Dean of the Law School
Position Profile
June 2007
Overview
The University at Buffalo (UB), of the State University of New York (SUNY) invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the Law School. The University at Buffalo is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) and one of the nation's premier centers for academic excellence. UB is the most comprehensive, research-intensive university in the SUNY system, which is the nation's largest system of public higher education offering programs at sixty-four geographically dispersed institutions. The University at Buffalo is SUNY's primary center for professional education and training.
The University at Buffalo Law School is the State University's only law school. Drawing on a long tradition of leadership and excellence, UB Law’s special emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, public service, and innovative scholarship, teaching, and clinical education makes it unique among the nation's premier public law schools. UB Law’s affordable tuition makes a high quality legal education accessible to students from a wide variety of backgrounds and enhances students' opportunities for public service in their professional careers.
The Law School is internationally recognized for its excellence in the interdisciplinary study of law – indeed, five former presidents of the Law and Society Association have been members of the faculty. This reputation is anchored by the Law School’s Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, with an endowment of nearly $11,000,000, which provides significant financial resources and extensive programming to support interdisciplinary scholarship. UB Law School has also distinguished itself as a center of academic innovation. It has been a source of cutting-edge scholarship and educational leadership in a range of areas such as critical legal theory, legal history, law and religion, labor law and policy, family and welfare policy, criminal justice, international human rights, state and local government, clinical education, and transactional practice. Finally, UB Law School stands out for its emphasis on public service and public policy, producing leaders and engaging challenges in the local community as well as the world at large. It encourages students and faculty to shape the law as well as apply it, and to take leadership in understanding and changing the social, political, and economic context of law.
In 2004, the University at Buffalo began its most ambitious transformation since it joined the SUNY system in 1962: the UB 2020 initiative. This strategic goal includes a major expansion along with a plan for implementing a powerful new vision of academic excellence and international leadership for the twenty-first century. The Law School has assumed a central role in UB 2020, particularly in building a focus on Civic Engagement and Public Policy as a core interdisciplinary strength of the university. Law School faculty members also contribute to additional core strengths of the university, including the focus on Cultural, Historical, Literary and Textual Studies, and Information and Computing Technology.
back to topDean's Role and Responsibilities
- The Law School dean has primary responsibility to:
- Chart a course and, in collaboration with faculty, staff, and university administration, implement a strategic plan to promote and advance the Law School's national and international reputation, guided by the highest standards of scholarly and professional excellence.
- Provide inspiring leadership and responsible oversight for the Law School to ensure that all aspects of the institution effectively serve the research, teaching, and service missions of UB.
- Provide stewardship in developing and managing the structural, financial, and human resources of the Law School.
- Provide enterprise in developing and improving the financial and physical resources of the Law School, especially through fundraising.
- Work collaboratively with faculty and university administration to implement the UB 2020 academic strategic strengths.
- Provide intellectual and professional leadership for UB, for the Buffalo Niagara region, and for legal education nationally and internationally.
- Enhance the Law School's relationships with alumni, members of the legal profession, community members, state and local government, and other external constituencies.
back to topCandidate Qualifications
The successful candidate should have the following qualifications:
- Intellectual Leadership: A national or international reputation for sustained achievement as a legal scholar, surpassing the qualifications for appointment as a professor of law; the ability to inspire and lead an accomplished faculty toward further excellence; an appreciation for innovative and interdisciplinary legal scholarship; and a commitment to the law school’s central role in a public research university that fosters civic engagement and policy debate.
- Institutional Leadership: Strong management skills, including the commitment and capability to develop the Law School’s resources through fundraising and other initiatives and to allocate them strategically; the ability to collaborate with the law faculty and staff and the university leadership in developing and implementing strategic plans for the law school; the ability to inspire the law faculty’s active participation in governing itself and in serving the university and the public; the ability to communicate persuasively the mission and goals of the law school within the university, the broader legal academy, the legal profession, the community, and the state; and the ability to contribute to the success of strategic planning within the university and to collaborate effectively with other leaders in achieving the university’s goals.
- External Leadership: The ability to enhance the law school's relationships with outside constituencies, including alumni, the legal profession, government officials, the local community and the broader public, business leaders, and philanthropic, service, and educational institutions; the ability to work in partnership with these constituencies toward common goals; the ability to secure material and other support from these partners; and the ability to mobilize the law school’s resources to serve the public, the legal profession, and the academy.
- Commitment to Diversity: The ability and commitment to recruit a diverse faculty, staff and student body and to foster their development and participation in the life of the institution.
- Professional Stature: The ability to oversee the preparation of students for professional practice of the highest quality and ethical standards; and the ability to engage leaders of the legal profession, locally and nationally, as well as public officials, as a respected colleague.
- Commitment to Excellence: A record of consistent and persistent achievement and innovation in every aspect of an academic and professional career is the best evidence of the enterprise, imagination, and determination expected of the Law School’s next Dean.
Overview
UB Law School is the only law school in the SUNY system. It has a student body of about 750 students. It has a full-time faculty of 56, including 42 tenured and tenure-track, 7 clinical, and 7 research and writing faculty members. The School offers a comprehensive and unique curriculum that features eleven subject matter concentrations, short "bridge term" courses focusing on the practices of lawyers, and path-breaking clinical programs featuring not only litigation but also transactional practice and policymaking.
The Law School is housed in John Lord O’Brian Hall, a seven-story building at the center of the North (Amherst) Campus of the university, and connected by covered pedestrian bridges to UB’s main research library, most of its social science departments, and the School of Management. As a result of a recent ambitious capital project, the law school building now includes a state-of-the-art courtroom that provides students with an opportunity to watch judges and lawyers in action. A new fifth floor space enhances the activities of the Baldy Center, including a conference center with the latest technology, a seminar room, and visiting scholar offices. Other new facilities include technology-equipped classrooms, comfortable lounges for both students and faculty, and on-campus apartments housing approximately 150 law students in a living-learning setting.
Faculty
The University at Buffalo law faculty has a long and illustrious history at the cutting edge of legal education and scholarship. Founded in 1887, the Law School soon attracted such eminent faculty as constitutional theorist Christopher Tiedeman and civil rights activist/novelist Albion Tourgee. In the 1930s the Law School hired its first full-time faculty members, including legal historian Mark DeWolfe Howe, sociologist David Riesman, administrative law expert Louis Jaffe, and tax scholar Ernest Brown. In the 1950s, Buffalo was home to such notable legal scholars as Clyde Summers and (in the economics department) Ronald Coase. In 1962 the University of Buffalo became part of the SUNY system, and the law faculty and the law student population both increased dramatically.
Over the next two decades the law faculty attracted numerous interdisciplinary innovators, including law and society scholars Mark Galanter and Richard Schwartz, legal economist George Priest, and critical scholars Robert Gordon, Haywood Burns and Alan Freeman. The Law School’s Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy became an internationally known center for socio-legal studies, and UB developed an enduring reputation in the fields of labor law and policy, and legal history. Since the 1980s, a number of UB law faculty have been at the forefront of developments in legal scholarship and teaching focusing on gender and race.
Today’s UB law faculty is diverse, with fifteen women and six minority members among its 42 tenure-track faculty. Overall, UB’s full-time law faculty includes 45% women. The faculty remains known for its interdisciplinary legal scholarship. The “Leiter Survey” has recognized Buffalo as a national leader in such fields as critical jurisprudence, legal history, law and literature, and law and social science. The majority of full-time faculty members have pursued graduate study in addition to professional law degrees. Sixteen faculty members hold doctoral degrees, including thirteen tenure-track faculty members, and six of the last ten hired. The faculty includes four editors or founders of peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journals; fourteen faculty members serve on the boards of peer-reviewed journals. Faculty members have served as president of the Law and Society Association, secretary of the Conference on Critical Legal Studies, program chair of the American Society for International Law, and in many other professional offices. The law faculty is consistently productive: since 2000, tenure-track faculty members published 44 books and some 250 articles and book chapters.
Members of the law faculty have received numerous honors. The University has recognized seven members of the faculty as distinguished professors for research, teaching or service, and conferred exceptional scholar awards on five others. In addition, two faculty members have been appointed to named professorships and seven have been appointed to named senior scholar positions. Current law faculty members have earned fellowships from the Guggenheim, Humboldt, Fulbright, Ford, Mellon, Rockefeller, Soros, Dana and National Science foundations; as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institute of Justice, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center, the American Bar Foundation, and the Charles Warren Center.
In addition to these academic achievements, the current faculty's professional achievements include litigating major Supreme Court cases; drafting foreign constitutions; heading human rights organizations; advising presidential campaigns; serving on the American Law Institute; guiding government reform and regional planning in Western New York; heading the New York State Law Revision Commission; advising foreign governments on legislation; testifying before Congress, state legislatures, and international organizations; arbitrating labor disputes; and serving as expert witnesses in prominent cases.
The Law faculty's intellectual and professional leadership is reflected in its culture of innovative teaching. In larger doctrinal core courses, students are likely to be challenged not only by lectures and Socratic instruction, but also by collaborative projects, field observations, small group exercises, writing assignments, and multimedia presentations. In addition to the school's unusually strong clinic and interdisciplinary course offerings, faculty members have designed a wide range of approaches to teaching standard legal subjects and skills.
Most of the UB faculty and many of its professional staff are part of the collective bargaining unit, the United University Professions (UUP), a member of the American Federation of Teachers.
Students
Over the past five years, an average of 1,540 applicants to the Law School have competed for places in an entering class of 240. Over this period the acceptance rate has been 35% and the admissions yield has been 45%. For the most recent entering class, the median GPA was 3.44 and the median LSAT score was 156. A total of 13% had advanced degrees; 18% were students of color; 52% were women; and the average age was 25. This entering class represented 111 colleges and universities across the country, with about 20% from out of state. At present, 75 law students — 10% of the student body — are working on dual degrees, including twelve students working on JD and PhD degrees.
The Law School annually offers more than $325,000 in direct financial aid, while providing a top value in legal education, with tuition roughly half of the standard cost of comparable private law schools. An extensive career services program supports a wide range of opportunities in the public and private sectors. Our placement rates are 86% at graduation (29th nationally) and 98% by the time of bar passage. Our New York State bar passage rate for first-time takers is 82%.
Curriculum
The Law School provides a comprehensive curriculum while affording students a broad range of curricular options, including doctrinal and theoretical courses, experiential learning, independent study, practical coursework, and special programs. A rigorous year-long research and writing program provides a foundation for professional skills in the first year. Small seminars, independent study, and intensive research supervision deepen students’ understanding of law in its social context, and sharpen writing skills. The Buffalo curriculum emphasizes the study of law in its social context, and a large number of interdisciplinary courses and programs support this emphasis. A strong clinical education program is closely tied to the core curriculum and enhances the optional concentrations.
The absence of class rankings, grade point average calculations, or strict grading curves fosters a culture of cooperation and substantive engagement in learning and teaching. Instruction is offered in two semesters from early September to May, including a January bridge term, and a summer session from mid-May to mid-July. The UB curriculum allows faculty to structure courses outside the traditional semester framework to allow for intensive or extended study in innovative formats. For international students, there are special courses designed to introduce them to American law and to prepare them for the New York State Bar Exam. All students benefit from our focus on learning in small groups, with a personalized approach, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to design their own concentration. Seminars and law journals provide ample opportunity for writing and publication.
Degrees
In addition to the JD degree, the School currently offers eight dual degrees including: JD/MBA, JD/MSW, JD/MPH, JD/MLS, JD/PharmD, JD/MUP, JD/PhD, and JD/MS in Applied Economics. The School offers two LLM degrees, one in Criminal Law and the other in general legal studies that is particularly attractive to foreign-trained lawyers. Plans are currently in development for an interdisciplinary law PhD program involving Law School and other faculty affiliated with the Baldy Center.
Concentrations
Current concentration subjects include Family Law, Finance Transactions, Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Environmental Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Health Law, International Law, Labor and Employment Law, Technology and Intellectual Property, and Social Justice.
Clinical Programs
Our unique clinics offer diverse and sophisticated practice opportunities to second- and third-year students working closely with skilled supervising attorneys. Rather than focusing on routine legal services, our clinical offerings involve complex matters in which creativity and innovation play key roles in effectively serving clients. Students structure transactions, conduct research and training sessions, formulate public policy, and strategize about long-term reform efforts.
- The Affordable Housing Clinic has leveraged nearly $150 million in public and private funds to create close to 1,500 units of affordable housing in Western New York.
- The Community Economic Development Clinicprovides transactional legal assistance with particular emphasis on child-care policy and helping low-income families build assets. Legal representation is provided to community organizations and enterprises, not-for-profits and governmental agencies. The American Bar Association selected the Law School to house and publish its quarterly Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law because of the Law School’s unique expertise and success in these two areas.
- The Environment and Development Clinicworks with local governments and community groups on issues at the intersection of environmental and economic development concerns. For many years the clinic was involved with brownfield issues and most recently it is focusing on the area of renewable energy.
- The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic works with non-profit environmental groups on proactive approaches to protecting the environmental and ecological resources of the Great Lakes basin. Clinic students gain practical legal experience in environmental advocacy, client representation, and community-based conservation.
- The Women, Children and Social Justice Clinic, a model for other law schools across the country, teaches community groups how to respond to family violence and child abuse and has been a leader in developing and supporting national task forces providing a coordinated community response to family violence. The clinic also develops policy and protocols for domestic violence specialty courts. Annually funded by an $85,000 appropriation in the New York State budget, it has received sponsored program support in excess of $1 million.
- The William and Mary Foster Elder Law Clinic focuses on the problems of access to long-term care. It has been endowed by a current bequest of more than $600,000. The clinic has represented more than 19,000 individuals and obtained more than $12 million of benefits for its clients. It has also helped to develop Medicare maximization programs in Erie, Genesee and Niagara Counties, saving these counties millions of dollars annually in County funded Medicaid expenditures.
- The Securities Law Clinic,a cooperative effort between the School of Management and the Law School, allows students to investigate and arbitrate securities dispute
Levin Institute
The Levin Institute provides a unique educational collaboration among University at Buffalo law, management, and JD/MBA students, introducing them to New York City’s international financial markets and to careers in the highly competitive financial sector. Each year, approximately 20 students are selected to participate in the semester-long program in New York City. Students are divided into five teams to work on projects sponsored by law firms and financial institutions. As the semester ends, teams present their work to their sponsors, their peers, and faculty. A distinguished guest speaker series gives students the opportunity to network with and learn from senior practitioners from Wall Street and other institutions.
Public Service Field Placements
Field placements provide students with unique opportunities to engage in law-related work in courts, public agencies, legislative offices, and nonprofit organizations.
Research Centers
The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy provides individual research grants and encourages networking and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, both within and beyond UB. Regular events include book manuscript workshops, a Faculty Seminar series, and regional sociolegal studies conferences organized in conjunction with Toronto area scholars. Working Groups offer opportunities for longer-term programs focused on specific research interests, such as Law and Religion, Migration Policy and Pluralism, Legal Theory, Racial Justice, Environmental Stewardship, and Children, Families and the Law. The Baldy Center publishes Law & Policy, a peer-reviewed journal currently edited by an international team of leading sociolegal scholars. With Baldy Center funding and administrative expertise, UB Law School has hosted numerous conferences and workshops that have helped make UB a leading source of new developments in sociolegal scholarship. With close to a hundred affiliated faculty members, the Baldy Center places UB Law School at the center of a university-wide community of policy scholars.
The Buffalo Criminal Law Center was launched in 1996 to stimulate research on criminal justice policy, to reinvigorate the study of criminal law in the United States, and to position UB Law School as a leading center for criminal law teaching. To advance its mission, the Center has hosted a series of workshops on criminal law topics, leading to numerous publications. It has inaugurated a peer reviewed criminal law journal, assembled a collection of on-line materials related to domestic and international criminal code reform, and initiated (with the Buffalo Criminal Law Society), the Herbert Wechsler National Criminal Law Moot Court Competition, culminating in 1999 in the establishment of the Master of Laws degree in Criminal Law.
The Buffalo Human Rights Center is the focal point for human rights scholarship, activism, and education at UB. Buffalo stands out as one of a few law schools in the United States with a comprehensive human rights program. This program fosters scholarship and coursework in human rights and gives students an opportunity to explore underdeveloped areas of human rights such as economic and social rights, the challenges of multiculturalism and globalization, and the reconstruction of post-colonial and post-conflict societies. The Human Rights Center houses the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, and has one of the most active internship programs in the country, placing students in non-governmental, governmental, and inter-governmental institutions around the world. The Human Rights Center hosts speakers and organizes conferences on critical human rights issues.
The Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy is dedicated to the study of the ways in which law and legal institutions structure American politics at the subnational level, and the public consequences of those structures for democratic political life. The interests of the Center and its faculty affiliates range widely, from state constitutions and local government charters, to the powers and jurisdiction of state and local government agencies, to regional economic development, to the micro-processes of local democracy, to empirical and comparative analysis of local governmental decision making, to the nature and desirability of the dispersion of authority among multiple layers of government, and a host of other topics. Assisted by the Jaeckle Fellows, graduate students drawn from law and other departments across the university, the Center also engages in original, long-term research projects and data collection.
The Program for Excellence in Family Law integrates teaching, research, policy, and practice. It serves the public with an on-line resource connecting advocates and practitioners to the Law School, and offers annual educational institutes that train attorneys, advocates, and community leaders. Students in the family law concentration and related courses work with faculty and advocates to present research and instruction to the public.
The Center for the Study of Business Transactions, a joint venture of UB Law and UB School of Management, sponsors a variety of courses, research opportunities and distinguished speakers focused on transactional practice.
The Regional Institute promotes regional progress by building understanding of key policy and governance issues in the Buffalo Niagara region. The Regional Institute pursues a wide range of scholarship, projects and initiatives that frame regional issues, inform regional decisions and guide regional change.
The Canada-U.S. Legal Studies Centre integrates Canadian legal studies into the basic structure of the UB Law School by coordinating its activities with those of student organizations, research groups, and faculty initiatives. The centre actively encourages and supports Canada-related research, curricula initiatives, and public presentations. The Centre funds research and speakers on Canadian topics.
International Programs
UB Law has an array of international programs that are an increasingly important focus for many students and faculty. The law school recently launched a general LLM degree geared to the needs of international students. Exchange programs with foreign law schools have been established or are under development in Spain, Thailand, the U.K., Korea, and China. A new January bridge course will take students to Thailand with a UB faculty member where they will have opportunities to discuss legal issues with colleagues in a Thai university. Many students take advantage of human rights internships abroad, which have often been life-changing and career-shaping experiences. Buffalo faculty members have taught seminars jointly with nearby Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and faculty frequently plan events and collaborations with Canadian scholars. The Canada-US Legal Studies Centre provides support for scholarly and educational activities. The UB/Levin Institute program in New York City emphasizes international finance and provides students and faculty with opportunities to build connections with diplomats and international business leaders.
A number of UB faculty regularly teach and present scholarship at universities across the globe, and several faculty have achieved international prominence in transnational scholarship and policymaking on a range of issues including human rights, criminal code reform, divorce mediation, domestic violence, forestry regulation, and injury law.
Student Activities
The Law School is known for its very active student body. We have nine journals, five of which are student edited. The Buffalo Law Review is known as an outlet for path-breaking and interdisciplinary scholarship and was recently ranked 37th among generalist law reviews for impact and influence.
The Law School has some thirty other student groups, including three moot court boards. The Buffalo Moot Court Board runs the annual Charles Desmond Intramural Moot Court competition and the Albert Mugel National Tax Moot Court Competition. The Jessup International Moot Court Board enters teams in three international law competitions. In addition, the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Board selects and prepares a team for the regional competition. The Law School’s Criminal Law Center and Criminal Law Society host the Wechsler Criminal Law Moot Court competition. UB Law students also participate in many other moot court, mock trial and mediation competitions.
The Buffalo Public Interest Law Project works with the Law School administration and private funding sources to support and place about twenty students a year in public interest summer externships. Recent placements have included the Kenya Human Rights Commission; the EEOC; the Children’s Defense Fund; the Innocence Project; and the Kentucky Public Advocate capital appeals project.
The Student Bar Association is the law students’ governing body, providing funding and oversight for law student organizations, and working with the law school administration and faculty on issues of common interest.
Civic Engagement
As part of the UB 2020 strategic initiative, the Law School promotes scholarly and educational activities that will serve as a resource for the broader public. Participating in problem solving, responding to community constituencies, and analyzing controversial issues of pressing public concern, both locally and globally, are part of the mission of the law school and the university. Examples of the school's recent leadership in civic engagement include organizing conferences that bring together scholars, community organizations, government officials, and grassroots activists to debate policy and legal issues; hosting a visit by the Dalai Lama, featuring his presentation at a first-ever conference on Law, Buddhism, and Social Change; initiating a university-wide semester-long series of events and activities on environmental issues; and publishing a regular newsletter on law student community service and advocacy opportunities.
Alumni
The law school benefits from an especially active and loyal alumni community. Three associations keep graduates involved in the life of the law school: a general alumni association; a special group encouraging involvement by recent graduates; and a Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC). The DAC is composed of some fifty leaders of the profession who have been invited to counsel the dean on matters such as curriculum, development, alumni relations, governmental relations, public service, and administration for the school. Alumni not only provide crucial financial resources but also offer a comprehensive mentoring program for students, and frequently serve as guest speakers, moot court judges, and adjunct faculty.
Development
The Law School Development Program is one of the nation’s most successful among public law schools and is used as a model within the university. An experienced staff of five full-time and two part-time development professionals nurtures ongoing relationships with alumni and other supporters of the law school. Development consistently provides over $1 million in current-use funds with 25% alumni participation — the seventh highest participation rate among public law schools, and fifteenth among all law schools. The Law School's first capital campaign was completed in 2003 and successfully raised $13 million with 60% of alumni participating. A recently established major gifts program has supported renovations to the law school building, curricular enhancements, student financial assistance, and several faculty fellowships, as well as two endowed chairs in process.
Law Library
The Charles B. Sears Law Library, a beautiful contemporary facility in the heart of the Law School, occupies six floors in the center of O'Brian Hall. A collection of more than 500,000 volumes and microform equivalents plus a wide array of online resources in law and related disciplines is augmented by convenient access to the university's 3.5 million-volume research collection, extensive full-print journal collections and other electronic resources, and the shared resources of the SUNY system. The Law Library's expert staff of tenure-track reference librarians provides uniformly excellent support for the law faculty's innovative scholarship and offers in-depth reference assistance to law students. The library's instructional technology resources include a state-of-the-art computer classroom, thirty-eight networked computer workstations and a high-speed wireless network, as well as extensive audiovisual curricular support. The Koren Center for Clinical Legal Education provides comprehensive audiovisual and classroom technology services to the Law School, and also makes available an unusually rich collection of audio and video tapes, which are in high demand for both course review and curriculum enrichment.
The Law Library houses a number of noteworthy special collections, including the Morris L. Cohen Rare Book Collection, with over 2,000 volumes featuring sixteenth- through nineteenth-century English and American legal sources, which is regularly used by the law faculty. Other special collections include the Watergate Collection, with notebooks and investigative files of the Counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee; Tibetan Legal Manuscripts; and the Howard R. Berman Collection of materials on Indian Nations and the legal rights of indigenous peoples worldwide. Recently, the Law Library has become a recognized national leader in re-envisioning the role of technology in the delivery of legal information through the use of blogs, podcasts, and other emerging social technologies, and for its creation of an innovative and highly successful JD/MLS program in law librarianship.
UB 2020: Our Vision for the Future
The University at Buffalo has been educating leaders across three centuries. But today, our clear focus is on the future. Across the university, we have embarked on an ambitious transformation that seeks to make UB one of the very top public research universities in the nation. Our university community is actively engaged in rethinking what it means to be a model public research university for the twenty-first century. This process, known as UB 2020, seeks to make UB one of the most distinctive and distinguished such schools in the nation – to become, in essence, the public university for a borderless world.
UB 2020 is our vision for achieving sustained academic excellence, and our roadmap for getting there. This far-reaching commitment to excellence is the foundation for the many diverse intellectual, cultural, and societal contributions that the University at Buffalo makes every day to its students and faculty, to its staff, to its alumni, volunteers, donors, friends and corporate and academic partners in Western New York, throughout the state and nation, and around the world.
UB is firmly committed to engaged public service and civic engagement both regionally and globally — a commitment that we see as central to our mission as a public research university. Locally, UB is actively engaged in speeding the transition into a knowledge-based economy for Western New York, through a plan centered on strategically aligning and maximizing the university’s intellectual capital, economic fuel, and critical resources with the community. And from the very beginning of our 160-year history, we have been an international community of scholars, serving a truly global community. With more than 4,000 international students representing 100 nations around the world, UB now ranks #10 among 2,700 accredited U.S. universities and colleges in terms of international enrollment. UB also enjoys a strong international presence, maintaining affiliation agreements with some 60 universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania.
Over the next decade-and-a-half, UB will significantly increase the number of faculty and students on campus, including plans for an increase of approximately 750 full-time faculty and a student body increase from 27,000 to 37,000. Overall, these plans represent an approximately 40% increase in the size of our campus community over the next 15 years. To plan for this growth, and to further advance the broader goals of UB 2020, UB has launched an extensive campus planning process, a comprehensive framework that will guide our physical development in support of our plans for institutional growth. A key objective of this master planning process is developing a campus infrastructure appropriate to establishing the university as the locus for groundbreaking research and discovery, as well as grounding it within the framework of its surrounding neighborhoods. The physical campus planning we are undertaking now is laying the foundation for the truly great university we are becoming.
UB Today
UB is located in the Buffalo-Niagara region of the state, which is New York’s largest upstate metropolitan area. The University at Buffalo currently enrolls over 27,000 students and offers 350 degree programs (baccalaureate, master’s, doctoral, and first professional). Home to over 130 research centers and institutes, UB’s research expenditures for FY 2005-2006 totaled almost $298 million. With an annual budget of over $1 billion from a variety of sources, UB has a total workforce of over 6,400 full-time employees, including approximately 1,600 full-time faculty members. The University Libraries hold 3.5 million volumes in nine general and specialized units; their exceptionally wide array of electronic/digital information resources has been recognized nationally.
UB’s total economic impact on the state and region is estimated at approximately $1.4 billion annually. The university is one of Western New York’s largest employers. Its strong regional presence extends through multiple satellite sites in Buffalo and locations across the region.
In addition to the Law School, academic programs are offered by the College of Arts and Sciences; the Schools of Architecture and Planning, Education, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Management, Social Work, Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Public Health and Health Professions. These academic units are located on the North and South Campuses of UB.
Set in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, UB’s North Campus is home to the university’s core academic programs and is the main undergraduate campus. Opened in 1973, the North Campus comprises almost 1,200 acres and 141 buildings, including a multi-venue Center for the Arts, a substantial athletics and recreation complex, ten residence halls and five apartment-style student housing villages built since 1998. The North Campus houses over 6,000 students, including about 150 law students.
The UB Academic Health Sciences Center is located at the South Campus. This campus is composed of 154 acres with 52 buildings and is located within the city of Buffalo, three miles from the North Campus. This campus is home to most of UB’s health-related schools as well as the UB Health Sciences Library, the School of Architecture and Planning, and five residence halls housing 1,350 students. The UB Anderson Art Gallery is located near the South Campus.
In addition to its two main campuses, UB has a rapidly developing third campus center in downtown Buffalo, anchored by the new Biomedical Campus that includes the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, and New York State Research Institute on Addictions. The UB Jacobs Executive Development Center and the Educational Opportunity Center are also located in the downtown area. In addition, UB collaborates with regional institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to provide innovative initiatives, events, and educational programs taught by faculty who are actively engaged in advancing knowledge in their respective disciplines and professions.
UB fields the only full Division I-A athletics program in the SUNY system. The NCAA officially upgraded UB’s intercollegiate athletics programs to Division I in 1993; today, UB competes in the Mid-American Conference in 19 of its 20 sports. Among its many athletic facilities, UB’s newly-refurbished 31,000-seat stadium on its North Campus, where it hosts football, soccer, and track and field events, as well as a variety of university and community based entertainment and recreational activities.
History and Culture
Founded in 1846 as a private medical college located in central Buffalo, UB was first known as the University of Buffalo. The 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, served as a founder and as UB’s first Chancellor (1846-1874). UB grew steadily in the 19th century, expanding with Schools of Pharmacy (1886), Law (1887), and Dental Medicine (1892). This grounding in professional training shaped UB’s early identity as an educational institution, as well as its place within the local and state communities.
UB’s first liberal-arts curriculum was developed after the turn of the century when the American Medical Association began to require at least one preliminary year of liberal-arts work as part of physician education. The College of Arts and Sciences was authorized by the State Department of Education in 1919. The university’s first fund-raising initiative followed in 1920. These funds made it possible to develop the Main Street campus, now known as the South Campus. In 1922, graduate work in the arts and sciences curriculum was introduced, and the School of Management was established in 1923. The Graduate School offered its first programs as an individual division in 1939; the 1930s and '40s saw the introduction of several other divisions at UB, such as the Schools of Education, Social Work, Nursing, and Engineering. In the 1950s, the university consolidated all facilities — with the exception of the Law School, then located in downtown Buffalo — at the South Campus.
In 1962, UB joined the SUNY system, becoming the State University of New York at Buffalo, one of four university centers in the system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. Space to accommodate the quickly-growing campus was an immediate concern. Today, the North Campus in Amherst is a thriving academic community with a modern aesthetic that contrasts with the historically distinguished architecture of the South Campus.
Values and Commitments
The three traditional missions of the public university — research, teaching, and public service — are not separate or discrete actions, but interdependent activities that inform and enhance each other within our overall university mission. UB’s first priority will be the pursuit and practice of academic excellence for its faculty and its students, in teaching and in research. Academic excellence is our fundamental value and goal and will be pursued with vigor. It is the very core of our enterprise and is the basis for our broader mission as a public research university. Inherent in the pursuit and practice of academic excellence:
- we will establish the appropriate institutional conditions that allow academic excellence to flourish.
- we will strive to foster a worldview that is broad and complex in scope, enlightened rather than narrow, and open to possibility, not constrained by bias.
- we will be continually engaged with our communities — regional, statewide, national, and global — in new ways that serve to define the university’s intellectual, cultural, and economic impact in the 21st century.
- we will play a vital role in the strategic development of effective linkages between primary, secondary, and tertiary education in New York State.
- we will hold ourselves to the highest standards of civility, professionalism, and collegiality.
- we will recognize, honor, and encourage diversity. We will protect and preserve equity throughout our university community.
- we will strive to realize institutional accessibility, comprised of all elements of a student’s ability to engage productively in the university experience.
- we uphold the right of every human being to access knowledge, to exercise freedom of thought and of speech, to think and learn critically, to participate in new intellectual discovery, to advance the development of the self, and to contribute one’s own perspectives, thoughts, and talents to the benefit of the common good.
President — John B. Simpson, Ph.D.
John Barclay Simpson was appointed the 14th President of the University at Buffalo on January 1, 2004, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience in higher education. An accomplished research scientist specializing in neuroendocrinology, physiology, and behavior, he is appointed to the faculty of UB’s Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
As both a product and a lifelong proponent of public higher education, President Simpson believes strongly in its diverse and profound impact upon human endeavor, and is deeply committed to the vital societal role of leading public universities such as UB in providing widespread access to the benefits and opportunities of higher education. Chief among his priorities as UB president has been the institution of a clear and strong plan for the university’s advancement as a model public research university for the 21st century. Since taking office, he has led the academic community in implementing an ongoing, comprehensive and university-wide process of self-assessment and strategic thinking for the future, setting in motion a long-term master strategy for the university’s growth and development over the long term.
Prior to his appointment as UB President, he held the post of Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he served from 1998-2003. Dr. Simpson’s previous appointments include 23 years at the University of Washington, where he joined the Department of Psychology faculty in 1975, later serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1994-98.
A native of California, Dr. Simpson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and earned his doctorate from Northwestern University in neurobiology and behavior. Dr. Simpson is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. Among his many other leadership and volunteer roles, he is also a member of the Council on Competitiveness and a former Commissioner of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. In testament to UB’s longstanding leadership in international education, he recently received an honorary degree from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs — Satish K.Tripathi, Ph.D.
Dr. Tripathi was appointed Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs on July 1, 2004. Dr. Tripathi came to the University at Buffalo from University of California Riverside where he served as Dean of the Bourns College of Engineering and the William R. Johnson, Jr. Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering at University of California Riverside since 1997. He also served as acting executive vice chancellor from March 2002 through June 2002. Prior to joining University of California Riverside, he was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, where his 19 years as a faculty member in the department included being chair from 1988-1995.
Dr. Tripathi is an internationally accomplished computer scientist who has been involved in substantial funded research. He has published more than 200 scholarly papers, supervised 25 doctoral students and served on program committees of numerous international conferences. He has been the guest editor or guest co-editor of several scientific journals and is a founding member of the editorial board of IEEE Pervasive Computing. A member of the editorial board of International Journal of High-Speed Networks, he previously was on the editorial boards of Theoretical Computer Science, IEEE Transactions on Computers, ACM Multimedia Systems, and ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networking.
Provost Tripathi is a fellow of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006, Dr. Tripathi was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Sciences from the prestigious Indian Institute of Information Technology, the university’s highest degree. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris-Sud in France and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany while at the University of Maryland. A native of India, Dr. Tripathi graduated top of his class from Banaras Hindu University in India in 1968. In addition to a doctorate in computer science that he earned from the University of Toronto in 1979, he holds three master's degrees — one in computer science from the University of Toronto (1976) and two in statistics from the University of Alberta (1974) and Banaras Hindu University (1970).
Academic Units
In addition to the Law School, UB’s 11 other schools offer a broad range of academic and professional programs, providing extraordinary capacity for synergy and interdisciplinary cooperation.
- College of Arts and Sciences: With 29 departments and many specialized research centers, the College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most comprehensive of the university’s units. The college has a distinguished, award-winning faculty dedicated to instruction and research in the core disciplines of the humanities, arts, and sciences. The college enrolls over 6,000 students in its degree programs, and provides instruction to more than 6,000 additional non-major students.
- School of Architecture and Planning: Established in 1968, UB’s professional architecture school is unique in the SUNY system. The school offers the only accredited professional degree in architecture within SUNY, and is one of two within SUNY to offer an accredited degree program in urban planning.
- School of Dental Medicine: Established in 1892, the School offers the D.D.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. The School of Dental Medicine is recognized nationally and internationally for its excellence in dental research and research training. It is consistently one of the leading dental schools in the United States in grant and contract awards for research. The school is also well known in the region for its public service initiatives.
- Graduate School of Education: The Graduate School of Education comprises three main programs: counseling, school, and educational psychology; educational leadership and policy; and learning and instruction. Doctoral, master’s, and advanced certificate programs are offered. Established in 1931, the school currently produces close to 1/5 of all master's degrees at UB and maintains close functional ties with area school districts.
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) — ranked in the top 15% of the nation’s engineering schools — is the largest and most comprehensive public school of engineering in New York State. Founded in 1946, SEAS is comprised of six departments and is well known for fostering partnerships and interdisciplinary research.
- School of Management: Established in 1923, the School of Management, with its impressive academic portfolio, comprehensive range, and successful graduates, was recently ranked again by The Wall Street Journal as among the world’s top business schools. The academic mission of the school spans the globe, with international programs and students who hail from all over the world.
- School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences: The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the founding faculty of the university, is 160 years old. Rooted in the importance of the basic biological scientific underpinning of medical knowledge, the school is committed to contributing continuously to that body of knowledge and to providing the best training possible for the physicians and medical scientists of the future.
- School of Nursing: First established as a division within the medical school, the School of Nursing became an independent unit in 1940. The school seeks to develop autonomous, self-directed practitioners who will advance and test the knowledge upon which the practice is based. Programs — which span the baccalaureate through the doctoral degree — emphasize acquisition of clinical expertise.
- School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Ranked among the top pharmacy schools in the United States and considered one of the most prestigious, the school was founded in 1886 and is the second-oldest component of the university and the only school of pharmacy in SUNY. Encompassing pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical sciences, the school offers a number of professional, undergraduate, and graduate programs.
- School of Public Health and Health Professions: The first of its kind in SUNY and New York State, the school was created in 1965 as the School of Health Related Professions and was designated as the School of Public Health and Health Professions in 2002. Training public health and health professionals in an environment focused on wellness, disease prevention, and environmental issues, the school also utilizes informatics in developing cutting-edge research initiatives and programs.
- School of Social Work: Established in 1936, the School of Social Work defines its mission as threefold: preparing graduates for successful social work practice, contributing research and scholarship to further the profession, and providing leadership for community service.
In addition to the above, UB’s many centers of research have served as the foundation for growth in programs and resources, such as the Center for Computational Research and, most recently, the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. Designated in 2001 as one of five Centers of Excellence around New York State by Governor George E. Pataki, the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences focuses on the integration of computational biology and high throughput discovery-based medicine. It is unique among major universities in the scope and breadth of areas addressed, and has been the recipient of over $200 million in external funding.
Resources and Operations
UB relies on a diversified revenue stream to shield its operating budget from fluctuations in state appropriations. Over the last five years, revenue from grants and contracts and auxiliary enterprises has grown by more than 40% and now represents over 30% of total revenue.
Revenues –– Fiscal Year 2005-2006 (in thousands)
Tuition and fees |
$146,277 |
(12.48%) |
State Appropriations |
$383,395 |
(32.72%) |
Grants and Contracts |
$266,999 |
(22.78%) |
Private Support and Other |
$67,052 |
(5.72%) |
Endowment and Investment Income |
$65,942 |
5.63% |
Auxiliary Enterprises |
$81,451 |
(6.95%) |
Hospitals and Clinical Revenue |
$157,503 |
(13.44%) |
Capital Appropriations, Gifts |
$3,231 |
(0.28%) |
Total |
$1,171,850 |
(100%) |
Expenditures and Transfers –– Fiscal Year 2005-2006 (in thousands)
Instruction |
$310,108 |
(28.21%) |
Research |
$198,277 |
(18.04%) |
Public Service |
$9,093 |
(0.83%) |
Academic Support |
$24,628 |
(2.24%) |
Student Services |
$32,636 |
(2.97%) |
Institutional Support |
$117,633 |
(10.70%) |
Operation and Maintenance of Plant |
$67,927 |
(6.18%) |
Depreciation |
$51,700 |
(4.70%) |
Scholarships and Fellowships |
$12,338 |
(1.12%) |
Hospitals and Clinics |
$152,905 |
(13.91%) |
Auxiliary Enterprises |
$75,504 |
(6.87%) |
Interest Expense |
$45,317 |
(4.12%) |
Transfers and Other |
$1,059 |
(0. 10%) |
Total |
$1,099,125 |
(100%) |
UB is committed to developing mechanisms to enable it to continue to grow non-state revenue. Construction and facility renewal on both campuses are pressing needs. With legislated added projects, the state plans to allocate $70.5 million annually over the next four years for the purposes, but additional sources of revenue are critical.
back to topThe Buffalo-Niagara Community
Buffalo, called “The City of Good Neighbors,” is the second-largest city in New York State. Fortune magazine ranked the Western New York region in the top 20% of 60 areas in the nation for the quality of its public education. City Honors High School, of the Buffalo Public Schools system, has been ranked in the nation’s top ten public high schools by Newsweek magazine for two consecutive years. Erie County’s public and private secondary schools consistently soar above state and national standardized test averages. Since 1996, Buffalo has been recognized by the National Civic League as an “All-America City,” a designation that honors exemplary civic spirit in a select number of U.S. communities. In 2006, Buffalo was ranked first in the nation amongst mid-sized cities as an arts city by American Style Magazine. For more than a decade, the Town of Amherst, in which the North Campus is located, has consistently been ranked among the top three “safest cities in America”, inclusive of all population-size categories. A 2006 analysis from the National Association of Realtors found that Buffalo-area housing costs are considerably lower than the U.S. average and suggested a good possibility of better-than-average appreciation in the coming years, making Buffalo living as affordable as it is appealing. The National Association of Home Builders’ 2006 Housing Opportunity Index ranks the Buffalo area as the most affordable housing market in the Northeast. Commute times in Buffalo consistently rank among the nation’s shortest, with and abundance of cultural and recreational activities nearby, contributing to another of Buffalo’s nicknames, the “twenty-minute city”.
The Buffalo-Niagara region lies directly in the middle of the Northeastern Trade Corridor running from Chicago to Boston. Buffalo is one anchor of the “Greater Golden Horseshoe” that extends from Western New York to Toronto, less than two hours away. With close to ten million residents, this bi-national region provides a wealth of cross-border business, academic, cultural and recreational opportunities.
Buffalo has the cultural resources of a much larger city. It is home to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, housing one of the world’s finest collections of modern painting and sculpture. UB recently acquired the Anderson Gallery, which ARTnews hailed as “a shrine to a world-class collection of contemporary art.” The renowned Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, led by the internationally influential conductor, JoAnne Falletta, performs in Kleinhans Music Hall. Designed by the famed Finnish father-and-son team, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Kleinhans itself is widely admired both for its acoustic qualities and for its architectural beauty. Buffalo also boasts several landmark homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, most notably the Darwin Martin House and Graycliff, as well as an expansive park system created by Frederick Law Olmsted. UB’s own Slee Hall is also a rich cultural resource for the Western New York community, offering over 200 concerts each year, as is UB’s Center for the Arts, one of the region’s major performing arts venues.
Buffalo is well known for its NFL team (four-time AFL champions, the Buffalo Bills) and its NHL team, (the Buffalo Sabres, 2006 and 2007 Stanley Cup Eastern Conference runners-up). Area sports fans are also treated to a championship Triple-A baseball team (the Bisons), professional indoor lacrosse (the Bandits), and a new ABA professional basketball team (the Silverbacks).
Situated on the banks of Lake Erie and within a half-hour’s drive of Lake Ontario, Buffalo is a true “waterfront city.” Lake Erie is responsible for far more than producing lake-effect snow; it is also a major site of water recreation in the spring and summer and one of the area’s chief natural beauties year-round. With a pleasant, temperate climate and the “highest percentage of summer sunshine of any region in New York State,” Buffalo’s spring and summer months richly deserve the widespread notoriety its winters have attracted.
For additional information about the University at Buffalo and its community, see http://www.buffalo.edu and http://www.buffaloniagara.org.
back to topApplication/Nomination Procedures
The University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, invites inquiries, nominations, and applications for the position of Dean of the Law School.
Interested qualified individuals should provide an electronic version of their curriculum vitae and an optional letter describing their interest in and qualifications for the position. All nominations and applications should be sent electronically via e-mail (Microsoft Word or PDF attachments strongly preferred) to:
Dr. Ilene H. Nagel
Consultant to the Search Committee
Russell Reynolds Associates
email: ublaw-dean@RussellReynolds.com
The appointment date is open. To ensure full consideration, materials should be received as soon as possible. Review of nominations and applications for the position will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled. All submitted materials should be received as soon as possible. This search will be conducted with full confidentiality of all candidate information. References will not be contacted without the prior knowledge and approval of the candidate. All candidate information will be held in strict confidence until the final stage of the search at which time the express permission of finalists will be obtained before making their candidacy public. Candidates are urged to review all information and documents posted on the search web site, http://www.buffalo.edu/law-dean/. We actively encourage applications from and nominations of women and other protected group members.
UB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer/Recruiter.
The material presented in this position profile should be relied on for informational purposes only. This material has been copied, compiled, or quoted in part from University at Buffalo documents and personal interviews and is believed to be reliable. Naturally, while every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information, the original source documents and factual situations govern.
