A message from the president

The classic assignment cliche for the first week of school is an essay entitled "What I Did This Summer." Collectively, UB has done a lot over the past two to three months: new courses have been developed, and syllabi generated; books and articles published, or pushed along toward publication; research projects commenced, and others completed; new faculty welcomed and departing colleagues bidden farewell. For our students, summer has been a time for a whole range of experiences -- including, for the Class of 2001, a first glimpse of UB, and for many others, invaluable work opportunities and some much-needed recreation.

The summer has also brought some significant changes here on campus. Herewith an update on some of these transitions.

- Bob Palmer, UB's chief Student Affairs officer since 1987, accepted the equivalent post at California State University -- Fullerton, and left for his new position at the end of July. Now serving as Interim Vice President is Dennis Black, longtime Associate Vice President and Dean of Students and a member of the university's staff since 1978; stepping up as Interim Dean of Students is Barbara Ricotta from the Office of Student Life.

- John Sheffer, who had served as Interim Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs since Muriel Moore's departure for the Presidency at Buffalo State College, stepped down on August 1 to become the Director of UB's new Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth. A new community resource for regional thought and planning, the Institute will help to connect UB's best academic strengths with the current needs of local, municipal, and regional leaders and citizens. John Sheffer also will serve as Senior Counselor to the President, acting as an advisor on community and regional issues for the university.

With John's departure from Public Service and Urban Affairs, Mary Gresham -- Associate Vice President in that area since 1993 -- agreed to accept the post of Interim Vice President. Mary's service to UB extends over 20 years, and we are grateful to her for lending her expertise in this significant interim capacity.

- Nick Goodman, as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, will serve as coordinator of the student academic services offices, including Academic Advising, Student Finance and Records, and Admissions, the last two of which have now been moved to the Provost's area of responsibility. Nick will work to integrate the university's increasingly important student recruitment and retention programs. By bringing recruitment, retention, and other student support services into closer coordination with academic advisement and other general undergraduate initiatives, we believe we can provide more responsive, more coordinated assistance to students from the day they apply to UB until the day they graduate. Nick deserves our thanks for helping to guide this new area.

- The Graduate School of Education has a new dean -- Jacquelyn Mitchell, formerly of Scripps College and UC San Diego -- while Social Work has a new dean-designate, Lawrence Shulman of Boston University. Larry formally assumes the deanship next January, and will be traveling between Buffalo and Boston this fall. Rick Winter, Dean of the School of Management since 1993, left in August for the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh; John Thomas is now serving as the school's interim dean.

Within the next few weeks, searches will commence for the vice presidencies in Student Affairs and Public Service and Urban Affairs; the search for a new Vice President for Health Affairs will also continue. In addition, searches for the deanships in Management and in Pharmacy are under way. With the decision regarding the new College of Arts and Sciences now made, we will be considering issues of leadership and structure there, and will soon begin a search for a dean. Meanwhile, we will also be reviewing several major UB leadership areas to ask whether and how they better perform their most essential functions, and how their structures could more appropriately accommodate their efforts.

We think these ongoing changes in leadership and structure will bring UB new prominence and productivity by the turn of the century, and we look forward to the support of each and every member of our university community in those efforts. In the meantime, please join me in congratulating and supporting all our colleagues who have assumed new responsibilities over the past few months, and in wishing each and every member of the UB community a productive and satisfying academic year.

-Professor William R. Greiner