Nestled primarily in Amherst, removed from the City of Buffalo, UB has developed a reputation among community members as being "just there," according to a presentation from UB2020's Community Engagement Task Force last Thursday in the Student Union Theater.
Although the task force found UB does a great deal of good within the Buffalo community, the university still lags behind the likes of Buff State and Canisius in the eyes of Buffalonians as a neighbor.
The forum was the first of its kind for the UB2020 program, and task force members said they want to change UB's perception in the community.
"Students here want to graduate from an institution that's not only number one in the state, or number one in the nation, but number one in its own town," said Dennis Black, vice president for Student Affairs. "To be able to say that really enhances the value of the degree."
In talking with elected officials, business owners, and community members, the general consensus was that as the highest enrolling university in the area, UB is a powerful entity but an underutilized community asset, according to Scott Nostaja, a consultant who delivered the presentation.
"When you look at what this university does, you see 10,000 points of light spread out all over the community, but unfortunately, clearly, UB is not being recognized," Nostaja said.
Lack of recognition could be potentially fixed by a better organization of UB's many but scattered outreach efforts, according to the task force's suggestions.
Under a new Community Engagement Unit, UB's "10,000 points of light" could be better inventoried and ultimately focused into a handful of strong and influential beams.
"Our next discussion as a campus community will be to ask ourselves, 'what are the four or five community engagements we want to focus on in order to maximize our contribution to our community?'" Black said.
Beyond creating these opportunities for partnerships, the task force also suggested programs that include incentives for community service and the encouragement of local home ownership for faculty and staff to cultivate a culture of community engagement among faculty, staff, and students.
"Along with the benefits of a public university come the public obligations of civic responsibility, and we need to teach it, to act it out," Black said.
Promoting this responsibility among students could be a tall order for UB, since although there has been a call for extensive student participation in UB2020, only four or five students were in attendance.
Black said he believes ultimately students care about the standards of their community, and as the task force's recommendations are implemented, students will be willing to take a proactive role in enhancing UB's status in the community.
Thursday's forum was the first of many steps for the Community Engagement Task Force, but the committee hopes to at least have the leadership and structure for the new Community Engagement Unit in place by the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year.
"We're looking at not just a year's work, but many years," Black said.
An in-depth version of the committee's assessment will be available Feb. 21 on the UB2020 Web site.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
