Council hears plans to develop housing

The project will consist of 110 units off Sweet Home Road, and house 400 students. Occupancy is expected to begin in January 1998, with full occupancy by the fall of that year.

Calling apartment-style housing for students "in many ways...a make-or-break issue" for the university, Greiner told the council "we should be much more of a residential institution."

UB "has the geographical resources," Greiner noted, and developing additional housing on campus "would end a lot of sources of frustration and irritation" for students. However, permission from the state legislature is needed in order to build on campus.

So the university is "trying to systematically walk through the alternatives. Where we are now is having UBF (the UB Foundation) build off campus," Greiner said. "Ciminelli Development is doing the site work, and this will be bid out once we have a design."

These "new attractive units" would offer bus service to campus and be wired into UB's computer mainframe. Lease costs will be competitive with the residence halls and "safely competitive" with housing offered anywhere in Western New York, Greiner said.

The council also heard a report by Provost Thomas E. Headrick on UB's academic future, one that he said may include combined baccalaureate/master's programs and fewer doctoral programs.

Headrick described UB as a "multi-versity" with a commitment to undergraduate education whose undergraduate programs ought to draw on the strengths of the its graduate departments. "We have a broad array of faculty with an array of expertise, and this can play back into undergraduate education if we do it right," Headrick said.

He said UB plans to maintain its current enrollment of 16,000 undergraduates and 8,000 graduate students, a ratio "appropriate for this institution. We may want to expand our post-graduate enrollment, but not a large amount."

Headrick said the university is going to have to make strategic choices in research and graduate education, perhaps offering fewer, but better, doctoral programs. It may have to phase out weak program, but not necessarily the faculty involved in those programs, he said.

The provost said UB needs a new focus on master's-level programs, possibly combining more baccalaureate and master's programs to enable students to graduate more quickly than if they pursued the degrees separately. This is "one of the ways we can set ourselves off from other institutions in SUNY and maybe in high education in general," the provost noted.

"I think if we begin talking to undergraduates about the 21st century...we can talk them through to master's (degrees). This will distinguish us if we move on this quickly and do this well."

Headrick added that the university cannot be built totally around academics, however.

"We want to spend effort, time and money to improve the quality of student life," he said. "We have to work on making this a quality place where students enjoy getting their educations." Student housing, athletics, entertainment and other activities all are part of that picture, he said.

UB needs to bring in more out-of-state and international students "so we have a very representative and diverse student body." And the university needs to find ways to further shape programs for people to come back on a part-time basis to further their education."

The university also needs to expand its revenue sources through philanthropy, private-sector partnerships, differential tuition and out-of-state tuition, Headrick said.