FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of October 18, 2006
(unapproved)

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, October 18, 2006, in 567 Capen Hall to discuss the following agenda:

1. Report of the Chair
2. Executive Session
3. Report on the UB Master Plan
   • Robert Shibley, Professor of Architect and Planning
   • Beau Willis, Interim Vice-President for Finance and Operations
4. Discussion on Alumni Relations
   • Graham G. Stewart, Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations
5. Adjournment

Item 1: Report of the Chair

Professor Nickerson announced that University Faculty Senate President Carl Wiezalis will be unable to attend the UB Faculty Senate meeting on November 7. Instead, the Chair invited Interim Vice-President Ho to report on the NRC process and its importance for the University. Also reporting will be Professor Doueck, Chair of the Budget Priorities Committee, and Professor Smyth, Dean of the School of Social Work.

One of the gubernatorial candidates, who was scheduled to present an address on higher education in New York State, had to postpone his talk because of adverse weather conditions in Buffalo.

The Faculty Senate Governance Committee was scheduled to meet at 4:15 PM today.

The Chair had spent a number of hours on a conference call with the SUNY General Education Assessment Review (GEAR) group; he distributed a handout outlining the Learning Outcomes which require external measures, namely those in Mathematics, Basic Communication, Critical Thinking (Reasoning), and Information Management.

Item 2: Executive Session

Item 3: Report on the UB Master Plan

Prior to Professor Shibley's report, members of the FSEC voiced disappointment over the crumbling cement and sidewalks in general disrepair on the North Campus; one member noted that the campus was not designed well, certainly not as it should have been, given the weather conditions in Western New York. Budget shortfalls in the past, and use of allocations only for emergency repairs, hindered a significant degree of maintenance. In addition, the multitude of cigarette butts and the strong smell of smoke make a poor impression at some of the main entrances; this led several members to consider pressing for a total ban of smoking on campus.

Vice-President for Finance and Operations Beau Willis reported that, according to his latest estimates, UB has about $300 million in committed capital funds for the development of the infrastructure of the three campuses (North, South, Downtown), most of which goes to critical maintenance needs and opportunistic projects. The Comprehensive Master Plan was initiated in the Spring by issuing a request for qualifications; of the ten firms that responded, five have been selected to be interviewed in the next few weeks.

Professor Shibley stated from the beginning that the primary goal of the Master Plan was to "do it right", a complex task for a university with three campuses and an aspiration to grow by 40%. UB now has the opportunity to completely reframe the relationship to its surrounding communities, who, he pointed out, are ahead of us in planning for the future of this region. He added that the process itself should make us function better as an institution; to this end, it was decided to consult the Faculty and Professional Staff Senates, rather than specially formed comittees, on how to proceed.

Although Buffalo is a shrinking city --- from 650,000 to 280,000 --- great opportunities will present themselves over the next 50 years. The United States population, which recently hit 300 million, is expected to reach 450 million by 2050; Professor Shibley pointed out that most Americans are moving to regions where there is no water nor much arable land, and in general very little in the way of life support. Western New York, in contrast, has carrying capacity way beyond its current population. If we were to put into place the infrastructure that connected us to Toronto/Canada and thus become understood as a bi-national area, we would then have the basis for sustained growth. UB is now in a very good position to take advantage location and resources.

The project is not small, comprising 3 campuses, 1,346 acres, roughly 10 million gross square feet of space, 200 buildings, 48 off-campus structures, 38 miles of road, and 28 miles of walkway. To these "small city" numbers, Professor Shibley added that UB has 100,00 graduates, two-thirds of whom live in Western New York --- including 9 out of 10 dentists, 8 out of 10 attorneys, and 7 out of every 10 pharmacists. However, UB has always seen itself as a fragmented entity, rather than as one university with three centers, embedded in and part of a larger community.

The Plan needs to be anchored in the history of the region, and it needs to be sensitive to the distinct culture of the setting of the University; enhanced quality of student life, retention and recruitment are equally essential. "In effect," Professor Shibley said, "this Master Plan should be a piece of scholarship", since it will be the physical accomplishment of the goals of UB 2020. The Plan envisions a new economy --- jobs, tax revenues, research dollars, more exposure for the region, more commercialization and local innovation through our research activities. Growth in the student body is not to come from siphoning away from other SUNY campuses, but rather through high-end recruitment --- nationally and internationally --- based on our research reputation. The Master Plan also calls for right-sizing the student/faculty ratio, from currently 25,021 students to 6,200 faculty and staff to 25,201 to 6,453; by 2011 or so, this should be 28,074 to 6,638 and, projecting the proposed 40% increase (no timeline given), 35,000 to 7,075.

All components of the Plan follow five guiding principles:

• To promote academic excellence, the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, and the development of vital intellectual communities;
• To promote a united and accessible university campus with three strong, distinctive, and seamlessly interconnected centers designed to facilitate social interaction;
• To reflect the University's responsibility to the community by which it was founded by respecting and being shaped, in part, by public plans and policies;
• To provide the basis for long-range capital programming and the prudent stewardship of University resources;
• To establish UB as a leader in environmental stewardship and sustainable development.

More information can be found at http://www.buffalo.edu/master_plan/ .

Asked about when the consultant teams would get integrated into the process, Professor Shibley responded that they are to arrive at the earliest in January, hopefully at latest by March, depending on the State Comptroller's approval process; he stressed that they would work with UB, that it would be true collaboration. Asked about the transportation to connect the campuses, he replied that it is a complex issue yet to be resolved on the basis of many factors, including not only costs, but also growth patterns of the surrounding communities and preferred means of transportation.

Item 4: Discussion on Alumni Relations

Graham G. Stewart, Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations, introduced himself to the FSEC. He comes to UB from Ithaca College, where he served as Director of Alumni Relations for the past seven years; previously he had worked in Admissions in the Music School, and at Cornell University as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Performing Arts Center, all after a twenty-year career in singing. Although many of the schools at UB have their own alumni associations, Mr. Stewart said he will emphasize collaboration and sharing of resources. He also is trying to identify the best practices at other institutions that would prove useful to developing the alumni base at UB. He presented the following points of information:

• This University currently has 21 domestic chapters, and 11 international chapters, mostly in Asia; Vice-President Stewart is particularly interested in establishing some in Europe;
• Over the past year, the Alumni Association conducted 116 events which attracted over 10,000 participants;
• There are currently 7,500 alumni registered on UB Connect, and 6,700 members in the Alumni Association;
• A program entitled "UB on the Road" has been running since last year; this year, the Alumni Association is inviting prominent alumni in each of the regions to present to large groups of other alumni on various topics.

Vice-President Stewart reported that he is currently evaluating programs and budgets. Professor Adams-Volpe commented that 6,700 is a very low number, and that, from her experience in the University Libraries, we are not retaining many new members. Vice-President Stewart responded that, among the benefits available to all graduates, the membership fee is the key indicator of alumni support, and that retention rates hover around 75-78%. Professor Nickerson commented that, when UB became a member of the SUNY system, there was enough money that we did not need the alumni and did not maintain contacts; then State finances reversed, and UB needed alumni support. It has consequently taken years to reestablish relations with them. Professor Danford noted that, while UB's operating budget has dwindled from being 90% State-supported to a much smaller fraction, many of the private colleges are subsidized by the State, because many legislators are alumni of the private institutions. Thus, State taxpayer dollars support private institutions in competition with its own State University.

Item 5: Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Hoeing,
Secretary of the Faculty Senate


Attendance (P = present; E = excused; A = absent)

Chair: P. Nickerson (P)
Secretary: R. Hoeing (P)
Architecture & Planning: GS. Danford (P)
Arts & Sciences: M. Churchill (E), J. Faran (E), K. Tekeuchi (E) D. Street (A)
Dental Medicine: R. Hall (A)
Education: X. Liu (A)
Engineering & Applied Sciences: P. Alexandridis (P), R. Wetherhold (A)
Informatics: J. Woelfel (P)
Law: T. Miller (A)
Management: W. Lin (P)
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences: William Fiden (P), James Springate (P), M. Dayton (E), J. Hasset (E)
Nursing: P. Wooldridge (P)
Pharmacy: G. Brazeau (P)
Social Work: B. Rittner (P)
SUNY Senators: W. Baumer (P), H. Durand (A), H. William Coles III (A)
University Libraries: JA. Volpe (P)


Guests: K. Bissonnette (SA), L. Labinski (Prof. Staff Senate), V. Hussein (USA), M. Cochrane (The Reporter), H. Chan (The Spectrum)

© Copyright University at Buffalo Faculty Senate | UB Home | Accessibility | Legal Notices | Website Acknowledgements