Link: http://UBdumb.comm

Faculty's Score: ??
Administration's Score:

In an 'unpresidented' move (pun intended ) President Simpson has agreed to stay on to oversee the search for his replacement. Originally scheduled to resign (AKA “retire”) 15 January 2011 at which time Mr. Nostaja was formerly designated to become UB’s interim president, it now appears that Dr. Simpson will remain for an unspecified length of time with no mention of Mr. Nostaja assuming (explicit) control. The chances that the students will have a “Ph.D.” sign their degrees (i.e., an individual actually entitled to the title “professor”) this spring are becoming increasingly brighter. Whether the “concerned faculty” actually had anything to do with this decision is a mystery; perhaps they too have scored a point in regaining some influence over UB’s governance; perhaps not, perhaps it’s only an illusion or more likely a small act to pacify the short-lived ‘rebellion’ amongst UB’s tenured faculty. In any case, it’s definitely a victory for the Class of 2011.

In what must be the shortest presidential statement in the past quarter century, President Simpson has announced his intention to remain at the helm of UB (apparently second only to UB Counsel Chair Jeremy Jacobs) for “a limited period of time.” His joy and enthusiasm for ‘his’ decision can be inferred between the lines of his brief message sent 05 January 2011 to UB’s faculty and staff reprinted below in its entirety.

Dear Colleagues:

I was pleased to learn that the presidential search process is moving along well. Following discussions with SUNY officials and University Council Chairman Jeremy Jacobs, I have agreed to continue to serve as president for a limited period of time beyond January 15th while the search process moves toward a conclusion.

Sincerely,

John B. Simpson
President

How this event came about is known only to a handful of people in the “inner circle.” The Frog would like to think that he too had an important influence on this decision (see below). Indeed, the Frog IS the “big fish” in his little lily pond. Like the “little pond” at UB, the “big fish” at the Frog’s pond have two ways to go—one is to escape by jumping over the dam and swimming upriver to the big world outside, and the other is to be eaten by the alligator that is kept in the little pond to prevent the big fish from becoming competition and perhaps even challenging the leadership. (The little fish in the pond are too small to be caught by or to otherwise be of significance to the alligator which is fine because it gives the Frog someone to exploit for doing the real work at the lily pond. Of course this is all a metaphor requiring certain interpretative skills on the part of the reader. )

Behold the power of the blog and the Frog’s grand illusion of having self importance. Some pivotal commentaries related to the ill-planned succession in leadership are linked below:

University degrees to be signed by a bureaucrat?
Recall Simpson as UB's President
Who Will Be UB’s Interim President?

It’s noteworthy that only 6 hours after the Frog’s initial salvo (i.e., publication of the first commentary) Mr. Nostaja announced that he was TEMPORARILY withdrawing from consideration as UB’s interim president. Of course that’s only a correlation, but hey, epidemiologists assert grand thinking, especially in their social engineering of the Great Nanny State, using only such data as the basis for their elaborate theories. So if it’s good enough for them to design a modern society of their making, well then, it’s good enough for the Frog to assert a simple causative effect, no grand theory required. Ah, the power of the blog!

There remains only one point to which the Frog would like clarification for the record: since President Simpson had already announced his resignation to take effect 15 January 2011, did he rescind his resignation (in which case his presidency could extend indefinitely as suggested by the Frog’s commentary Recall Simpson as UB's President) or is HE officially UB’s Interim President? This might not matter to most people, but it certainly would look a bit strange on his résumé should he decide to come out of retirement and take up another post upon his return to California.

In any case score one for the students: they are well on their way to having a real academic sign their degrees in the spring 2011 convocations. How the “concerned faculty” scored is unclear. They superficially appear to have reasserted some small degree of influence over the academy, but this is more likely the death knoll of the “concerned faculty” — the only rallying point (i.e., an issue upon which the “concerned faculty” could reach a strong consensus) is that having a businessman lead the university is simply wrong and is more than any faculty at a (potentially) “premier university” should ever be expected to endure. Now that this issue is seemingly resolved, they can all return to their individual pursuits and leave governance of the academy to the professional bureaucrats. There remains only a small number of truly “concerned faculty” whom without critical mass or even forming a small cohesive group within themselves lack the power to affect change. It’s SNAFU again at UB as “the band played on . . . .”

Link: http://UBdumb.com

With less than a month before President Simpson’s resignation will take effect, there has been no announcement or discussion beyond the inner circle at Capen Hall as to who will temporarily reside as UB’s interim president. Mr. Nostaja is still the leading candidate and the Frog’s best guess as to who will take over UB’s leadership during this period of crisis (FYI: UB is always is one sort of crisis or another, but this one seems extra serious.). Readers will recall that Mr. Nostaja was announced by Capen Hall back in September to replace Simpson until a permanent (at least official, permanence not being a feature of recent UB Presidents) UB president could be selected. The resounding protests among the faculty and heard from a few community leaders led to Mr. Nostaja temporarily withdrawing (i.e., waiting for the clamor to die down) from the position of interim president. But the Frog predicted back then that much like the terminator he would be back, not only to preside over the University and its search for a new president but to also continue cutting faculty and academic departments to streamline the UB business enterprise. After all, why waste time progressing towards transforming UB into a total market-driven institution based on the California business model that has worked so well as evidenced by the current U.S. economy? For example, the administration is rumored to be exploring ways to have classes taught by off-shore professors through modern telecommunications networks (viz., the Internet repackaged to sound like a UB innovation) similar to how customer service and other business functions are now largely based in India and Pakistan for many major U.S. corporations. Hey, they work much cheaper (provide the product for less) and speak English with some degree of clarity.

Running UB on a business model does have its advantages. A few members of the UB faculty are excited about the prospects of UB issuing common stock and are already making provisions to sell short (viz., betting that the stock value will plummet) after the initial stock offering (IPO). Salaries may be dismal for non-administrative professors, but at least some compensation might be found in UB’s management selling out New York’s stake in the Buffalo branch of its high education system. As usual the New York State taxpayers will pick up most of the costs with additional costs being born by the generous alumni and others who have made charitable gifts to the University.

The astute reader will notice that most of this commentary had little to do with directly addressing the topic of “who will serve as UB’s Interim President?” and that’s exactly the point. Throw a couple of red herring out there, digress on other popular themes interspersed with a few outrageous statements and the audience is largely distracted from the most important item currently being decided – who WILL serve as UB’s Interim President?! If you saw through this tactic before reading this paragraph, then perhaps you’ve already seen through the similar types of tactics being used by UB’s administration that has effectively ducted confronting this issue again. And by the time the clock runs out and Dr. Simpson is gone, what choice will there be except to accept Mr. Nostaja?

For those who are now starting to master the subtleties of the Frog’s prose, you have undoubtedly noted that the designation of “Dr. Simpson” was substituted for the usual “President Simpson” or just “Simpson.” That was to emphasize that President Simpson does indeed have a doctorate degree. And why “Dr.” was used in preference to “Prof.” Simpson which might better emphasize his academic standing? Because the title “professor” can be easily bestowed upon anyone who has been given that appointment by the university’s administration—“Mr. Nostaja” could become “Prof. Nostaja” at the stroke of a pen, perhaps receiving his distinguished academic title most appropriately from UB’s School of Management. Similarly UB could award Mr. Nostaja an honorary doctorate degree, but very few people with an honorary doctorate [as apposed to an earned doctorate] are blazon enough to use “Dr.” in their formal title in an academic environment.

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."