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UB Council endorses tuition plan
The UB Council on Monday unanimously endorsed a resolution supporting SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher’s effort to craft a five-year, rational tuition plan for in-state undergraduate students at all SUNY campuses.
The SUNY Board of Trustees earlier this month authorized Zimpher to negotiate with the governor’s office and the Legislature to develop a tuition plan that would provide a stable source of revenue for SUNY while protecting students from unanticipated tuition spikes.
SUNY has been hit with more than $1.1 billion in budget cuts during the past three years, according to a SUNY news release. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget for 2011-12 proposed an additional $362 million cut in SUNY funding, although lawmakers have restored $87 million for SUNY and CUNY, most of which is expected to cover some funding cuts to three SUNY hospitals.
UB’s state funding has been cut $63 million over the past two years, with $17 million in additional cuts expected this year.
The UB 2020 bill was approved by the state Senate but stalled in the Assembly, and was not included in the tentative budget agreement announced over the weekend. Cuomo has expressed support for the bill, and has proposed that a task force study the issue outside the budget process.
The resolution approved Monday by the UB Council urges the Legislature “to act swiftly and boldly to support the SUNY five-year tuition proposal and the UB 2020 Flexibility and Economic Growth Act, and pass these measures into New York state law.”
It specifically supports reforms in the UB 2020 bill that would “ help ensure the educational quality for all of SUNY’s students,” including a rational policy that is fair, predictable and responsible; a slate of efficiency provisions that would offer relief from outdated state regulations governing procurement; and authorization to pursue public-private partnerships, such as UB’s partnership with Kaleida Health that led to construction of the new global vascular institute and research building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
In other business, the council unanimously named the second floor commons in UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences the Bruce A. Holm Commons in memory of Holm, SUNY Distinguished Professor, UB senior vice provost and pioneering researcher, who died on Feb. 9 of kidney cancer.
In presenting the naming resolution to the council, Officer-in-Charge Satish K. Tripathi called Holm “the quintessential scientist, mentor, teacher, entrepreneur and UB ambassador,” who was instrumental in establishing the Center of Excellence and served as its executive director for many years
“He was a special guy,” said Council Chair Jeremy M. Jacobs. “He was very important to this university.”
Tripathi noted that Holm’s research—he and UB colleague Edmund Egan developed Insasurf, a lung surfactant that is given to premature newborns—has “saved a lot of infant lives.”
He said a memorial service for Holm will be held at 3:30 p.m. April 15 in the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, 700 Ellicott St.
Jacobs opened the meeting by congratulating Tripathi on his nomination to be UB’s 15th president. He noted that the position had attracted many quality applicants and that “the hurdle is much higher for an internal candidate than it is for an external candidate.”
“Only in academia does that happen; it doesn’t happen in the business world,” he said, pointing out that the business community is much more inclined to promote from within.
“I’m very happy for Satish and I’m very happy for this university.
“He understands what it means and what it will take to get this university to the next level,” Jacobs said. “He’s done a masterful job in guiding the university through the challenging fiscal climate in recent years, while still maintaining and strengthening the faculty and the quality of our students and our academic core.”
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