University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 20, 2003

By ARTHUR PAGE
News Services Director

The members of the committee that will conduct the national search to identify the next president of UB have been named by Jeremy M. Jacobs, chair of the UB Council and chair of the UB Presidential Search Advisory Committee.

President William R. Greiner announced in January that he is stepping down as the 13th president of UB, a position that he has held since 1991. Greiner said he will retire as UB's chief executive officer effective June 30, or at a later date if requested by SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King.

In announcing the names of the 17 committee members, Jacobs noted that "during the past decade, through strategic planning and innovative leadership, the University at Buffalo has emerged as one of the nation's best research-intensive public universities.

"This committee has an incredibly important task at hand—to find a visionary leader who will continue to help UB achieve even greater success in the future," he added. "Our timeline is aggressive, but we have a great group of committed professionals focused on finding the very best leader for this world-class university."

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee was established by the UB Council to solicit and evaluate nominations and applications for the president's position according to guidelines established by the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Jacobs has named a subcommittee to identify a national search firm that will work with the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, which will submit a list of qualified candidates to the UB Council. The council, UB's local governing body, will make a final recommendation to King. The SUNY Trustees must approve the appointment of UB's 14th president.

"I salute Jerry Jacobs for putting together an outstanding search committee," said King. "I am very pleased the committee is representative of the UB community and I will support them in their efforts to find an outstanding successor for President Greiner.

"Surpassing the many accomplishments of Bill Greiner presents a great challenge," King added. "However, I am confident the search will produce candidates of exceptional quality to lead this great institution of higher education."

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee announced by Jacobs includes four members of the UB Council. In addition to Jacobs, they are Jonathan A. Dandes, president of Rich Baseball Operations; Edmond Gicewicz, clinical assistant professor in the departments of Surgery and Orthopaedics in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Gerald Lippes, founder and senior partner of the law firm of Lippes, Silverstein, Mathias & Wexler, LLP.

Representing the university's faculty members are Judith Adams-Volpe, director of university and external relations for the University Libraries; Diane R. Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences; Michael E. Cohen, chair of the Faculty Senate and professor of neurology and pediatrics in the medical school; Charles R. Fourtner, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the CAS; Frederick C. Morin, III, professor and chair of the medical school's Department of Pediatrics; Joyce E. Sirianni, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the CAS' Department of Anthropology, and A. Scott Weber, professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Other committee members are student representatives Julia C. Novelli, president of the Graduate Management Association, and Jennifer Tuttle, vice president of the Faculty Student Association and student representative on the UB Council; Willie Evans, past president of the UB Alumni Association, representing UB alumni; Reginald B. Newman, II, chair of the UB Foundation, Inc., representing the UBF; administrative representative Mary H. Gresham, vice president of the Office of Public Service and Urban Affairs and dean of the Graduate School of Education, and staff representative Josephine A. Capuana, director of the Office of Honors and Scholars.

Cohen said that the more than 1,700 members of the university's voting faculty were invited to nominate members of that group who do not also hold an administrative appointment at UB to serve on the search committee. Individuals also could self-nominate, he added.

He said the names of more than 50 faculty members were submitted and discussed by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, which, by closed ballot, nominated six individuals to serve on the search committee and an additional six as alternatives. Noting that the search committee contains seven faculty representatives, Cohen said "the Faculty Senate is comfortable that there is adequate faculty representation on the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. The faculty representatives on the search committee represent a broad view of faculty opinion across the core campus and the professional schools."

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee has established a presidential search Web site at http://www.buffalo.edu/presidentialsearch/ that contains information about the search guidelines, committee, process and timeline.