A BUDGET UPDATE and an overview of the recently released Rethinking SUNY document dominated the discussion at the Dec. 7 meeting of the UB Council.

Since the 1986-87 fiscal year, UB budget has faced budget reductions of nearly $50 million, according to UB Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner, including this year's mid-year reduction of $2.2 million. "In fact, we've grown so accustomed to mid-year reductions that as we began the fiscal year we identified funds" that would offset the anticipated cut, Wagner said.

Applied differentially, the mid-year cut did not affect funding for students, university development, computing and information technology or the university's energy reduction project. "Additional reductions were assigned to the university mostly by leaving positions open," Wagner said. "We see no need for layoffs or retrenchment at this time."

The mid-year reduction, he added, was applied uniformly across the SUNY system, and amounted to approximately one percent of campus operating budgets.

Asked by student representative Michael Pierce whether the university had submitted a budget request this year to Albany, Wagner responded "The campus was not asked for and the campus did not submit" one.

He added that UB "made its budget needs known to the (SUNY) trustees through a process that takes current costs and, through a formula, estimates needs for next year."

Pierce also asked Wagner whether the university administration "is considering the elimination or massive restructuring of any academic areas."

"Each area is looking at what it would do if resources were reduced," Wagner responded. Whether an area decides to eliminate programs is up to the individual area. "At this point it is in the hands of the deans and chairmen to make those recommendations," he said.

Wagner also gave the council an overview of Rethinking SUNY, a document that he noted has specific recommendations in some areas and more general ones in others.

The plan makes "specific recommendations for a reduction of the overall staffing of (SUNY) System Administration of 30 percent," Wagner said. More general recommendations were made concerning degree programs and shorter time to degree, the appropriate role of community colleges, how to evolve strategic alliances at smaller campuses, an emphasis on administrative and teaching productiveness, and support of entrepreneurial activities that would lead to additional revenue and financial aid.

The next step is the proposal of changes that "may or may not include all the steps here," Wagner said.

Following the senior vice president's presentation, Pierce voiced student concerns that the consequences of Rethinking SUNY will erode the quality of education at UB. He was answered by Councilmember Roger I. Blackwell.

"No matter what happens in this room," the governor and the state Senate and Assembly will make the decisions affecting the future of the SUNY system.

"This is a pure political decision," Blackwell said. "A man has been elected and he has been given a dictate." The most effective way to combat the changes being considered in Albany is to "identify your local official and make sure that person is a strong friend of the university," he said.

In other business, the Council heard a presentation on the library of the future by Barbara von Wahlde, associate vice president for university libraries.

While the printed word still is an important part of any library, digital information is increasingly being used, and UB needs to "prepare for a future that is less print based," von Wahlde said.

Loss Pequeöo Glazier, Lockwood associate librarian, demonstrated the capabilities of the Internet, including WINGS, the Libraries home page and Britannica Online. UB is committed to making the various Internet technologies available to the university community through the libraries, von Wahlde said. "This will require some investment on our part....We think it is the way students will be working in the future."