Thinking Boldly for UB’s Brightest Future

This spring, I had the pleasure of announcing the launch of Boldly Buffalo, the largest fundraising campaign in our university’s history. Appropriately, we kicked off our historic campaign during a traditionally festive season for UB, one that began with our final “Accepted Students Day” event of the academic year and concluded with our 172nd annual commencement exercises.

It is fitting that these two occasions bookended our campaign kickoff. With a goal of $650 million, Boldly Buffalo seeks to enhance the arc of the UB experience, from the moment our students set foot on campus to the day they walk across stage at graduation.

How will we accomplish this?

By increasing the availability of experiential learning programs. By making our transformative education more accessible through increased scholarships. By building and modernizing the places and spaces where our students learn, discover and create. By investing in our world-class faculty, who inspire the next generation of change-makers to follow their lead.

In short, this unprecedented campaign—one of my top priorities as UB president—will help our students shine even brighter as they go out into the world as UB alumni.

It is always gratifying for me to learn how our alumni are making an impact locally, nationally and internationally. As you strive to make the world a better place, you embody our mission of excellence, and we take no small amount of pride in all that you accomplish.

Your achievements show that you are not content to stand still. You appreciate what it means to be bold. Through your example and support, you are fueling the aspirations of our current and future students.

And we see the difference you are making around every corner of our three campuses.

Your philanthropic giving helped advance the new downtown home of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from dream to concrete reality. It is why the Murchie Family Fieldhouse is rising up on the North Campus, and why the new Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics is helping us think differently about complex global issues.

To date, nearly 40,000 alumni have stepped forward to contribute to the Boldly Buffalo campaign. Your support—big, small, strategic, targeted—goes to work in profound ways. For instance, your gifts to the UB Fund have made it possible for our medical students to deliver care to Buffalo’s homeless, improving outcomes for one of society’s most vulnerable populations. Your forward-thinking commitment has allowed our students to present their scholarship at professional conferences in their respective fields. It has initiated student projects that have reduced UB’s carbon footprint.

As a member of our incredible alumni community, you help write UB’s ongoing success story each and every day.

And like your alma mater, you recognize that this is no time for us to rest. Even as UB’s reputation continues to rise, we still have big dreams, ambitious visions and much to accomplish in the years ahead.

On behalf of our entire university, thank you for your contributions, your support and your generosity.

Together, we will reach the bold goals we have set for our university—goals that will power a promising future for all the communities we serve, near and far.