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UB works for U.S.-Canadian consortium of universities
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The university is working to establish a formal consortium with some universities in Southern Ontario and New York State to facilitate collaboration between the institutions, Provost Satish K. Tripathi told members of the UB Council on Monday.
The group, which had its first meeting a month ago in Niagara Falls, Ontario, would be called the Transborder Research University Network.
The effort began a year ago, Tripathi explained, when he and the provost of the University of Toronto began talking about getting the leading Canadian and U.S. universities in the region together to build relationships for research, student/faculty exchanges, joint programs, symposia and shared resources, such as libraries and facilities and equipment.
Although individual faculty members and researchers at the various universities already collaborate, there are no formal relationships at the institutional level, he said.
Tripathi noted that because of the increased security at the U.S.-Canadian border, many Canadian universities have been having problems getting some items, such as plasma, from the U.S.
"How can we work together to lobby [the federal governments] and get some of these things streamlined?" he asked. A goal of the consortium, he said, is to remove these kinds of barriers so that collaboration between faculty can continue.
The next step for the universities will be to determine a formal framework for the group and identify a headquarter university for the consortium, he said.
In addition to UB and the University of Toronto, the institutions that would be part of the consortium are the universities of Western Ontario, Guelph, Waterloo, Rochester and Albany; York, McMaster, Queen's, Syracuse and Cornell universities; and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
In other business, President John B. Simpson told council members he has been spending a lot of time "finding ways to make UB 2020—and the plans it calls for in the push toward an excellent university—happen."
This effort, he said, is focused on finding resources to finance UB's physical and academic growth, mainly through his work as a member of the state Higher Education Commission and by lobbying the governor and the state Legislature "so they see a way to support what we're trying to do here."
In light of the fact that tuition will never be free and the state is unlikely to make a major financial investment in SUNY, "some change in the way we deal with tuition is probably the means by which we will be able to push this agenda of excellence and have the resources we need to support it."
Simpson warned that maintaining the status quo—being unable to regulate UB's financial environment and, therefore, being unable to compete in the world of international research universities—is "a recipe for continuing a long, but inexorable slide into mediocrity."
He noted that he spends a lot of time dealing with these issues in his work with the Higher Education Commission.
The commission has held four meetings, and will meet once more before the Dec. 1 deadline for its final report, he said.
"I hope the outcome of this is to give the governor something which is bold and actionable and genuinely beneficial to the state and this university as we go forward."
In other business, Alexander Cartwright, professor of electrical engineering and vice provost for strategic initiatives, updated council members on the progress of the strategic strength initiatives of UB 2020.
Cartwright noted that 10 strengths were identified at the beginning of the UB 2020 process, but that over time, the strengths have merged and been transformed "so that now we have eight, fairly diverse strengths." The strengths, he said, "allow us to start to combine the faculty from the different schools in unique ways. More importantly, this gives us the opportunity to focus in these areas."
He offered some examples of "noteworthy" activity, including the hiring of Esther S. Takeuchi, an outstanding researcher and member of the National Academy of Engineering, as a senior faculty member in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The university also has hired some excellent junior faculty members, he said, citing as an example Igor Zutic, an assistant professor of physics, who is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREEER Award.
UB has hired 200 new faculty members since 2005, with 63 of those hires coming just this year, he said.
Moreover, the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences has grown significantly, he said, with almost half of the total hired since 2002.
"The hiring, of course, is in alignment with what we planned with the strategic strengths," he said.
To illustrate this point, he noted that UB has hired 14 faculty members affiliated with the Integrated Nanostructured Systems strategic strength. These faculty members, he said, reside in seven different departments in three different schools. "This is a substantial investment," he said, of more than $1 million a year in recurring costs and more than $7 million in start-up costs.
The final phase of the strategic strength process, he said, involves constant evaluation of the strengths. "What is the current status of the strengths, what have they done and what can they do in the future and, more importantly, are there opportunities for us to look at other capabilities? What else do we want to build," he said. This evaluation process, he pointed out, will involve faculty, the deans and senior administrators. Some of the strengths already have entered this phase, he added, while others will start the process next year.
But the strategic strengths initiative is not just about the research, he stressed, pointing out that faculty are teaching more than 30 freshman seminars and are actively involved in community outreach, including pre-K-16 activities.
This activity, though, can't happen without some investment, he said.
"I think it's necessary to continue to explain to the State of New York why it's important to invest in this university," he said. "These are the reasons why we think we're headed in the right direction. I think we can get there."
He also praised the UB Believers program. "I think it's an opportunity to continuously tell people how important this university is," he said, noting that the strategic strength framework provides an easy way to inform potential donors of the areas in which the university thrives and where their donations would be put to good use.