Speeches

Making Progress, Building Momentum
2nd Annual Address to the Community

John B. Simpson, University at Buffalo
Mary Seaton Room, Kleinhans Music Hall
October 16, 2007

Good morning and welcome. I’m excited to have a chance to speak to such a large and diverse group this morning, representing the real strength of our region.

Katherine and I were just commenting on how many friendly faces we recognized, and what a pleasure it is for us to live in this community. It’s heartening to see so many of you who are interested in our hometown university and in understanding its many points of connection to our community. It’s especially exciting to come back again to talk about what I see as some of the extraordinary opportunities that, collectively, we have within our grasp.

And what a great place for us to gather today – one of the most historically and architecturally significant music halls in the country.

I’d like to thank Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra board chair Dr. Angelo Fatta and BPO music director JoAnn Falletta for hosting us this morning. I would also like to thank the members of our community address Honorary Committee for their good work.

The connections between UB, Kleinhans Music Hall, and the Buffalo Philharmonic go back decades. The UB marching band actually played here at Kleinhans just a few years after it opened in 1940.

The BPO and UB’s Department of Music have collaborated many times over the years, and more than a decade ago the BPO and UB came together to raise money for the orchestra when it was not on as strong a financial footing as it is today.

A year ago at the Albright Knox Gallery, I gave my first address to the community, and discussed UB’s ambitious plans. I said that I would come back to regularly update you about UB’s progress and how it benefits our community, and I am happy to do so today.

A year ago, I also began to speak about increasing our presence downtown, and with the exciting news in recent days about our acquisition of the former M. Wile building we have taken a very significant step forward toward that goal.

Last year, I spoke about the “vital partnership” between our university and our hometown, and how it could be made even stronger. I still believe that to be the case. Today, I think the ties that bind us together are stronger than they’ve ever been. And I think we are at a time where, working together, UB and the community can seize this moment of opportunity, and have a transformative effect on our region – for us, for our children, and for their children.

My goal today is to give you a sense of the progress, the momentum, and the excitement at UB, and what this means for our community. I will also ask you to join me in making sure that this vital partnership we share is not a secret . . . that word about what we’re doing here in WNY is heard throughout our region, in Albany, and beyond.

Yesterday marked three years to the day since my inauguration at UB. That day, I said that there is no worthier cause for our time and talent than to renew the promise of public higher education: preparing the next generation to tackle the challenges and opportunities of our age. And I urged all of us, myself included, to enter this arena with daring and devotion in pursuit of that great achievement.

I still think that’s the right course of action. We are proud to share this mission with our many SUNY colleagues. But these remarks today are not about looking back . . . but rather about looking to tomorrow.

Today, I want to convince you of a simple idea: It’s in our reach. It’s in our reach to build a premier public research university. It’s in our reach for this University to help build a thriving knowledge economy here in Western New York.

University Impact

UB, right now, has a remarkable impact on our community. With nearly 8,500 faculty and staff and 4,000 student employees, UB is the region’s second largest employer. More than 60,000 UB alumni live in WNY and nearly 100,000 live in New York State.

Our most recent analysis shows that right now UB has an annual economic impact of $1.5 billion dollars on the Western New York economy – an enormous infusion of capital that would not exist without UB’s presence.

Last year we announced that, as part of UB 2020, we intend to grow the number of faculty, students, and staff by 40%. Since then, we calculated what this economic impact would look like in year 2020, and found that this figure will grow from 1.5 to 2.6 billion dollars a year.

But simply reciting the economic impact of UB only scratches the surface. The other more qualitative ways that UB contributes are more important, and more telling of what it means to have a major research university here in our community.

As a research university, our purpose is not just to teach knowledge, but to create it. This is what differentiates UB. This is an important point, I think, that deserves repeating. Our knowledge economy will be built on the kinds of education, research, and discovery that come from major research universities like the University at Buffalo.

Governor Spitzer has talked about making New York a leader in what he terms the innovation economy. Sometimes we call it the knowledge economy or the 21st century economy.

But whichever name you choose, what’s essential is that a new set of rules apply. In the past what mattered greatly to America’s economic hegemony was physical might, natural resources, good geography, and transportation links.

Today, these have been eclipsed by an economy that increasingly rewards innovation, collaboration, and creativity. In other words, all of the things that a research university attracts.

Metaphorically, research universities are like big magnets that pull in things that I think we would all agree are beneficial:

  • energetic students
  • bright faculty
  • cultural and intellectual vitality
  • new money from research grants, and
  • geographic diversity

The roughly 5,000 international students at UB put us in the top 10 among universities nationwide. And every day at UB they contribute to an interchange of cultures . . . our communities learning from theirs, and theirs from ours.

When I look at some of our peers like the University of Pittsburgh, UCLA, or the University of Washington, I see what a really strong magnet can do for a region’s vitality and quality of life. One of the goals of UB 2020, and especially our growth plan, is to turn up the power of our magnet so that we will attract more vitality and innovation to our area.

Perhaps the most important impact that UB makes in WNY today is our positive impact on regional competitiveness. In today’s economy, where the speed of technological change requires a constant churning of new ideas, as well as commercial applications for those ideas, innovation is absolutely critical to the survival of firms and the resilience of regions.

And research universities are often the major source of innovation to their communities. They attract creative people, generate new ideas, and help to foster an entrepreneurial environment. In Buffalo Niagara, with its long history of innovation from the grain elevator to the cardiac pacemaker, UB has become the fuel behind our area’s best businesses, from Atto Technology and Praxair, to Lockheed Martin and Moog, to SmartPill and Greatbatch.

The University at Buffalo spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on research this year – new funds, from outside, that otherwise would not be in our local economy. And this research can have real-world applications. 63 firms have already graduated from UB’s technology incubator and now stand on their own. Because the incubator near the North Campus is now full, we are seeking to expand this capacity, and to do that we will look both to the current location, and to downtown.

But our contributions to regional competitiveness are about more than just new startup companies.

  • It’s the nearly 7,000 new graduates we produced last year, 40% of whom began careers here in Western New York.
  • It’s the hundreds of companies we help each year to get a leg up on their competitors, through strategic assistance from our schools of engineering, management, law, and others.
  • And it’s the nearly half-million people who attend cultural, athletic, graduation, or other community events at UB every year, on par with the number of people who attend an entire season of Buffalo Bills home games.

All of this impact . . . on our workforce, our competitiveness, our regional image . . . is bound to grow significantly with UB’s success.

10,000 more students, and more than 2,000 additional faculty and staff will further strengthen UB, and that larger, stronger UB will bring literally hundreds of millions of dollars in new economic impact. No other entity in Buffalo Niagara has the capability to grow its workforce and customer base on this scale, increasing its impact on the region’s economy by more than $1 billion per year. A larger and stronger UB also will enhance the region’s quality of life by offering more educational, cultural and recreational resources and programming to the public, and by having an even greater presence in the community.

This . . . this is the true impact a research university has when it grows and succeeds.

Progress in Past Year

Let me share some of the progress since the address at the Albright Knox one year ago. This fall, 3,263 young men and women, the class of 2011, began their college education as freshman at UB, the most competitiv, talented, and self-confident class we’ve ever had. We had almost 20,000 applications for these slots, a school record. And our fall enrollment of 28,054 is a record as well.

We have just launched a full-fledged, four-year Honors College, and are implementing “learning academies” in areas like civic engagement and fundamental research, that will ensure that UB undergrads experience one of the most unique and transformative college experiences available anywhere.

This year UB hosted talks by some of our society’s most prominent voices, including three Nobel Prize winners. Since last fall, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Wangari Maathai, and Al Gore all came to campus, as did many thousands of Western New Yorkers like you.

This continues a decades-long tradition of sponsoring provocative thinkers. In fact the UB Graduate Student Association hosted a talk right here at Kleinhans forty years ago next month.

I believe there simply was not enough space anywhere on the South Campus – the only UB campus at that time. The reason is because the speaker on the evening of Thursday, November 9th, 1967, was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr—and this is an actual picture of him in this very building that night.

I. Arts & Athletics

Over the past year, members of the WNY community have also come to UB by the tens of thousands to see a cultural performance or an athletic event. I’m sure some of you are aware that the Bulls football team now sits atop their division in the MAC!

UB’s Center for the Arts didn’t just hold over 325 events on campus last year. They also went out into the community, holding arts education programs for thousands of school children.

Likewise, more than 200,000 people attended athletic events last year. And you sent 2,000 of your sons and daughters to attend a summer sports camp on campus.

II. Faculty

Over the past three years, UB has hired 270 new faculty members, bright new professors importing their talent into the Buffalo area. Almost 100 of these are actual new faculty positions over and above the number we had just three years ago.

So you can see that our growth plan is already very much in action.

III. Campus Planning

This summer we formally kicked off our comprehensive campus planning effort with a world-class team of planners and architects who are now assessing the many facility needs on our three campuses.

We have, thus far, held over 80 sessions with community groups to discuss our plans and solicit input.

But we are not waiting for the plan to be done to get started. Work beginning now includes, among other things, a $70 million renovation of Acheson Hall to support the relocation of 1,000 people from the School of Pharmacy to the South Campus; a new $77 million building for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and significant improvements and expansions to our two child care facilities.

We have started a makeover of Founders Plaza on the North Campus, and in recent days a striking work of public art by sculptor Brian Tolle has been installed. I encourage you to come see it.

IV. UB-BPS Partnership

Last December Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. James Williams and I announced an historic partnership between UB and the Buffalo Public Schools. This partnership represents a high-level commitment by the University and the Buffalo Public Schools, working together, to increase dramatically the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and for the demands of the 21st century knowledge economy.

Major public universities like UB are uniquely positioned to address critical social issues like public education, yet this opportunity carries with it the responsibility to contribute meaningfully to fostering a strong public educational system from pre-school through post-secondary education.

We believe this partnership will leverage university resources and expertise to collaborate with Buffalo Public Schools students, teachers, and administrators with a focus on capacity building, research and evaluation, academic acceleration, and PreK-16 programs. It will also offer service learning and research opportunities for UB students and faculty.

Dr. Mara Huber has taken on the gargantuan task of coordinating our UB/Buffalo Public Schools Partnership. Over the past nine months we have already begun working on innovative models of service and programming partnerships that UB and BPS are developing, including:

  • Advanced Placement Summer Institutes for both teachers and students,
  • program evaluation that leads to more reliable, evidence-based programming and curricula, and
  • mentoring and tutoring opportunities for BPS students utilizing UB staff, faculty, students, and alumni.

I’d like to take a moment to make this more real and point out a special guest with us today. She is someone who represents the promise this partnership holds. It’s my pleasure to introduce an impressive young woman who just began her freshman year at the University at Buffalo.

She is Taylorr Mack, a graduate of Bennett High School. Her family has lived near our Main Street Campus for many years. Taylorr participated in one of our pre-collegiate programs, called C-Step, for three years.

Administered by our Graduate School of Education, this program has helped to prepare Taylorr and other students for their studies at UB. It is our aim that by 2020, UB will have 1,000 additional, well-qualified students from the Buffalo Public Schools, like Taylor attending UB. This would more than double our current numbers.

V. Greener Shade of Blue

Earlier in the year UB mounted a semester-long program focused on our legacy of environmental leadership called “A Greener Shade of Blue.”

UB’s interests range far beyond conservation of energy. Our scholars and students in engineering, science and policy are working with local environmental groups and agencies, and Native American tribes and schools to train a new generation of environmental professionals specifically skilled in dealing with the unique geographic and cultural features in Western New York.

The highlight of the Greener Shade of Blue effort was an address by Vice President, and now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore to thousands of schoolchildren from around WNY.

VI. Strategic Assistance to Local Economy

Over the past year, UB has worked closely with new and existing firms in our region to help commercialize new technologies and give companies a competitive edge.

A few examples will bring this home.

UB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, part of our School of Management, has helped more than 700 business leaders - employing some 20,000 Western New Yorkers – to grow and succeed.

Because of the presence of our Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, three life sciences companies from other parts of the country have recently relocated here to Buffalo to be near the resources we provide.

And companies that are currently in, or have graduated from, UB’s technology incubator add more than $50 million to the local economy each year.

In just the past five years, UB researchers disclosed 505 new inventions, launched 39 new startup companies, and received 73 new patents. Last year, UB had 42% of all the patents earned in the entire State University of New York system.

VII. Health Care

In the past year, UB also has taken on a sizable leadership role in planning for the future of healthcare in WNY. As the Berger Commission report showed, our part of the state is facing major challenges meeting changing healthcare needs. As the primary source of professional and academic medical training in the area, UB is increasingly in a prime position to offer leadership, and I’m happy to say we’re doing just that.

As well, UB researchers and clinicians are doing the basic and clinical research, and seeking the life-saving medical breakthroughs that will, quite literally, change the landscape of everything from the recuperation from head injuries and the treatment of chronic illness, to recovery from addiction.

To illustrate the practicality of this research we need look no further than the HSBC Arena. When Buffalo Sabres center Tim Connolly took the ice for the start of the NHL playoffs last year after being sidelined for 11 months with post-concussion syndrome, his return was due, in large part, to a new dynamic treatment program developed here at UB.

As we prepare to educate the next generation of medical professionals, I am pleased to announce here today that Dr. Ralph Behling, a 1943 graduate of UB’s medical school, has made a $3 million commitment to establish the Behling Simulation Center at UB, a critical tool in educating the next generation of healthcare providers.

Beside the extraordinary training experiences, this Center also will provide opportunities for collaboration among regional physicians and health care practitioners, reflecting the university’s commitment to providing quality healthcare to Western New York.

VIII. Community / South Campus

Finally, I’d like to mention a few of the steps UB has taken in working with our surrounding communities, their elected officials, and their planning departments, especially in and around the South Campus neighborhood.

Through our new Office of Community Relations, we are working to build vital partnerships with area residents, business owners, and government leaders to strengthen those neighborhoods nearest our campuses. We have worked with city officials and community stakeholders to develop a collaborative plan for the neighborhoods that ring the South Campus. We share a common vision of the South Campus area as an appealing, diverse and economically vibrant “destination neighborhood.”

We recently announced an increase from $1.5 million to $5 million for our Home Loan Guaranty Program. This program encourages UB employees to purchase homes in the City of Buffalo neighborhoods around our Main Street Campus.

Through the UB Foundation, we guarantee the mortgages for eligible employees and remove the barriers to homeownership. This is the most successful program of its kind in the state. The 17 families who have taken advantage of this exciting program so far, and the many others who have begun to apply, represent new property tax payers investing in the city, strengthening this section of Buffalo.

Additionally, we’re helping improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. With the help and leadership of Mayor Byron Brown, we’re working with neighborhood residents to address quality of life issues, strengthening the Bailey Avenue and Main Street Business Districts, and providing community programming like the Capen Garden Walk, a new farmers market and UB on the Green -- a free outdoor performance series that drew more than 2000 people to campus this summer.

We absolutely need to build on these efforts, because we cannot move into the very upper echelon of American universities without equally robust, high quality neighborhoods surrounding our campuses.

Downtown

Let me now take a few minutes to talk about a subject that I know many of you are interested in, and that’s the Downtown urban core. Make no mistake: UB is committed to the growth and enhancement of all three of our campuses.

As a matter of fact, we have been working hand in hand with Amherst community groups, the Town of Amherst Planning Department, and numerous transportation agencies, to create a dynamic perimeter around our North Campus. But it’s our presence downtown that may offer the most interesting opportunities for synergy and growth.

Since joining the Buffalo community, I have come to appreciate that our community is not short on plans. Throughout Western New York, shelves are full of plans holding the unfulfilled promises of greater tomorrows. So, it didn’t take long for me to understand that UB needed to quickly turn its plan into action. And we are doing that today.

We are relocating our development operations right down the street into our Jacobs Executive Development Center on Delaware Avenue, moving 50 professional positions into the city center by January.

As well, because of the generous gifts by Dr. Elizabeth Olmsted to the University at Buffalo, UB’s Department of Ophthalmology will be moving into in the new Ross Eye Institute building on Main Street next month—representing a $9M investment in downtown Buffalo. Increasingly, private philanthropy is a key component of success for the top public universities nationwide. And Dr. Olmsted’s enormous generosity is precisely the kind of philanthropy that UB needs to accomplish its mission.

And, as you all have heard, last month UB made a major new commitment, with the assistance of our UB Foundation, to the urban core, adding significantly to our downtown campus. By acquiring the former M. Wile building, UB will position itself to achieve an even broader vision for the area in and around the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. By the way, this is UB’s sixth property in downtown Buffalo.

Our plan is to shape the space into what we are calling the UB Gateway. It will become both a literal and figurative doorway opening the university to the city, and the city to the university. The Gateway will become home to a range of programs that directly serve and work with residents of our community.

To begin, we expect the Gateway will house UB’s Regional Institute and the UB-Buffalo Public Schools Partnership office. The Gateway also will feature flexible space for use by a variety of public and community organizations.

This purchase synchronizes perfectly with UB’s plans to grow by 40 percent between now and the year 2020. We foresee that on our North and South Campuses future growth will be accomplished within our existing campus perimeters. Downtown, however, offers the possibility of new spaces, programs, and boundaries.

To that end, I am happy to announce today that right next door to the Gateway we plan to build a new Educational Opportunity Center. Today, the EOC offers a wide range of educational and job training programs to 2,500 low-income individuals each year.

In its new modern location, the EOC, under the capable direction of Dr. Sherryl Weems, will be able to expand this vital programming right in the heart of the medical district.

I want to take this opportunity to recognize and thank Assemblyperson Crystal Peoples, and the entire WNY delegation, for their outstanding leadership in securing $25m for EOC.

I believe it is a fantastic opportunity for the university and WNY to host the EOC right here on our downtown campus, where it is aligned with the broader mission of the University . . . helping prepare residents for productive careers, hopefully in many of the jobs the university’s growth will foster.

We have already witnessed an exciting new relationship develop with the recent announcement of a quarter-million dollar initiative, funded by Bank of America, between the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences and the EOC to create innovative training programs for individuals looking to enter life-science based career fields.

The steps we’ve taken are by no means an end. The potential for the downtown campus area is enormous. And therefore this is only a progress report, not a final report.

What is guiding all of this is UB 2020, our vision for making UB one of the very top public research universities in the country, and, by doing so, also a catalyst in the economic revitalization of WNY and Buffalo.

UB Believers

UB 2020 can make all of this possible. But we can’t do it alone. UB needs your help. I need your help.

The policies that govern the way higher education is financed in New York must be changed if UB 2020’s promise is to become reality. Achieving these benefits will require the operational structure, tuition policies, and financing environments that create the conditions for our university, as well as our entire State University of New York system, to flourish.

Governor Spitzer is taking a close look at public higher education this year, and in less than two months will receive recommendations from his Commission on Higher Education, a body on which I sit – along with Assemblyperson Crystal Peoples – and that the University hosted here in Buffalo a few days ago.

I sincerely believe that now is the opportunity for New York State, and Western New York, to capitalize on this interest in public higher education to realize the full promise envisioned when SUNY was created in 1948, and brought UB into its midst in 1962.

Simply put, New York State needs to decide if it wants first-rate public research universities. To achieve that will require changes in state policies and a commitment to support these institutions.

This is where UB Believers comes in.

If New York and Western New York are to regain the stature and viability they once had, and the magnetism for smart and hardworking people around the nation and the world, we must be bold. We must be forward-looking. And we must look to, and support, the institutions, that can bring about positive change.

Today, I ask you to look to UB in this way. I think many of you understand:

  • The role we play in innovation.
  • The role we play in creating jobs and bringing revenues to our region.
  • The role we play in providing cultural and artistic events that stimulate our minds and our senses.
  • The role we play in caring for those in the community that require social, medical and financial services.
  • The role we play in pioneering research that save lives.
  • And finally, the role we play in educating the 21st century workforce.

Now, with this in mind, I challenge all of you in this room to think about how UB impacts your life. And how a stronger UB could increase that impact . . . how a stronger magnet will draw more of these beneficial things to our region.

Today I ask you to support our collective future – and to do this by speaking out and stating your support for the University at Buffalo.

Starting with my first community address last year, people began asking me, “What can I do to help?” We have been amazed at the number of people who have stepped forward to help advance our mission because they understand the benefits that it holds for our region.

Since launching the group a little more than two months ago, more than 3,000 of you have signed up to be UB Believers. UB Believers allows people like you a place to express your views and ideas for how our university can make our local economy stronger, how it can create a future that includes more opportunities for our young people, and a better quality of life for all.

If you agree with what you’ve heard here today, if it’s made you think differently about how to ensure a stronger future for Western New York — please join us by signing up today.

Before finishing I want to take a moment to show you another way of looking at our future. As all of us adults discuss what tomorrow will look like, we can’t lose sight of who we are making these grand plans for.

Short UB Believers video plays on screen

President Simpson continues:

Those young people will actually be starting college in the year 2020. Will you join us in making this vision possible?

I thank you.