"If we take charge of our own future, we won't have to worry about being evaluated (by outsiders); our performance will be fine," Greiner said in his annual address to the faculty. "It's if we sit idly by and let someone else take responsibility for it that we, I think, become vulnerable as an institution."

Greiner spent most of his presentation reviewing the academic planning process begun last year by Provost Thomas E. Headrick. Using a series of overheads, he reviewed UB's multiple missions and goals; the diagnosis of the current situation, including assets, academic programs and structures, and funding environment, and the strategies the university will pursue to achieve those goals.

He then outlined the "next steps" in the planning process, including putting in place the new College of Arts and Sciences, planning for interdisciplinary opportunities, building an effective academic and management information system, and academic unit planning in such areas as the biological and biomedical sciences, computer and information sciences, and pharmaceutical and chemical sciences.

"We've actually made some significant progress" in academic planning, he said, adding, "I don't want to see the energy go out of that process."

Greiner also noted efforts made in improving the quality of student life, such as consolidating the admissions and retention functions under the auspices of the Provost's Office, student housing initiatives, both on and off-campus, and the push to build mathematics and student-services buildings on the North Campus.

Greiner responded to comments made earlier in the meeting by Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, who reminded faculty members that UB is operating in a context in which it is being held increasingly accountable for what it does by the public, the state and the SUNY Board of Trustees.

"We don't have to worry about that ("the ominous SUNY goblin") at all if we just do our own thing our way, responsibly and aggressively, over the course of this year and the coming year," Greiner said. SUNY, he said, wants to see some campus "lead in the planning effort, and they will reward us and recognize us for that kind of initiative."

Greiner said a "victim mentality" has been rampant on SUNY campuses because of budget cuts over the course of the past decade-"the state is taking our moneyÉthat's terrible.

"The way to deal with that is to ourselves take responsibility and go forward," he said.

UB must foster a more "entrepreneurial spirit" on campus and increase sponsored-program activity and technology transfer, he said.

In addition, the university must expand income received from tuition-most notably by increasing the number of out-of-state and international students attending UB-as well as increasing philanthropy.

"And certainly we must have a new Millard Fillmore College," one based, he said, on distance learning, "the 21st-century equivalent" of the former night division geared toward non-traditional students.

"We should be a major player in that," he said. "Let's not concede that to other institutions; let's not concede that to SUNY Central."