Link: http://UBdumb.com

It's hard to believe that in the final analysis UB2020 really was destroyed by an expensive hooker and a blind man. Governor Eliot Spitzer's personal life-style caught on tape with one of his expensive prostitutes abruptly ended what promised to be one of the best governors in the state's recent history. There was even considerable talk about presidential material and possibilities of a White House run. He had been one of New York's more aggressive and more effective attorneys general not only at fighting crime but also at helping the little people with their struggles against large exploitative corporations. The Buffalo Blog Frog liked Governor Spitzer, personal life-style choices aside, and applauds what he was able to accomplish before his untimely demise.

The "blind man," of course, is New York State's former Lieutenant Governor who assumed the role of Governor with Spitzer's abrupt departure. He is legally blind but the reference is not to his physical disability but to his mental blindness as to the potential greatness of the UB2020 plan. Now Governor Paterson simply couldn't see driving New York State into greater debt to bolster the economy in Western New York and obviously had no great love for UB. All deals were off; the commitments made by Governor Spitzer were not going to be honored by the new man in charge. End of the fairy tale, except President Simpson didn't quite get the message as he persisted in replaying the theme from the movie "Field of Dreams" over-and-over to the University and to the local community. Further set-backs came from Albany not passing legislature that would permit UB to set its own tuition rates independent of the SUNY system and to continue building the downtown campus expansion on the backs of increased undergraduate tuition. UB was to remain, at least for the moment, part of the SUNY system under state control.

When did WE decide that we didn't want to be part of the SUNY system. After all, we are the flagship of one of the largest university systems in the country. By shifting our identify to the University at Buffalo we are "the University at Buffalo," nothing more except perhaps a casual relationship with a nearly defunct public eduction system. Few people outside the region have heard of the "University at Buffalo" while "the flagship of the State University of New York" touts some clout.

Like most of the important decisions made in New York State politics, the decisions were all made by executive committees. Nobody ever voted on them or got much of a chance to voice their opinion. But then the whole UB2020 plan was developed largely in executive committee, this time at the university level with outside consultants and the blessing of the governor's office. How did so few people ever get so much power? After all, the governor was promising to support a multi-million dollar project without as much as debate by the state legislature.

I hate "executive committees:" This term has become synonymous with small groups of elite people meeting behind closed doors to decide big issues. The only positive thing I can say about the whole thing (and that's somewhat tongue in cheek) is that it's no longer just "small groups of elite men" but now includes women as almost equal players. Of course that's really little progress; the women players have to behave like the male players and suspend their 'better judgment' in order to gain and sustain admission to this small club -- the "old boys' club" now reads (some) "women admitted."

So what exactly was the flaw? Too much control rested in the hands of a single, vulnerable person who ultimately would drop out of the scenario, and the success of UB2020 relied on paving the way to the promised land with New York State taxpayer money. It's seemingly bad style to state the obvious, but the Buffalo Blog Frog makes his reputation on his candor: this is the sort of thing that you hire a private detective to try to dig up all of the dirt, all of the skeletons in the closet before you rest so much on a single person. Surely some of that extravagant consulting budget could have been spent on a gumshoe. (Hum, did I really say that?) I suppose the UB administration thought Spitzer was already vetted (viz., investigated) thoroughly by his opponent when he ran for governor. I guess UB should have hired a better detective.

Link: http://UBdumb.com

There is a lot of New York State taxpayer money being spent in California these days. A rather amusing irony arises considering the fact that those who would save Buffalo’s failing economy take THEIR money and spend it out of state. UB2020’s chief architects — President Simpson and his would-be interim president — both consider California not Buffalo their “homes.” The actual payroll and continuing retirement compensation moving out of state is hard to track because much of the money comes from ‘hidden’ sources, but some online estimates have put President Simpson’s financial compensation from UB at over $700,000 per year. Ditto Simpson’s interim president designate who reportedly earns $300,000 per year on the regular payroll alone. The #2 man (soon to be #1 if the administration has their way), according to well-publicized sources, only resides in Buffalo during the weekdays and commutes to his California home each weekend. And of course there’s always the money paid to that pricey California consulting firm that helped develop the grand plan with the two masterminds. UB2020 may not help save Buffalo, but New York State taxpayers are sure helping California’s ailing economy.

More on the California connection (just a couple of quick examples to wet your appetite):

• California consulting firm hired to engineer and orchestrate the failed UB2020 plan (no comment should be needed, but just in case you still don't get it, you can start here),
• California architect hired to design UB's new super-sized solar array (come on guys, nobody at UB's School of Architecture could handle the job of laying out a few grids?), and
• California consulting firm hired to locate candidates for UB's new president (OK, you may have had to go out of Buffalo for this one, but certainly somebody in New York State could have managed this task; better yet, how about taking out a few advertisements in the national newspapers, academic magazines, and professional journals read by potential candidates? Do you really think that some high-priced California placement agency has a secret database of people searching for university president positions? Come on, anybody worth leading UB through another one of our crises reads [the Sarah Palin types aside) the professional journals including the employment advertisements!).

The UB administration continues to waste money in despotic give-a-ways that could instead be used to offer more undergraduate classes. The kick-back and patronage game continues unabated, networking being a synonym for corruption, no MBA required.

Link: http://UBdumb.com

Now it's time to swing the pendulum in the other direction: let's recall (or more correctly, "ask") President Simpson to remain our university president. Let's get on the bandwagon and support him, albeit with a little more influence from his underlings (i.e., the 'real' faculty and not just his faculty elite) and playing a slightly different tune (we're on a bandwagon, remember? ). Time to back-off the more radical position voiced earlier. He can even keep his sacred COW (Chief Operations Wrangler, sorry, I'll have to look-up the official title but I do rather like the acronym ) if he promises not to try to mold (another pun) this university in the image of a business corporation. Having a business adviser or two assisting in the daily operation of a university could be a big asset; just don't have them setting program directives or determining the future mission of our University -- without having been there themselves (i.e., working within the university ranks with NORMAL professorial duties), they don't really understand what it's all about! Or to put it more bluntly (which is what the Buffalo Blog Frog has been known to do on occasion), their perception of what WE do is little more sophisticated than any other undergraduate we teach; do you want the undergraduates running the University?

The Buffalo Blog Frog had been awakened from his slumber due to recent University events that demanded a forceful response. But in the ruckus that followed several important, positive-aspects of the University and its current administration have been neglected. First and foremost, let's recall John B. Simpson as our University President. He has accomplished a lot of positive things during his rather brief tenure, things that have been overshadowed by recent developments and his often too grandiose plans for the University. He may indeed be the right man for the job if he can discard the overpowering influence of his California consortium.

The Buffalo Blog Frog never asked for President Simpson's resignation or cheered his intended departure. We were critical of his UB2020 plan and we strongly feel his choice for an interim president was downright insulting. But we NEVER called for his resignation. So this isn't an about-face (although we've been known to do that too); this is simply a clarification of our position.

First, he needs to balance the influence of his California consortium and elite local businessman with regular UB faculty and perhaps a better cross section of Buffalo businessmen. He needs to come in contact with his real faculty and not just the "yes-man" he surrounds himself with that often make fun of his actions behind his back. Perhaps brief consultations with random tenured faculty would be a great start. He presents himself as a earthy, approachable guy but he's either always out of town or in conference with the 'higher-ups' of the University and thus out of touch with the real daily operations of this institution. Perhaps he should teach one, open enrollment undergraduate class himself to see what the real world is like for most of us. (Maybe he could then explain why the admission scores are reportedly increasing for our new student population, but the students we actually see in the classroom seem to be less capable every year of handling advanced undergraduate work such as term papers.) Perhaps at least some of his chief advisers should be down in the trenches on a daily basis. Whatever it takes, he needs to better understand the real world that UB "professors" are operating in and not just that of the elite crowd of "yes-men" that he, like other university presidents, surround themselves with in their 'cabinet.'

Second, he needs to realign the objectives of UB2020 with a plan that does not tear apart UB's academic core. The decision to expand downtown with a third major campus, one that would include undergraduate instruction that could only compete with other local institutions that already have a downtown presence (e.g, ECC) is a mistake. We should be taking students fed up through the local junior college network, not competing with them for students. (No offense intended to ECC, but are we really lowering ourselves to compete with them for the same potential students?) The only instructional programs that should convene on the new downtown campus (if there is to be one) are graduate programs related to the activity of faculty located in the medical corridor. Leave the general undergraduate instruction alone; leave most of the graduate programs where they reside now. And don't worry about community outreach-oriented undergraduate curriculum; that's what ECC and other smaller colleges are already doing with their presence in inner city Buffalo. We shouldn't put ourselves in a league competing with the small schools in the area.

Third, he needs to better understand what it takes to build a premier undergraduate institution and maybe they WILL come. Granted that is at-best a secondary aim of UB2020, but it is actually a key component if we are to attract an additional 10,000 tuition-paying students from outside the region. UB2020 fell flat on its face with planning this key component which seems to have taken a backwards supply-and-demand business approach rather than an academic approach to building its core undergraduate educational program -- we supply the academic program and the demand (the students) will magically show up at our doorstep overnight. Perhaps this would work if UB had the type of national prominence promoted by our public relations department. But atlas, UB is seen as a local, at best a regional, school by most undergraduates. We draw largely from Western New York and New York City. We don't even draw large numbers of students from areas with other SUNY campuses. We are mainly viewed as a regional school and not likely to draw students even from the mid-West let alone California. And China, well that's a commentary on its own.

The revised plan is a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) from the Buffalo Blog Frog, as simple as 1, 2, 3. (Hey, now the frog is KISSing the prince. ) Get more in touch with the University, its real faculty, its average students, and the surrounding community past the elite businessmen and the special interests of the California consortium. Realign UB2020 with a plan that will strengthen UB's academic core and with a realistic growth plan that doesn't bankrupt the University and spend its cash reserves. And remember the undergraduates upon whose back the growth of the University and its reputation ultimately rests; they are our bread-and-butter, hate them and love them as we do. And then perhaps "if you build it" (i.e., a strong academic core), "they WILL come."

Link: http://UBdumb.com

This is a working draft of a commentary that is open for public view prematurely because of the urgency of the topic discussed herein. Please excuse the typographic, grammatical, and even possible factual errors of this draft copy which would normally not be made public at this stage. Check back for frequent revisions; this document is 'live,' perhaps even changing as you read this. This preamble will disappear when this commentary is in its final form.

The planning of UB2020 has a number of flaws, among them the notion that students from outside the region are going to flock to Buffalo for an education. The primary source of new students according the administration: California and China. Somebody needs to explain to the emperor that his new clothes aren't exactly what he thinks they are, but nobody has the nerve (another metaphor not to be taken as a derogatory comment regarding the person ). The grand delusion is promulgated from the administrative tower down through the ranks of the academy and on to the local community. Everybody is caught up in the hysteria and anyone not seeing the "new clothes" (i.e., the grand plan), well, they're chastised as blind, belligerent, or just plain naysayers.

Seemingly based on the premise of a movie called "The Field of Dreams," the administration argues that if we built it, they will come. The plan is to build classrooms for an additional 10,000 students and, of course, somewhere along he line hire additional faculty. There are several flaws with this plan, the main problem described here is sufficient to derail the "pipe dream" without assistance from the remaining problems that need not be detailed in this commentary.

Why are 10,000 more students going to flock to Buffalo?

There's really no answer to that question -- "why?" It seems to be only answered by a line from the movie, because "if you build it, they will come." Maybe, but I wouldn't bank on it which is exactly what the UB2020 planners are doing -- they're counting on the revenue generated by this mythical horde of students to boost the local economy (e.g., they'll buy a lot of low-cost food in the supermarkets?) and to provide a solid basis for other projects in the UB2020 plan. Indeed, the tuition revenue is a primary motive behind this aspect of the UB2020 plan. There's no great notion of making Buffalo an educational Mecca, a real intellectual and creative center -- just another 10,000 warm bodies paying tuition rates set by the University operating outside the control of the SUNY system. (The faculty union stands opposed to granting UB autonomy in setting student tuition rates and so far this action has been successfully defeated in Albany.)

Somebody needs to talk to the students and see who they are and why they come here. The answers most often given are that they are local students who come here because it's convenient or New York City area students who come here to get away from their parents for a while. The University does not draw heavily from regions with other SUNY schools; we don't even attract large numbers from around New York State. The chances of having students from across the country come here and abandon what is considered one of the strongest university systems in the country are slim to nil. Perhaps we can recruit their rejects to pay our higher out-of-state tuition but good luck. And a horde of Chinese students? Talk to anyone who rents an apartment to these students and find out how much extra money they usually have to spend? No derogatory comment intended, but most of them are here on a tight budget -- just ask. Furthermore, despite TOEFL scores that are acceptable, the English-language skills of many of the foreign students we already accept are horrible, and accepting even more with a poorer command of English is not going to build our academic reputation favorably. We can't lower the academic bar any lower without becoming merely the back-up school for the talented-students we wish to recruit, and we're already accepting as many students from our existing 'markets' as we can with current academic admission standards.

In all fairness to our University recruiters and our faculty, we are drawing from a larger population today than we were a decade ago. UB is gaining prominence in the region, but it's a slow process that's unlikely to fill our classrooms with 10,000 more quality students any time soon. And it's a regional effect, drawing a few undergraduates away from SUNY campuses which rank higher in national ratings (e.g., Binghamton) but failing to draw large numbers of students even from neighboring states.

Who is going to teach the students?

The University has been working very hard to destroy its true academic and educational core and replace it with money-generating externally funded group of scientists that hold academic titles normally reserved for true "professors" that balance their research and creative work with teaching the students which make a university not just a research institute but a true university. Indeed, my Department has recently denied tenure to one of our strongest, most-dedicated assistant professors whose absence in our classrooms will be greatly missed. Down one more, full course-load carrying "professor," up one vacancy for a potentially self-sustaining fund raiser who can fill the slot for another 5-year 'probationary' term. But how much teaching is in their contract and will they really attract quality graduate students to take their place in the classroom?

My department is down somewhere between 25 and 35% from the number of faculty members we had in the early 1990s (accurate tabulation to follow) and the remaining faculty teach much less. This leaves only graduate students and part-time faculty to teach many of our undergraduate courses, and the budgets for hiring these people are even being cut while the number of our majors continues to increase. In short, we're just barely meeting the needs of our existing student population, how could we be expected to meet the needs of the projected increased enrollments?

The administration proposes to hire 750 new faculty members to help teach the 10,000 new students (a few additional faculty would be nice to teach our students now who often have difficulty getting into required courses and who are being presented with an every diminishing choice of courses to take). Is Albany going to approve 750 state-lines for which they have to commit continued funding? (Last time I checked, my payroll check was still being signed by the State of New York not by Buffalo University [pun intended] ). The promise that these new faculty members will support themselves through external funding does not relieve the State of guaranteeing their payroll will be met with State funds. These are permanent, tenure-track positions (unless the administration really believes that faculty will flock here without the promise of tenure-track positions) that must be approved by Albany.

Qualification is appropriate again: my department has an outstanding Undergraduate Program Administrator who manages to work magic getting students into required courses and completing their major in a reasonable time. Some other departments may be similarly fortunate but many are not. The assertion that some students have problems getting into required courses is in reference to students' reports from outside my department. Our Undergraduate Program Administrator has been able to work miracles with diminishing resources amidst increasing enrollments, and she exemplifies the type of support staff needed for a truly outstanding undergraduate program. Her considerable effort relieves much of the day-by-day pressure on faculty so that they can better fulfill their teaching and other obligations; our department leadership even scores a point here for having wisely empowered her to provide this much appreciated service to its faculty. (Gee, I sure hope this compliment from the Buffalo Blog Frog doesn't cost her a pay raise -- guilt by association? )

Why build downtown?

The University seems to be intent on building many of these new 'classrooms' on its new urban campus in downtown Buffalo. The reason for selecting this site? To revive the staggering Buffalo economy. Local construction jobs aside, will these students really eat enough hamburgers to revive the Buffalo economy? Perhaps, perhaps not. Somebody with a calculator must have 'run' the numbers, but it would certainly be enlightening to know what assumptions are made before everything is multiplied by 10,000.

The previous "master plan" for UB was to move its primary academic core to the suburban of Buffalo, Amherst, where it has sufficient space to expand. Of course this plan developed in the late 1960s through the early 1970s didn't foresee the real-estate vacancies that would become available in the downtown area of Buffalo and the great real estate potential of buying cheap space from delinquent owners, some of whom haven't even been paying property taxes. Even with the sluggish economy, the real-estate market has been booming for a few speculators.

A major reason for consolidating the University's operations on a single campus was to encourage more productive interactions among its faculty as well as make a wider variety of classroom instruction easily accessible to its students. The purpose was to bring UB together. The current plan of physically separating faculty and students even more than what is experienced with two, closely located campuses severely handicaps any such interactions among faculty and students alike. The South Campus is far enough away from the North Campus now to inhibit faculty collaborations and mutual enrichment, and students rushing to catch shuttle buses and showing up a few minutes late for class because of commuting create enough disturbances without confounding the problem by moving parts of the academic core even further away.

And the Band Plays On

UB2020 relies on several key components neatly falling into place for it to work. Any major piece of the puzzle failing to materialize destroys the entire project -- all components are interdependent, like inter-locking pieces of a puzzle. The whimsical projections of undergraduate student enrollments to increase our current size by over 1/3 simply are unlikely to materialize, at least not with the current university focus which largely relegates undergraduate teaching to a task of second-class faculty. And the students know this: talk to an 'average' tuition-paying student and see how they feel about access to faculty and being instructed in key courses by graduate student assistants.

Students from outside the area (necessary to increase enrollment by 10,000) will flock to the University when the University establishes itself as one of the national leaders in undergraduate education. A strong research faculty IS an important part of accomplishing this goal, but the 'care and feeding' of the undergraduate population beyond simply recruiting research-oriented faculty who delegate teaching to graduate student teaching assistants (often not speaking English very well) will not build UB's reputation as a premier undergraduate educational institution. The University needs to take more seriously its role of undergraduate instruction and to genuinely reward "professors" who are spending time and effort to accomplish this mission (including awarding tenure in some cases!). We can afford a "faculty elite" who buy-out or are otherwise relieved of their major teaching obligations only to the extent that we can adequately cover our undergraduate program with quality instruction.

UB2020 falters because it has failed to provide a rational plan for building this population of mythical students beyond, "build it and they will come." And like a house of card, removing one piece from the foundation causes the entire enterprise to come tumbling down. "And so the band plays on . . . "

Link: http://UBdumb.com

Caution: The following commentary is designed to stimulate emotion which often generates action as opposed to titillating the intellect which usually stimulates pondering. Enjoy the read or don’t, it doesn’t really matter much to me; simply putting the words to pen (make that keyboard) achieved the cathartic goal of the commentary. It's all poetry in prose to me, like singing in the shower may be to you. The real Samuel Clemens should be proud, although the surreal Clemens Hall may be less enthralled.

Background: University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson has surprisingly resigned (AKA "retired") mid academic year. He has recommended one of his executive officers (Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer) as his replacement to serve as interim president. The candidate has an impressive background as a business consultant but lacks the academic experience (e.g., a doctorate degree) normally associated with a university president. Needless-to-say, this has stirred some controversy amongst the University faculty who weren't consulted on this appointment recommendation and the person who was likely to serve as our interim president for an indefinite period of time.

This month's winner of the UBdumb Award already looks like it may be the grand champion for the year, and the academic year has just started. It's hard to imagine any imbecilic act the UB administration could do to exceed their latest shenanigans -- appointing someone who hasn't even attended graduate school as acting president.

Finally, Greiner's (our 13th president) plan of operating UB along a business model comes to full fruition with a businessman appointed as UB's acting president. Students at UB should be proud to discover this spring during convocation that their prized undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees are signed by a professional bureaucrat not by a "professor." Or does he automatically receive "professor" title and appointment with the job? What the hell, how about awarding him an honorary Ph.D. as well and then that base would be covered too? With a few quick signatures there might be little room left for complaints about Simpson's parting shot at the place HE called "home." (BTW: Simpson is packing-up and departing for the West Coast as soon as his resignation takes effect, perhaps sooner.)

The university is NOT a business. The university is an academic institution filled with scholars and those who come to learn. Assuming that someone with no academic credentials (e.g., classroom teaching experience, scientific research or creative artistic work) can effectively lead it is offensive to everyone who has earned their tenure at the academy, except perhaps to the bureaucrat-appointed bureaucrats themselves who would model the institution after a hot dog stand.

The argument has been made that precedence has already been set at Wayne State University when they appointed a person without a Ph.D. as their president. Hum, a ex-Ford executive as president of a Detroit university? I don't really see the relevance to our predicament. Furthermore, UB needs to assume a leadership role in such issues if it wishes to live up to its hype as a "major research university," not follow the examples of other institutions. At times when the administration has become dysfunctional it's the obligation of the faculty to rise up and assume a collective leadership role.

Or consider this nice, succinct approach: explain to your students that a janitor is going to sign their degrees this spring. That should break our undergraduates out of their usual apathetic trance. In all fairness, the appointee is not a janitor (that was just an attention getting ploy and not intended as a cheap shot at the person) and he manages much more than just the physical plant. He's a professional manager or bureaucrat if you prefer. He's never completed a graduate program (Did he attend graduate school at all?) and has never held a grant. He never conducted scientific research or produced a creative work worthy of peer recognition. He's a bureaucrat. (Did I say that already? This has me so excited I seem to be stuttering.)

The "candidate" for interim president is a chief architect of UB's failed 2020 plan -- some credentials to bring to his new job. Many of us were rather hoping that such myopic thinking was returning to the West Coast where it originated following Simpson's departure, not lingering on here in Buffalo to further bankrupt the university. (I wonder if our ex-president will take his share of the debt with him as well, e.g., the financial and academic burden of splitting our limited resources into three campuses? )

If UB weren't such an autocracy, this might not matter so much while the search is underway for our permanent (well, maybe not so "permanent" given the recent track record) president. The president or acting president (or whatever title you would like to bestow upon this position) is not only in a leadership role, he dictates policies and builds and destroys programs at the university. And given the current economic and political problems at the University, the search for a suitable president is likely to be a multi-year endeavor leaving the interim president presiding over major academic programs for an indefinite period of time.

Somebody implied that it is elitist to suggest that a person lacking a doctorate could not adequately fill the role of university president. Perhaps it is; perhaps it's similarly elitist for me to state explicitly that I would rather have someone with an M.D. perform my next surgery than an automobile mechanic. (BTW: I don't have an M.D., but I would certainly prefer an M.D. over a Ph.D. for this role.) Or perhaps assuming that an earned doctorate is the minimum requisite for a good university president is simply a succinct way of denoting certain background, training, and experiences that are considered essential to being the leader amongst academicians. Or would you prefer that Mr. Goodwrench perform YOUR emergency appendectomy?

Of course I'm also curious about how this affects his retirement package. Already earning $300,000 a year for a part-time (or at least a "I only live here during the week") job, what kind of benefits will he leave with after being interim president for a while? (More New York State taxpayer money eventually leaving for the West Coast. Couldn't we pass a law requiring these high-paid civil servants to at least reside in the state while collecting these generous compensation packages?) I further wonder if his living in California while working during the weekdays in Buffalo has anything to do with the University's official policy of promoting life-work balance. It kind of reads like they had him in mind to justify his absence during the weekends and indeed declaring California his real home. Meanwhile, I'm starting my fourth year of bicycling to work in an effort to make a small contribution to saving-the-planet from our own destructive carbon emissions, while he commutes back and fourth to his California home by jet airplane every weekend. Indeed a great role model for our 28,000+ students.

My apologies to our (unnamed out of courtesy) VP for the apparent ad hominid attacks, but absurdity begets absurdity -- quid pro quo or perhaps you better know it as "tit-for-tat" (oops, another cheap shot slipped out ). And waking the Buffalo Blog Frog prematurely from his peaceful hibernation does make him a little cranky.

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