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(04/02/10 4:00am)
New York State budget cuts have put UB2020 in a critical situation.
In a press conference held on Monday, President John B. Simpson revealed that due to a lack of state support, the entire project is in serious need of additional funding to remain feasible.
"Our ability to complete UB2020 is in serious jeopardy, and with this, the future of Buffalo and western New York is in jeopardy," Simpson said. "And make no mistake – business as usual simply will not allow us to complete UB2020."
The proposed solution to the problem of funding is a collection of major policy changes that will grant UB more autonomy from the state. Collectively, the reforms are known as the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act (PHEEIA).
"We need our elected officials in Albany to change policy, to let UB live by the same rules as virtually every other major public university in the U.S.," Simpson said. "These are nothing more than common sense reforms."
While the reforms were included Governor David Paterson's Executive Budget Bill and the budget resolutions put forward by the Senate, they were cut out of the resolutions put forward by the Assembly.
Although the act purports to be a "high-impact, zero-cost solution" to the problems of public university funding, the implications of the policy changes would be wholly financial.
The legislation would grant UB and every other SUNY school the ability to control student tuition without state interference, raising and lowering tuition as each campus saw fit.
"[The reforms will give us] a predictable tuition plan that rightly differentiates the cost and quality of education at our research universities, like UB, and keeps the tuition our students pay right here in Buffalo," Simpson said.
In addition to tuition control, the reform will allow UB to enter into partnerships with private companies and organizations as a means of acquiring additional funding and promoting economic growth in the area.
Though Simpson warned that future tuition increases are unavoidable, with or without this legislation, some students worry about giving UB complete control over tuition. Amy Hilburger, a sophomore psychology major, thinks it will likely lead to unfair increases.
"I don't think they'd act in the best interest of students." Hillburger said.
If passed, projections of the act for UB include a 6000-person increase in student enrollment, 660 new faculty members, 8550 new constructions jobs, and $1.5 billion in new construction.
Simpson emphasized the gravity of the situation and the short timeline during which the reform's fate will be determined.
"I think the next few weeks are crucial… to getting this legislation passed," Simpson said. "If it passes then I think we'll be very much on the road to building UB2020."
Considering the plans of UB2020 are vital not only to the university but also to the entire area's economy, Simpson called on the community at large to do its part in voicing their support for the legislation.
"I see this plan as crucial for the future of Buffalo and western New York," Simpson said. "I think this is a community effort and we need to get this done as a community. What follows from that is that everybody needs to tell, by whatever means they have, elected officials of all kind that this is critical for our future. All of us need to do this."
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
(03/28/10 4:00am)
A fortuitous discovery and some modern techniques of genetic decoding have together helped shed light on what was once the polar bear's mysterious evolutionary history.
Charlotte Lindqvist, assistant research professor of biology at UB, helped contribute to the sequencing of the entire mitochondrial genome of the oldest polar bear fossil ever to be unearthed – a jawbone and a tooth estimated to be 130,000 years old.
The results of the sequencing have revealed that the polar bear is an unexpectedly young species, forming its own branch of the evolutionary tree only 150,000 years ago. In the scheme of evolution, the polar bear is a species still in its infancy.
According to Lindqvist, the problem of the polar bear's phylogeny, or evolutionary identity, has been a long-unanswered question for the field of paleontology. Though biologists have previously been able to establish that polar bears evolved from the brown bear through genetic comparison of the two species as they exist today, when this split occurred and exactly how long it took could only be approximated.
"There have been a lot of estimates out there," Lindqvist said. "But since there have been really no fossils analyzed to support these estimates, they have ranged anywhere from 50,000 to up to more than 1,000,000 years, so it's been a pretty wide range."
The fossil, discovered in 2004 by a group of geologists in Norway, was from a fortuitously ideal period in the polar bear's evolution, providing the most illumination on its history that could have been expected.
"From the phylogenetic analysis of the fossil, we discovered that it was positioned almost exactly at the split point from when the polar bears split off from brown bears," Lindqvist said. "That really gave us a very good opportunity to date that splitting point much more precisely."
Apart from its location at a crucial point in the animal's history, the fossil was also uncommonly revealing due to its preservation in the arctic environment. Because all DNA is susceptible to the damages of decay and eventual destruction over time, the genetic codes of the majority of ancient fossils are unable to be analyzed upon discovery.
The process of degradation can, however, under certain conditions, be considerably slowed. This was precisely the case with this fossil.
"This particular fossil was extremely well preserved," Lindqvist said. "It was well imbedded inside layers of sediments and has been lying there for thousands of years in a very, very cold environment. So that's why the DNA and the whole fossil were so well preserved, allowing us to extract and analyze it to determine [the polar bear's] phylogeny."
Being able to analyze the fossil's mitochondrial genome, Lindqvist and her colleagues were able to directly compare its DNA to those of the modern species of polar bears and brown bears. Inspection of the comparison allowed them to determine many of the physical characteristics of the actual organism.
"We know a few things," Lindqvist said. "The size of it was comparable to modern polar bears, it was probably feeding off seals or something similar like polar bears are today, and it lived in an environment similar to what polar bears do today. But that's pretty much all you can say from just a jawbone and a tooth."
Although it is evident from the discovery that the polar bear evolved rapidly to adapt to its harsh environment, Lindqvist warns that it is questionable whether it will be capable of the adaptation that the effects of climate change are currently forcing upon it.
"It seems that they are so specialized that they might not be adaptable to drastic changes," Lindqvist said. "What I think will probably happen is that they will just react and move to places that are suitable for them."
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
(03/21/10 4:00am)
With the SA elections only a week away, tensions ran high at a public debate held in the Student Union Theater.
The candidates for the SA positions of treasurer, vice president and president were given a chance to voice their opinions and plans for the SA to a student audience this past Thursday, and on more than one occasion, things got personal.
Anticipating the friction, moderator Josh Boston, head of the election and credentials committee, advised that both the candidates and attendants try to keep the debate as civil as possible, in the spirit of Nick Orrange.
"There are going to be some differing opinions up here," Boston said. "We're all UB students. We all want what's best for SA and we should leave this process tonight, and the whole election process, still cool with each other. Is everyone cool with that?"
Within a few moments of the debate's commencement, it was clear that everyone was not.
The first round of questions and answers for the candidates of vice president was infused with personal attacks, concentrated between Kevin Southern and Shervin Stoney, the representatives of the ONE party and Student Alliance party, respectively.
In response to the question of keeping up student enrollment and interest in SA clubs, Southern decided to focus more on the previous failings of his fellow candidates than on his plans for next year.
"Shervin, in your platform, you say you want more promotion hours," Southern said. "Last I checked, you failed to adhere to a simple request by the SA executive board to hand in a list of club events for your council. It wasn't until your council was frozen that you complied with this request."
Shervin responded quickly with a denial of the accusations and the suggestion that his fellow candidate get the facts straight.
The tension continued on through the debates for the positions of president and treasurer, with topics including SA-club relations, UBGreen, the stipends of SA officers and unnecessary spending. The last topic received particular attention from audience members.
During the debate for the presidency, one student questioned the efficiency of a $20,000 trip to Toronto for the training of the SA staff, to which none of the three candidates had a satisfactory answer.
Another student asked for an explanation of the purchase of a $3,500 inflatable sign with the SA emblem, which dominated the stage behind the candidates.
Due to the abundance of student questions — only a fraction could be answered — the debate ran well overtime.
Marco Zarkovic, an exercise science major, felt that student questions contributed significantly to the atmosphere of the debate.
"Everything was pretty good," Zarkovic said. "I liked the fact that the audience got to ask questions. I think it made a very big difference in the turnout of the event."
Zarkovic did, however, have problems with the style of the candidates' responses.
"I didn't like the fact that my questions weren't answered directly," Zarkovic said. "And what I didn't like were personal attacks from one party member to another. I think that that was very inappropriate and I believe that attacking someone on his or her current position has nothing to do with what they would do if elected in a different position."
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
(03/05/10 5:00am)
Dr. Thenkurussi Kesavadas, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has joined forces with Roswell Park Cancer Institute to develop a simulator that accurately replicates the experience of performing surgery with the most widely used robotic system in medicine – the 'da Vinci Surgical System.'
(03/01/10 5:00am)
I found myself looking at Victoria Beckham's Wikipedia page the other day. I was quite surprised to discover that Victoria, better known as 'Posh Spice,' has actually done quite well for herself after her days with 'the most successful female group of all time.' Besides wedding a famous soccer player, she's started her own fashion line, written an autobiography, and made several documentaries.
(02/24/10 5:00am)
Student protests against the proposed budget cuts for the Latina/Latino Studies program appear to have paid off.
(01/29/10 5:00am)
Students and professors alike have united in their support for Craig Centrie, professor of American Studies. Due to the far-reaching budget cuts proposed for SUNY and UB, several of Centrie's Latino Studies course offerings, popular among his students, are in danger of being cut.
(01/25/10 5:00am)
Based on a resolution made this past Tuesday by the Amherst Town Board, it appears UB may finally get its wish — 23 acres of property near Rensch Road. The town of Amherst rezoned the area for UB research and development.
(01/22/10 5:00am)
I'd like to think that as a 20-year-old in my junior year of college, I'm no longer completely dependent on my parent's aid to get by, but I know that's not the truth. I'm reminded of it a little more every time I make empty promises to pay them back with money we both know I don't have.
(01/20/10 5:00am)
Fred Sachs, Ph.D, distinguished professor of physiology and biophysics, has decided to take things into his own hands to revolutionize the world of medicine. Sachs and his colleagues have teamed up to start their own pharmaceutical company, Rose Pharmaceutical, to advance the clinical testing of a certain protein that they believe has the potential to treat a slew of diseases.
Sachs discovered a protein in the venom of a tarantula known as GsMTx4, a place he admits would seem unlikely to find such a therapeutic substance.
The mechanism by which the protein works is completely unheard of in the realm of drug therapies. Where most medical drugs act on various chemical receptors found on the different cells of the body, GsMTx4 acts on a type of sensor on cell membranes sensitive to mechanical stress. The researchers at Sachs's lab were the first to discover, accidently about 20 years ago, that such structures even existed on cells.
According to Sachs, these sensors are still at such an early stage of being researched that their actual function is still the subject of much debate.
'Exactly what they do for a living remains to be determined,' Sachs said. 'The current model we have is that you could look at them as pain receptors at a cellular level. What they're looking for is weak spots on the reinforcement to the membrane.'
Sachs's lab discovered – through an act of serendipity – that GsMTx4 acted on these stress-sensitive structures to produce a number of extremely positive effects in the bodies of test mice. These included an increase in muscle strength, pain inhibition and a correction of cardiac arrhythmia. Sachs was quick to try to market the protein.
With the experimental research to prove it, Sachs attempted to advance the protein as a treatment for muscular dystrophy, sickle-cell anemia, cardiac arrhythmia, and peripheral neuropathic pain. Sachs gave seminars to all the large pharmaceutical companies.
Unfortunately, they were uninterested or not capable of accepting the discovery he had made.
Sachs said the companies' hesitation to advance the drug was due almost entirely to its complete novelty and the unconventional way in which it functioned.
'Big pharmaceutical companies didn't pick up on this,' Sachs said. 'I tried. I gave them a lot of seminars and stuff, but the idea of working with biomechanics and drugs was so [unorthodox] that no one wanted anything to do with it.'
According to Sachs, he gave up completely and decided to do the science and let someone else pick up on his research in the future. The next step found him.
A local stockbroker with a 2-year-old grandson diagnosed with muscular dystrophy found Sachs' work on the Internet, and the two discussed his work over lunch. This encounter and their subsequent correspondence eventually led to the formation of Rose Pharmaceuticals this past July. The company is affectionately named after the lab's pet tarantula, 'Rose.'
Although they are hopeful about the progress they will make, the company is still in its infancy and facing one major problem.
'Like all start-ups we don't have the money,' Sachs said. 'We have the idea, but we don't have the money, so we'll keep working on it.'
The next step is to get FDA approval.
'There's no obvious reason this wouldn't work at this point,' Sachs said. 'So we're going after four of these diseases because we have data that it can be active on these four diseases, and anything you learn from any one of them can be applied to the other. So there is really only one set of toxicity tests that need to be done with this.'
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
(01/15/10 5:00am)
When a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti hits, there is no perfect situation.
(12/02/09 5:00am)
UB is teaming up with an international information technology company to correct some long-standing communication problems in the field of medicine.
(11/13/09 5:00am)
Things are bound to get a little uncomfortable next Thursday in the Center for the Arts when Daniel Tosh comes to perform – he isn't afraid to cross any lines.
(11/11/09 5:00am)
UB is teaming up with Cornell University to stop cancer in its tracks.
(11/02/09 5:00am)
UB is planning to expand its presence not only in the City of Buffalo, but also throughout Western New York. The UB Regional Institute will be the first unit to move into the UB Gateway building, the university's most recent annexation in downtown Buffalo.
(10/19/09 4:00am)
The Department of Physics is currently enjoying one of the most productive and promising periods in its history – due, in part, to the efforts of Francis Gasparini, distinguished professor and chair of the physics department, and his guidance in hiring new faculty members.
(10/12/09 4:00am)
The general public seems to have granted David Letterman, host of 'The Late Show,' a get out of jail free card.