Tripathi to faculty: UB seeks extension of rational tuition plan

Extending the rational tuition plan that was a part of the NYSUNY 2020 legislation will be a key goal of UB officials as they meet with lawmakers in Albany over the next few months.

That was among the points UB President Satish K. Tripathi discussed on Tuesday during his address at the Annual Meeting of the Voting Faculty in the Center for Tomorrow.

The NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program began in 2011 and included a provision allowing some campuses, including UB, to implement a rational tuition plan that provided predictable increases over a five-year period.

Tripathi noted that the policy has won the support of both the UB and SUNY student leadership groups.

“We are going to ask on behalf of our students to have this predictability extended for five more years,” he said. “We still have one more year, but as parents make decisions for their children to attend SUNY institutions, you want to make sure that they have a notion of how much tuition they need to pay, and it’s predictable.”

Under the current policy, tuition increases $150 each semester. UB is lobbying the state legislature to continue that pattern.

The additional tuition dollars have helped UB implement a number of beneficial academic programs, including Finish in 4, which has since become a model for other SUNY campuses to follow. The program is only its second year, but student retention rates are already pointing to its effectiveness, Tripathi said.

“It’s important for us to keep telling our elected officials how beneficial this predictable tuition and investment has been, not just for the campuses but really for the education of our students and the environment we have created here,” he said, noting that UB has also hired more faculty and staff as a result of the NYSUNY 2020 provision.

Also during his address, Tripathi:

• Thanked the Faculty Senate for its work on the new general education curriculum plan, which goes into effect for undergraduates entering UB in the fall 2016 semester.
• Noted that Provost Charles Zukoski will likely announce Communities of Excellence winners in the next month.
• Recognized several faculty and student award recipients, including Luis Colón, UB’s A. Conger Goodyear Professor in the Department of Chemistry, who is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Tripathi also recognized three engineering students who won coveted Goldwater scholarships: Stephanie M. Kong (chemical engineering), Sharon Lin (chemical engineering) and Kristina Monakhova (electrical engineering).

After Tripathi’s address, the Faculty Senate conducted its regular April meeting, during which senators overwhelmingly approved a resolution to accept the report of the 2014 Decanal Evaluation Committee and to recommend that UB administration implement the committee’s Decanal Review Policy and Procedures.

The proposal calls for academic deans to be evaluated based on seven parameters in the year prior to the completion of a dean’s fifth year of service, and every fifth year thereafter. The full set of procedures is online: http://bit.ly/1NangX4.