Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science, said attempts to improve student life by upgrading the athletics program and focusing on fraternities and sororities have not resulted in any significant improvements.

"It's my sense, my personal view, that these (initiatives) have come far more from fifth-floor leadership than from the faculty, and what we have may be very useful steps to have taken, but these have not necessarily enhanced the quality of student life, and I don't see where there have been any significant improvements," Welch said.

He added that despite the commitment of the administration, these initiatives have not improved student life, primarily due to the "weakness of faculty commitment."

A better strategy, he suggested, would be to increase support to student academic clubs, which play an important function in giving students professional preparation and job contacts. While these clubs are helpful in fostering faculty-student contact, they have been "chronically underfunded," Welch added.

Dennis Black, interim vice president for student affairs, agreed that the academic honor societies are another area where faculty and staff can "make a difference" in the quality of student life.

But, Black cautioned, there are no "quick fixes to the culture issue. The quickest and most effective thing we can all do to make a difference is to care, to get involved in a variety of things that show we care for the student environment."

Clifford Wilson, associate vice president for student affairs, noted that UB has established five or six small "special-interest" areas in the residence halls in which students with common interests, such as engineering or American studies, live together, similar to the "colleges" that were housed in the dorms during the 1960s and '70s.

"Those kinds of things, if continued, can get in that direction," Wilson said, citing the faculty-student dinner program as another initiative that is making strides toward improving student life.

Christopher Connolly, a junior in the pre-professional special-interest housing program, agreed with Black that there are no "quick fixes," drawing an analogy between training a dog and training college students "to be good community members."

Using incentives to get students involved in university activities, such as offering free pizza at the football games, will only work as long as the pizza is offered, Connolly said.

"And there is a reason for that; there's no real sense of spirit, there's no reason to be there besides the token gift," he said. "Unless you instill some true sense of community to the students, some true connection between the faculty and the residents, you're never going to have this kind of consolidated university that everyone talks about."

The special-interest housing program is a good start, he said, because it gets faculty members into residence halls.

"In order to really get this community going, you need to have the faculty take this 'small-class' interest in students," where students become something more than "just a social security number on a wall."

When students begin to know faculty members beyond "Dr. so-and-so who taught Psych 101, they begin to cultivate this type of enjoyment of the university, this appreciation of the university," Connolly said.

Black, Wilson and Barbara Ricotta, director of student life and interim dean of students, outlined various programs and initiatives under way for the fall semester that Black said are "aimed at addressing concerns about quality of life for students."

Among them are:

- A series of roundtable discussions on issues of concern to the university community. The first discussion, to be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, in 250 Student Union, will focus on North Campus child care.

- A series of "coffee hours" featuring student-services staff members

- A "pathfinder" program that will recognize UB community members who find better, faster and more efficient ways to serve students

- Construction of 115 two-bedroom townhouses for students on Chestnut Ridge Road adjacent to the North Campus

- Conversion of existing six- and four-student rooms in the on-campus residence halls to doubles and singles

- Wiring of all residence-hall rooms for direct computer access

- New food plans, including a Kosher meal plan in one dining hall and a breakfast-equivalency plan that allows students to eat breakfast at sites on campus other than their dorms

- Rehabilitation of the first two floors of Harriman Hall on the South Campus into a student-services center that will include a food court, a sit-down dining room, recreational rooms, lounges and space for a few student clubs

- Conversion of the music listening room in the Student Union into a lounge for commuter students

- Creation of a Leadership Center to coordinate student-leadership programs on campus.