The institutions' previous agreement only covered ECC students intending to enroll in the UB Faculty of Social Sciences.

Under the expanded agreement, ECC students apply for the program through ECC. Students will complete only one application and be accepted by both ECC and UB. They will be guaranteed transfer to their UB majors at the junior level following graduation from ECC and completion of required course work with a specified grade-point average.

The document also calls for regular communication between ECC and UB faculty, and the participation of UB in advising students and training ECC faculty and staff advisors.

Signing the agreement for UB were President William R. Greiner; Provost Thomas Headrick; Mark H. Karwan, interim dean of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Frederick W. Winter, dean of the UB School of Management; Joseph Tufariello, dean of the UB Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Ross D. MacKinnon, dean of the UB Faculty of Social Sciences.

ECC President Louis Ricci; Eugenia Proulx, vice president for academic affairs, and Bruno Pistrin, vice president for student affairs, signed on behalf of Erie Community College.

"We are very, very pleased to be able to formalize this affiliation with ECC," said Greiner. "We have had good success with similar partnerships with other SUNY community colleges in Western New York. We are proud now to bring that success home to Erie County students.

"The intent is to make UB more accessible to students who start out at ECC," he continued. "ECC helps its students go on to their planned next steps. UB gets well-prepared transfer students. And the students themselves get better preparation, better advice and a smoother transition to their junior year. It works for everybody."

"I am delighted that President Greiner and I and our staff have come together to craft this agreement, which will ensure a smooth transition for our students to the university," Ricci said. "I think this demonstrates the cooperative nature of our relationship. I look forward to other arrangements of mutual benefit."

The agreement addresses the access goals outlined for the SUNY system in "SUNY 2000: A Vision for the New Century," which call for facilitating the transfer of students among campuses, particularly from SUNY two-year colleges to other SUNY campuses.

ECC students participating in the dual-admission program will receive information about UB's programs and be contacted by UB while at ECC. Special programs will be developed-at UB and ECC-to involve them while they are enrolled at the college.

The rationale for the agreement is to guarantee that students participating in the program will be prepared to transfer as juniors into the UB major after completing their degree at ECC.