University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: October 16, 2003

By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor

Calling it a very good year to be provost, Elizabeth D. Capaldi delivered a general overview of the academic state of the university to the Faculty Senate during its first meeting of the year on Tuesday.

Capaldi reviewed several successful accreditations in the schools of Dental Medicine, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Architecture and Planning, that were completed during the past year, noting that the university-wide Middle States accreditation, finished just weeks ago, was a "love fest."

"They found hardly anything negative to say at all," said Capaldi. "They think we're terrific," she said.

Increasing the number of tenure/tenure-track positions at UB, a priority of the administration, continues on target—about 95 new tenure-track positions were added this year—about 10 more than the number of faculty members who left through retirements or resignations, Capaldi said. Overall, this year saw a net increase of about 20-tenure/tenure-track faculty.

Reviving the Center for Teaching and Learning has paid off as well, attracting nationally renowned presenters and a high level of faculty participation, making it one of the more successful centers of its kind in the country, she said.

UB also is more student-focused Capaldi said, noting the achievements of administrators in making the university a more seamless experience for its students. "You want to make the university, which is a big, intimidating place to them, easy to get around—make it very easy for them to find the correct academic path and to get the social interaction with other students that is so important," she said.

"We're doing a good job of supporting our faculty and students," she added, pointing out that retention and student satisfaction continue to rise and that student are happy with the quality of the advising they receive.

Faculty also is doing a good job in supporting the university, with federal research funding up 28 percent over last year. "This is very, very impressive because federal research funding is nationally competitive," she said.

And even in the face of New York's lingering economic malaise, the bottom line at UB is still healthy. "Financially we're doing very well, despite the fact that the state is tanking—all states are tanking," said Capaldi, "but thanks to the efforts of President Greiner and Bob Wagner (former senior vice president) we keep the tuition we generate. That's been a huge boon for us to be able to take that money and invest in quality. That's why we've managed to hire faculty at a time when many universities are cutting their tenured/tenure-track faculty," she said.

Although the university has had to make some adjustments due to the sluggish economy, it hasn't had to cut academic units. "We keep the money we earn, not just tuition, but indirect costs and private money," which gives the university the flexibility to spend money on what it needs most, she said.

As a source of potentially huge unrestricted funds, technology transfer, which Capaldi called the hope of the future, is beginning to break even, she said. "You do tech transfer for a number reasons—you have an obligation given to you by the federal government to commercialize any product that comes from federally funded research and in Buffalo we have a unique obligation. We've been given quite a lot of money from the state in the hopes of building an economy in this region," she explained.

As for areas of improvements at UB, Capaldi says the university must increase the number of faculty and students winning major awards. Competing for awards is crucial, regardless of winning them, said Capaldi, because it increases the national exposure of the university. Kerry Grant, vice provost of academic affairs and dean of the graduate school, has been charged with developing a strategy to increase the number of faculty and students being nominated for awards.

In other business, the Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution created to reaffirm UB's commitment to international students and scholars and international programs—both at the university and abroad. Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, told senators that about 50 graduate students were denied visas to study at UB this semester and called the treatment of many international students by immigration and consulate officials "appalling." (For more information on this issue, see "Visa nightmare prompts resolution seeking support of international education" at http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol35/vol35n2/articles/FSEC.html.)

According to the closing paragraphs of the resolution,"…The Faculty Senate reaffirms in the strongest possible terms its commitment to international education and the necessity of protecting international education from the likely consequences of new federal restrictions on international students and scholars; and be it further resolved that the Faculty Senate urges the president and the provost to advise the New York State congressional delegation that recent federally imposed restrictions on the free exchange of ideas and scholars are ineffective and counterproductive as security measures and that they jeopardize the educational missions of America institutions of higher learning…."

The resolution can be read in its entirety at http://rll.buffalo.edu/rll/INTERNATIONALEDUCATION.pdf.