The softball team and women’s tennis team will not play Ball State in Indiana this weekend due to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ban of New York State-funded travel to Indiana.
Both schools are looking for neutral location outside Indiana to play the scheduled games.
Cuomo announced his Executive Order No. 144 Tuesday, which prohibits all non-essential state-funded travel from New York to Indiana as a way to stand up against the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Buffalo Athletic Communication released a statement saying all UB students and faculty “are prohibited from conducting state-funded or state-sponsored travel to the state of Indiana,” which includes the travel of both teams this weekend and all sports programs until the ban is lifted. President Tripathi also released the same statement in a press release.
Tripathi also said the university shares the governor’s “conviction that the exercise of religious freedom should not be a justification for discrimination based upon sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, or other protected classes.” Indiana’s act makes it possible for sanctioned discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“The University at Buffalo is committed to fostering an academic community characterized by the respectful, fair, and equitable treatment of all its members,” Tripathi said in his release.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
Photo: Paul Hokanson / UB Athletics
