Welcome From John B. Simpson
Spring Welcome
As president of the University at Buffalo, I’m glad to have the opportunity to give a spring semester welcome to the UB community worldwide. We’ve been experiencing one of the busiest times at UB in years. This past semester, UB hosted an historic three-day visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His address was the biggest one-day event ever at UB, and left an indelible impression on our university and our region.
In November I was honored to join the first-ever delegation of U.S. college presidents to Asia with U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. The trip highlighted the strong interest many international students have for education in the U.S., but also pointed to the need for our own country to better prepare students to compete in the global economy. While I was in Korea on that trip, word came that UB is now ranked 10th in international student enrollment among all universities nationwide. That means is that if you spend time here, you’ll be part of one of the most culturally and geographically diverse academic communities in the country.
This semester, our campus is looking back at UB’s legacy of energy conservation and environmental stewardship. Since the start of conservation efforts in the 1970s, our campus has saved a total of more than $100 million dollars in energy costs. To note this remarkable achievement—and set the stage for our future plans—we have launched “A Greener Shade of Blue,” a program that includes lectures by several notable speakers, capped by an April address by Vice President Al Gore. I hope it’s clear that this incredible range of activity gets to the very core of who we are as an academic community. That’s because UB is the public university for individuals who embrace the opportunities, and tackle the challenges, of our new flat world. We’re not waiting for the future here—we’re shaping it.
To achieve these aspirations, we are continuing to implement UB2020, our university-wide plan for elevating UB into the uppermost ranks of public research universities. As a primary benchmark of this plan, we have committed to increasing significantly the size of our faculty and student body over the next fifteen years. To ensure that we have the modern and memorable facilities and public spaces to accommodate this growth, UB has launched an ambitious comprehensive physical planning process that will improve and expand our three campuses, and strengthen our ties to the Buffalo Niagara region.
The growth of UB also will contribute to the revitalization of the Western New York area. With the potential for UB to lead the transformation into a knowledge-based economy in our region, I challenge our community to see the growth of UB as our region’s “big idea.” UB and the community really are in this together. That certainly extends to the recent formation of the UB-Buffalo Public Schools Partnership, a major initiative by our institutions to dramatically increase the number of Buffalo Public School students who graduate from high school ready for college and the demands of the 21st century.
Academic excellence is at the core of all that we do here at UB. We are certainly gratified when our programs rise in the rankings. But ultimately we have a different yardstick for measuring our success, one that looks at the impact of our education, our research, and our partnerships on the people of New York, the U.S., and the world.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore our website. Even better, come be a part of a community with big ambitions, and high hopes, for building a better world for all of us.