are anxious to get a jumpstart on planning.

In an interview last week, FSA board member and SA Vice President Leslie Meister said that UB has changed a lot in past years, and “with President Simpson’s 2020 plan, it will change again. We’re trying to continue the contract.” As an undergraduate, Meister says she is aware of students’ concerns. “There are people who are afraid the money will dissolve back into FSA’s budget.” But she expressed her faith in FSA, saying, “Everybody wants to see the money go back to the students.” Meister also stressed the importance of having members of the student governments appear at FSA meetings, making their presence known.

Graduate Student Association President Catalina Crespo was skeptical about getting the money back to students. “We asked to keep the contract for 99 years, but they [FSA] don’t take us seriously.” This is a cause for concern for Crespo and the other leaders of the six student governments. The money is in an unrestricted account, Crespo said, meaning that FSA has full access to the money. “If they leave the university, there’s nothing stipulated about that money. They can just take it.”

It’s difficult to get a clear picture of what’s going to happen when the contract expires, but throughout the legacy of the purchase, the battle has been all bark and no bite. And that, my friends, makes for a real snoozer of a news story. In fact, for the period in the ‘70s, when SBI wanted the land rights transferred, and into the ‘80s, when the proceeds from the sale came into view, Spectrum articles about the land transfer were all the same story. The land was to be transferred from one corporation to the other, and then the plan was shot down. That’s been the argument since the land’s purchase, and so far the only thing to happen to the money has been a programming grant for students funded by the annual interest on the proceeds from the land sale.

If FSA had done any research into the land before they bought it, they’d have realized that building a golf course was not only a poor idea (student governments weren’t having it) but also a land-use nightmare. Building anything on that land would have been like building a fort in the clouds. Not to mention the taxes piling up on the land were totaling upwards of $22,000 annually, more money that had to come out of FSA’s budget, money that at that point was unaffiliated with student fees.

What hurts more is that the land was gorgeous. From the photos in the aforementioned book, the place looks like an Amherst rainforest. Still, amidst so many proposals from so many student governments, the land sat untouched for decades before it was finally sold back to the Town of Amherst.

I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year to find out if we get to keep the programming grant, but the biggest loss, the promise of a green space for UB students, has already come and gone.

Until then, if you want to join me, I’ll be hanging out at Baird Point, sunbathing on the concrete.