Silverman Library takes center stage at UB Council meeting

Monday’s UB Council meeting became the university’s version of “Your Hit Parade,” with the newly renovated Silverman Library and the School of Law taking center stage.

The council’s first meeting of the academic year was held in a classroom in Silverman, one example, President Satish K. Tripathi said, “of how we are making our vision a reality, enhancing the intellectual environment for our students.”

Austin Booth, vice provost for university libraries, told council members that after years of planning and months of construction, the transformation of Silverman into a “21st-century library space” marks the first phase of UB’s Heart of the Campus project, which is designed to bring students together in new types of “learning and living environments.”

Silverman, Booth said, is “now a vibrant, technology-filled space … devoted to the creation of knowledge.”

“Libraries have traditionally been a place where knowledge is absorbed and now libraries are places where knowledge is created,” she said, noting the new space allows students to collaborate on group projects, work individually, and create PowerPoints and videos.

“The space becomes a space for the free exchange of ideas, an intellectual hub for the campus,” she said.

“Gone are the days when we tell people to be quiet; we want the space to be raucous, we want the space to be full of energy and ideas and excitement, a place where students can come together to share their ideas and create new knowledge.”

Also topping UB’s “hit parade” was the announcement that the School of Law had reached the $30 million goal of its seven-year Campaign for UB School of Law.

Nancy Wells, vice president for philanthropy and alumni engagement, congratulated Interim Dean James Gardner “and to our colleagues in the law school who never gave up.”

“This was a tremendous effort,” Wells said.

Gardner reported the campaign has provided support to enable the law school to more than triple the amount of student scholarship aid; add five endowed faculty chairs; enhance teaching technology in O’Brian Hall, home of the law school; and provide resources for the Advocacy Institute, the New York City Program on Finance & Law, and the Discover Law program for promising minority undergraduates considering a career in law.

Other “hits” reported at the meeting by Tripathi and Provost Charles F. Zukoski:

• The launch of UB Curriculum, the university’s “massive re-engineering” of the undergraduate educational program, has gone smoothly. Considered the “capstone of the undergraduate experience,” revamped gen ed program aims to enrich students’ educational experience and prepare them revamped gen ed program aims to enrich students’ educational experience and prepare them UB Curriculum aims to enrich students’ educational experience and prepare them to succeed in today’s world. “We think of the UB Curriculum as the core education that you need in order to call yourself an educated individual,” Zukoski said, noting that the program is unique among large public research universities and has garnered UB much national attention — not only for the high-quality liberal arts education that is being offered, but also because UB is doing it at scale.
• Undergraduate applications to UB rose 10 percent during the past year, and overall enrollment continues to grow, with 5,700 new undergraduates — nearly 4,000 of those first-year students — and 3,200 graduate students coming to UB for the fall semester.
• Fifty new full-time faculty members joined the university this semester. The largest cluster is in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (12) and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (8).
• UB’s national reputation is growing. The university’s ranking in U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of national universities remained steady at 99 and rose two spots — to 43 from 45 — among public universities.
• More UB students are receiving nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, among them Fulbright, Marshall, Truman, Boran and Goldwater scholarships. In fact, eight UB students received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships this past year and 15 were named finalists for the award — an all-time high in both categories.
• UB faculty members, “the core of the university,” continue to receive national awards. In particular, Zukoski cited Othman Shibly, clinical professor in the School of Dental Medicine, who received the Ibn Al-Nafees Outstanding Achievement Award from the Syrian American Medical Society for his work with Syrian refugees, and Nnedi Okorafor, associate professor in the Department of English, who earned both the Hugo and Nebula awards — two of the science fiction genre’s highest honors — for her novella “Binti.”
• UB celebrates the reopening of Hayes Hall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, open house and symposium Sept. 23-24. The restoration of the iconic home of the School of Architecture and Planning, Tripathi noted, is “another example of the UB 2020 vision coming to life.”

“This is a time of great progress and momentum across our three campuses,” Tripathi told council members.