Section 371. State university construction fund

1. There is hereby created
  within the state university the "state  university  construction  fund".
  The  fund shall be a corporate governmental agency constituting a public
  benefit  corporation.  It  shall  be  administered  by  three   trustees
  appointed  by  the  governor,  one of whom shall at all times be a state
  university trustee. The trustees other than the state university trustee
  shall be appointed with the advice and consent of the senate.
    2. The trustees of the fund first  appointed  by  the  governor  shall
  serve  for  terms  ending  December  thirty-first,  in  nineteen hundred
  sixty-four, nineteen hundred sixty-six and nineteen hundred sixty-eight,
  respectively. Persons appointed for full terms as their successors shall
  serve for six years  each  commencing  as  of  the  January  first  next
  following  the year in which the term of his predecessor expired. In the
  event of a vacancy occurring in  the  office  of  a  trustee  by  death,
  resignation  or otherwise, the governor shall appoint a successor in the
  same manner as an original appointment to serve for the balance  of  the
  unexpired  term. A vacancy shall be deemed to have occurred whenever the
  trustee of the fund who is a state university trustee  ceases  to  be  a
  state university trustee.
    3.  The  trustees  of  the  fund  shall serve without salary, but each
  trustee shall be entitled to reimbursement for his actual and  necessary
  expenses incurred in the performance of his official duties.
    4.  The trustees of the fund may engage in private employment, or in a
  profession or business, subject to the limitations contained in sections
  seventy-three and seventy-four of the  public  officers  law.  The  fund
  shall,  for  the  purposes  of  such  sections, be a "state agency", the
  trustees thereof shall be "officers" of the agency for the  purposes  of
  said  sections,  and  the  trustees,  officers  and other persons in the
  employment of  the  fund  shall  be  "employees"  for  the  purposes  of
  subdivision one of section seventeen of the public officers law.
    5.  Notwithstanding  any  inconsistent  provisions  of  law,  general,
  special or local, no officer or employee of the state, or of  any  civil
  division thereof, shall be deemed to have forfeited or shall forfeit his
  office  or employment by reason of accepting appointment as a trustee of
  the fund.
    6. The governor may remove any trustee for  inefficiency,  neglect  of
  duty  or  misconduct  in  office  after giving him a copy of the charges
  against him, and an opportunity to be heard, in person or by counsel, in
  his defense, upon not less than ten days' notice. If any  trustee  shall
  be  removed,  the  governor  shall  file  with  the secretary of state a
  complete statement of charges made against the trustee, and his findings
  thereon, together with a complete record of the proceedings.
    7. The chairman of the fund shall be designated by the governor, shall
  preside over all its meetings and shall have such other  duties  as  the
  trustees may direct. A vice-chairman who shall preside over all meetings
  of  the  fund  in  the absence of the chairman and shall have such other
  duties as the trustees may direct may be designated from time to time by
  the trustees from among the other trustees.
    8. The powers of the fund shall be vested in and exercised by no fewer
  than two of the trustees then in office. The fund may delegate to one or
  more of its trustees, or officers, agents and employees, such powers and
  duties as it may deem proper;  provided,  however,  that  all  contracts
  involving  an estimated expense of seventy-five thousand dollars or more
  and all lease agreements to be entered into pursuant  to  section  three
  hundred  seventy-eight  of  this  article  shall  be  approved  prior to
  execution by no fewer than two trustees of the fund.
    9. The fund may appoint such officers, employees and agents as it  may
  deem   advisable,   including   a   general  manager  to  be  the  chief

  administrative officer of the fund, a counsel and a controller, and  may
  prescribe their duties and fix their compensation.
    10.  Officers and employees of other state agencies may be transferred
  to the fund and officers and employees of the fund may be transferred to
  other state agencies without examination and without loss of  any  civil
  service  status or rights. No such transfer, however, may be made except
  with the approval of the head of the other state  agency  involved,  the
  director  of  the budget and the chairman of the fund, and in compliance
  with the rules and regulations of the state civil service commission.