UB President Satish Tripathi tried to remain upbeat during his half hour, pre-recorded State of the University address.
UB School of Social Work Dean Nancy Smyth will step down as dean and assume a faculty role following the spring 2021 semester. She is the second dean to resign this week, after School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Dean James O'Donnell resigned on Oct. 14.
Dean of UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences James O'Donnell offered his resignation Wednesday.
UB will begin processing direct-deposit fee refunds on the week of May 4 and students will see refunds within two business days, according to a Thursday email from Student Accounts.
UB ordered students to not return to on-campus dorms and apartments Wednesday night, hours after UB President Satish Tripathi announced that a community member tested positive for COVID-19.
UB Provost A. Scott Weber recognizes this “changing” situation (before our interview, the housing refund news was hours away). He talked to The Spectrum via phone Tuesday as UB adjusts to a new reality: the coronavirus/COVID-19 global health pandemic has caused UB to shift to a “distance-learning” model effective March 23.
Students were confused Wednesday as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and UB announced a move to a “distance-learning” model on March 23 for the rest of the spring semester.
When Gabriella Galizia* returned from her UB study abroad trip to Italy on Friday, no one at JFK screened her for the coronavirus or put her in quarantine. “I flew into JFK and there was no temperature screening,” Galizia said. “There was nothing and that surprised me. It was actually scary. Like I actually would’ve wanted to be screened.”
By 2026, a four-story wellness and recreation facility featuring pools, basketball courts and artificial turf fields will likely stand where The Commons and the University Bookstore are now located. Representatives from CannonDesign, an integrated design firm working on the project, unveiled project boards and 3D models of the proposed Wellness and Recreation Center at the Student Union Wednesday.
Campus Dining and Shops and other businesses around campus will stop offering single-use plastic bags as part of the state-wide plastic bag ban beginning March 1. New York State created the law to reduce waste and other negative environmental impacts. All businesses required to collect NYS sales tax will be banned from distributing plastic bags, even during tax-exempt sales. Businesses are not required to provide alternative bags, like paper bags, so NYS encourages consumers to carry reusable bags with them.
During a heated two-hour meeting on Tuesday, a group of Black Student Union members challenged College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robin Schulze on UB’s minority hiring and retention process, on the low numbers of black faculty and on the future of the struggling African and African American Studies Program.
UB President Satish Tripathi announced A. Scott Weber will be taking over as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs Thursday morning in a community wide email.
UB community members said they want a School of Engineering and Applied Sciences dean who is “collaborative” and has previous academic experience. SEAS is searching for a new dean and the search committee, comprised of 14 professors and faculty members and one graduate student, held its first public meeting Monday to listen to community’s suggestions and questions.
Interim Provost A. Scott Weber announced on Wednesday he will provide bridge-funding to all UB colleges, fully covering the Ph.D. stipend increase for 2020-21 and covering 50% for 2021-22.
UBIT will launch a two-step verification for HUB in October, preventing student account breaches by asking users to verify their identity on another device before logging in.
After two years of planning, construction for the One World Café began on May 20. The roughly $20 million project is expected to be completed by August 2021. UB hired CannonDesign, an integrated global design firm, to handle construction for the over 50,000-square-foot cafe. The cafe will be between Capen Hall and Norton Hall on North Campus, causing construction to impact students’ navigation paths starting in the fall. Graham Hammill, vice provost for educational affairs and dean of the graduate school, said construction will be a “large” and “marginalizing” process, as it will affect a large part of North Campus.
One World Café will become the “new front door” to North Campus, according to its steering committee. The upcoming global cafe, featuring a “modern” design, will be three floors high with “alternating” food available on two of the floors and seating available on all three.
Law professor Makau Mutua has been on leave from UB for nearly a year and recently took a job in Washington D.C., yet the university is still paying the former law school dean his full salary – a salary that nears $300,000.
Jean Wactawski-Wende, the dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions who has been part of the WHI since it was established at UB, discussed some of the groundbreaking findings in cancer research the univeristy has made to the UB Council on Monday.
The search committee held its initial meeting in Baird Hall Wednesday to hear suggestions from faculty about what they want to see in a new dean.
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