University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: February 26, 2004

By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor

Whether it's closing loopholes in ill-conceived grading policies or being one of the first faculty members to submit to having his World Civilizations class reviewed as part of campus-wide assessment, William H. Baumer's straightforward, no-nonsense manner and decades-long "institutional memory" has been an asset to UB for 42 years.

William Baumer's no-nonsense manner and institutional memory make him a UB asset.
PHOTO: Donna Budniewski

A tough, but popular philosophy professor with a soft spot for students, Baumer's efficient and meticulous approach to everything he does is legendary. He is an economist of language and expression, hard-hitting on matters of importance and at times dismissive of issues that, according to his code of ethics and "Roberts Rules of Order," only serve to distract from the issue at hand. His sense of humor? As gritty as No. 12 sandpaper. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but Baumer is its muse.

As director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Philosophy and chair of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee, Baumer scrutinizes every policy that crosses his desk—and in fact, has written many of those policies. His view is simple: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right the first time. Pontificating at length or hijacking a meeting isn't his style-"say it clearly and don't go on and on if you don't have to," he says about the importance of brevity.

While teaching such courses as the "Philosophy of Immanuel Kant," "Business Ethics" and "Professional Ethics," he also has been at the forefront of major university ventures like the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (now called the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research), which he jokes that UB "stole honestly" from the University of California, Berkeley in National Science Foundation grant competition in 1986, serving as a program consultant and program officer from 1986-92. He also is a staunch advocate of the strides UB has made in computing and supercomputing.

He served during the mid- to late-1980s as a member of the NSF's Division of Advanced Scientific Computing Technical Review Group, and chaired the advisory panel of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Scientific Computing Division.

Notably, Baumer also served as UB assistant vice president for academic affairs (1973-75) and then as controller of the university for 10 years (1976-1986), during which time his role in faculty governance, which began in earnest in 1965, took a back seat due to a potential conflict of interest.

He also was directly involved in the creation of UB's religious studies program, is active in his own faith as a member of the Lutheran church and believes strongly in the objective study of religion for students.

"If I have a problem with religious studies and understanding, it's that there is much less knowledge of religious traditions, particularly of Judaism and Christianity, now than 40 years ago," he says, adding that the practice of religion is an important factor in a civil society. "If I have a concern about the future of churches, it is that they need to pay a little more attention to what they're teaching young people."

Long known a man of considerable substance and style, he is the "go-to" person on a variety of issues as a SUNY faculty senator and as a member of the UB Faculty Senate and its executive committee, where he previously represented the College of Arts and Sciences from 2000-03. He was chair of the Faculty Senate from 1970-72.

It's evident in watching and listening to Baumer that the impulse to set things right clearly is motivated by the greater good, rather than personal gain. As a young man, he says it was a study of history and philosophy as an undergraduate, the example of his parents and a number of professors over the years that gave him an appreciation for what he believes to be the requirements of a citizen in a democratic society, which can best be explained by his own commitment to faculty governance.

"If faculty is concerned about the university and what it is and where it's going, this is how you do something about that. If you don't want to participate in faculty governance, what you're basically saying is that somebody else can decide all these questions. I believe faculty governance is important and if faculty believe that, then they better behave that way and participate and do the work," says Baumer.

Despite all of the uproar about the "decline" of the American student, Baumer says that on average, UB has a better group of students now than 30 years ago. "The best we had 30 years ago are as good as the best we have now. If I have a problem with the current students, it's not so much with their attitudes, it's that I have a sense that as a consequence of changes in their K-12 education and particularly their high school education, they don't write as well. And if I were to put any great big problem out there in terms of where incoming students might do better, it's 'learn to write,'" he says.

"My sense is that they do not get as much required writing in their high school years and they are not pressed in the basics of English grammar, structure and spelling. There is a big hole for a lot of our students in their ability to do that," which, Baumer says, becomes a problem in the classroom because students don't have a sense of the importance of precision and accuracy in what they read and what they write, and so they tend to be careless.

"You can't really teach that in a straightforward sense; you can only teach it by example. You've got to take some time when you go through student assignments and really mark them up like a proofreader, and not everyone's willing to do that," he explains.

"My younger daughter is a securities analyst and at her firm, the first thing they do for job candidates is to ask them to write a paragraph and if they can't do that, they're out of the candidate pool," he says.

Yet, in spite of those challenges, Baumer says he'll remain at UB as long as it continues to be enjoyable—even after four decades of teaching, he's convincing when he says class discussions are still interesting and he looks forward to the kinds of questions that students ask.

Even though it's rare, he says once in a while a student will come in and say "thank you."

"It's fun," he says. "It's still fun."