When he looks into the first decade of the next century and envisions the potential of SUNY's largest and most comprehensive campus, he does so comparing UB with the great public universities of the Midwest, such as the University of Michigan or the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These are universities, he notes, that provide cutting-edge research and public service, in addition to offering superb academics.

As New York's only Midwestern-style university, he notes, UB has enormous potential to benefit the people of Western New York and the rest of the state. Reaching that goal will require strategic investments in several areas; many of which have been initiated in recent years and others that are yet to come.

Greiner sees an acceleration of opportunities when people "grasp what an institution of that type can do for the state. We have to assert in New York the advantage of having one or two comprehensive public universities like UB."

He points out that the mission-review statement being prepared by Provost Thomas E. Headrick-which Greiner prefers to call a "mission agenda"-will outline to SUNY central administration UB's vision for its future.

Headrick recently told the Faculty Senate that the message to be sent to Albany is that "UB is a comprehensive, public, research, flagship university; a strong university that is competitive with other good public universities and is woefully underfunded. We have established an exceptional record of strengths and accomplishments, given our lack of adequate support."

Greiner is even more succinct: "We're going to challenge the system to get on board with us."

The emphasis, he adds, will be on the state either allocating more money to UB or "removing barriers in our operation."

He notes: "We're being aggressive about the proposition that the future of the state turns on its higher-education infrastructure."

With the proper investments in its future, Greiner stresses, UB can rise to the level of the great Midwestern universities.

RAM sets the stage for expansion

SUNY's new Resource Allocation Methodology (RAM) is the linchpin in UB's plans. The methodology for allocating state tax support to campuses allows for the retention of all tuition and fees by the individual campuses.

Under the first year of RAM, UB has received a 1998-99 budget allocation from SUNY of $230.1 million, an increase of $8.6 million over the 1997-98 base budget of $221.5 million.

The new methodology, Greiner maintains, will allow UB to expand in both enrollment and programs.

"It's crucially important that we build out; part of the goal should be to get bigger," he says.

In addition to increasing enrollment, the vision, he says, is to be "first and foremost better in the quality of the program we offer; better in the quality of students we attract; move slowly to expand our graduate componentŠand begin to attract more students from outside of New York State," including international students.

To be seen as a truly distinguished university, UB must play up its distinctiveness, those programs that "give us the edge, that set us apart," Greiner says.

For example, he notes, the Graduate School of Education is focusing its programs on urban education, while the Graduate School of Social Work program is combining research and practice, with an emphasis on addictions and how they impact on family life.

"We shouldn't try to do everything anywhere across our academic enterprise," he says, noting that choices will have to be made and programs consolidated.

"If we do that rigorously over the next 10 years, we really can transform this institution."

To make that happen, he says, it's mandatory that the university target new funding sources, including its 140,000-150,000 living alumni, many of whom have done well professionally and financially. "We hope that we can begin to change the vocabulary about philanthropy for public institutions in New York," he says.

UB also must form partnerships for public-service work, since the state allocates little or no funding for that purpose, he says.

"Other great state universities do huge amounts of public service based on a leveraged approach in which they have some state investment," he says. "We need to persuade the state to invest and then we've got to leverage it." The year-old Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth, he notes, already is a prime example of a small investment by the university that can return "many fold that original investment."

The university also must form closer connections with private business, such as its first university-wide partnership, with Xerox. In 1997, the two signed a five-year memorandum of understanding outlining ways in which they will provide benefits to each other in areas including research, information technology, and education and training. As UB examines ways to provide future support and resources, it increasingly will be looking to such partnerships.

Another model is the new UB Business Alliance, in which the university has merged its economic-development activities into a single organization, creating a "one-stop-shopping approach" for companies seeking to partner with the university and raising the profile of the university's economic-development efforts.

Although he is a product of private higher education, Greiner insists that public education is "better."

"We take seriously the fact that we are of a larger society and we serve a larger society," he says.

The great Midwestern universities "have demonstrated that you can be both superb academically, in terms of your teaching and your research, but also be outstanding in terms of the way you provide public service."

Although the people of New York State built UB with their tax dollars, "that doesn't mean they have to (continue to) pay for it. We ought to say, 'Thank you for your investmentŠnow, please, let us take advantage and leverage that for you. Let us figure out how we can develop additional support for the institution.'"

UB, he stresses, is increasingly taking the initiative and being pro-active. "What you can't do is have a 'victim mentality' and not do anything; you have just got to keep plugging."

For example, all undergraduate applications to SUNY campuses must pass through Albany before they go to the individual campuses, Greiner notes, because New York State high-school counselors prefer that procedure.

But, he says, there's "absolutely no reason" to pass transfer student and out-of-state applications through Albany, since the counselors are not involved with these students. As a result, UB will begin to accept online applications directly from these students via the World Wide Web.

He suggests that in approaching the state Division of the Budget and SUNY's central administration, UB should be saying "Look, this is the way real universities are run; let us run like that.' Why not let SUNY have a university that is the equal of a University of Illinois or Michigan" and that doesn't have to depend on the state providing total funding? The state funding it does receive must be used wisely and flexibly.

Athletics raise profile of institution

Although some have criticized UB for spending precious resources on athletics instead of in the classroom, Greiner notes that one way in which the major Midwestern public universities have distinguished themselves in their state, as well as in the national arena, is through their athletics programs. With its return to Division I-A athletics this fall, UB is stepping up as a member of the Mid-American Conference, traditionally viewed as a Midwestern, Ohio-based conference.

"If we want to be seen in the same light as the other great universities in the United States, we have to do what they do," he says. Even the elite private institutions, such as Harvard and Yale, have athletics programs, he notes.

Division I-A programs are important to building school spirit and alumni pride. They also can help bring a focus to campus life.

Again, Greiner draws on the Midwest.

Anyone attending a football game at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he notes, will get a sense "of how that (athletics) ties you to a community and how it makes the kids in the community feel better about it."

Michigan has not been harmed by having quality athletics, he says, and Northwestern, which has no problem recruiting top-notch students, increased its applications by 20 percent the year after the football team played in the Rose Bowl.

But perhaps more importantly, he says, student athletes "bring more involvement and investment in the community than maybe the average student."

As he looks to the university in the first decade of the 21st century, Greiner acknowledges that if UB is to achieve its goal of becoming a great Midwestern-type institution, it will require buy-in by everyone in the campus community. Investing in the future of UB is not the job of the university administration alone. It relies on the efforts of faculty and staff members as well.

"We're all part of a community that has a very important job to do," Greiner stresses. "Every single person who's a member of the community contributes to that job," from the grounds crew to the professional staff to distinguished professors.

"We have to try to build a sense of community and community pride at all levels."