Dear UB Community,
As you may recall, in early August, I notified the UB community about budgetary news from Albany with considerable implications for our university. The Governor’s office had just announced a 7 percent reduction in addition to a 3 percent reduction that had taken effect on July 1. Together with President Simpson, I urged us to be proactive in our approach to this fiscal challenge so as to ensure the realization of our vision of excellence and to preserve the integrity of our educational and research mission.
Later today, the SUNY Board of Trustees is meeting, and I anticipate we will learn more about the budget situation. Right now, we do not know definitively the exact impact of statewide budgetary reductions to our university, but we expect it to be very significant.
In preparation for the anticipated budget reduction, we have taken several steps. Last month, I formed a University-Wide Strategic Financial Management Advisory Group. That group—comprised of faculty, staff, and students—has provided me with very valuable perspectives regarding the university’s immediate budgetary situation and a longer view of how to ensure the University at Buffalo achieves its fullest potential. The Advisory Group has greatly helped to frame the principles from which decisions will be made. In addition, I have met with many groups to seek even broader consultation, including the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, the Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee, and the Faculty Senate Academic Planning Committee. As I consult with the deans and vice presidents, they are bringing the perspective and input of the faculty and staff at large to the fore.
As I have been listening to our university community members, two very important principles for dealing with this budgetary challenge have emerged. First principle: It is imperative that we maintain our long-term vision for UB as a premier public research university and that we align reductions and investments to our institutional strategic priorities. Second principle: We must protect our core educational and research mission.
Last Friday, President Simpson and I held a day-long meeting with our university’s senior leadership. The focus of this meeting was on assessing and analyzing our situation; no budget decisions were made during that meeting, as we are still in the process of gathering input from our university. It is important to note, that during that meeting our senior leadership unanimously agreed that our UB2020 vision of academic excellence must be preserved; our dedication to providing the best education to our undergraduate, graduate, and professional students must not be compromised; and the full potential of our research program must be realized. Therefore, selective budgetary reductions—rather than across the board reductions—will be designed with these principles and mandates as our guide. I, and the university’s senior leadership, will keep these criteria in mind as we explore ideas to increase revenue, decrease costs, and become more efficient in support of our strategic priorities.
In August, we issued a 45-day moratorium on hiring and major purchases (any expenditure exceeding $5,000). The purpose for this hiring and purchasing “time-out” is to preserve current degrees of financial freedom while learning more about the specific actions called for by the Governor and SUNY, and understanding more clearly how these actions will impact our university. The university’s senior leadership believes the moratorium has been successful in meeting this objective; and we have concluded that the prudent thing to do is to extend it for an additional three weeks—until October 15. This extension will provide additional time to learn more about the budgetary impact so we can make informed decisions. We thank you in advance for your cooperation in following the same process for this extended moratorium period.
I will continue to keep the university informed regarding the budgetary situation and the university’s response to the projected budget reductions. I firmly believe that because of our UB2020 transformational initiatives, the prudent use of university resources, and the strategic investment in the academic priorities of our university, we are in a favorable position to respond to this situation. I am not saying this will be easy, it will not be. Nonetheless, our success in responding thoughtfully and strategically to this situation as a university community clearly reflects our collective commitment to ensuring that important decisions—across our university—are aligned with our strategic priorities.
Our future progress will rely on our continued collaboration and dialogue. I want to encourage our entire university community to forward their advice to me as a means to broadly inform my thinking about this fiscal challenge. We will soon launch a website to keep the university community up to date and to provide another mechanism to gain your input. Please watch for more information regarding the website later this week in the UB Reporter.
I would like to acknowledge and thank the University-Wide Strategic Financial Management Advisory Group, the Faculty Senate and respective committees, the senior leadership, and the faculty and staff for your wisdom and your broad institutional perspective. Overwhelmingly, I have heard from so many of you that “We are in this together,” and I thank you for your support and your unwavering commitment to our university’s vision of academic excellence.
Sincerely,
Satish K. Tripathi
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Last Modified: Tuesday November 03 2009