§ 3554. General powers of the corporation. Except as limited by this
title, the public health law, the mental hygiene law, the social
services law, the education law, the civil practice law and rules or any
other applicable law or regulation, the corporation shall have power:

1. to sue and be sued and to participate in actions and proceedings,
whether judicial, administrative, arbitrative or otherwise and, except
as is otherwise provided in subdivision four of section thirty-five
hundred sixty-one of this title, the court of claims shall have
exclusive jurisdiction in all actions against the corporation for money
damages;

2. to have a corporate seal, and to alter such seal at pleasure, and
to use it by causing it or a facsimile to be affixed or impressed or
reproduced in any other manner;

3. to purchase, receive, take by grant, gift, devise, bequest or
otherwise, lease, or otherwise acquire, own, hold, improve, employ, use
and otherwise deal in and with, real or personal property, or any
interest therein, wherever situated;

4. to purchase, take, receive, subscribe for, or otherwise acquire,
own, hold, vote, employ, sell, lend, lease, exchange, transfer, or
otherwise dispose of, mortgage, pledge, use and otherwise deal in and
with, bonds and other obligations, shares, or other securities or
interests issued by others, whether engaged in similar or different
business, governmental, or other activities;

5. to accept subventions from other persons or any unit of government;

6. to sell, convey, lease, exchange, transfer or otherwise dispose of,
or mortgage or pledge, or create a security interest in, all or any of
its property, or any interest therein, wherever situated, upon such
terms and conditions and in such manner as the corporation shall
determine;

7. to make capital contributions to other not-for-profit corporations;

8. (a) to offer participation in the New York state and local
employees' retirement system for all its officers and employees, and to
establish and carry out other retirement plans authorized pursuant to
the retirement and social security law, which may be offered to all of
its officers and employees not participating in the New York state and
local employees' retirement systems, and to establish and carry out
other incentive and benefit plans, trusts and provisions for any or all
of its officers and employees, subject to the applicable provisions of
article fourteen of the civil service law; (b) provided, further, that
employees of the corporation established pursuant to section thirty-five
hundred fifty-three of this article who are division and department
chairpersons holding scientific degrees, scientific faculty members such
as assistant members, associate members, members, distinguished members,
or who have graduate faculty status at the level of assistant professor
or above at the Roswell Park graduate division of the state university
of New York at Buffalo and as certified by the dean of the division,
facility directors, and those employees who are in titles such as
president and chief executive officer, senior vice president, vice
president, assistant vice president, general counsel, and executive
director, and who are eligible to participate in the New York state and
local employees' retirement system may elect, within ninety days of the
effective date of this paragraph or within ninety days of becoming
eligible to participate in such system, in lieu of participating in such
system, to participate in the optional retirement program available to
employees of the state university of New York pursuant to article
eight-B of the education law, subject to the terms and conditions of
that article and to the provisions of the retirement and social security
law;

9. to be a promoter, partner, member, associate or manager of other
not-for-profit activities or business enterprises or ventures, or to the
extent permitted in any other jurisdiction to be an incorporator of
other corporations of any type or kind;

10. except as limited by state law or regulation, to fix, compromise
and collect rates, rentals, fees, lease payments and other charges for
the services rendered by it or for use of the facilities owned,
controlled or administered by, or in the exercise of the powers of, the
corporation;

11. to make contracts, give guarantees and incur liabilities, borrow
money at such rates of interest as the corporation may determine, issue
notes, bonds and other obligations, and secure any of its obligations by
mortgage or pledge of all or any of its property or any interest
therein, wherever situated;

12. to issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes or its projects,
or to refund the same, and to provide for the rights of the holders
thereof;

13. to lend money, invest and reinvest its funds, and take and hold
real and personal property as security for the payment of funds so
loaned or invested;

14. to conduct the activities of the corporation and have offices and
exercise the powers granted by this title in any jurisdiction within or
without the United States;

15. to appoint such officers, employees and agents as the corporation
may require for the performance of its duties and, subject to applicable
provisions of agreements negotiated pursuant to article fourteen of the
civil service law, to fix and determine their qualifications, duties,
and compensation;

16. to retain or employ counsel, auditors, and engineers, subject to
applicable provisions of agreements negotiated pursuant to article
fourteen of the civil service law where appropriate and, private
consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for rendering professional,
management or technical services and advice;

17. to make, adopt, amend, enforce and repeal rules for its governance
and internal management and personnel practices, subject to article
fourteen of the civil service law, where applicable;

18. to make and alter by-laws for its organization and management,
and, subject to agreements with its bondholders, to make and alter rules
and regulations governing the exercise of its powers and the fulfillment
of its purposes under this title;

19. to designate the depositories of its money;

20. to establish its fiscal year;

21. to insure or otherwise to provide for the insurance of the
corporation's property or operations and against such other risks as the
corporation may deem advisable; and

22. to do all things necessary, convenient or desirable, including
ancillary and incidental activities, to carry out its purposes and for
the exercise of the powers granted in this title.