The coming storms

New-look athletics, UB2020 and tuition should be on your radar

No more pencils, no more books, UB seniors are escaping university life's hooks. But UB's underclassmen (and the appropriately named Super-Seniors) will be back next fall for another year of the twists and turns of Buffalo life. There will always be issues that divide the student body - anything from who should be U.S. president to who has the best hair on the basketball team - but there are three coming issues UB students need to unite on. UB needs to forget silly divisions like Red versus Blue and realize that the coming tuition battle, the direction of UB athletics and President John Simpson's UB2020 plan are issues that affect all of us the same way: as UB students.

The Corrigan report

The UB athletic calendar concludes with two big question marks hovering over the department. The first are the results of the impending Gene Corrigan report, the report commissioned by John B. Simpson to analyze the athletic department and offer suggestions on the future of the program. Corrigan, a former NCAA president and athletic director veteran of powerhouse programs like Notre Dame, spent the semester evaluating each team and the administration. His report will allegedly offer suggestions on how the athletic department can improve and grow. He also is expected to offer guidelines for the selection of a new athletic director, though probably not whom that director should be.

UB students need to be aware of this report and what UB administration does with it because the A.D. search and its resulting effects will leave a lasting impact on the image of the university. The decisions will also be the most visible of Simpson's early tenure, and may be indicative of possible directions he plans on taking UB as a whole.

UB2020

Phase Two of President Simpson's UB2020 plan is well underway and the UB student has yet to have any input in the process. The plan is supposed to be a culmination of staff, faculty and student input, with all sides discussing and having a part in the developing future vision of UB. Faculty and staff have said they have had ample opportunity to discuss problems and solutions for the future of UB, but the student input part of the input-triangle is missing. There definitely isn't a lack of student opinion on campus, but there has not been a forum for student opinion on campus aside from protests that groups like Students Against Sweatshops have had to resort to in order to get their voice heard.

Thus far, there have been only two on-campus forums regarding UB2020 open to students, and those were not necessarily soliciting student impact as unveiling a report. The program needs to form student focus groups and interview students much like AVCOR - the consulting firm involved in the program - has done with faculty members. UB2020 can be an effective program in the ongoing evolution of UB, but it undercuts its own validity by not including students.

Tuition increases

It seems it's the problem that just won't go away, but the ongoing tuition hike debate still has not been resolved. Exorbitant tuition hikes, index plans and maintaining the status quo have all been ideas discussed in trying to resolve a perceived crisis brewing regarding SUNY funding, but students from all walks of life need to pay attention to the issues. With such a variety of positions being discussed in the New York State Assembly, it is surprising the solution that benefits every UB student the most is so obvious.

College students everywhere, not just UB, are resigned to tuition increases, so why not make it simple? The SUNY plan to increase tuition incrementally sets tuition at a level on par with inflation each year, and each subsequent class is set at one tuition level for a majority of their college career. This not only gives SUNY a reasonable increase as everything gets more expensive, but it also protects students from unmanageable increases. UB students seem to have a stronger voice in the SUNY SA, the most direct student voice in the State Legislature, but students should be aware of this plan, as it is the most personally affecting of all the large-scale decisions that will be made in the near future.