May 9, 2002-Vol33n28: Council hears UB year in review

Council hears UB year in review

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

Noting that UB had an "extraordinary year" in 2001-02, President William R. Greiner took the UB Council on a "whirlwind tour" of the university over the course of the past year during the body's last meeting of the academic year on April 30.

Greiner told council members that he took "great pride" in the accomplishments of the past year, and that the university is poised for a "bright future" in the years ahead.

"The future of both campuses, especially the North Campus, is dependent on what students decide to make of the institution," he said, noting that the administration, faculty and staff have worked hard to "lay the foundation for the students."

Among the highlights of Greiner's "thumbnail sketch" of the past year:

UB achieved its highest total full-time enrollment ever in Fall 2001 with 20,669 students, as well as its highest new, full-time graduate enrollment ever with 2,219 students.
The university made life a lot easier for students with the creation of the Student Academic and Financial Services Unit to provide a "one-stop approach" to dealing with many academic and financial issues.
As UB was becoming more of a full-time campus, it also was becoming more of a residential campus. Greiner noted that 7,000 students "listened in rapt attention" to a speech last month by former President William J. Clinton.
UB expanded the University Honors Program by 50 students and revised general education requirements to meet or exceed SUNY standards.
UB faculty members have won some major national and international awards, among them Carl Dennis, professor of English who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, who was made a knight in the French Order of Arts and Letters, and Barry Smith, professor of philosophy, who received the $2 million Wolfgang Paul Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Bioinformatics has gone, Greiner said, "from an idea to very much a reality" in the past year, thanks to $232 million in support from the state and federal governments, federal research grants, foundations and corporate partners. A director for the Buffalo Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics has been hired, and groundbreaking for a facility to house the center, to be located near Roswell Park Cancer Institute, is expected in the near future.
The university recorded total research expenditures for 2000-01 of $186,825,000, and Greiner said UB should reach $200 million within the next few years.
The Flint Village student apartment complex opened its doors in August, and the Creekside Village will open this August, with all undergraduate apartments already rented and all graduate and professional apartments soon to be rented. Planning continues on the Lee Road development, $22.6 million in masonry work has been completed at the Ellicott Complex, and a $5 million renovation of food service at the complex is under way.
The Campaign for UB has raised $181,021,711—72.4 percent of its goal—as of April 12. Greiner said he expects the campaign to reach its $250 million goal in the coming year. Among the gifts to the campaign is a $2 million gift from the Sal Alfiero family to support construction of an addition to Jacobs Management Center, home of the School of Management. Greiner noted that this structure will be the first—although certainly not the last—privately funded addition to a campus building.
The freshmen on the men's basketball team combined for the highest cumulative grade-point average of any freshman men's basketball class in the country, with an average GPA of 3.35. Noting that the highest GPA for a class member was 3.8 and the lowest was 3.0, Greiner said UB has "great athletes, but also good students." UB also posted a single-game attendance record of 22,658 at the Rutger's football game, and the men's basketball team was the only Mid-American Conference team to beat Kent State, which went to the "Elite Eight" in the NCAA tournament this spring.