Armed with snow boots and a big blue shovel -- gifts from President William R. Greiner and fellow administrators -- Dr. John Barclay Simpson began preparing at Friday's news conference to take the reigns of what Greiner has called "SUNY's flagship university.
"Everything seems to converge and suggest to me that this is the opportunity of a lifetime," Simpson said Friday. "I want to make it so there's no questions in the minds of anyone that this is the premiere public research university in the northeast."
Simpson will be named as UB's 14th president on Oct. 28, pending a near-certain approval from the SUNY Board of Trustees. He is expected to take office on Jan. 1, 2004.
"I take it for granted he will be (named president)," said Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman of both the UB Council and the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. "I would say that he's met a majority of the Board of Trustees, and they all express a feeling of support."
SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King is the second-to-last stop in naming a new president. He selected Simpson out of choices provided to him by the search committee and the UB Council.
"I will be delighted to recommend to our Board of Trustees John Simpson for the president of this great university," King said.
Simpson has been the campus provost and executive vice chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz since 1998. Prior to that he held teaching and administrative positions at the University of Washington in Seattle for 23 years. Simpson said he had not planned to leave Santa Cruz, but UB's search committee sought him out.
"I was contacted," Simpson said. "I knew that UB was searching for a president, but I wasn't looking for a president's job. Besides - Buffalo?"
Simpson is divorced and has two grown children and a grandson that live in Seattle. He earned masters and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University in neurobiology and behavior, and has traveled to Pennsylvania and Australia for teaching and research.
In his address, he stressed research as a priority for UB.
"I have a sense that this is already the best public research university in the northeast," he said. "I have an agenda personally and professionally of academic excellence."
Simpson said the developing bioinformatics program will point the university in the right direction for greater research opportunities.
"I think it's worth pursuing, and pursuing with vigor," he said.
Simpson stressed emerging prospects for public universities, including diversified sources of funding and large increases in demand for a state education.
"Even though it is a challenging time for higher education, particularly public higher education, with demands of access and dwindling state support - at the same time there are astonishing opportunities which universities are beginning to recognize, seize and move themselves into this next century," Simpson said.
According to Simpson, reaching out to diverse campus groups will be a hallmark of his administration -- a goal that he said was particularly important after the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.
"I also believe in having a public institution that embraces diversity in everything it does," said Simpson. "I'm astonished by the failure, again and again, of appropriate dialogue, it would seem to me, between folks in opposite corners outside of the university. This perhaps may be one of the most important things the university can provide - that safe haven to encourage discourse and dialogue."
Simpson is entering the scene at the same time Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi has announced her departure to Albany to serve as SUNY vice chancellor and chief of staff. This places Simpson in the position to hire a new provost, and he said he will be prepared to make a new hire once he gets used to UB, noting that his position at Santa Cruz required him to be closely involved with the hiring process.
"I don't know what the issues are that the people in central administration positions have to deal with, but I'll find out quickly and I don't hesitate at all from doing what has to be done to, if necessary, bring the right people in," he said.
Simpson has visited UB four times since becoming a candidate for president and will make his permanent move to Buffalo within the coming months.
"I have to pick up myself and my cat, and move across the country," he said, adding that he anticipates getting to know the university and Buffalo community more closely.
"Someone like me has a snapshot, but not a good one. I haven't wandered the halls," said Simpson, attributing his limited familiarity to the confidentiality of the search process. "One of the things they do is try and basically ... keep a tarp over you because it's done largely in secret, for reasonable reasons."
Simpson said he is ready to become involved with UB's Division I-A athletics program, and in the meantime he will develop as a Bills fan.
"I kind of always liked the Bills," he said. "I didn't know why, and now I understand."
Simpson received rave reviews from search committee members and administration alike.
Jacobs had warm praise for Simpson's commitment to university development amid state deficits and budget cuts.
"John's resume speaks volumes for itself, but what it doesn't tell you is his passion and lifelong commitment to higher public education," Jacobs said.
"He has the kind of personality, ideas, creativeness and motivation to move this university in the right direction it needs to go," said Julia C. Novelli, graduate student representative to the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.
"We had some great, great candidates," Jacobs said. "Clearly John was the right guy for this campus."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
