Reporter Volume 26, No.1 September 1,1994

By DIANE ZWIRECKI
Reporter Contributor
It wasn't a specific incident or turning point that sparked George
Unger's interest in the area of equal opportunity and affirmative
action. "I've been interested in equal opportunity all my adult life,"
she says.
	Twenty-one years ago, Unger brought this interest to UB,
molding not only a successful and fulfilling career, but a legacy of
advancement for women and minority students at the university. On Aug.
31, Unger retired as director of UB's Office of Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action. She was responsible for ensuring that
the university maintained compliance with all state and federal civil
rights statutes and regulations, as well as SUNY policy regarding
equal opportunity and affirmative action.
	EO/AA also is charged with developing programs that will
analyze employment patterns within the university, identifying and
removing impediments to equal employment opportunity, establishing
timetables for affirmative action, and pursuing a commitment to equal
employment throughout the university.
	It's been a challenge, but an extremely satisfying one, for
George Unger. "There have been many highlights," she said during the
last few days of work in her Capen Hall office. "One of the most
interesting was Operation Access."
	Operation Access was a program designed to identify college
graduates with physical disabilities and place them in regular
University positions. All Operation Access "alumni" have remained at
UB as permanent members of the professional staff.
	Another aspect of her UB career that Unger found rewarding was
the organization and administration of a five-year pilot summer
research program for scientifically talented minority students
interested in careers in the biological, natural and medical sciences.
	George Unger is not a native Buffalonian, although she has
made UB and its surrounding community very much her home. She grew up
in New Mexico and Texas and, before moving to Buffalo in 1972, was
affiliated with San Francisco State College, where she spent eight
years as an education advisor with an overseas program in Liberia,
West Africa. There, she worked on a United States Agency for
InternationalJDevelopmentJ(USAID) contract to develop a school system
in the Liberian capital city of Monrovia.
	In 1972, Unger moved to Buffalo and "thought I wanted to be a
housewife and I was for a year." Then she realized that her calling to
education had not changed with her move east. At the same time, UB was
in the process of consolidating its Cooperative College Center and
Urban Center to form the Educational Opportunity Center. Unger served
as the Educational Opportunity Center's founding director and later
went on to become coordinator of UB's affirmative action programs
under Jesse Nash, then director of the Office of Affirmative Action
and Human Resources. Under the direction of Malcolm Agostini,
affirmative action officer, Unger was associate director. After
Agostini retired in 1990, she was named acting affirmative action
officer and, one year later, was appointed to the position on a
permanent basis.
	Among Unger's numerous contributions to UB have been service
as coordinator of the university's observance of the International
Year of the Woman, organization and chairmanship of the campus
statewide Employee Assistance Program Committee, and the presentation
of classroom guest lectures and local, national and state workshops
and seminars.
	She has worked on more than a dozen university committees
including the Professional Staff Senate, the Anti-Rape Task Force, the
University Committee on Student Retention, and the Distinguished
Service Professor Selection Committee. In addition, Unger has been
advisor to the Campus Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, an
examiner for qualifying oral examinations of candidates for classified
service positions, and an outside hearing officer in grievances
processed on other SUNY campuses.
	Unger's commitment to equal opportunity and affirmative action
has extended beyond campus boundaries and into the Western New York
community. She has been active in the Buffalo Urban League, the YWCA
Board of Directors, the Buffalo Foundation and numerous other civic
groups.
	Reflecting on the past 21 years, Unger sees UB's progress in
expanding its programs for women and minorities as "very exciting and
fulfilling." 
	"One of the most satisfying things I've seen is how the
university has evolved in the equal opportunity/affirmative action
sphere," she noted. "This is very heartening. UB has made great
strides in access for minority students and women to the entire
university experience. Emphasis has been placed on the retention of
these students, as well as on the retention of minority and women
faculty and staff."
	As she steps down from her full-time position, Unger plans to
remain at UB on a part-time basis, working on a project under Ronald
Stein, vice president for advancement and development, to bring
scholarship recipients into closer contact with their donors.
	Leaving work behindQat least temporarilyQGeorge Unger has
serious plans for relaxation during the early months of 1995. She
plans to spend January, February and March "in St. Thomas, on a
beach." She also hopes to have more time to play bridge, catch up on
her reading, and attend Buffalo area theatrical and other cultural
events.
	As she closes this chapter in her life, Unger carries with her
an optimistic attitude and a hopeful dream about equal opportunity,
not just for UB, but for American society as a whole: she'd like to
see the need for her old job disappear.
	"I'd like for this country to reach a point where there'd be
no need for any institution to have an office of equal opportunity and
affirmative action," she says. "That may sound idealistic, but we have
to have ideals. An ideal society would be one in which it's a 'given'
that every member of that society would have equal access and equal
opportunity to everything that that society stands for. That's
idealistic, but ideals are attainable."