Caroline Genco — Tufts University’s provost and senior vice president — will succeed Satish Tripathi as UB’s 16th president starting Aug. 10, making her the first woman to lead the university in its 180-year history. She will also be the first Buffalo native to oversee the university after the presidency was established in 1962.
The announcement came during a State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, one month before Tripathi’s 15-year presidential term officially ends in July.
Genco oversaw Tufts University’s eight academic schools, spearheading the “Beyond 175” plan — a list of goals the university sought to achieve past its 175th anniversary in 2027. Set to start in this fall, the initiative included widespread faculty recruitment and retention goals, interdisciplinary career-based programs and an ambitious strategy to fundraise $250 million annually by 2030.
Genco’s nearly five-year tenure as Tufts provost was also marked by controversies related to DEI, pro-Palestine protests and faculty employment, issues that have embroiled university administrators across the country in recent years.
“This move represents a meaningful homecoming for me,” Genco wrote in a statement to the Tufts community on Tuesday. “As the daughter of immigrants and the first in my family to attend college, I know firsthand the transformative impact that the SUNY system can have on students, families and communities.”
UB’s search for Tripathi’s replacement had been predominately behind closed doors since its launch on Sept. 30. Community members were able to voice priorities and aspirations for UB’s next president in November listening sessions, but only the 22-member search committee could review specific candidates and their applications.
The committee reviewed upwards of 50 qualified applicants and submitted three recommendations to SUNY Chancellor John King and the Board of Trustees, said Jerry Jacobs — chair of the UB Council and presidential search committee.
Genco stood out in the crowded field, Jacobs said.
“Our committee admired her prioritization of student and faculty success, her unwavering commitment to integrity, and her vision for UB’s bright future,” Jacobs said during Tuesday’s SUNY Board of Trustees meeting. “And it helps that she’s one of us — a kid from Buffalo who set out to achieve at the highest levels and now wants to come home. That’s the ultimate success story.”
Genco will collect salaries totaling $900,000: $600,000 from state-appropriated funds, $150,000 from the SUNY Research Foundation and $150,000 from the private UB Foundation.
Tripathi collected around $650,000 in salaries when he officially was appointed UB’s 15th president in April 2011, which is equivalent to roughly $962,500 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.
A university spokesperson told The Spectrum that UB’s presidential salary is established by SUNY based on the national marketplace for presidential salaries at public research universities in Association of American Universities (AAU) and on UB’s status as the largest institution in SUNY.
“When benchmarked against UB’S AAU public peers — institutions with comparable research missions and complexity — UB’s presidential compensation falls below the median,” a statement emailed to The Spectrum read. “More than half of comparable AAU public research university presidents are compensated at $1 million or more.”
UB presidents live at 889 LeBrun Road — a six-bed and six-bathroom house purchased by the UB Foundation in 1982 and now estimated at a worth of $1.8 million — and are allotted a university-owned automobile or an automobile/transition allowance. Genco will live in 889 LeBrun Road but discussions about specific transportation options are “yet to take place,” a university spokesperson told The Spectrum.
Nadia Bangaroo contributed to the reporting of this article.
Mylien Lai is the editor-in-chief 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.
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