University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: February 15, 2007

By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor

"Good research universities are good business" for their surrounding communities, and UB, with its plan to grow by 40 percent in the next 13 years, is no exception, President John Simpson told members of the Western New York legislative delegation Feb. 8 at a meeting to discuss state support of UB programs.

President John B. Simpson told members of the Western New York legislative delegation that good research universities are "good business" for their surrounding communities.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

Speaking at UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Simpson outlined the university's strategic and capital master plans for the group, which, in addition to legislators, included members of their staffs, as well as representatives of the UB Council, UB Foundation and the UB Alumni Association.

He prefaced his remarks by recalling his first trip to Albany three years ago, shortly after becoming UB president.

At that time, he initially asked for "short-term, project-based help that didn't have a larger context, that didn't have an understanding of where these projects fit into the university," he said

"Since that time, the university has engaged in a very long-term strategic visioning process, thinking about where it is, where it wants to go and how it wants to get there," he said. "As part of this process, it has become clear to me and to other members of the university community that as the University at Buffalo prospers, so prospers Western New York.

"We are very much part and parcel of the community. Indeed, I think we are the community. And as the university succeeds and achieves and realizes its remarkable potential—which we can't do without your help—I think that it will pay dividends for Western New York."

Simpson noted that UB pays back "four- or five-fold" the state's investment in its programs "by having an economic impact in the community approaching a billion and a half dollars."

By building a larger, more competitive UB in the coming years, Simpson said, the administration also will help build a better Western New York.

"A better and larger university, which is where I want to go with the University at Buffalo, means enormous things for Western New York. It means everything from an expanded tax base, a more vigorous local economy, the assistance that a vigorous university can have on ameliorating the brain drain, the loss of young people from the community," he said.

"It means bringing venture capital in, continuing to support as we have done in the past local businesses and expanding the possibility for intellectual property resulting in spill-out companies from the university, and so forth. It's genuinely exciting to contemplate what might happen. I want to engage you in thinking about the university perhaps as Western New York's 'big economic idea.'

"It seems to me that it may be the most important investment the state can make in thinking about where it can help shape and what it can help do for the economy here in Western New York."

Simpson said that UB offers the community what is fast becoming one of the most precious resources available: information.

"More and more, the world is turning into what is called a knowledge economy," he said. "Our competitiveness as a nation depends upon our ability to generate intellectual property, ideas, inventions, new ways of doing the things we do as a country, as an economy, as a society."

Other nations, he added, are "shamelessly copying our research universities. Why? Because they recognize the economic success the U.S. has had in the last 50 years as largely dependent on the generation of intellectual property."

Western New York already possesses what those countries seek, he said.

"Not only do we have the research that generates the primary new ideas and intellectual property, but we are training the people who will provide the workforce and the knowledge and the ideas, giving them the tools to use, that they will need as they go forward and develop what is truly, increasingly the currency of modern economic growth, which is intellectual property."

Simpson emphasized the UB physical capital plan involves "all three of our campuses": the North Campus in Amherst, the South Campus in Buffalo and the downtown city campus.

"This hasn't happened at the university since the Amherst campus was built decades ago," he said, adding that the process "engages the communities of which we are a part, so there is representation from the City of Buffalo, the Town of Amherst, the County of Erie, and from the Buffalo Niagara Transportation Association."

An investment in UB is an investment in Western New York, one that "pays major dividends in what happens here," Simpson emphasized.

"This is not simply about single-year budget requests," he also stressed. "This is about a dialogue between the university, our elected officials and the SUNY system about how we bring about the long-term policy changes that will allow SUNY, UB and Buffalo Niagara to achieve the ambitious goals that Chancellor Ryan and I have set out. This will take a number of years and it's critical that we start now."

In response to Simpson's comments, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt called UB 2020 "a very ambitious and exciting plan."

"This concept of growing a university, both in number and stature and the emphasis on three campuses, is something I'm passionate about," Hoyt said. "I think this is an exciting plan that truly can begin to transform this community."

While he and his fellow legislators are just "learning what the priorities and the style and the philosophy of the new administration is" under Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Hoyt said that Spitzer's campaign showed he values support for the SUNY system.

"What we did learn is that he embraces what we all believe in terms of public higher education and its impact on the economy. It's important to cities," Hoyt said, later adding, "I anticipate this is an administration that will embrace this concept."

Assemblyman Jack Quinn III agreed, saying a university such as UB should be the "centerpiece" of community development.

"As a graduate of UB Law School, I not only think that you should bring employment opportunities to the area, and community development, you should be the centerpiece of that development. All these successful towns and cities in the country, their successes have oftentimes grown from 'the university,' allowing their universities to be the center. We have to allow UB to be that here.

"I think all of us in the delegation would agree on the fact that without building the City of Buffalo, without creating that critical mass of people here and opportunities here in the city, you will never be able to grow the Hamburgs and the towns of this area," he added.