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Plan to improve the undergrad experience takes shape
By Jessica Keltz
Reporter Contributor
Members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee learned more Wednesday about an initiative to improve undergraduate education at UB.
Michael Ryan, vice provost for undergraduate education, described the new Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, and future plans to institute learning communities and improve academic integrity awareness.
The new center, Ryan explained, will help connect students to opportunities to conduct research and apply for scholarships and fellowships. Timothy Tryjankowski directs the center, which Ryan said already has begun attracting student interest despite minimal promotion efforts. He said students have happened upon the new center's Web site, http://www.curca.buffalo.edu,, and begun mining it for opportunities.
Learning communities, Ryan said, are another initiative the university would like to undertake in order to increase recruitment and retention of top undergraduate students. He explained that other universities have had success with the communities, which combine living and learning both in classrooms and in residence halls, and involve fostering close relationships between students and faculty members.
"We want to do something for fall," Ryan said, but noted that students have already chosen roommates and course schedules for next semester. For now, he said, UB will introduce a set of programs that add up to a sort of "learning community lite" until a larger program can be put into place. For example, he said, the university will provide vouchers for some calculus, French and Spanish professors to lunch with their students. He also hopes to foster cooperation among faculty members.
Ryan said he envisions students coming together during orientation, residing close by one another, and participating in a civic engagement program and a research exploration program.
"I think it's very exciting to have all these various programs in the works," said Peter Nickerson, Faculty Senate chair.
Ryan also said that improving undergraduate education at UB would involve a greater emphasis on, and awareness of, academic integrity. In other universities where such an initiative has been successful, it's been because of student leadership in the area, he said.
He said he envisions a Web site, an honor code, workshops for faculty, discussing the issue at orientation, and creating a student council, noting that the initiative is "strictly conceptual" at this point.
In other business, Mitch Green, executive director of Campus Dining & Shops, provided an annual update on the division's plans for the future. He said that due to a large volume of requests, it would like to consider adding food service in libraries in the future, especially in the Undergraduate Library in Capen Hall, which keeps long hours. He noted that the café in Capen is now open until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. during the week and that Bert's Kosher Deli now stays open until 7 p.m. twice per week.