University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

President’s Message

September 26, 2007

Dear Colleagues,

This fall sees our university taking several leaps toward our commitment to become a model public research university for the 21st century. The various elements of UB 2020—our university's vision for enduring academic excellence and sustained social impact—are clearly moving from planning into active implementation.

Looking around campus, you have no doubt seen tangible signs of progress. This summer, we officially launched the comprehensive physical planning process that will support the UB 2020 vision, and we have already broken ground with projects that include the restoration and landscaping of Founders Plaza on the North Campus and the exterior restoration of Allen Hall on the South Campus.

“The undergraduate students who have joined us this fall represent our most selective and most academically accomplished entering class to date.”

Academically, our plans to enhance our strategic strengths are bearing fruit with the arrival of the second group of premier faculty hired as a result of these plans. And with academic excellence as our guiding mission, as UB's student body grows, it will also continue to become even more selective. The undergraduate students who have joined us this fall—representing our most selective and most academically accomplished entering class to date—already reflect this.

To ensure our continued progress, we've launched a major advocacy campaign called UB Believers to build support for the university and to raise awareness of its quality and accomplishments, and of its importance to our region and far beyond. Individuals throughout the extended UB community—faculty, staff, students, parents and university friends everywhere—are getting involved, and I encourage you to join in if you haven't already done so. You can find out more about UB Believers by visiting http://www.buffalo.edu/YourUB.

We have a great deal to be proud of as an academic community, and I firmly believe that the best is yet to come. I look forward to an exciting semester ahead, and to working with you to realize our full academic potential—and to thereby maximize our impact on the communities we serve locally and globally.

Sincerely,

President