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UB in position to benefit from higher education panel
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
President John B. Simpson reported yesterday that the New York State Higher Education Commission, on which he serves as one of 28 members, is "framing a plan that is both bold and actionable for the future of higher education, particularly public higher education, in New York."
Speaking at the first meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for the 2007-08 academic year, Simpson said UB "is in an ideal position to benefit" from recommendations of the commission, convened earlier this year by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
The commission, Simpson added, has discussed tuition, "and there is some good degree of support for differential tuition," which would allow UB as a research university to charge more for tuition than a four-year college.
"I find it fascinating that I pay the same for a master's degree in physics if I go to a four-year college as I do if I go to the University at Buffalo. I would argue that the education is quantitatively and qualitatively different between the two institutions," Simpson said.
Provost Satish K. Tripathi reported that the Class of 2011 is "the most academically talented class" in UB history, with average SAT scores that "are up approximately 14 points" compared to last year. The number of students from out of state rose to 7 percent, while 11 percent of the class is underrepresented students.
Tripathi also discussed the increase in the number of faculty members overall at UB, which has 80 more tenured faculty members than four years ago. He attributed this to academic units' "reinvesting in faculty" hires and to funding from the Empire Innovation Program, from which UB received $1.6 million this year, and which "all goes to faculty hires."
Bruce D. McCombe, who was named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences this spring, presented an overview of his school, which was created in 1998 and today has 27 departments, 25 research centers and institutes, and a budget of $85 million. CAS faculty members teach 80 percent of freshman credit hours and 64 percent of all undergraduate credit hours, McCombe said.
CAS employs 482 faculty, half of whom have been hired since the year 2000, and who teach 13,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students. McCombe hopes to increase the amount of research funding awarded to CAS faculty, which now totals about $25 million per year, to $35 million per year by 2009.
His other goals include improving graduate student recruitment, increasing again the stipends paid to graduate assistants, and increasing the diversity of the CAS faculty, which he discovered shortly after becoming dean is made up of 71 percent male and 29 percent female professors.
In other business, Marsha S. Henderson, vice president for external affairs, outlined the UB Believers initiative, which, she told members of the FSEC, is crucial for educating the public that the university serves as an economic catalyst to the Western New York region.
UB generates an annual $1.5 billion impact on the area economy, a figure that is projected to grow to $2.6 billion annually by 2020 with the 40 percent growth of UB.
Henderson said 1,000 people have signed up to be UB Believers in the first several weeks of the program, which aims to build an advocacy group or "pool that we can tap into" for support and who will communicate messages to elected officials in support of UB initiatives that will positively impact Western New York.
"President Simpson has said a number of times every college president goes to the state where they reside and says 'I need more money.' But if the community comes along, if the constituents of that community come along and say 'this is important,' that changes the story, the tone and the attention that we get," Henderson said. "It's our belief that we need that widespread conversation of the community and support from the community, from grass tops to grassroots, to say I consider it an investment in the community to support (UB's) growth plan."
A major goal of UB Believers is the recruitment of faculty, staff and students as members. At major public universities with similar successful advocacy programs, members of the internal university community constitute a major portion of the membership.
In response to her remarks, several faculty members asked if the UB Believers program had considered giving something tangible, such as UB pins, to those who sign up, or creating television and radio ads to promote the university. Henderson said these ideas have been discussed and that a public service announcement about UB Believers is in production at a local television station.