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University at Buffalo

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University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Official Seal of the University at Buffalo
TypePublic
Established1846
Endowment$537.1 million[1]
PresidentJohn B. Simpson
Academic staff
1,932
Undergraduates18,165
Postgraduates9,055
Location
Buffalo
,
NY
,
USA
CampusSuburban, 1,192 acres (4.8 km²)
AffiliationsState University of New York
MascotVictor E. Bull
Victoria S. Bull
WebsiteBuffalo.edu

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (also known as the State University of New York at Buffalo or SUNY-Buffalo and abbreviated as UB) is located in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. It is the largest and most comprehensive one of the four university centers within the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The University is one of 60 elected members of the prestigious Association of American Universities. Classified as a Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive (formerly called Research I) institution by the Carnegie Foundation, UB houses the largest state-operated medical school and features the only state-operated law school in New York State.

Nomenclature

File:Ublogo.gif
Logo of the university.

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:

  • University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. This is the full name, used by the university for formal communications to national audiences.
  • University at Buffalo. This is the less formal name, used within the university, and with many outside groups that are familiar with the university.
  • UB. This is the most casual form.

The name University of Buffalo is still used by many of its graduates, although it is officially frowned upon. The nomenclature change was enacted to clarify the position of the University at Buffalo as one of the leading doctoral-awarding, research-extensive universities within the SUNY system. As the international audience becomes increasingly familiar with our formal "University at Buffalo, The State University of New York" name, the "State University of New York at Buffalo" name should no longer be used.[2]

History

File:Hayes clock tower UB.jpg
The Hayes Hall clock tower on the UB South Campus

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 the 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 evening and continuing education school Millard Fillmore College located on the South Campus as well as the Millard Fillmore Academic Center which is an academic and administrative services building at the core of the residential Ellicott Complex located on the North Campus.

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. During the late 1960s, the College of Arts and Sciences was divided into three separate schools: arts and letters, natural sciences and mathematics, and social sciences. During the 1998-1999 academic year, the 3 schools were reunited and created the existing College of Arts and Sciences.

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 urban planning, the school of management, the graduate school of social work, the evening and continuing education 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 University's South (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, DPT, DDS, PhD, PharmD, MFA, MBA, BFA, MA, BA, MS, BS, MusB, EdM, EdD, MArch, MUP, MEng, as well as numerous advanced graduate certificates/AdvCrt).

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. UB is in the early stages of a master planning process (known as UB 2020) that is aiming to add 10,000 students and 750 faculty members over the next fifteen years.

The two-campus model was envisioned by the SUNY trustees and UB Council of the 1970s as a result of financing reductions by the State University of New York System, with each campus featuring a separation along academic disciplines.

North Campus

File:Academic Spine UB.jpg
The academic spine.

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 inter-campus buses providing 20 hour a day transportation from the North Campus in Amherst township to the South Campus on Main Street in Buffalo, and is solely responsible for running the UB 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 South Campus in 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.

Abbott Hall.

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. UB is currently in the planning and design phase of relocating the School of Pharmacy to Achenson Hall on the South Campus with 2010 as the target year. In addition, the University at Buffalo South Campus is the home of the WBFO radio station, the University's biomedical science research complex, the Health Sciences Library and certain administrative offices. Additionally, 20% of UB's resident population continues to live in the original residential complexes located on the South (Main Street) Campus.

Housing

Student residence halls 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.

File:Hadley Village UB.jpg
The Hadley Village Apartments at North Campus

The student residence halls of South Campus are:


  • Clement Hall—The 9th floor of Clement was used as living areas for guests of the University, including distinguished speakers, until the Fall of 2003 when the floor was opened up to 64 incoming freshman. At the end of the Spring semester in 2005, the University intended to close off the 9th floor of Clement Hall again, but students successfully pushed to have this stopped.
  • Goodyear Hall—The only First year students-only residential building on South Campus. While the buildings population is mostly Freshman, first year students of different class standings can reside in Goodyear. Goodyear is also home to the Main Street Dining hall (open for all meals), and the Main Street Market (open nightly, usually after 8 PM). Goodyear is also home to the Main Street Area Office.
  • Michael Hall—the first and second floor of Michael Hall is home to the Student Health Center. The upper floors (3-4) house student rooms.
  • MacDonald Hall
  • Pritchard Hall
  • Schoellkopf Hall


The student residence halls of North Campus are:


    • Ellicot Complex
  • Fargo Quad
  • Porter Quad
  • Red Jacket Quad—Includes Dining Hall
  • Richmond Quad—Includes Dining Hall
  • Spaulding Quad
  • Wilkeson Quad—Freshman Only


    • Governors Residence Halls
  • Clinton Hall—Clinton Hall houses international students, transfer students, and general upperclassmen. The first floor includes a computer lab and the basement includes a study center.
  • Dewey Hall—Dewey Hall houses freshman, including those from the Leadership House and Ackers Programs. Dewey Hall contains the Governors Dining Hall in the basement.
  • Lehman Hall—Lehman Hall houses primarily upperclassmen and includes a basement game room and access to the Cellar, an after hours concession area,
  • Roosevelt Hall—Roosevelt Hall houses mostly freshman Honors students, however the first floor houses special interest upper classmen. In the basement is access to the Cellar and the Roosevelt Gym.

Academia

O'Brian Hall, houses the UB Law School. Baldy Hall is on the left and is home to the Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Social Work.

UB is highly regarded as an educational and research institution. The admissions process is described by U.S. News & World Report as "more selective."[3] This is particularly true 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 and create the Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics and Life Sciences as well as 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, which once ranked 22nd out of the top 500 supercomputing sites in the world. [4]

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 20 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.

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).[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Additionally, UB's role as a crucial internet hub for the eastern seaboard during the internet's inception cannot be understated.[citation needed]

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

The school's sports teams are known as the Buffalo Bulls. However, the women's teams were originally called the Buffalo Royals. A proposal to rename both men and women's teams to the Royal Bulls has not been taken seriously.

In 1958, the football team won the Lambert Cup, emblematic of supremacy in Eastern U.S. small-college football. Several UB football stars from that era went on to play professional football, including quarterback John Stofa with the American Football League's Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals, and defensive lineman Gerry Philbin with the AFL's New York Jets. Philbin is a member of the AFL Hall of Fame and the All-time All-AFL Team.

Since 1996, the UB teams have participated in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football), in the Mid-American Conference. The mascots are 'Victor E. Bull', a blue bull 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).

Fight songs

The University of Buffalo has three fight songs Victory March, Go For a Touchdown, and Buffalo Fight Song.

Victory march

Fight, fight for Buffalo
Be proud to fight for your dear Blue and White.
So Hit 'em high, Hit 'em low, Throw 'em high, Throw 'em low
Fight for your dear old Bulls. (Go! Bulls! Go!)
Cheer, cheer for Buffalo
Our spirit will be with you 'til the end...
So play the game as best you can
For the glory of our dear Buffalo.

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 in Amherst township. Others also criticize the University for developing in the suburban community instead of stimulating growth in the downtown Buffalo area. 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/Long Island contingent.

UB also boasts three widely disseminated student-run periodicals: a newspaper, called The Spectrum and two magazines: Visions and Generation.

UB annually hosts the world’s largest mud-volleyball game know as “Ooz-fest.” Teams of at least 6 students compete in a double elimination volleyball tournament at “The Mud Pit” each April. Fire trucks are brought in to saturate the dirt courts to create the mud. Awards are handed out to not only the victors, but the most creatively dressed. In the past, students have worn business suits and even dresses to the tournament.

In September of 2006, the 14th Dalai Lama came to the University at Buffalo for a three-day visit to speak about world peace and to meet with select groups of students.

Notable faculty

(alphabetically arranged)

  • Ronald H. Coase, Former Professor (1951-1958) and Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1991).
  • Herbert A. Hauptman, Research Professor of Biophysical Sciences, Director of the Medical Foundation of Buffalo, and Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1985).
  • Ernst Witebsky, Former Professor and Department Chair of Bacteriology and Immunology (1941-1967), and Director of the Center for Immunology (1967 until his death in 1969).
  • Ta-You Wu, Former Professor and Department Chair of Physics (1968-1983), and President of Academia Sinica (1983-1994).

Notable alumni


See also

References

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