University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 8, 2007

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

As UB thrives, Western New York thrives.

That's the message President John B. Simpson has been delivering to myriad community groups, campus groups and members of the Western New York legislative delegation. And it's the message he plans to convey to Gov. Eliot Spitzer during a meeting on Friday, Simpson told members of the UB Council on Monday.

Simpson said that when he and council chair Jeremy M. Jacobs meet with Spitzer, he wants "to go out of the norm" of what university presidents usually do when they meet with the governor, which, he said, is to ask for money.

"I want to tell him why the university is so important to the community and why it's the kind of thing they should think about as they think about the future of Western New York," he said.

"As I look around the community, and I look at some of the kinds of initiatives that are being pursued, I think that the university is without question the single strongest economic bet to make in the future of Western New York. My agenda is to build the best university that I can. But that's absolutely coincident to the economic impact the university has, and the better the university, the better it is for the Western New York community."

The UB 2020 strategic planning process is now "mature," Simpson said. "It has clear academic vision that defines the decisions that we make; every major decision we make in the central administration is defined by our aim to achieve academic excellence," he said. "It's important to understand that this is no longer just a plan; we're acting on it," by hiring faculty and reorganizing the university's human resources and information technology.

In order to achieve the academic excellence outlined in UB 2020—which includes plans to grow the university by 10,000 students and 750 faculty members over the next 15 years—substantive changes in policy need to be made in the way in which New York States relates to its universities, Simpson maintained.

UB has "too little control over its financial destiny," both in terms of raising revenue and the predictability of that revenue, he said. While UB 2020 is a long-term planning process, "we are, as is every state university in New York, subject to political vicissitudes every year in determining what our budget is going to be," he said.

"I think we need to change that to give us predictability over the long term. I'd like to see an increase in flexibility in how we handle our funds."

Simpson referred council members to the university's policy agenda, which calls for a predictable tuition policy and a differentiation of university centers like UB from the rest of the SUNY institutions.

He said he has been promoting the agenda and his vision for UB in meetings with members of the Western New York legislative delegation, the board of directors of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the local Rotary club and with Spitzer's chief policy advisors. He also has been holding breakfast meetings with small groups of people from the community.

"I do believe we can make some genuine progress on this," he said, noting that Spitzer's appointment of a blue-ribbon task force to develop a plan for SUNY "is exactly the kind of thing he (Spitzer) needs to be able to make selective investments within the system." Moreover, Chancellor John M. Ryan "is entirely on board in supporting what we're doing," he added.

"I think we can really get somewhere with this."

Council member Gerald Lippes told Simpson he was the third UB president to make the pitch for differential tuition. "It makes so much sense, yet it's never happened," Lippes said. "When you get to the Legislature, you hit a wall."

"I'm not sure we're not better off biting off something more realistic," he said, like differential tuition for the professional and graduate programs, rather than the entire university.

Simpson said he thinks the situation at UB now is different "in major ways" than it has been in previous years.

"Betting on Bass Pro or on a casino is not a very good long-term strategy in my view," he said. "This is.

"The case in terms of economic development, especially with the failure of any other program in Buffalo and Western New York, is reasonably compelling, at least to push the conversation."

Jacobs told council members they were getting "hung up" on the issue of differential tuition. "If you come back with part of an ask, that's fine. If this governor leads this way, it will be beneficial to this university, and he looks at it as a developmental tool, not just as an educational tool—that's the difference," he said.

In related business, Marsha S. Henderson, vice president for external affairs, made a presentation to council members on UB's integrated advocacy strategy.

Henderson explained that the operating philosophy of the Office of External Affairs is, "How do we integrate the different aspects so that we're sure we're working in a coordinated way that helps support all the major goals of the university." The efforts of the individual units in the office—in alumni, development, creative and news services and community relations—"repeat this message about the impact of the university in this community and the opportunity the community has for its continued growth," she said.

"We're trying to reach out to opinion leaders," she continued. "We want this to be a discussion in the community about the importance of UB, as not only our academic leader in Western New York, but as an economic leader in Western New York and how the growth of the university and the plans that it has are so important to us as a region."

In other business at Monday's meeting, council members unanimously approved naming the UB Athletics Hall of Fame the Dr. and Mrs. Edmond J. Gicewicz Family UB Athletics Hall of Fame.

A member of the UB Council, Gicewicz, B.A. '52, M.D. '56, was founder and first medical director of the UB Sports Medicine Institute and the university's team physician for 27 years. He served as captain of the UB varsity football, basketball and baseball teams, and was named a Little All American in football. He is a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the UB Athletics Hall of Fame.