University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: May 3, 2007

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Contributing Editor

The April 16 shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech were a major focus of Monday's meeting of the UB Council, as council members and President John B. Simpson acknowledged the tragedy and James A. (Beau) Willis, interim executive vice president for finance and operations, discussed UB's emergency response preparedness.

"What this has done is to call attention nationwide to issues of safety on college and university campuses," said Simpson. "I personally find this tragic and very unhappy.... Freedom of expression is crippled by this type of societal evil."

As a result, UB is taking a new look at its critical incident management, he noted.

"What I'm doing is trying to think about what the issues are from a legal and ethical point of view" about the balance between what can be done before an incident such as the Virginia Tech shootings occurs, and issues of personal freedom and expression, Simpson said.

UB's emergency response security is "a constant and ongoing concern for the campus," Willis told the council.

With a campus population of roughly 40,000 students, faculty and staff, the need for safety and security "is very, very real," Willis said, and is constantly being reviewed.

"We have as a campus significant resources and time devoted to this," he said. "Since 9/11, the campus has taken a lot of steps to ensure a safe campus environment."

With 61 sworn officers who receive the same training as the Buffalo, Amherst and Cheektowaga police forces, University Police is the front line in UB's critical incident management.

Since the Columbine High School shootings, University Police have been trained to handle an active shooter situation, said Gerald Schoenle, chief of University Police. All of the department's policies and procedures also are being reviewed, and memorandums of understanding are in place with the Amherst and Buffalo police departments to provide assistance in an emergency, whether it be a gunman, fire or an emergency medical need. The university also has an emergency response center set up to respond to a crisis.

Other key players in UB's emergency response preparedness are Environmental Health and Safety and Counseling Services. UB also has a personal safety committee that meets monthly.

In any disaster, the biggest problem is communication. Across the campus, the university has building coordinators and university staff who see campus safety response as a part of their daily responsibilities, Willis said. There also are emergency plans, procedures and protocols in place to deal with a variety of situations, ranging from medical pandemics to active shooters.

UB's emergency response procedures are modeled after the National Incident Management System.

In the past two weeks there understandably has been an increased vigilance on the UB campuses and college campuses around the nation, Willis said.

"I think the biggest danger for any institution is to fall into complacency," he said.

"The incidents of two weeks ago really struck home the need to be able to communicate" instantaneously and actively, he added.

UB is implementing a single phone system that will allow the university to reverse-call every telephone on campus to contact people in case of an emergency. The university also is putting into place a vehicle for text messaging to cell phones. The transition to the new phone system is expected to be completed by early 2010.

In other business, Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, discussed improvements to UB's undergraduate education programs and efforts to attract international students.

"We have done a very good job of attracting better students over the past four or five years," Tripathi said. "We also have done a good job in out retention rate and graduation rate, but we're not in a state where we can say we've done the very best job we can."

UB has attracted an increasing number of applicants with higher average SATs and high school GPA scores, with about 25 percent of those attending the university, he said. "If we can improve the program, we probably can get a lot more of those students to come here."

Between 1999 and 2006, SAT scores have risen from an average score of 1137 to 1777. First-year retention and graduation rates also have improved during the same timeframe, from 84.2 percent to 88.7 percent and 55.6 percent to 60.4 percent, respectively.

Tripathi also discussed UB's distinctive and transformative undergraduate experience, part of the university's UB 2020 initiative aimed at improving undergraduate education.

Two programs currently are offered in civic engagement and research exploration, Tripathi said.

Students "really love the programs," which foster a sense of connectedness, he added. Students receive hands-on experience through community projects and laboratory experiences, live together as academic units and learn together in sets of courses they all share.

The challenge, he added, is to find a way to offer similar programs to all students, which would be one way to attract more highly desirable students to the university. UB has plans to add "a couple more" academies next year.

Tripathi also discussed how UB is positioned to compete in international education.

UB is one of the most internationally active universities in the U.S., Tripathi told the council, with extensive involvement in East and Southeast Asia for more than 30 years and a network of strong international partnerships around the world.

UB has one of the largest and most diverse international enrollments in the nation, with international students making up 14.96 percent of UB's student enrollment. These students are attracted to UB, he noted, not only because of its academic reputation, but also because even at out-of-state rates, tuition is "relatively low." UB's proximity to major cities such as New York City, Toronto and Washington, D.C., also is a plus, Tripathi said.

In addition, UB is the only research-intensive university on the border with Canada, although, Tripathi said, crossing the U.S.-Canadian border can be time-consuming and difficult.

International students play an important local role, not only for the academic and cultural enrichment they bring with them, but also their economic impact. Tripathi said international students and their dependents contribute an estimated $70 million to the Western New York economy.