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Mission Review II nearing completion, FSEC hears
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
UB's submission to the Mission Review II process—the second part of the SUNY-mandated planning program for its member institutions—was again the topic at the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting yesterday.
UB, which began its planning in October 2003, now hopes to complete the process next month, just a year and a half before the next Mission Review begins a year from this October, according to Sean Sullivan, associate vice president for academic planning and budget.
"I think we're going to be doing Mission Review forever," Sullivan remarked to much laughter.
Since beginning the current process, the university has aligned its Mission Review proposal with its UB 2020 planning process. Sullivan presented to the FSEC the university's "Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)" that best articulates academic direction, campus goals and strategies to pursue those goals.
In the MOU, UB pledges to achieve "world prominence in strategic academic strengths" as identified by UB 2020, while meeting "critical state/national educational and workforce needs."
"Particularly, we have new funding coming from SUNY for expansion of our nursing program," Sullivan noted. "It's a first effort in response to the state high-needs program that the chancellor has initiated. He wants to extend that thinking and offer funding for growth to other programs where we address work-force needs."
UB hopes that some of the specific outcomes of its "compact" with SUNY will include:
Increasing entering freshman cohort preparation, bringing the number of G1, or top academic students, to 60 percent from the current 50 percent, and raising mean SAT scores from 1187 to 1220.
Increasing the minimum GPA of transfer students from 3.0 to 3.2.
Increasing student diversity, including attracting 25 percent of freshmen from outside New York state and increasing to 21 percent (from 18 percent) the number of underrepresented students at UB. ("All the growth would be of students other than in the Asian category of minorities," Sullivan said.)
Improving the retention rates of first-year students, from 88 to 92 percent, as well as the number of students who graduate in six years, from 57 to 64 percent.
Increasing research funding by 60 percent, from $133 million to $200 million annually.
Doubling philanthropic collections by UB from $29 million to $60 million a year.
Improving significantly campus and program rankings.
In turn, the UB plan also calls on SUNY to provide "strategic funding and policy differentiation targets to research university needs," to advocate for implementation by the state of a "predictable, rational, differential tuition policy" and to implement a professional program tuition policy recommendation "that establishes a system-wide ceiling...a market-driven ceiling so campuses may charge different tuition rates" for law, business and medical degree programs, Sullivan said.
He noted, for example, that "if we want to be more invested in the M.B.A. program, if we think we are underpricing our M.B.A. degree, our pricing of the M.B.A. degree is held back because we have to have the same price that Oswego and Geneseo have. By having the ceiling, being able to price your own program within that ceiling, we can charge a higher price and invest the income from that tuition back into the program."
UB also asks SUNY to administer a "predictable, mission-driven, budget-allocation system," as well as give campuses the authority to finance certain facilities projects (beyond residence halls), "rather than have to get the entire appropriation from state government before we can build anything," Sullivan said.
The compact also asks the state and SUNY for funding to achieve these goals, including allowing UB and other campuses to "manage tuition income," according to Sullivan.
"If we are going to increase tuition, it should be invested back into the campus where it's earned; that principle has been in place since 1998. Prior to 1998, we used to bundle tuition and tax support in one appropriation and we never always got the tuition that we earned."
UB also asks the state and SUNY to fund current enrollment—"There are currently about 1,000 students we do not receive state tax support for," Sullivan said—and planned, increased enrollments, as well as faculty set-ups and critical capital priorities.
Foremost among UB's goals are plans to "right size" its faculty base by adding 253 faculty members and to increase enrollment by about 2,600 students in the next five years. Sullivan presented a slide that showed peer institutions—including the universities of North Carolina, Iowa, Pittsburgh and Michigan—with significantly lower non-medical faculty/student ratios, ranging from 18.83/1 to 22.87, than UB, whose 2005 rate was 27.6/1.
Ultimately, if UB's plan received funding, the faculty/student ratio could be reduced to 16.3/1, according to Sullivan.
Of course, such an ambitious plan would not come cheap. Sullivan showed the needs analysis of the MOU would require "an annual bump of $109 million to fund this plan." With more people on campus, there would be a critical need for more space. The plan estimates a need for 737,000 additional net square feet (i.e., space that can be occupied, not corridors, bathrooms or circulation space) at a cost of $400 per net square foot, or $295 million in capital funds, and additional beds and living space for students at a cost of $114 million. Master plan development ($4 million) brings the grand total to $413 million. An additional $200 million for capital renewal comes to UB through the five-year capital infrastructure plan.
Sullivan said the plan's capital priorities include renovating the Cary/Farber/Sherman buildings, a new engineering building, re-purposing of the library space now free due to the just-opened library storage facility on Rensch Road, a new recreation center, conference/hotel/faculty club facilities, a welcome center, a downtown UB gateway and expansion of student housing facilities.
According to the MOU, annual operating costs would be paid from tuition revenue ($36 million), state taxes ($24 million) and other state monies ($11 million), with UB kicking in the remaining $16 million. SUNY and New York State would pay the majority of the cost of hiring and setting up new faculty ($70 million), with UB paying $30 million per year. SUNY and the state also would pay the majority of the $413 million bill for capital needs ($275 million), while UB would pay $138 million.
Senators asked where the MOU capital priorities section provides for additional classroom space, which Sullivan said would be added in some of the new buildings and renovations. Barbara Rittner, director of the doctoral program and associate dean for external affairs for the School of Social Work, asked if additional parking space is part of the plan, noting that United University Professionals has negotiated against charging faculty and staff for parking privileges in order to raise money for multi-leveled parking at UB. Provost Satish K. Tripathi replied that transportation systems for all campuses will be improved.
"I love your optimism," Rittner said. "Surface parking in a place where it snows five and a half months a year is just dumb."
In other business, Tripathi announced that undergraduate applications for admission to UB have increased by 12 percent compared to last year, with more applicants from categories "across the board, whether they are international students, domestic students, New York state students." He added that graduate student applications also have increased by "about 8 percent" compared to the same time last year, but the graduate school deadlines vary, so a final figure was not available.
Tripathi also announced plans for an annual lecture by a member of the UB faculty who would be chosen by his peers at the university.
"The idea is we would recognize one of our own for an annual major lecture," Tripathi said, adding that he and President John B. Simpson had just begun discussing details of the lecture, which could include a monetary award and other honors to the chosen faculty member, and that they will work with the Faculty Senate to establish a plan.
Patricia Logan, director of the UB Child Care Center Inc., also gave a presentation about the child-care services her nonprofit agency offers to UB faculty, staff and students. The center currently serves 90 faculty and staff members; an additional 40 students pay reduced weekly rates for their children, thanks to block grant funding subsidies. The North Campus facility has capacity for 54 children and the South Campus facility can serve 90 children. Both of the facilities have substantial waiting lists, according to Logan.
For more information about the UB Child Care Center, go to http://www.ubccc.buffalo.edu or email Logan at plogan@buffalo.edu.