Dear President Simpson,

I had the opportunity to read your open letter in The Spectrum the other day (April 11, 2007). You were trying to bring us all up to date on your UB2020 plan. I first heard of the ambitious project as a freshman. It was right after you assumed your post, to be exact, and I remember thinking it sounded like a great idea. It hadn’t taken me long to realize that UB had some areas that could be improved upon. The prospect of change was invigorating, to say the least.

Imagine my sense of déjà vu as I read your letter last Wednesday. Although I certainly believe you have attended a slew of meetings and engaged in “vibrant dialogue” over the course of the last three years, I was hoping for a few more details. Although I’ve been listening with open ears for almost the entirety of my undergraduate experience, my understanding of the whole UB2020 plan could fit on the back of a cocktail napkin: “Make UB better.”

Granted, a lot of great ideas get their start on the back of cocktail napkins. I’m sure you’ve been working hard, and the job of a leader is not necessarily to sweat every single detail. But I am here to tell you that we, as students in the era of Wikipedia and copy and paste, can smell filler from a mile away. And Wednesday’s Spectrum set my senses tingling.

This is the kind of letter that our parents would crack open and probably be very impressed by. They understand the importance of synergy and a well-constructed organizational diagram. We, on the other hand, have been waiting for details on this plan for nearly a U.S. Presidential term, and are getting tired of vagaries.

Some semi-specifics have been released thus far on the construction front. Unfortunately, I honestly have no idea what a “makeover” of Founders Plaza would look like. While some green space and yet another cluster of tables near a bagel cart (read: “eatery”) would be nice, I’m more concerned with where these 10,000 new students that are part of your plan are going to sleep. You’ve said you have this particular problem all figured out, but no specifics have emerged from your office.

I’m grateful for the UB2020 web site (Buffalo.edu/2020) and all, but after pouring over it I could find virtually no specifics concerning the plan. I know a few things; like that the building phase for UB2020 basically consists of “planning” and “implementation.” That’s how I make dinner. There are also a number of links to various news articles, most of which feature the same kind of empty, team-building-exercise type of rhetoric used by high school counselors and self-help gurus.

I’m sorry if this is getting a little harsh. I‘m just tired of trying to make heads or tails of UB2020, and that is primarily because I can’t figure out what you know and what you don’t know. Your administration recently made an appearance at an Amherst Town Board meeting demanding that a private, off-campus housing development be stopped. Why? Because it interfered with your own housing plans. That same week, a poll went up online to gauge what students need from new on-campus housing. I don’t understand how an existing plan would…well, exist without this kind of information already in hand.

I know that you hold the image of UB to be of the highest import, mostly because your administration is extremely vocal on this point. But part of the image of a university is how its students perceive it. It seems to me that bolstering the way other people view our school is less important than actually bettering the whole experience for the student body. If I walk into a job interview in 15 years and get some hardcore recognition for my UB degree, then I both thank you and apologize in advance. But even if I do, that will not change my experience here. It will not change what I learned, the friendships I made, or the fact this campus looks like an architecture student’s worst nightmare.

The world of advertising is a vacuous place in which much is said, little of which informs, and a sale must always be made. A lot of things have been marketed to me at this point in my life. I’ve been sold cars. I’ve been pitched mortgages, retirement plans, vacations, and groceries. I’ve been hustled once or twice. But I just can’t understand why I feel like I’m being hustled by this school. Despite its shortcomings, I really like it here at UB. I just want to know what’s going to happen.

Quite Sincerely,

Charles Wiff

Note to the Editor:

Amidst all the controversy regarding the University Council elections, it is difficult to keep all the facts straight. However, I would like to point out that in your latest article relating to the discrepancies in the election, an article of The Spectrum is misquoted. The article you quoted that was said to be published in 2005, was actually published in April 2004. This is significant because the quote was used in reference to the question of the definition of the polling place in an online election, currently an issue in the 2007 election.

As a result, it was implied that candidate Ilia Nossov should have been aware of the possible resulting controversy. Nonetheless, it was highly unlikely for him to have come across that article, having only begun to attend UB in Fall 2004, the semester after the article was published. Thank you.

Brooke Shaughnessy