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University Club fosters collegiality at UB
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
Academic clubs where faculty and staff come together to meet colleagues and pursue lively conversation, casual debate or simply intelligent cocktail chatter are a grand old tradition at many well-known universities.
(From left)
Yong-Kyu Yoon, assistant professor of electrical engineering; Faculty
Senate Chair Peter Nickerson; and Provost Satish K. Tripathi share a
laugh at a recent meeting of the University Club.
PHOTO: KEVIN
FRYLING
It is a tradition many are working to establish at UB with the University Club, a regular event that welcomes faculty and staff to the Tiffin Room in the Student Union from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays during the academic year.
"The faculty and staff were saying there should be a place to meet and interact with each other," said Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs whose office provides support for the club. "People come to talk about scholarship, to talk about academic issues, to talk about social issues. It's a very informal setting."
The club offers free food and nonalcoholic drinks, plus a cash bar. In addition, the next meeting on Nov. 15 will feature international music and a selection of artifacts to highlight International Education Week, being held Monday through Nov. 17. Programming for future meetings is planned and will be announced.
Attendees agree, however, that the greatest attraction of the University Club is the warm and collegial atmosphere.
"It provides an opportunity for colleagues to chat in a relaxed manner and get to know one another personally and professionally," said Deborah Chung, National Grid Professor of Materials Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "It provides some social life amidst academic pressure."
Peter Nickerson, professor in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and chair of the Faculty Senate, added that although his position as senate chair puts him in greater contact than most with individuals across all three campuses—North, South and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus—the club still introduces him to many people he might not otherwise meet.
"I think it's rather important to be able to facilitate that sort of interaction," he said.
The club also fulfills an important academic as well as social purpose through the contact it encourages between different departments and disciplines.
"It's not just socializing; people also talk about research," said Tripathi, adding that interdisciplinary communication complements the greater goals of the university.
"If you think about UB 2020," he said referring to the university's strategic planning process, "it's about bringing people from different disciplines together to work on problems and issues in a coordinated and collaborative fashion. It's the same thing here. This is really providing a social environment where people can come together."
So far, the club has provided at least two faculty members the opportunity to cultivate a professional relationship that could lead to research that cuts across disciplinary boundaries.
"About three weeks ago, I met a professor from the School of Medicine [and Biomedical Sciences]," said Douglas Hopkins, associate research professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "We've already talked about doing a small project together on evaluating air quality from gas-fire stoves."
He added that the organization also has led to introductions to other colleagues in his discipline—not to mention top administrators known to make appearances at the University Club, including Tripathi and President John B. Simpson.
"The president and provost talk to everyone," noted David Foti, a network supervisor in Operational Support Services in Lockwood Library. "I'm surprised there's not more people who show up."
Although the University Club remains for the moment an intimate gathering of faculty and staff, frequent attendees report there has been a steady gain in momentum as faculty and staff learn about it through colleagues and the buzz generated by word-of-mouth.
"You have to create the tradition," Tripathi noted.
Yet, senior club participants are quick to point out that the University Club can refer to a successful, well-known precedent at UB. The Campus Club, located on the South Campus, catered to hundreds of members from 1953 into the late-1970s. Some attendees of the current club, including Wolfgang Wolck, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics, and Michael Ram, professor in the Department of Physics, both in the College of Arts and Sciences, were regular members of the Campus Club. Both reminisced about the large cafeteria where colleagues used to meet and interact.
"We've not had meetings like this for a long time," Wolck said.
He added that the University Club represents an important step forward on a road to returning to a great tradition at UB—a tradition he called indispensable at an institution of the "stature, reputation and ambition" of UB.