From: jeffrey.malkan@outlook.

com
To: president@buffalo.edu
Subject: questions about the Law School's finances
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 09:35:45 -0400
Dear Colleagues,
I believe that the faculty of a state-sponsored law school has a fiduciary duty to insist that the
administration keep it informed about all aspects of the institution's operations, including these questions
about its finances.
1. Why has the Law School's tuition almost doubled ($14,650 to $28,200) over a time period (seven
years) when the cumulative rate of inflation has been less than 9%? Why does it continue raising its
prices when first-year enrollment has dropped by one-third?
2. How much money did former-Dean Makau W. Mutua draw out of the UB Foundation over the past
seven years? Who countersigned his requisitions and audited his personal expenditures?
3. What is the rationale for maintaining a staff of eight legal writing instructors, at approximately
$85,000 a year each in salary and benefits, if every first-year student next year will be assigned to a small
section of fifteen students taught by excess tenure-track professors?
4. Where is the evidence that the Law School raised twenty-three million dollars in the past five years?
What was the ratio of donors to dollars? Did every one of the 10,000 living alumni give $2,300 each?
Did two-hundred and thirty alumni give $100,000 each? Did twenty-three alumni give $1,000,000 each?
5. What percentage of its income is the Law School paying to the University in 2014-15 as compared to
2007-2008? Has the Dean allowed the Budget Planning and Review Committee to evaluate this
information?
* Why did President Tripathi replace Makau Mutua with Jim Gardner? Why hasn't the faculty selected
its own dean since 1998?
* Why did the Vice-Dean for Administration, Jim Newton, who knows everything about the operations of
the Dean's office, depart the Law School this month with no statement of where he has gone and no
recognition for his decade of service?
The Office of the Attorney General is being forced to look at this Law School and more legal scrutiny
will follow. I believe that an investigation of former-Dean Makau W. Mutua and President Satish K.
Tripathi will open the door to these questions and that it is perhaps already underway.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Malkan

From: jeffrey.malkan@outlook.com
To: ubprovost@buffalo.edu; jgard@buffalo.edu; finleylu@buffalo.edu; cewing@buffalo.edu;
president@buffalo.edu;
Subject: How does UBF handle unrestricted funds?
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 09:00:16 -0400
Dear Dean Gardner (Jim),
The UBF American Express card is limited to $2,500 per transaction and $10,000 per month. If you need
more money, requisition it directly, but you'll need an "authorized signatory." The check might take more
than one week if it exceeds $50,000. It doesn't begin to compensate you guys for what you're worth. No
one else would do what you do.
Sincerely,

Jeffrey Malkan

How does UBF handle unrestricted funds and determines where that
money will go?
There are two types of unrestricted funds. There are unrestricted funds that are
available for the general needs of UB and there are unrestricted funds that are
available for the general needs of the various schools and units at UB.
At the school and unit-level, the deans or department chairs decide where
unrestricted funds are spent.
What paper work do I need to submit to process an invoice for payment?
The standard form used by UBF to process expenditures is a Disbursement Request
(DR). The DR form must include the business purpose for the expenditure and be
signed by an authorized signatory. In lieu of a DR, the department may also use
UBs eReq system to process expenditures.
Can I get an advance for an expenditure?
An employee of UB may get an advance for a UB business expenditure by filling out
a DR. After the expenditure is completed, the employee should submit original
receipts to clear the advance. An employee may only have one outstanding advance
at any time.

Does UBF have business credit cards?

UBF has business credit cards available through American Express to aid in
procuring and paying for small dollar purchases up to $2,500 each. Items to be
purchased may include any business-related travel, meals, supplies, equipment,
and other appropriate expenses permitted under current university and
departmental guidelines. Please contact UBF AP to request a business credit card.
How long does it take to process a check?
On average, after UBF receives the expenditure request, it takes approximately one
week to process the request. Additional processing time is required if the
expenditure amount is $50,000 or more. Please contact your AP Associate for more
information.
Approvals
Who approves an expenditure?
The approver must be an authorized signatory on the account. An authorized
signatory may not approve any DR for which they receive benefit and a signature at
a higher level is required in accordance with the UB Approval Authority policy.
Travel, Meeting and Entertainment
Does UBF use per diem rates? If so, how are they calculated and what
backup is needed with the DR?
Travelers have the option of using the state/federal per diem rates or actual costs
but not both. Per diem daily rates can be found on the CONUS Per Diem website.
UBF will reimburse based on time of departure and/or arrival. Attach a copy of the
per diem rate sheet to the DR. UBF cannot reimburse using first or last day of travel
calculation used listed on the CONUS website which is consistent with UB policy.
Does UBF reimburse for spousal meals/travel?
Consistent with IRS guidelines, if a spouse, dependent or other individual attends a
business trip or business convention, his/her travel or entertainment expenses
cannot be reimbursed. However, these costs can be reimbursed if there is clearly
documented business purpose, rather than a personal or social purpose for
providing the travel or entertainment. If there is a clearly documented business
purpose, spousal meals/travel should be approved in advance in writing by the
Provost, Vice President or President as appropriate.

How is the UB Foundation accountable to the community?

The mission for the UB Foundation is to support UBs activities and programs. The
UB Foundation is accountable to numerous parties, including:

UB leadership [President Satish K. Tripathi]

Donors [anonymity protected]
Federal, state and local authorities in human resources, legal affairs, real
estate management, financial affairs and more. [etc. and etc.?]
Faculty [no right to ask]
"Community" [no right to ask]
Public [no right to ask]

http://www.ubfoundation.buffalo.edu/expenditures/faq

From: jeffrey.malkan@outlook.com
To: president@buffalo.edu
Subject: the "Skills" program 2008-2015
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 13:50:36 -0400
Dear Colleagues,
On August 28, 2008, when Makau W. Mutua informed me that he intended to terminate my faculty
appointment, his pretext was that he was replacing the "Legal Writing" program with the "Skills" program.
He did not allow the faculty to vote on that pretext because it was obviously untrue.
The origin of the "Skills" program is the attached document, written by then Vice-Dean James A. Gardner
on March 21, 2008.
In order to satisfy ABA Standard 302(a), the Law School was required to provide the 2009 Site Visit
Team with a list of the skills courses it offered. These were mostly adjunct-taught courses. The Law
School compiled the list and created a bogus title of "Vice-Dean for Legal Skills." Dean Mutua created
absolutely nothing except another Vice-Dean.
The only thing he and Jim Gardner accomplished was to invent a pretext for firing me. That was their
personal agenda, not the faculty's agenda. It was detrimental to the institution's best interests as well as
contrary to the vote of the Promotion and Tenure Committee just two years earlier. These are both
"SUNY Distinguished Professors." Their inexplicable vendetta has since escalated into criminality at the
highest levels of the University.
My administrative position in the LRW program was replaced by nothing and the legal writing instructors
are supervised by nobody. In the fall of 2009, a newly hired and completely inexperienced legal writing
instructor was assigned to cover exactly the same section of exactly the same course that I had taught the
previous year.

Despite the addition of twenty-two tenure-track professors in the next five years, the Law School
somehow overlooked the area of Intellectual Property. In 2008, we had three full-time professors
teaching in Intellectual Property -- me, Bob Reis, and Mark Bartholomew. Copyright Law now isn't even
taught in some years - and this is the Law School where Paul Goldstein in the 1970's wrote the leading
treatise on the subject.
The Law School is in a seven-way tie for 87th best in the country. This despite a doubling of tuition, a
purported twenty-three million dollar fundraising campaign, and former-Dean Mutua's oft-repeated
"pledge" to attain a top fifty ranking. It is now burdened with excess legal writing instructors (down from
twenty students per LRW section in 2008-2009 to eleven per LRW section in 2014-2015), excess tenuretrack professors (who will be "redeployed" next year to teach first-year sections of fifteen students), and
excess Vice-Deans, as well as a discredited former-Vice Provost and a disgraced former-Dean.
Makau W. Mutua and James A. Gardner were given a free hand by Satish Tripathi to impose their
exacting standards, which turned out to be no standards at all. They excluded the faculty so that it could
not hinder their poor judgment, and caused unprecedented legal problems for the Law School. One could
easily forget that this is still a Law School. It is difficult to imagine a more dishonest and incompetent
administration at any enterprise.
Sincerely,

Jeffrey