Tripathi Speaks

Spectrum Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino sat down for his first-ever interview with UB President Satish K. Tripathi last week, finally getting the chance to ask him about the issues The Spectrum has reported on all year.

From the problems with the HUB and financial aid, to the UB Foundation and TCIE's illegal donation to former Erie County Executive Chris Collins' political campaign, and (almost) everything in between, no question was out of bounds.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Spectrum:You helped win a $100 million state grant for the Buffalo area as leader of the Regional Economic Development Council. What will the money be used for?

Satish K. Tripathi: So, this is really sort of great news for Western New York…There's a couple of projects on developing workforce; one, for example, is really to be on the East Side of the city to train people in the automobile industry of mechanics and so on, which has a lot of jobs, but there's no real training. And the only training that was available was in East Aurora somewhere, and they couldn't have transportation to go there and do it…

There's also a project where we teach the high school students arts and other things – extracurricular activities that actually increase the graduation rate…There are three or four different projects [involving the] Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus where UB is a major force.

TS: Can you tell me a little bit about the progress of the medical school's move downtown?

SKT: Sure, so the medical school move is a five-year project, which we began last summer…We are working with the SUNY Construction Fund, and we have isolated an area of where we want to build the building, so, right now, negotiation to buy the land is going on in one aspect. We also are hiring architects to think about and envision the ideas – what kind of things could be built…It's going to be a $375 million building.

[Part of the money comes from] the $35 million that was the NY SUNY 2020 Challenge Grant, which the governor announced last year…We have that money already, we have started a campaign to raise $50 million [in] philanthropic money, and we already got $5 million of that $50 million already, so we are moving in that direction.

The governor [N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo], in his budget, has a bond here for this construction, about a $210 million bond that should be a part of that construction as well. So a lot of different pieces, moving pieces, but we are making progress in all those and are on target to finish in five years.

TS: Why do you think it's important for the medical school to be moved downtown?

SKT: Well, if you think about the medical education, and if you think about the translational research that the medical field actually produces – something known as bench-to-bed and bed-to-bench – the relationship between the hospitals and the medical school is very, very, very tight.

The students actually don't wait until the third year to go to the hospital, [but] now they're going in [their] second year…So if you think from the educational viewpoint, the experience will [be] next to the hospitals. We don't own the hospitals, so that would be really fantastic.

If you think about the research and the translational research that will come out, that would be fantastic, too, because the researchers, the clinicians, the rest of the group there, the graduate students – they can work together to do the kind of things we need to do so that we actually provide better care, but we can also develop to new technologies and new intellectual property that could actually spin off into more companies and be more jobs in Buffalo.

But, the other aspect really is, think about downtown Buffalo and think about the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The medical school moves there, fills the gap, and this becomes a very vibrant city.

TS: Do you anticipate a negative impact on South Campus?

SKT: I'm very mindful of that, actually. If you think about South Campus, and if you go back and look at the South Campus, and how it was organized, and how it was, [part of] it was [designed by renowned architect] E.B. Green – a very beautiful campus.

Now, what we have there is a bunch of temporaries and some old buildings, so first of all, the…temporaries would go away, and we are going to restore the campus to the E.B. Green design. We are actually investing money there…