If UB wants to attract valuable grants and academic opportunities, it needs to become better involved and engaged with the community around it, officials reported Wednesday at a meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
To achieve those goals, UB's Office of External Affairs is starting a campaign to emphasize community engagement. Marsha Henderson, who is new this semester to the vice president position for external affairs, said stepping up community ties is now a top priority.
Henderson met with the FSEC to discuss issues concerning the growth of UB's various research and community involvements that bear economic importance for Western New York.
Through newly designed press release pamphlets, relations with community officials and a Web site that will go live in February, Henderson's office is hoping to draw new attention to UB.
According to Henderson, UB is involved in many successful endeavors, but the lack of communication limits its influence.
"We have a certain responsibility to community engagement as a public university and UB does a lot. We just need to tell our story better," she said.
FSEC Chair Peter Nickerson said there is a "good deal of research at the university and having more affiliates strengthens the cause."
The main goal for this adopted priority is to rally support and financial stability, which in the future will provide a greater number of opportunities for students, Henderson said. Aside from attracting more grants and research prospects through fresh exposure, the program would improve support from political officials and companies, and it is targeted to incite pride amongst alumni donors.
"Some people just don't get what UB is doing," Henderson said. "They don't understand how to support us, and that is what we will be addressing. Some just need information."
Some students said they would agree UB doesn't get enough credit when it gets involved in the community.
"There's always room for more community involvement, but from what I'm aware of I think that we're doing a decent enough job," said Ryan Durling, a sophomore English education major. "But I don't think that we get enough coverage in the local media for somebody not involved on campus to understand."
While promotion to the public is one approach in improving UB's reach, many say internal measures are another vital step.
Gayle Brazeau, associate dean of academic affairs for the School of Pharmacy, said faculty could do their own individual part by actively talking to community members and drawing in resources for their own particular field.
"I don't think we're doing our job of being UB ambassadors to the community as well as we could, especially in terms medical research," Brazeau said.
Working closely with Henderson, David Dunn, vice president for health sciences, is also a new face to UB's administration. In his first three months at UB, he has evaluated the health and science schools coming across similar trends found by External Affairs.
Launching an internal campaign to find better ways to teach medical students, Dunn has found needs for improvement in clinician involvement.
Many of the nation's leading universities have university hospitals - including two within the SUNY system - so the absence of one at UB leaves a piece of education for clinical healthcare teaching missing.
"The campaign UBMD is striving to improve academics and clinical research. I've been making my rounds observing each department and one thing that has struck me is the absence of a strong university hospital," Dunn said at the FSEC meeting. "Maintaining a university hospital can be quite the financial albatross and needs a combination of affiliates to insure success. Perhaps with further community interaction, resources similar to the hospital will be in our future."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
