News Releases

Despite the terror of "Jim Crow" and the backlash of white plantation owners, African Americans had managed to accumulate nearly 15 million acres of land by 1910. Today, that number has declined to less than 1 million acres. Although their numbers have decreased significantly, there are still a handful of black farmers who continue to hold onto their family farms.

In its first year of operation, the UB Business Alliance has received a "Project of the Year" award from a national organization, boosted its royalty income and the numbers of inventions disclosed and made significant changes in its incubator facility, making it easier for start-ups to rent space. The UB Business Alliance will mark these and other accomplishments at an anniversary celebration to be held Jan. 26 in the Center for the Arts.

When they first arrive on campus, college freshmen are deluged with orientation packets and publications. But after the first few weeks, that deluge dries up, often leaving students' questions unanswered. The University at Buffalo has figured out how to keep information flowing to freshmen -- but not flooding them -- through the development of MyUB, an online portal for freshmen that actually grows with the student.

Robert R. Orrange has been named associate director of the Office of Career Planning and Placement at UB.

Richard V. Lee, M.D., University at Buffalo professor of medicine, is editor of a special millennium issue of Annals of Internal Medicine devoted to various interrelationships between time and medicine. The issue was published Jan. 4, 2000.

"Wednesdays at 4 PLUS," the biannual literary series presented by the University at Buffalo Poetics Program, this spring will feature Pulitzer-Prize winner Jorie Graham, major American poets Clark Coolidge and Ronald Silliman, British deaf performance artist Aaron Williamson, and several prominent literary figures in the field of ethnopoetics.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo's Functional GI Disorders Center and the University at Albany have received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a clinical trial of two non-medical treatments for irritable bowel syndrome, one of the leading causes of work absenteeism.

The Charles B. Sears Law Library at the University at Buffalo has received an important collection of books, manuscripts, documents, treaties and other material related to the defense of indigenous rights -- and in particular, of American Indian nations -- from the late Howard R. Berman. A distinguished scholar of international human-rights law, Berman, a 1971 graduate of the UB Law School, devoted his legal career to defending the interests of aboriginal peoples.

New York State's 55-cent-per-pack increase in sales tax on cigarettes that will take effect March 1 will have a positive, over-all effect on the state economy, despite reducing cigarette sales, a study by a University at Buffalo health economist has reported.

David K. Anderson has donated to the University at Buffalo the internationally respected Anderson Gallery, with an estimated worth of up to $3 million, and has established a $2 million charitable remainder trust to assist with gallery maintenance and exhibitions. Anderson, whose previous donations to UB include support for the Center for the Arts and the donation of nearly 300 paintings, sculptures and prints with a value totaling more than $1.5 million, also plans to transfer to the university a substantial part of the Anderson Gallery permanent collection.