The Binghamton University Foundation has been released from an unwanted mineral rights lease after a dispute between the nonprofit organization and Chesapeake Applachia LLC. The Oklahoma City-based energy company agreed to release the BU Foundation, which handles BU’s $90 million endowment fund, from a lease signed back in 2008. In August of 2008, the foundation and Chesapeake entered a five-year oil and gas agreement for about $1.4 million, with the foundation receiving 15% of royalty payments if drilling occurred. The lease covered a 563-acre parcel of land at 423 Western Heights Boulevard in the Town of Union, near the Glendale Technology Park. At the end of the five-year agreement, there was a dispute as to whether New York State’s delaying of hydrofracking triggered a clause in the agreement which would extend the term of the lease. The BU Foundation demanded to be released from the lease, and the company filed paperwork with the Broome County Clerk’s office officially releasing the foundation from the agreement. The original contract was brought under fire when students protested the agreement in 2010 after they learned it had been signed without notice or input from the campus community.
