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Faculty Senate honors Greiner
By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor
The Faculty Senate honored outgoing President William R. Greiner during its monthly meeting on Tuesday with a resolution praising his numerous accomplishments during his 13-year tenure.
Some of the achievements lauded by the senate include the significant expansion of the campus with the construction of the Student Union, the Center for the Arts, UB Stadium, the Natural Sciences and medical school complexes, the Math Building, creation of the College of Arts and Sciences and the emergence of UB as a globalized public research university with high international student enrollment and a worldwide reputation for excellence.
Outgoing President William
R. Greiner displays a framed copy of a resolution approved on Tuesday by
the Faculty Senate praising him for his numerous accomplishments during
his 13-year tenure as UB president. With Greiner is Peter Nickerson,
chair of the Faculty Senate.
PHOTO: DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
The resolution also cited the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff and students; a dedication to the people and needs of Western New York, and ensuring UB's fiscal autonomy, as well as Greiner's tireless efforts on behalf of the university at the state and federal level.
Besides enhancing the reputation and visibility of this institution, the resolution noted, Greiner also has significantly increased scholarship and research funding, and provided leading-edge instruction and research technologies that have placed UB as a world leader in computing and at the forefront of "wired campuses," both nationally and internationally, noted the resolution.
The senate warmly greeted Greiner with a standing ovation upon his receiving a copy of the framed resolution.
"Bill, we want to thank you for all you've done for the university and also for governance over the years—you've been very supportive of governance," said Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology and chair of the Faculty Senate, before reading the resolution aloud.
Greiner, who had just finished an interview with a local television station prior to attending the senate meeting, noted how refreshing it will be, as he returns to life as a faculty member at UB, that tenure, the First Amendment and academic freedom will permit him to be much more candid about most aspects of the university. He also said that he had given his last report to the UB Council earlier that morning, simply noting to the trustees "the university is in good shape; I have no report."
"I thank you, colleagues, for doing this—I'm happy to take a little credit on your behalf," he said of the faculty of the university.
Greiner told senators that he will return to the same office in O'Brian Hall that he had 24 years ago, with the "same guy in the office next door, and he looks better than I do."
In other business the senate passed a resolution calling for suspension of system-wide assessment—an effort begun last summer when the SUNY Board of Trustees crafted a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sought to impose on all 64 campuses some mechanism by which to measure the learning outcomes of the entire SUNY system.
Campus-based assessment, which already is in place at all SUNY campuses, is considered a success by system administration.
However, in a surprising turn of events, it appears SUNY faculty can enjoy at least a reprieve in the march toward system-wide assessment. Just yesterday, Nickerson received a copy of a resolution, passed by the Executive Committee of the SUNY-wide Faculty Senate reporting that a request that the trustees suspend the implementation of its "June 17, 2003 resolution on assessment in favor of continuing dialogue on this issue has been honored."
"It is quite unique to have the chancellor agree to let us go forward with this process," Nickerson said of the discussions that now can take place across the 64 campuses on the issue of system-wide assessment. "It looked as if there was going to be no give, no room for changes—it looks like the chancellor is willing to listen."
The senate also began preliminary discussions about the upcoming process of negotiating a new MOU with SUNY. The first MOU, signed in 2000, sets goals for the university in a variety of areas, such as admission selectivity; graduation rates; faculty development; diversity of faculty, staff and students, and assessment of general education. The MOU is the basis for the yearly assessment of the campus. Greiner noted that UB had far surpassed all of the goals established in the first MOU.
As possible areas of focus for the new MOU, Gayle Brazeau, associate dean for academic affairs for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Michael Cohen, professor of neurology and pediatrics, challenged UB to consider its place in the community in the areas of health care and social issues, and job development for new and emerging technologies.
Brazeau strongly urged that administration give some thought to more formally defining UB's role in bioinformatics and educating all incoming freshmen about the role that bioinformatics and the study of genetics will play in their future—whether or not it is their chosen field of study.