Robert Pape chose UB because of its affordability, moderate
distance from his home outside of Rochester and the breadth that
the university offered.
During the five years that Pape spent at UB, he was
editor-in-chief of the Spectrum student newspaper, in charge of
communications for the undergraduate Student Association and
elected as student representative to the UB Council.
“I’ve been sweet on UB 2020 from the
start,” he relates. “Seeing the grand plan of building
the campus, creating a center where more students can get a better
education, accessibility for students at all income levels and
integrating Buffalo proper and the University at Buffalo meant a
lot to me.”
Pape notes that “student government leaders at UB time and
time again have shown their unflinching support for UB 2020. The
Student Assembly, which is the legislative student body of the SUNY
system, has time and time again pushed for the same reforms that UB
2020 calls for in terms of rational tuition, in the flexibility
that it would give UB and other university centers.”
As a member of the UB Council, Pape traveled to Albany in spring
2009 to demonstrate the need for reform. Media reports showed him
spinning a roulette wheel, a symbol of the randomness of SUNY
tuition hikes that have been levied on students by the state
Legislature over the years to fill state budget gaps.
“Student money,” he notes, “is going to
continue to be used to fill gaps in state budgets until enough
legislators stand up and say, ‘Enough is
enough.’”
