With your help and that of other UB Believers, we were able to accomplish a great deal in 2010. We raised awareness in Albany and across the state about the goals and importance of UB 2020 and the need to implement public policy reforms to empower UB and other SUNY campuses.

We have:

• Incorporated the most significant public higher education reform in a generation into the former governor’s 2010-11 budget.
• Created the strongest coalition of businesses, unions, and faith-based and civic institutions that the area has seen over the past 50 years, which lead to UB 2020 being the region’s highest priority during the last three years.
• Led a statewide advocacy campaign that transformed public and legislative opinion across New York State.

With the new year comes new leadership in Albany and new hope for approval of those reforms during the 2011 Legislative Session.

UB 2020 is still the region’s top economic development priority and the only realistic plan to reverse the decades of job loss our area has experienced. That is why the Western New York delegation called on Governor Cuomo to include these reforms in his executive budget proposal, which he will released on Feb. 1. These reforms will enable UB not only to rise among the ranks of America’s public research universities, but to grow and greatly increase its economic impact on Western New York and New York State. UB 2020 will not be achieved without them.