Reporter Volume 25, No.18 February 24, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

Development goals for UB during the 1993-94 fiscal year include
maximizing fundraising opportunities, fully staffing the development
operation with proven veterans who have demonstrated outstanding
success as development officers, putting in place a first-class annual
appeal program, and beginning the process of building a volunteer
structure to support UB's development activities, Ronald H. Stein,
vice president for university advancement and development, told the
Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week.
	The new plans for university development at UB move to a more
traditional model of development in which development is handled
within the university, Stein said. "We're proposing to move
aggressively on development, which is something other universities
have done, so our goals are not unrealistic," he said.
	Handling development within the university may appear radical
in terms of UB's history, in which development has been handled by an
outside organization, the UB Foundation, Stein said. But, in fact, the
change is a conservative one, he said, because universities comparable
to UB have long handled development within their systems.
	"We've now come to where private universities have been since
the turn of the century, and the publics for the last ten years,"
Stein said. "We're the last great public university to raise money
from its alumni.
	"We have a long way to go to raise what other universities
have," Stein said. "But we don't have to invent a development system;
we can simply take the best of what other universities do. We have a
great untapped resource here."
	UB was last in terms of receiving private support in 1990-91
when compared to other major public universities, with approximately
$12 million, Stein said. But the model provided by the University of
Pittsburgh, a university "very similar to UB," showed what UB could
do, Stein said. While Pitt raised only about $17 million in private
support in 1986-87, by 1990-91 that figure was close to $39 million,
Stein reported.
	But, Stein said, in order to achieve this growth, UB will have
to hire more development professionals. "One of the ways you raise
money is to have more people raising money," he said, noting that
while UB currently has a development staff of eight people, Pitt has
52.
	"The bottom line is that the development office is sales,"
Stein said. "I'm not apologizing for that. The money goes to support
faculty, departments, and student scholarships. If I'm out there
talking to a donor about $1 million for Greek Studies, all that money
goes into that department."
	Bernice Noble of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences said that
"Unlike Harvard, we don't have grads all over the country, but many
who live in poor, working class Buffalo. Have you accounted for this?"
	Stein responded that "Many of our alumni have done very well.
UB has 100,000 alumni outside the Buffalo area, and about 44,000 in
the area. I believe, and I have no evidence not to believe, that our
alumni have the same distribution of wealth as Pitt."
	Charles Trczinka of Management said, "One thing I've heard is
that UB is one of four university centers, whereas the schools you're
comparing it to are central state campuses. Contributors may not
distinguish the Albany campus from UB. Is there any attempt to give UB
a campus identity?"
	Stein responded by saying, "I think we have an identity.
Alumni remember our faculty, they connect with individual faculty
members. You're the ones who made them successful."
	Dennis Malone of Engineering said that "One problem in getting
faculty enthusiastic about fundraising is that most faculty are
unaware how fundraising money is spent to benefit the university. I
urge you to let the UB community know how the money is spent." And
Roger Burton of Psychology added that there was "a problem of scandals
and fundraising, of fundraising money being plowed back into the
fundraising process."
	Stein responded that "Fundraising money is the difference
between where state money ends, and where you want the university to
go. The Office of University Development doesn't establish how that
money is spent." He pointed out that according to his proposed
professional developing staffing plan, development professionals will
be hired as assistant deans who will ensure partnerships between
central fundraising and the various schools and work with departments.
According to this plan, each school will have a dean's advisory
council which will raise money for UB, he said.
	In several other presentations on development, Cheryl Brown,
associate vice president for university development, reported on the
role of faculty in development, Dale DiSanto, executive director of
major donor development, spoke about the management of the development
operation at UB, and Nancy Michalko, director of special, annual and
regional gifts, spoke about the UB Annual Campaign.
	Ron Stein said that "My feeling, being an alumnus here, is
that I know I feel indebted to the UB faculty. We're giving alumni a
chance to say thank you and to give something back. We do have a
unique opportunity because we have this untapped resource. But it will
take a culture change, and a partnership."