Reporter Volume 25, No.10 November 4, 1993

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

"The Undergraduate College is the 'curator' of official general
education policy at UB. Our plans are complicated and ambitious, and
we're trying to put them into effect at a time of limited resources,"
says Stephen Dyson, who became dean of the Undergraduate College in
late August. Dyson says that his mission this year includes overseeing
the operations of the Undergraduate College on a daily basis, making
and implementing plans for its future, and considering the role that
the Undergraduate College and its dean will play in relation to what
happens with reorganization at UB.
	Overseeing daily operations is "the easiest part of his job,"
Dyson says, because "we have a superb staff." Future planning, he
says, is more complex.
	The UB general education curriculum will have a number of new
aspects next year, Dyson says, including junior level science courses
for all non-science majors in Scientific Inquiry and Great Discoveries
in Science, and a one-year language requirement which, three years
from now, will become a two-year requirement. Dyson says that he has
also spent significant time figuring out how to staff currently
required courses in American Pluralism and World Civilization.
	In relation to potential reorganization at UB, Dyson says that
"UB needs a place where people can think and act in experimental and
innovative ways in undergraduate education. The public wants such
innovation, he says, and expects it because "it pays the bills."
	"UB has, in the Undergraduate College, an institution designed
to be more wide-ranging than it has become," he says, and points out a
number of efforts currently being made to expand its range. The Honors
Program has been brought under the auspices of the Undergraduate
College, he says, adding that he believes that this program will
become a major selling-point for undergraduate education at UB. And a
"symbolic step" toward excellence has been taken by placing the
offices of Phi Beta Kappa in the Undergraduate College.
	Dyson says he is also attempting to "bring more life" to the
program of freshman seminars. According to Dyson, freshman seminars,
in which freshmen take smaller classes with greater access to
discussion with professors, were highly successful for awhile until
funding costs led to cutbacks in seminar numbers. "We're trying to
expand them again, and to get participation from faculty and from
academically qualified administrators who don't often get a chance to
teach," Dyson says. He says he is currently encouraging various
student groups to discuss with him what education at UB is like, and
what changes students might like to see.
	Dyson is also involved in bringing various intellectual events
to UB, he says, including workshops on how to teach science to
non-science majors, and lectures by guest speakers such as Brian Rose
of the University of Cincinnati, who is coming to UB to talk about
ancient Troy in relation to the World Civilization program.
	"I want to see more intellectual and cultural events oriented
to the subjects we teach, and to undergraduate interests," Dyson says.
"UB is becoming more diverse and multicultural, and it's an ideal
place for participating in dialogue on those subjects as well."