Dear Colleagues,
Over one year ago as a university community, we came together with a progressive plan to evolve the way the University at Buffalo approaches our research, scholarship, and creative activities.
Organizational plans, especially ambitious organizational plans, do not unfold easily nor are they realized without sustained effort. Moreover, institutional progress is only possible when we have the courage to evaluate honestly the success of our comprehensive programmatic pursuits and to make strategic decisions based on such evaluations.
As articulated in many forums and throughout our contemporary institutional documents, the University at Buffalo community has defined its goal: to be recognized throughout the nation and world as one of the premier public research universities of the 21st century. As a campus community, we understand the importance of maintaining a tenacious focus on this noble and worthy pursuit. I am proud to state that today, because of the leadership of President Simpson, our faculty, deans, vice presidents, and the invaluable support of our academic support staff, we are traveling on this path towards institutional excellence.
In this fiercely competitive environment, the reality is that institutions that aspire to be recognized as higher education leaders must think differently and creatively. It is this ambitious path that UB has chosen; and it is this path that has presented both challenges and opportunities. Thus far, these challenges have evoked exceptionally provocative and entrepreneurial thinking from all sectors of our campus. Through the engagement of our campus community, it is increasingly apparent that we are seizing opportunities to fulfill our institutional promise. One critical area in which this is obvious is in our scholarly enterprise.
As a community of scholars, we developed an innovative paradigm for furthering our research agenda known as the UB 2020 Strategic Strengths Initiative. This paradigm was uniquely designed to harness our university’s intellectual strengths by bringing together faculty scholars from across UB academic departments. Through the committed work of our faculty, institutionally we have identified ten multidisciplinary strategic strengths that have the potential to redefine the way in which we – quite simply stated – understand, approach, and resolve the questions of the 21st century. Today, faculty are collaborating on issues of critical social importance, while at the same time, thinking about questions of tomorrow - - positioning ourselves to be at the intellectual forefront of emerging fields of discovery.
One year after defining ten strategic strengths, six of the ten Strategic Strength Coordinating Committees have completed the major steps of the planning process and have shifted their energies to the operationalization phase of this effort. Currently, the cognizant deans, faculty leaders, and the vice president for research are developing plans to determine how to most effectively invest resources for the development and support of each strategic strength.
UB2020 provides an institutional context for making decisions at all levels of our organization, including the investment in our university. It is our plan to hire 250 new faculty over the next few years to support our Strategic Strengths Initiative and to strengthen our academic programs. This will require support from SUNY, the prudent and strategic use of our existing resources – central resources and individual decanal and unit resources – as well as the collaborative engagement of our deans and faculty. I am steadfast in my belief that by building our faculty the intellectual vibrancy of our campus - from our studios to classrooms to laboratories – will be even more dynamic then it is today making the University at Buffalo the university for scholars who are the best in their fields and for undergraduate and graduate students who will be our nation’s next generation of leaders, scholars, educators, artists and architects, engineers, physicians, judges, poets, and activists.
The University at Buffalo has a distinctive history, an exciting present, and unlimited potential for the future. It is my unwavering contention that this future will find the University at Buffalo leading the way in educational, research, creative, and technological innovation.
I wish you the best in all of your scholarly endeavors. Peace and happiness in the New Year.
Last Modified: Friday January 04 2008