Due to the students that have voiced their negative views over the years in the Princeton Review's online survey of the "top" 361 US colleges, UB ranks high among the Review's least desirable categories.
Grading everything from professors to campus aesthetics, each year the Review allows students to air opinions, positive or negative, about the campuses they call home. UB ranks in the top 20 of seven different categories.
All but one of them is negative.
Of the seven, UB comes in at number 15 in the "professors make themselves scarce" category and number 18 in "campus is tiny, unsightly, or both."
As far as these rankings are concerned, UB's only asset is its diverse student population, where the Review ranks UB at number 14. (According to the Institute of International Education UB is 10th in international enrollment.)
Diversity may be a point of pride, but overall, reparable negative opinions of our institution that seemingly go unchanged is a much larger cause for concern.
Perception is everything, and UB as a whole needs to work on changing its image.
It's true that there are instructors who need to hold more or at least some office hours (instead of claiming that they are exclusively "by appointment"). But completely aside from the academic observations, quality of life issues need to be addressed.
In the Review one student claims that UB's undergraduate mecca of a North Campus is "a cement wasteland situated within the cultural void that is Amherst, New York." While many others complain that busses connecting the North and South Campus don't run frequently enough.
Until the day when students can teleport from one location to another, they are always going to complain about campus transportation. But when it comes to bashing the Greater Buffalo-Niagara community, students ought to know better, and the UB administration should be partnering with local organizations and municipalities to make this happen.
We're not talking about students picking up storm debris in Delaware Park (although it was nice to see) or hitching a ride on a yellow school bus at the dorms only to be dropped off at a drug-ladened booze bash.
No. We'd like students to see the real Buffalo instead of being cloistered like hermits on the islands that are UB's two campuses.
It's time to break from the misconception among students that Western New York is a dull, boring place.
Students need to experience the awe of the Niagara Gorge, discover Downtown Buffalo, participate in the Chicken Wing Festival, check out a Sabres game, and take advantage of the countless other major cultural attractions that are a part of this unique community.
For the sake of Western New York, the UB administration and organizations like the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise need to market the Buffalo area to the bright young minds that are already at UB. If done right, students will stay in Buffalo, companies will be more apt to invest in the region, the local economy will strengthen, and in the end, both UB and Western New York will come out winners.
While this is not the "be-all-end-all" to Buffalo's woes, and while it will take a hell of a lot of work, it's a huge step in the right direction.
For more information on how UB measures up, visit www.princetonreview.com.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
