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UB Council endorses physical plan
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“It sure is a pleasure and a joy to see that the beginnings of the manifestation of the plan for the community at large are here, present and, with the publication of this document, quite obvious.”
Although the UB Council has passed numerous resolutions over the years in support of UB 2020, it has never specifically gone on record in support of the Comprehensive Physical Plan that is designed to help achieve the goals of UB 2020.
Council members rectified the situation on Monday when they unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the plan and pledging their “energy and influence to the collective work of fully implementing the plan.”
In presenting the resolution to the council for its approval, Council Chair Jeremy M. Jacobs told his colleagues that while the resolution may seem redundant—given the council’s continuing support for UB 2020—“affirmation in this form completes the circle.”
Council member Gerald S. Lippes noted that UB 2020 “is no longer a plan that is discussed within council chambers; it is a plan that is discussed statewide.” It’s difficult to meet any public official in New York State and not have them ask about UB 2020, he added.
“The community has adopted the notion of 2020, and from my perspective, it has been adopted because it recognizes it is the economic engine that can propel the community forward.
“For most of us, that is a physical manifestation of the beginning of the success of the plan. Most of us don’t know about what’s going on on campus, but we sure can see the translational research building, we sure can see the engineering building,” Lippes said, mentioning two of the four buildings UB has broken ground for in recent months.
“There are very few cranes in our lifetime that we have seen in Western New York,” he said. “It sure is a pleasure and a joy to see that the beginnings of the manifestation of the plan for the community at large are here, present and, with the publication of this document, quite obvious.”
James A. “Beau” Willis, executive vice president for university support services, earlier had reported that final public presentation of the Comprehensive Physical Plan will take place on Oct. 27 in the Center for the Arts.
He briefed council members on what he called the four major elements of the plan that are of “strategic importance” to the university:
• The plan for first time places all of UB’s vast physical assets into a single context, “a single comprehensive picture by which those assets are managed.”
• It identifies gaps in the university’s physical infrastructure and the way land is used and types of buildings. The campuses now are segregated into living facilities and academic facilities. “There’s a whole portfolio of infrastructure that sits between those two extremes that the master plan has done a very good job of identifying and providing a context by which we can realize those projects,” he said.
• It recognizes the importance of the “physical realm,” that green space and plazas between buildings are important to faculty, staff and students.
• It has placed the university’s physical assets within a regional context that considers the impact on surrounding communities, as well as transportation and utility infrastructure.
Willis pointed to the four recent groundbreakings—new buildings for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Research Center, as well as Kapoor Hall and a new residence hall adjacent to the Ellicott Complex.
“This is not a plan that lies in front of us; this is actually a plan we’ve been living for the past 2 1/2 years,” he said. “Every project, every capital decision we’ve embarked upon has been informed by the conversations of the plan.”
So the Ellicott housing project “has benefited from the context the plan has provided and the conversations that have been taken place around it,” he stressed. The project is not just 600 beds, he said, adding that also taken into account were academic space, the siting of the building, transportation and a change in traffic patterns. “These are all elements that probably would not have been touched upon in previous planning processes,” he said.
In other business at the meeting, Simpson told council members that he is working with Angelo M. Fatta, chair of the UB Foundation Board of Trustees, to recast the role of the foundation to that of resource acquisition. The foundation historically has been a resource-management organization, handling such activities as management of the investment portfolio and endowment, as well as issues that come up regarding donations to the university.
“We believe this [resource acquisition] is the role that the foundation should have,” Simpson said. “It is a common role that university foundations have across the country and is something that I think is absolutely essential to our future as a university.”
He noted that UB had a “poor year in fundraising” this past year, suffering, as did virtually all other universities, due to the economic downturn.
“I think that increasingly, given the state’s financial difficulties, that private support of this university is going to become more and more important in the future,” he said, adding that he will increase the time he personally devotes to fundraising, as will all deans, vice presidents and other members of the UB community.
He pointed out that a development subcommittee, chaired by Robert Morris, has been established by the foundation to provide leadership as it transitions to its new role.
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