Inaugural Address
Academic Excellence and Access: The University at Buffalo in the 21st Century Public Higher Education Arena
The Inaugural Address of John Barclay Simpson, PhD
14th President of the University at Buffalo
Friday, October 15, 2004
Members of the SUNY Board, the UB Council, and the UB Foundation; Chancellor King, Mr. Jacobs, and Mr. Newman; city, county, state and federal officials; faculty, students, staff, and alumni; honored guests and all university friends and family: it is truly an honor to stand before you today as the fourteenth President of the University at Buffalo. In that official capacity, I welcome everyone here, and I thank you not only for your presence, but for your continued commitment to this university.
“Academic excellence is the very core of our enterprise and is the basis for our broader mission as a public research university.”
John B. Simpson
President
It is a privilege to assume the office of the 14th President of the University at Buffalo. I accept this mantle of the university presidency, and the public trust it conveys, with humility and with reverence. I do so with a clear knowledge of its awesome responsibility, and with a profound and abiding optimism for the future of our great university.
I want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of our distinguished speakers today. Thank you for those wonderful greetings. I particularly thank my longtime friends and colleagues, Drs. Jeffords, Justus, and Steele. The reflections you have all shared with us today represent the larger academy at its best, and I am humbled by your words and enlightened by your wisdom.
My deepest personal gratitude today is for my family. To my father, who traveled from the West Coast to deliver greetings on our family's behalf, and to my mother, I thank you both for your friendship, guidance, love and support. To my son and daughter-in-law, Matthew and Wendy, who are here with us, and to my daughter and son-in-law Melissa and Christopher, who just last week became new parents and could not make the journey, thank you for being constant sources of new inspiration. To my sisters Anne and Jean, and to the members of their families who are also here today, thank you for sharing in this special moment. And to my partner Katherine, thank you for making so many wonderful things possible every day.
It is further a source of great excitement and pride-both for me and for the university community-to have representatives from so many universities from around the world here today. Your presence reminds us of the great strength that binds us together as a global academic community, and the spirit of collegiality, collaboration, discovery and creativity that guides higher education throughout the world in its daily endeavors for the greater good. Thank you for sharing this special occasion with us.
Your presence here today represents the commitment to this marvelous university that all of us share. The inauguration of a new university president affords us the opportunity to celebrate our UB, and the impressive depth and breadth of its distinguished and distinctive academic enterprise. It also gives us an occasion to reflect on our university's accomplishments to date, and to consider our aspirations as well as our responsibilities for the future.
I want to speak to you today about the challenges and opportunities ahead, not only for UB, but for public higher education. Before we discuss the future, however, I want to reflect for just a moment about our past.
The University of Buffalo was established on May 11th, 1846 with a charter granted by the New York State Legislature, authorizing "academic, theological, legal and medical departments". This university began its existence as a medical school, and it remains a defining characteristic of UB that from its inception, our university has served its public through outstanding achievement in research and teaching. The name first given to the school demonstrates the depth and centrality of this relationship: the University of Buffalo. Millard Fillmore, UB's first Chancellor, remarked upon the special connection between university and city at the university's first commencement exercises in 1847, saying:
This, then, is a new era for the citizens of Buffalo. Here for the first time we see assembled the officers and professors of a literary institution, located in our midst, and destined we trust to shed its literary and scientific blessings, not only upon the youth of our own prosperous city, but upon those of the surrounding county and adjacent states.
Clearly, UB was intended to fulfill a very great public trust. The university's destiny was viewed as firmly intertwined with that of its namesake city, and UB's success was understood as integral to the advancement of Buffalo. Given Mr. Fillmore's ascendancy to the Presidency of the United States three years later in 1850-a post, by the way, that he held while continuing to serve as Chancellor of UB-we may with some confidence assume that the "blessings" of the university were understood to extend outward not only to our surrounding community, but to the state, and even to our burgeoning nation.
The University of Buffalo joined the very proud and distinguished tradition of public higher education in the United States in 1962 when it became a part of the State University of New York system. The name the university later took for itself, the University at Buffalo, with its primary emphasis now on "university," bespoke a vision for UB as an institution dedicated to research and scholarly excellence, and sounded a formal commitment to a more diverse and comprehensive understanding of the university's public service than was first envisioned in 1846.
I reference our university's beginnings today for two reasons. First, to provide our honored guests with a sense of our history, because I believe the values embedded in the university at its inception remain with us as essential and indeed imperative institutional characteristics. They are part of what defines UB today, and what will serve to guide us in determining its future. Secondly, I reference our history because the more that I have discovered about our university, the more I am struck by how aptly the story of UB illustrates the national story of higher education in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Consider the great revolution in higher education that took place in the 19th century in the United States. The 1862 Morrill Act of the U.S. Congress created an entirely new paradigm for the academy, whose prevailing conceptual framework at that time was that of a tower removed. The Morrill Act's emphasis that the unfettered pursuit of knowledge be not divorced either from its instruction, or from its practical application for the benefit of humankind, inaugurated a principle that would become transformative for higher education: that scholarship be open and accessible to all.
Here at the University at Buffalo, we view the three traditional missions of the land-grant and state university: research, teaching, and public service, not as separate or discrete actions, but as interdependent activities that inform and enhance each other within our overall university mission. As the public research university's role evolves in the 21st century, we at UB are increasingly involved with broader responsibilities in our research, teaching, and public service activities. The interconnection of these three foundational elements of our mission, therefore, is now having greater impact upon the diverse constituencies we serve than ever before.
I want to address this notion of the modern university's evolving societal role for a moment. In 2004, we are full in the midst of a new kind of industrial revolution, one that is very quickly moving economies toward knowledge-based endeavor-a domain that traditionally has been associated primarily with the university. The digital information age has transformed the collection, transmission and sharing of knowledge, and in so doing, has begun to establish new societal roles and expectations, as well as new economic challenges and prospects, for the 21st century university.
More than ever before, the public research university, as a site of intellectual rigor and discovery, serves to fuel cultural, technological and economic development. Industries are increasingly dependent on continued and often rapid innovation and a well-educated, skilled workforce to be competitive nationally. Academic research is a vital component of our overall national research efforts because of its ability to concentrate on fundamental or basic, long-term research and engage in collaborative and intellectually adventurous, even risky, projects that span many disciplines and interests. Perhaps this notion was best expressed by the President of the National Academy of Engineering recently as follows:
Universities are a source not only of scientific and technological ideas that lead to new products and processes, but also social and political insights that strengthen the nation's ability to adapt to new technologies and, therefore, to embrace continued innovation."
I wholeheartedly endorse this cultural evolution of the university's public role. At the dawning of a new knowledge revolution, I believe it most appropriate that society look to the university-the enterprise that has always devoted itself to the creation, transmission and application of knowledge-for leadership and expertise. In fact, I find this to be a tremendously intellectually open and exciting time for all of us in higher education.
Within the university, new multidisciplinary research has transcended the delineations of the traditional disciplines of study. Externally, the research university today is increasingly a partner with industry, developing both intellectual property and material product as new technologies that may be transferred into the business sector.
In 1980, the passing of the Bayh-Dole Act enabled universities to own and patent inventions developed under federally funded research programs. This provided an incentive for universities to market their technology, and for industry to invest in high-risk ventures. As a result, the university now is also a "test-bed" for industrial innovation, contributing many significant advances that have and will result in improvements in all of our lives, such as the Internet in the past, and personalized medicine based on genetic indicators in the future.
With its intellectual capital, and potential to attract new investment, the research university therefore functions as a critical force in fueling economic development efforts. The University at Buffalo's total annual economic impact alone on Western New York was last measured at substantially more than $1 billion-more than 4 times the state's investment in UB-and it has generated many exciting and significant discoveries and innovations.
In this century, I believe the economic impact of the research university upon its regional and statewide communities will increase significantly. At the same time, the research university will continue to provide the means-both eloquently elemental and very, very technically sophisticated means-by which we explore the human experience and advance the ongoing development of every aspect of human society. The research university fosters a world-view that is broad and complex in scope, enlightened rather than narrow, and open to possibility rather than constricted by bias. All in all, the modern public research university is critically engaging with its communities-regional, statewide, national, and global communities-in new ways that are serving to redefine its intellectual, cultural and economic impact for the 21st century.
In order to meet the challenges of the 21st century here at UB, we are right now pursuing a new strategic planning initiative: UB 2020. Working together as an academic community, this year we will be formulating an institutional academic plan, based on strategic programmatic strengths, to be supported by a comprehensive campus master plan. This strategic planning process will guide us in developing a realistic understanding of what we should do as an institution, and equally important, what we should not do. UB2020 will clarify our vision and define our institutional aspirations and goals for the next half-century, and it will chart the path to their achievement.
In this work, one overarching principle drives us: academic excellence. This is our fundamental value and goal, and it will be pursued with vigor. UB is first and foremost an academic institution, and academic issues are what we are all about. Academic excellence is the very core of our enterprise and is the basis for our broader mission as a public research university.
Academic excellence may be defined broadly as the sum total of our academic endeavors. It is the moment of intellectual connection in the classroom between a student, her professor, and a new concept; it is that moment of electric revelation that takes place between a scholar and his text. It is the researcher sharing her laboratory discoveries with her peers across the country; it is the new artist displaying his canvas for the first time. It is the architect and the engineer working in tandem to create solutions for assisted living; it is the medical resident volunteering her time to assist with local clinical care. It is the UB alumnus applying his knowledge and expertise to strengthen the community in which he lives. Academic excellence is our university's reason for being, and the highest manifestation of our purpose as a university. It is the thrilling vibrancy and diversity of our entire intellectual community in action, and it is the outstanding impact that UB's contributions have here within Western New York, across our state and nation, and around the world.
As President of this university, I pledge to you today that UB's very first priority will be the considered pursuit and practice of academic excellence. Indeed, this will serve as UB's primary institutional guiding principle. Part of my role as leader of this institution will be to ensure that we establish the appropriate institutional conditions that will allow academic excellence to flourish. I therefore further pledge that UB will pursue and practice academic excellence in ways that ensure our institutional commitment to integrity, to collegiality, to equity, to diversity and to educational access.
These commitments, I note, are without question fundamental to our ability to achieve comprehensive academic excellence within our university-our UB. We will recognize, honor and encourage diversity at UB. We will hold ourselves to the highest standards of collegiality. We will protect and preserve equity throughout our university community, and we will strive to improve our institutional accessibility.
I consider one of the most crucial issues facing public higher education today to be public access to the public university. When I speak of "access," I mean something much more than tuition, although affordability certainly is a critical component of accessibility. When I speak of access, I mean all of the elements that comprise a student's ability to engage productively and successfully in the university experience. I mean the breadth and depth of a student's intellectual, social, and cultural preparation for further study. I mean the ability of that student to compete with his or her colleagues in the higher educational setting, and to contribute meaningfully to that environment. Both across the nation and here in New York State, we must improve the ways in which we ensure public access to public universities.
We must do so not only because it is part of our public mission, and because it is simply the right thing to do, but as well because higher education is foundational to our society and vital to our democracy. The right of every human being to access knowledge; to exercise freedom of thought and of speech; to learn and to think critically; to participate in new intellectual discovery; to advance the development of the self; to contribute one's own perspectives, thoughts and talents to the benefit of the common good-these rights and values are foundational to the democratic process.
Public higher education has a crucial mandate in this regard, since it functions as the channel by which every member of society may find, develop, and exercise her or his voice. I very strongly believe that public higher education is not only critical to the maintenance of a healthy democracy, but that it is one of the highest manifestations of democracy.
It is incumbent, therefore, upon public universities like UB to do everything within their power to answer this mandate and fulfill the public trust placed upon them by ensuring equitable access to the academic experience they provide their students. It is equally important that our public universities are sufficiently capitalized, both intellectually and financially, to give their students the highest quality education-which is nothing less than they deserve. Let me share you with some data regarding economically disadvantaged students nation-wide that suggest we as a nation may not be living up to that trust.
Recent U.S. Census data indicate that of families reporting a total income of less than $25,000 per year, only 29% had at least one student enrolled in college, as compared to 67% of families reporting an income of $75,000 or higher. In 2004, we in public education must be vigilant in asking ourselves: are we doing all that we can to ensure equity-and not just socio-economic, but racial and ethnic, gender, and cultural equity-in student access to higher education?
I can't say that I know the answer to that question. But I do know that public universities like UB, especially major public universities that are part of multi-faceted and successful state systems such as SUNY, can help to lead the way in finding solutions to the very real challenge of providing equitable access to higher education in this country.
We at UB are very well positioned to contribute to addressing the 21st century challenges that face public education in general. UB can, and indeed should, play a vital role in the strategic development of effective linkages between primary, secondary, and tertiary education in New York State, linkages that help to ensure equitable access to all our public universities.
I know, for example, that currently the Board of Regents and the State Education Department, as well as the University of the State of New York, are working together to view the K-16 experience from a comprehensive perspective, and to improve access to higher education for all students. I want to formally offer my thanks to all three institutions for their collaborative approach to this vital issue, and to pledge UB's assistance in these efforts. Working together, we can and will close achievement gaps for all students throughout the educational spectrum in New York State.
As the issue of access so aptly demonstrates, this is a crucial moment for public higher education in this country, and one that I want to suggest is perhaps revealing a certain fragility inherent within our enterprise. The societal role of the public university has never been more broadly defined, nor more economically and technologically complex, nor more educationally vital to the maintenance of our democracy. Yet, just when our public universities must do all that they can to ensure that no one is excluded from their enterprise, and that the excellence of that enterprise does not decline, the challenge of that mission-as experienced both by the institution and by its students-has never been greater.
While the expectations of the modern American university continue to evolve, placing added importance on existing and new critical public missions, such as some of those I spoke about earlier-providing the intellectual foundations for democracy to flourish and the intellectual capital and new discoveries that ensure the competitive advantage of our great nation, to name a few-the paradigm governing our financing, regulatory and support structures has yet to evolve at the same pace.
I, as well as many of my peers in the higher education community, consider the paradigm shift facing higher education today to be as significant as that which guided the emergence of the land-grant university in the late 19th century. As a result we are actively engaged, locally, nationally and internationally, in encouraging our leaders to provide the infrastructure required to meet our responsibilities.
Throughout this shift and the evolution of the research university, above all, we at UB, and all of us in public higher education, must remember that it is our responsibility first and foremost to maintain access to our endeavors, because this commitment to our society is as fundamental a role as the university can have.
Advocates of public higher education: we must not allow the dream of public higher education to fade. The University at Buffalo, and all of us, must remember that continuing to make this dream a reality every day for all the diverse constituencies we serve requires our support as well as our vigilance.
I have argued today that the challenges of the 21st century make this a critical moment for public higher education. For a university such as UB, historically experienced in self-transformation, I believe this moment to be one of tremendous opportunity. With academic excellence as our guiding principle, we will strategically position our academic enterprise as an intellectual community that dares to take the risks necessary to advance our university as well as our world.
I would like to share with you a passage from President Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech-delivered on April 23, 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris. It was an occasion at which the President was invited to speak on the subject of "Citizenship in a Republic, " and although its subject, "the man", is singular-and gendered-I think the experience it comments upon articulates well the opportunity ahead for the University at Buffalo in the 21st century:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Faculty, students, staff, alumni, trustees, leaders of our university and citizens of our community: on the eve of a new era for UB and for public higher education, the University at Buffalo enters the arena. We do so firm in the belief that there is no worthier cause for our time or talent-indeed for the whole of our vibrant academic endeavor-than to strive daily to fulfill and to renew the promise of public higher education.
We will strive together in that arena with great daring, and great devotion, pursuing great achievement. And in so doing, I am confident that the University at Buffalo will without question find its destined place among the nation's very leading universities.
I look forward to realizing that victory with you. Thank you for your contributions to UB, and for your support of our outstanding academic community.
