UB President Satish K. Tripathi met on Wednesday with students and faculty to discuss the last year in office and his vision for the future of the university.
Tripathi was appointed in April of last year; "Realizing Our Vision, Transforming Our Future," was an open forum held about possible plans moving forward while Tripathi is in office.
Tripathi talked about his plans to hire approximately 250 to 300 new faculty members to support the students - he hopes to bring in more quality students as soon as possible.
"We must become better," Tripathi said. "Not only to achieve greater stature, but to achieve a greater impact. This is the long range commitment we have made together as part of the UB 2020 process."
Tripathi discussed the move of the downtown campus, and he said that the proximity of the campus to facilities - like Buffalo General Hospital and Roswell Park Cancer Institute - gives students a better understanding and education through close work with doctors and physicians. Tripathi also said that hiring more faculty members would provide more time to perform cutting edge research in their fields for advancement.
"Education of medical students now is so much tied to their interaction with physicians and hospitals right from the first year," Tripathi said. "The close proximity provides [medical students with] a better education."
Though Tripathi has clear plans for what the university should look like, Chuck Mitchell - a professor in the geology department - said that the transition from provost to president was harder than it seemed, and he praised Tripathi for his work thus far.
"From our perspective, on our campus, it doesn't look like it was a difficult transition," Mitchell said. "He had the ability to carry through things that he'd been thinking about, even though there was a hiatus while the new president spent six months learning the ropes of the campus and what our priorities were."
Najmeh Moradyan Rizi, a first-year graduate student, criticized Tripathi for his involvement with international students.
"I'm a graduate student in the Center for the Arts and most of the students are Americans," Rizi said. "I've just heard that they need to get involved more with international students...what are the opportunities for them?"
Tripathi addressed international students by saying that every student - foreign and domestic - comes to UB for good faculty, good facilities, and a good environment overall.
The meeting also covered the tuition increase for the students and Tripathi's plan to address the lower income students.
"Affordability is always an issue even at the tuition level we had before the $300.00 increase," Tripathi said. "One of the things we make sure during the UB 2020 and the SUNY 2020 process was to take 25 percent of the increase from the top and make sure the students at the lower income level don't get impacted by the tuition increase."
Jeri Jaeger, a professor in linguistics and associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, praised Tripathi for his work during his first year as president, namely for programs like "Finish in 4" - UB's commitment to providing students with the academic resources they need to graduate in four years.
"I think there's been a lot of upsurge of positive things not only because we have more money but because Satish already had the big vision, but now we're putting it into place," Jaeger said.
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Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
