With the advent of new leadership in SUNY central, UB should find itself poised for progress in "a more supportive environment," President William Greiner told members of the Faculty Senate at Tuesday's meeting.

Referring to SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King, Greiner attributed the increased support to King's thus-far headstrong leadership. "He's done an outstanding job of bringing a whole new level of energy and...quality of people with him to central office," he said. "And I think it's a very different central office now than it was a year ago.

"We are an institution much more led by a chancellor than we have been for some period of time, and I think on balance, that is a very, very good thing for us."

Greiner also lauded the chancellor for his push-in sync with UB's recent $250 million capital campaign announcement-toward independence, rather than dependence on the annual SUNY budget.

"For the year ahead, I think he gives us good advice and good direction when he says we must not let ourselves be defined so much as we have in the past by the...budget," Greiner said.

He touted the chancellor's advocacy of the state's funding of contractual increases, as well as his push for financial recognition from Gov. George Pataki of UB's growth in sponsored-program activity and enrollment. He added that in maintaining enrollments and augmenting tuition income, UB could find itself in a position this year to strengthen recruitment and program development.

Greiner also pointed out that the two greatest challenges King faces this year are with the SUNY hospitals. The first challenge, he said, is to repair "the major hole in the SUNY base" (budget) caused by funds taken from SUNY hospitals for SUNY's income fund.

"That is not a good thing on which to be resting the total budget of the State University," Greiner said, noting the hospitals' struggle to generate income. The chancellor, he said, is expected to ask Pataki to put aside money to adjust the less-than-expected contributions of the hospitals over the past two to three years-recouped dollars that could amount to as much as $200 million.

The second challenge King faces, Greiner said, is in advocating the costly separation of hospital finances from SUNY's mainline budget, "another $100 million or so problem."

While a "big ask" in Albany, Greiner said the effect SUNY-wide would be "all to the good for everyone."

The president noted that among UB's reasons to be optimistic about the chancellor is his commitment to "growing the research campuses."

"I think he sees clearly, based on travels and other inquiries he's made since he came into his position, that the job of financing the state university rests very heavily on what is done in the university centers," Greiner said, adding that King was impressed on a recent visit to California by what the University of California has done with higher education. "I think he sees we can advance the whole system here in the state.if we do some things that will help advance the university centers."

Greiner extended his thanks to the many who have helped boost the university's enrollment over the past three years, explaining that additional funds received due to the increased enrollment have helped to reposition more favorably the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the professional schools.

In other business, the senate approved a series of six resolutions—the Assessments of Instructional Effectiveness—introduced by J. Ronald Gentile, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, on behalf of the senate’s Teaching and Learning Committee, which he chairs.

The resolutions—which outline criteria for course syllabi and policies, documentation of instructional effectiveness, faculty development and the culture of teaching, students’ academic responsibilities and the culture of learning, development of academic skills and faculty-student dialogue—support greater attention to the culture of teaching and learning, and the re-establishment of an Office of Teaching Effectiveness.

A proposal for how that office would be funded is in the works.

Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi announced the hiring of Ann Newman as director of space planning. Newman, who will report to both Capaldi and Michael E. Bernardino, vice president for health affairs, will develop plans to address space and renovation needs.

Capaldi expressed concern that the university’s "mechanism for planning and keeping classrooms up to snuff" is in need of improvement, and asked faculty members to work with the committees that already are in place to evaluate the quality and technological capabilities of classrooms to provide a better picture of the current situation.

Capaldi noted, UB is considering implementing standard technology in each classroom.