Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2011 Archive > April > Quality is the name of the game
for UB’s 15th president

Quality is the name of the game
for UB’s 15th president

By SUE WUETCHER
Published: April 18, 2011

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Sit down for a conversation with Satish K. Tripathi, and the topic quickly turns to quality: quality of students, quality of faculty, quality of research.

Tripathi, who was unanimously confirmed as UB’s 15th president on Monday during a special meeting at UB of the SUNY Board of Trustees, is committed to furthering the vision of the university that is at the heart of the UB 2020 plan: to make UB an excellent university and bring it to the next level, where it is competing with the top research universities in the country.

“To do that, we need to make an impact with our research, have a better quality of life for our citizenry and foster economic development in Western New York, as well as provide an excellent education for our students,” he told the UB Reporter in a wide-ranging interview last week.

Tripathi, who served as UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for six years, succeeds John B. Simpson as head of SUNY’s most comprehensive university.

Jeremy M. Jacobs, chair of the UB Council and the presidential search committee, said Tripathi was the unanimous choice of the council, selected from an outstanding pool of candidates in a very competitive search.

“Dr. Tripathi is a gifted leader and accomplished researcher who possesses the ability and knowledge to guide UB to become one of the world’s truly great research universities,” Jacobs said. “This university and this community are very fortunate that Dr. Tripathi will lead UB as its 15th president.”

Tripathi graduated top of his class from Banaras Hindu University in India, and holds three master’s degrees—one in computer science from the University of Toronto and two in statistics from the University of Alberta and Banaras Hindu University. After receiving a doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto in 1979, he joined the computer science faculty at the University of Maryland, where he spent 19 years on the faculty, including seven years as department chair.

He moved on to the University of California-Riverside in 1997 to become dean of the Bourns College of Engineering. He joined UB as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in 2004.

Tripathi, who was named officer-in-charge last month by SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, says UB has been making progress in recent years toward the goal of becoming a top public research university. He cited numerous undergraduate and graduate initiatives, among them the Undergraduate Academies and the University Honors College, as well as programs designed to provide opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research with distinguished faculty members.

The quality of students entering the university continues to improve, with UB enrolling its most academically talented freshman class in each of the past three years. And the number of students applying to UB’s graduate and professional programs hit a record high this year.

Moreover, UB is competing nationally to attract prominent faculty, many of whom have been hired under the strategic strengths initiatives of the UB 2020 plan. And these faculty members are being nurtured to be leaders nationally in their respective fields, he added.

“All of these things are moving UB toward being the excellent institution we want it to be. As we become an even better university, our impact on the communities we serve—locally and globally—will be even greater than it is today.” he said.

Tripathi said he is looking forward as president to further improving the quality of the institution and engaging with the community.

“They are connected,” he said. “If you want to make an institution excellent, you need to engage. That’s the job of the president: building relationships, engaging with community and acquiring resources for the institution.”

He noted that one of his main jobs as president will be educate UB’s supporters—including legislators—on the role of higher education and why it’s important to invest in higher education, particularly in bleak economic times.

Tripathi, who worked with Simpson to develop UB 2020, says that excellence—in research, teaching, facilities, faculty and students—along with engagement—of alumni, SUNY, legislators and the UB and broader Western New York communities—and efficiency comprise the three key elements of the strategic plan.

“We have made progress in all those areas in the past five or six years; we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

UB makes a difference in the quality of life and the economy of Western New York in numerous ways, he said, citing as examples the number of patents received by UB faculty members and the numerous companies they have founded in the area, the university’s partnership with Kaleida Health to construct the global vascular institute and research building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and construction downtown of UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, as well as the upcoming new building for the Educational Opportunity Center.

“We are trying to continue to do that. With the state funding situation, we haven’t moved as fast as we had expected, but I think we are moving at a good pace,” he said. “It’s a positive thing, and we will continue to move forward to realize the fullness of our mission.”

The third element of UB 2020—efficiency—has been achieved through “transformation” initiatives designed to align services in such areas as human resources, information technology and student services, Tripathi said, noting that resources saved through these efficiencies have provided funding “to support our academic and research mission.”

The UB 2020 legislation under consideration by the state Legislature—which would include regular tuition increases and enable creation of public-private partnerships—is needed to help implement UB’s strategic plan. Tripathi dismissed charges that the legislation would privatize the university and make it unaffordable for many students.

Any tuition increases would have to be approved by the SUNY Board of Trustees—tuition would not be set unilaterally by UB, he said—and there is a provision in the bill that tuition increases would not impact any student with a family income of less than $60,000.

“This is a major step to ensure access to students from low-income families,” he said. “We’d like to offer free education, but unfortunately we can’t do that.” To provide access to quality education, “we have put together a very good plan that takes care of the people who need the access and who don’t have the income for tuition increases,” he said.

The UB 2020 legislation will not privatize the university, he said. “There still are checks and balances,” UB is part of SUNY and therefore the SUNY Board of Trustees will continue to oversee the university, he said.

“What we are asking for (in the legislation) is available to most public research universities across the nation,” he added.

Since his arrival at UB, one of Tripathi’s major tasks as provost has been to manage the monumental loss of state funding. UB has received more than $80 million in state budget cuts over the past two years—including more than $17 million for 2011-12.

Tripathi said the university-wide committee he formed in 2008 to advise him on how to deal with expected cuts has been instrumental in helping the campus weather the loss of state funding so far.

The committee, which includes faculty, staff and student representatives, drew up a set of “guiding principles” that have governed the process. These principles, which he says have been embraced by the deans and vice presidents, include provisos that cuts should not impact students and that as many jobs as possible be saved “while trying to improve the quality of research and education.”

He noted that “getting the different constituencies together and having a common mission has proved invaluable. We engaged our university community in defining our institutional priorities.”

He further explained that savings achieved through the UB 2020 efficiencies have been essential to “dealing with the budget situation. These efficiency gains have enabled the university to handle budgetary cuts without drastic disruption to the academic core.”

He admitted, however, that the loss of state funding has impacted the campus in some ways, including fewer course-section offerings and the closure of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, as well as some program consolidations.

“We have done what we could do to not impact the education, research and well-being of the people here,” he said. “It’s heartening to see how people are really behind what we have done.”

However, if state funding continues to decline, program cuts like those happening at other SUNY campuses “are in the not-too-distant future. There’s no magic wand to say we will continue to do everything,” he said. More cuts likely would impact the quality of life of students, faculty and staff, and lead the university to consider whether it should offer some programs. “You don’t want to bleed programs to death; at some point you have to do some surgical cuts so that good programs can continue,” he said.

While Tripathi says becoming a university president was not something he set out to do, it may have been inevitable.

He is a fourth-generation educator—his great-grandfather ran a school for adults learning Hindu sacred writings, and his grandfather and father were teachers.
Tripathi says his family background steered him toward a career in higher education. As he moved up the ranks from faculty member through administrator—and although he never really planned to become an administrator—he found he enjoyed it.

“Over the past six years, I’ve observed first-hand the quality that exists at UB and see the vast potential of the university,” he said. “UB’s capacity to be even better than it is today, I believe, has created a tremendous amount of excitement across our university. I envision a UB that will have an even greater impact on our community and a reach that expands the globe. I am both excited and humbled by this opportunity to lead our university—the University at Buffalo.”

As president of UB, Tripathi will receive a base salary of $385,000, as well as $115,000 per year from the SUNY Research Foundation in support of his leadership of UB’s research efforts, which encompass more than $340 million annually in federally funded research projects. In addition, the UB Foundation will provide $150,000 annually in compensation. He will be provided university-owned housing and have use of a campus-owned vehicle during the term of his presidency.

Tripathi’s compensation is consistent with that of other presidents at AAU public research universities including Stony Brook University, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s