The Buffalo News

REPORTS OF UB'S 'DEMISE' ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED

Published on April 12, 2000
Author:    WILLIAM R. GREINER
© The Buffalo News Inc.

"The report of my death was an exaggeration." So said American humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, responding in 1897 to erroneous media reports regarding his demise.

As a former Buffalonian and celebrated literary figure, Clemens holds a special place in the hearts of the University at Buffalo community, which named a building in his honor. It is ironic that my colleague Mark Shechner, whose office is in Clemens Hall, has written a "story" that The News headlined as "The Dismantling of UB." I believe that this "story" also is "an exaggeration." UB is proud of its accomplishments during this decade of stringent budgets. Many of these accomplishments have been reported, correctly, in The News on an almost-daily basis. Those reports accurately portray a vibrant, successful institution.

Although the base operating budget for the SUNY campuses has experienced significant reductions in state general-fund support in recent years, UB has introduced new management and revenue-producing initiatives. We have improved our effectiveness and efficiency by consolidating university business offices, outsourcing selected services and reallocating staff.

We have greatly increased our efforts to generate external support, resulting in notable successes in individual, corporate and foundation philanthropy. Tuition support for SUNY also has increased significantly.

We have expanded student fee income to support a variety of student services, and we have encouraged our units to aggressively pursue external support from sales of services, such as continuing education. We are now expanding our efforts to increase income from sponsored programs.

UB is now somewhat smaller in full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty: 1,534 in fall 1999, about 150 less than in 1989-90. However, we have a larger cadre of part-time faculty. Our ratio of faculty to students is better now than in 1985, and about the same as in 1990. That resulted from planned reductions in enrollment, which allowed us to balance instructional workload with our faculty.

Contrary to Shechner's assertions, we have invested in the College of Arts and Sciences. We have redistributed faculty positions from the health sciences to other professional schools and the college. Within Arts and Sciences, there has been a modest redistribution of faculty positions among departments. But the number of FTE faculty positions in the college is about the same as in 1985, and only 17 less than in 1989-90.

Like other major research universities, UB has invested heavily in science and technology research and technology transfer, benefiting not only UB, but Western New York. Examples include UB's collaborations with Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, and UB's Center for Computational Research, the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, and the UB Business Alliance.

During the '90s, UB benefited from the state's extraordinary capital investment of nearly $200 million. Major projects included the Center for the Arts, Biomedical Sciences Research Building, Natural Sciences Building, Mathematics Building and capital renovations to existing buildings. We also have invested over $50 million in new housing for our students. We are, in sum, a successful public research-intensive university. UB, with an annual economic impact of $1.6 billion, is a major player in the local economy, and has the potential to do even more.

WILLIAM R. GREINER is president of the University at Buffalo.

For submission guidelines on columns in this space, click on The Buffalo News logo at the Buffalo.com Web site, then click on Opinions and My View, then scroll down to Contact Us and click on that; or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Opinion Pages Guidelines, The Buffalo News, P.O. Box 100, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240.

William R. Greiner

<
Search again: