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University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, (formerly the State University of New York at Buffalo or SUNY-Buffalo, now also known more simply as the University at Buffalo or UB), located in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, is the largest and most comprehensive of the four university centers of the State University of New York (SUNY). The University at Buffalo is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) and houses the largest state-operated medical school and the only state-operated law school in New York State.

Contents

Nomenclature

An entrance sign for UB north campus
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An entrance sign for UB north campus

Prior to its founding a demand was made for a "University of Western New York" to be placed in modern day downtown Buffalo. Upon founding as a medical school, it was known as the University of Buffalo. The shortened term "UB" became the preferred casual term to refer to school. In the early 1960s, when the University of Buffalo was purchased by and incorporated into the SUNY system, the name changed to the State University of New York at Buffalo, and was official up until recently. Since early 2000, the State University of New York at Buffalo form has evolved, and there are three names deemed acceptable by the university:

The name change was enacted to clarify the position of the University at Buffalo to the other component universities within the SUNY system. [link]

History

UB was founded in 1846 as a medical school to train the doctors for the communities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and surrounding villages. Dr. James Platt White was instrumental in obtaining a charter for the University of Buffalo from state legislature in 1846. He also taught the first class of 89 men in obstetrics.

The doors first opened to students in 1847 and after associating with a hospital for teaching purposes, the first class of students graduated the medical school in July 1847. The first chancellor of the University was future President of the United States Millard Fillmore. Upon his ascension to the presidency after President Taylor's death, Fillmore stayed on as part-time chancellor. Fillmore's name now graces the University's correspondence and night school Millard Fillmore College as well as Fillmore Hall which is an academic and services building at the core of the residential Ellicott Complex.

After many expansions to the college medical programs, including a pharmacy division, UB acquired the Buffalo Law School from Niagara University in 1891 and formed the School of Law.

In 1909 the University acquired from the county of Erie, property outside the city of Buffalo to the northeast on Main Street. This property, (the "Erie County Almshouse") became the first building on what would later become UB's newest comprehensive campus. Although today, the South Campus (also called the "Main Street" campus) is often referred to as the "original campus", however; the South (Main Street) Campus is not actually the University's oldest property. UB was originally housed in a leased building, the First Baptist Church which had also served as a post office from 1836-1846.

In 1915, the University at Buffalo formed the College of Arts and Sciences, formally deviating from their tradition of only teaching for licensed professional fields. Over the decades the University added to the offerings of each division, including the graduate school, the graduate school of education, the school of architecture and planning, the graduate school of social work, the evening school named Millard Fillmore College, the school of engineering and applied sciences, and the school of informatics.

In 1950, the industrial engineering department branched off from the mechanical engineering department. In 1959, WBFO was launched as a simple AM radio station by UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and run by UB's students. WBFO became the launching pad of two modern National Public Radio personalities - Terri Gross and Ira Flatow.

In 1961, the Western New York nuclear research program was created. This little known program installed a miniature, active nuclear fission reactor on the Universities Main Street Campus. This program was not particularly active, nor could it compete with government-run research labs operated by rival UC Berkeley. Consequently, the programs performed in this facility were abandoned somewhat shortly after its inception. This reactor was formally decommissioned in 2005 with little fanfare due to material security concerns.

In 1964, UB acquired property in northern Amherst, NY for future development of a second campus catering to all non-medical disciplines at UB. This would later become the North Campus, and the center of most non-medical UB activity.

Today, UB is the self proclaimed "Crown Jewel of SUNY." As of 2005, it is the largest and most comprehensive school in the SUNY system, offering nearly every presently accredited higher education degree under one institutional roof (JD, MD, DDS, PhD, PharmD, MFA, MBA, BFA, MA, BA, MS, BS, EdM, EdD, MArch, MUP, MEng, as well as numerous advanced graduate certificates).

Two Campuses

UB has a total student capacity estimated around 30,000 total students, a number which is quite common among other "super university" schools. Though the school has never seen this many enrolled students, the design of UB is nonetheless accommodating. According to the UB Office of Institutional Analysis, 27,220 students were enrolled at the University in September 2005.

The two-campus model was envisioned by the trustees of the 1960s, each campus featuring a separation along disciplines.

North Campus

Many academic programs, including the entirety of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Law School, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Management, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Informatics, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the Graduate School of Education, as well as virtually every administrative office is located at the North Campus in Amherst, NY.

UB has facilitated the creation of a system of intercampus buses providing 20 hour a day transportation from Amherst to the Main Street Campus, responsible for running its own transit system. The North Campus is nearly 7 square miles with dormitories situated as far as a quarter of a mile from the academic buildings. The busing system provides students transportation between the dorm complexes on the North Campus and the academic sector of the same campus. The North Campus' immense size also necessitated the creation of a shuttle system circling the academic sector and surrounding areas including the administrative complex located nearly a quarter mile away from the academic area.

The North Campus offers a variety of entertainment programming and activity for students. The North Campus is the location of the Student Union, which houses offices for the Student Association and student-interest clubs; Slee Hall, which presents contemporary and classical music concerts; Alumni Arena, the home-court for University Athletics; and the Center for the Arts, a non-profit presenter of a wide variety of professional entertainment. Students on the North Campus often venture into the diverse environment of the nearby city of Buffalo to enjoy its urban diversity.

South Campus

The original campus located at the edge of the northeastern most part of Buffalo NY, is now the South Campus of the University at Buffalo. This campus is served by the northernmost subway station on Buffalo's Niagara Frontier MetroTransit system. Today, it is the home of some of the University's specialized academic programs including the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Public Health and Related Professions, the School of Nursing, the School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. In addition, the University at Buffalo South Campus is the home of the WBFO radio station, the University's biomedical science research complex, and certain administrative offices. Additionally, a portion of UB's resident population continues to live in the original residential complexes located on the South (Main Street) Campus.

Housing

Student dormitories are located on both the North and South Campuses. In 1999, the university built its first apartment complex for families and graduate students at Flickinger Court. Since the success of Flickinger, UB has developed South Lake Village, Hadley Village, Flint Village, and Creekside Apartments. Most students who wish to still live on or near the North Campus but enjoy the lifestyle of apartment living take advantage of these apartments. Students also find housing in private locations. Those locations are generally situated in the University Heights district of Buffalo, and other areas close to the North and South Campuses. The school assigns rooms based on a lottery system.

Academia

UB is highly regarded as an educational and research institution, and the admissions process is described as "highly competitive," particularly for out-of-state applicants. In recent years an increasing emphasis in both publicity and financial consideration has been placed on the development of a thriving community of research scientists, mostly centered around an economic initiative to promote Buffalo as a center of excellence for Bioinformatics and other advanced biomedical and engineering disciplines. The university's Center for Computational Research is one of the most powerful academic supercomputing sites in the eastern United States.

Like most research institutions, UB gives its faculty great incentive to research alongside their teaching obligations. Although this practice is very widespread, and practiced at virtually every university in America (and all SUNY Universities), some students criticize the system, claiming it guarantees tenure to faculty with questionable teaching capabilities. SUNY as a system has received fluctuating funding from the State of New York over the past 10 years as the result of much political debate by State politicians (though this may be more reflective of the volatile nature of the New York legislature than anything else). UB, like many other institutions, has had to take matters of ensuring future success into their own hands. The result are decisions to begin investments into fields of "commercial benefit" such as medicine, biotechnology and bioinformatics, which has left some pure academic fields like the natural sciences, mathematics and liberal arts disciplines in funding crunches.

Historically, UB has been a pioneering force in many aspects of technology. For example, UB was one of the first universities to offer a bona fide Computer Science major (distinct from a mathematics major). It was also an early pioneer in providing generous mainframe computer facilities and twenty-four hour terminal labs as an integral part of the undergraduate experience; during the early 1980s, for example, most UB students (regardless of their major) were proficient in the use of the campus mainframe, a gigantic VAX/VMS cluster. Additionally, UB's role as a crucial internet hub for the eastern seaboard during the internet's inception cannot be understated.

UB also has an exceptional library system and very large collection of titles, which allows local residents, high school students, alumni, and other groups unfettered borrowing privileges and comprehensive researching abilities.

Athletics

In 1993, the University's trustees and the President of the University completed their dream of advancing UB into the arena of major college sports. In anticipation of hosting the World University Games, this year saw the completion of the UB Stadium, a 30,000-seat open-air stadium located at the northern side of the Amherst campus. With the stadium also came acceptance into the elite Division 1 grade of collegiate sports.

The school's sports teams are known as the Buffalo Bulls. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football) and in the Mid-American Conference. The mascots are Victor E. Bull, who is blue with a gold nose ring and his sister Victoria S. Bull. After several years of poor performance in the two most popular college sports, men's basketball and football, the university's men's basketball team has recently begun to show some promise. In March 2005, the team fell short by only 0.5 seconds (for the Mid-American Conference Championship) of clinching a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The school's football team, however, still performs poorly, having won only one game during the 2005 season. At the end of the 2005 season, football coach Jim Hofher was dismissed from his position.

With the hiring of Turner Gill as head football coach, UB is the only Division I-A school with an African American Athletic Director (Warde Manuel), Men's Basketball Head Coach (Reggie Witherspoon), and Football Head Coach (Gill)

Miscellaneous

The location in and near Buffalo, New York, provides students, faculty, and staff with the usual urban facilites (museums, zoo, entertainment, transportation centers) without the congestion and high costs normally associated with large cities. By any reasonable measurement, Buffalo is a very low-cost metropolitan area offering all of the amenities expected of larger cities. Some, however, criticize some of the isolation that comes from North Campus' suburban setting. It is within driving distance of two of the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls, not to mention the large cities in southern Ontario, Canada (Toronto, for example, is less than a two hour drive).

The University at Buffalo is home to The Poetry Collection.

UB ranks 11th in the United States for international student enrollment, with about 15% of UB students being international. Certain departments' graduate students are overwhelmingly international (as for example in the mathematics department where in certain years fewer than 10% of the students have been American). Therefore, one supposes that the above cited 15% figure includes graduate students. While very well-represented, the international student figure among only undergraduates is probably quite a bit lower, while that for graduate students is probably quite a bit higher than the 15% overall figure. Among the non-international student body, the two largest contingents are perhaps the local Buffalo contingent (with as many as ten to twenty percent of local high school graduates in certain districts choosing to attend) and a well-represented New York City contingent.

UB also boasts two widely disseminated student-run periodicals: a newspaper, called [The Spectrum] and a magazine, called [Generation].

Notable Alumni of the University at Buffalo

UB maintains an extremely active alumni association with activities and strong representation in most parts of the world.

See also

References

External links

 

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