Ever since President John B. Simpson has been in office, UB has been focused on a “plan.” A plan so lofty it would take more than a decade and a half to be fully realized. A plan so comprehensive it required a year in its title. It’s been a while, though, and the most I had personally seen of this plan were some fairly trippy flowerpots. I was beginning to feel discouraged.
On January 9, however, there came a saving grace. Governor Eliot Spitzer announced his endorsement of UB2020—the plan that has been seemingly shrouded in infamy. What the hell is it? Sounds like some big, Michael Bay blockbuster if you ask me, like UB was setting up a guerilla publicity blitz for a years-off robot battle. But Governor Spitzer has very assuredly cleared everything up.
Talking to The Buffalo News, Spitzer proclaimed “We will move forward on the University at Buffalo’s ‘2020’ expansion as a centerpiece of our strategy to reinvigorate the economy of Western New York.” Claiming to revitalize an area that has been economically depressed for the better part of a century is a bold statement—making the suburban university the city’s savior is little more than ironic.
All this comes thirty years after building the school as far away from the city as possible (while still maintaining its namesake), stonewalling all attempts at public transportation, and giving the building contract to the lowest bidder, allowing for the most barren campus design this side of Attica state penitentiary. Not that I’m bitter.
I’m just saying, it’s best not to count your chickens before they’ve hatched. UB2020 could just end up being another brain fart.
Unless the said developments occur while the majority of UB students are living in Buffalo to see them, very few will truly believe that UB2020 is a feasible plan. Bullshit morale-boosting groups like the UB Believers, and endorsements from hot-shot government officials without tangible ground-breaking ceremonies are just marketing tools for grants and financial assistance.
An article in the September 30, 2007 issue of the New York Times Magazine, outlines the ambitions of the twenty-first century research university. In the article “Academic Business” Andrew Delbanco writes, “Driven by big science and global competition, our top universities compete for ‘market share’ and ‘brand-name positioning,’ employ teams of consultants and lobbyists and furnish their campuses with luxuries in order to attract paying ‘customers’—a word increasingly used as a synonym for students.”
For UB2020, the addition of Spitzer as a “big UB Believer,” has poised UB to become more attractive to companies that have the money to fund projects like the downtown campus. But has it sustained hope that UB2020 will benefit the students of the university? No. It has proved that it is a massive marketing campaign, successful now that the plan has attracted a major player.
Brain bubble or brilliant economic stimulus—why don’t you be the judge? Generation is currently hiring features writers for a series on UB2020, as well as a long line of other on-campus stories. Send a sample of your writing to SBI-Generation@buffalo.edu. With big plans abound in our school’s administration this is no time for public university students to stay quiet.
