Satish Tripathi, UB’s 15th president, will step down next July, ending the 15-year term of a president who has overseen a transformation in the structure and mission of the university.
In an emailed announcement Tuesday afternoon, Tripathi said he spent “the past several months contemplating the decision.”
“While there is never an ideal time to leave this role, I do so knowing that the state of our university is strong,” Tripathi wrote.
Tripathi will transition into a full faculty role at UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences next fall.
Tripathi’s 15-year term is the longest since the presidency was established in 1962. Upon his resignation, he will be surpassed only by Samuel Capen, the university’s first full-time salaried chancellor, who served from 1922 to 1950 and led much of the development of South Campus, and Millard Fillmore, who retained the role while serving as U.S. president.
During his tenure, Tripathi has shepherded massive growth in UB’s engineering and computer science programs, nearly doubling enrollment in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He oversaw the construction of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, UB’s downtown campus and the renovations of Capen, Norton, Hayes, Crosby and Foster halls and the Student Union. And more recently, he has pushed for UB to lead research and development of artificial intelligence, attracting millions of dollars in state and federal investment.
Tripathi’s term has not passed without controvesy. Under his watch, the university largely strayed from its much-heralded UB 2020 campus plan, and administrators including Tripathi repeatedly shut down calls for transparency surrounding the UB Foundation’s investments from pro-Palestine and climate activists.
An international search for UB’s 16th president will commence this fall in accordance with SUNY guidelines, officials say. More information, including who will be on the presidential search committee, will be provided as the search begins.
The search will involve input from the campus community, officials said.
Sources close to Tripathi told The Spectrum of his deliberations last spring, but when asked at the time how much longer he planned to remain president, Tripathi said he had no current plans to retire.
“This is a great place and this is the longest I've been anywhere since I was born,” Tripathi said at the time. “A day will come, I will let you know, but I'm not thinking [about that] right now.”
Nadia Bangaroo contributed to the reporting of this article.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @my_my_my_myliennnn on Instagram.
