UB President William R. Greiner and Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Black marked the six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on "Talk of the University" by discussing safety on campus, changes to the UB general education requirements, and the aftermath of Sept. 11.
"I think that the institution mentally and emotionally has rebounded from what was a very low period," said Greiner. ". I think our faculty responded in a very thoughtful fashion to an extraordinarily emotional event."
"There isn't a conversation, consideration or decision in which the events of Sept. 11 doesn't come into play," said Black. ". Our students that are graduating are dealing with economic impacts in terms of opportunities that are no longer there, that might have been before this disaster."
The university will also feel the economic loss that resulted from the attacks, said Greiner, who called the impact of the attacks on New York state "extraordinary."
When asked about the long-term effects, Greiner said, "Next year will be a difficult year." He later added, however, "There will be some fiscal impact on the university," but that it is "small compared to the emotional impact and losses for the families."
As far as security in the UB community is concerned, Black said after the attacks there was a need for "re-examination." Black said, "We've had to go back to the drawing board and re-establish an emergency plan for North and South campuses, that takes into consideration things that are horrible to think about."
One of things the university has had to do is consider not only what the university would do in the event of emergency, but also what it could do for Western New York, said Black.
One of the callers, a senior from Clarence, asked whether the university has any plans to focus on safety basics on campus such as security in parking areas and lighting between the buildings.
In response, Black said a group of volunteers meets with public safety and the facilities department once a semester to perform a safety walk around both campuses. The group notes places of concern and discusses what can be done to improve those particular areas.
"We're committed to having the campus as safe as we possibly can," said Black. "We do have route patrols out 24 hours a day and we keep installing more emergency blue-light phones."
"We don't have a high rate of problems in our parking lots and so forth, though I do admit they can be pretty foreboding at 10 or 11 o'clock at night," said Greiner.
"I think to give a greater sense of security is to get more people living on campus," he continued. "The most secure environment is an environment where there are a lot of people."
Another caller raised the issue of the general education requirements, asking the two to "address whether UB is planning to reduce the foreign language requirement from three to one semester, and if so, why that would be and what effect it would have on UB's academic reputation as well as the foreign language department's well-being?"
"We had a disparity between what the SUNY trustees were requiring and what was required on our campus," Greiner said. "We, in the whole of the SUNY system, have had to adapt to these new requirements."
General education requirements at UB must fulfill certain standards set by the SUNY system. Greiner was not concerned about the effects the altered standards would have, however; he told the caller that the changes put more emphasis on the "quality of the major programs and heavy emphasis on graduate and professional programs."
"I personally would like every American to have full command of two languages," he said. "I think that's such an advantage in this world."
