UB is shooting for a freshman class of 2,500 and seeking another 1,500 transfer students. Durkin explained at the April 24 FSEC meeting, "I am cautiously optimistic that we will make the freshman number, and fearful about the transfer number." The deadline for prospective freshman to accept a seat in the class was May 1, said Durkin, and the transfer deadline is June 1.

Applications systemwide are down 12 percent, and applications to UB are off nine percent. "Even the number of offers we have made so far are down eight percent," Durkin said.

"This has been an incredibly difficult year," Durkin continued. "In 20 years, I've never seen anything like it. It's hard to understate the problem. It is down and it is pervasive. Statistically, not a single trend line is holding." Durkin did point out, however, that among SUNY applications, the number of students who made UB their first choice was up.

Also, Durkin suggested, it is possible that part of the reduction could simply be a "correction" to SUNY's inordinately simple application process. The adjustment this year could bring down what may have been an artificially high number of applications previously, since students can apply to multiple SUNY schools on a single application by simply checking off boxes.

While uncertainty over aid and tuition levels surely had a great deal to do with the application drop, Durkin also pointed a finger at naysayers. "Every time UUP or any other well-intended group indicates their frustration with SUNY, the public, upon whom we depend for applicants, hears them.

"The public reaches the conclusion that there is a disinvestment in the public sector, and that that disinvestment is long term," Durkin said.

Relatedly, Mitchell Harwitz, chair of the Faculty Senate admissions and retention committee, reported that his committee had determined there is a correlation between access to advisement and support services and retention. Harwitz, an economist, explained "If you want someone to choose to stay at UB, you must enable them to choose to stay."

Harwitz pointed to the Honors Program and EOP as having markedly higher rates of retention and graduation than the university as a whole. "Both these programs have intensive advisement structures in place and they seem to work."

Clyde Herreid, director of the Honors Program, also addressed the FSEC. The program, now in its 15th year, is still growing and may soon look into offering additional places in the program for gifted students without financial incentives attached.

Last year's anonymous donation of $2.4 million has enabled the Honors Program to do its most successful national recruiting ever, explained Herreid. "We have attracted 21 top high school scholars for the program so far," he said, "and they come from New York, but also from places like Washington State, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Carolina, Kansas and Pennsylvania."

Faculty Senate Chair Claude Welch informed the FSEC that he would instruct the chair of the Educational Policies and Programs committee, Michael Metzger, to investigate a course in the Women's Studies department. The investigation, Welch explained, comes after a letter to the editor in a recent edition of the student newspaper, The Spectrum, "raised my blood pressure."

The letter in question called a course connected to the Anti-Rape Task Force, offered through Women's Studies, as being "an easy 'A' if you need to raise your GPA." The latest computer run of grade distribution, Welch said, showed the letter was accurate. There were 22 'As' and 3 'Bs' in the last section of WS 497 that was offered. "Certainly the work of the Anti-Rape Task Force is valuable and I don't intend to disparage it at all," cautioned Welch, who explained that it was the issue of receiving letter grades for internship-like experiences that must be examined.