This year's strides in enrollment, increased applicant selectivity and UB's acing of the Middle States Accreditation process were among topics applauded at Tuesday's meeting of the UB Council. In addition, new d?(c)cor was revealed within the Council Room in 505 Capen Hall.
To start off the session, distinguished professor of art Harvey Breverman spoke on a new addition to the Council Room - his diptych pastel piece, "Cabal I and II," which now spans a large part of one wall. According to Breverman, the UB faculty and administration depicted in his 1982-83 work have all since left the university or passed away, including deceased English professor Leslie Fiedler, who is shown reclining with a cigarette in hand.
Breverman, whose triptych work, "Cabal III," hangs in the Center for the Arts atrium, said his art is very much intertwined with the university experience.
"I've used the very world and environment that my life is very much a part of," he said. "(The subjects in the picture) were all eminent people, who when they left for other schools, they were in great demand, and simply carried UB's tradition on to another place."
President William R. Greiner next presented graphs of UB's 2003 successes on a plasma screen television.
According to Greiner, a peak enrollment of over 28,000 students was not optimal in 1988 because at that point, UB's tuition revenue went back into SUNY funds, so smaller campuses such as Stony Brook benefited more than UB.
"There was no real benefit ... for us to run an enrollment that high. Tuition basically was siphoned off and sent to (SUNY)," he said.
However, now that UB is able to keep its income, said Greiner, the university is better fit to handle a maximum number of students. Still, the Office of Admissions is not likely to accept as large a number of students next year.
"We're not going to try to take another 3,600 class," Greiner said.
In terms of overcapacity, Greiner said UB has been able to provide class space for all students who registered on time this year, and students living in the Microtel in Tonawanda have been relocated to rooms on campus. Moreover, he said students in the Super 8 Motel on Flint Road are still living in luxury with continental breakfasts, air conditioning and free televisions.
"The kids in the Super 8 love it," he said.
Greiner said UB has passed Middle States Accreditation and other accreditation programs over the past year with flying colors.
"As (Middle States was) going out the door, it was a basic love fest," he said.
One department that did not receive accreditation, however, was the new computer engineering program, which draws from both the computer science and the electrical engineering departments. Greiner said this because the department is still being developed, and the accreditation board will likely return to check on its progress.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
