Talk:University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Universities, an attempt to standardise coverage of Universities and colleges. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

	This article is part of the New York State WikiProject, an attempt to better organize and improve articles related to the U.S. state of New York. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

15:53, 21 March 2007 (UTC) dropped the "flagship" status. Not true according to SUNY, as there is no official "flagship" campus. Any of the four University centers have equal standing under SUNY, and each can claim top honors in one category or another. Buffalo is factually the largest, and arguably the most comprehensive. But still, each of the other three centers offer undergraduate and graduate programs that Buffalo does not (likewise Buffalo has many unique programs, as mentioned in the article).

I went to UB, and I was under the impression that University at Buffalo was short for the official name, State University of New York at Buffalo. -James

I go to UB, and the university's website, and even SUNY's website seem to only refer to it as "University at Buffalo". "State University of New York at Buffalo" has been used at some point (i see it stamped on things like chairs or benches once in a while), but i'm not sure if it still is. -℘yrop (talk) 23:10, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 UB nomenclenture 2 varied contributions 3 From the Horse's mouth 4 Mascots 5 Sections 6 Most recent overhaul. 7 Natural gas buses? 8 Academics 9 UB userbox 10 Coordinate

[edit] UB nomenclenture

I grew up in Endicott, New York and went to UB, and i've seen all sorts of insecurity about what SUNY schools are named. Right now, the school across the river is called Binghamton University, while growing up in the 1980's I knew it as SUNY Binghamton. Although my alma mater is now known as "University at Buffalo" (which i find somewhat arrogant), i knew it when i was going there as The State University of New York at Buffalo, a wordy moniker to be sure, but an accurate one. New York started their state university system much too late and now their attempts to distinguish themselves ring hollow and contrived.

My 2001 diploma reads State University of New York at Buffalo. Anyone have a more recent diploma? - James

Both are equally valid, which is irritating and confusing. Government and financial documents refer to it as the State University of New York at Buffalo. (Some non-governmental financial institutions refer to it as the State University of New York, Amherst, out of some sort of need to distinguish the two campuses as distinct entities. You have no idea how sad this makes me.) I believe that current diplomas now read "University at Buffalo," with "State University of New York" below the seal in smaller print. I am vaguely curious as to why you consider the "University at Buffalo" moniker arrogant, though, as I can't find anything particularly offensive about it, just as I can't see anything wrong with Binghamton University, or University at Albany (though it is awkward), or Stony Brook University. Mostly, I just wish they'd pick one term and stick with it... User:Tomlillis

My 2005 diploma says "State University of New York at Buffalo"; however, when I was a student I worked for the University Bookstore (North Campus), and according to administration, documents and wordmarks were labeled as the even less elegant "University at Buffalo, The State University of New York"...ugh. Now I live in Texas, and when people ask me where I went to college I just say "New York State University".

Update: I found the UB Visual Identity webpage with the naming conventions:

http://www.buffalo.edu/toolbox/visualidentity/elements_names.html

No. 1 (listed as the formal name) is University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; No. 2 (internal use and alumi) is University at Buffalo which sounds awful; No. 3 is UB, intended for extremely casual, internal use. Further, the page states that the name State University of New York at Buffalo is deprecated and should no longer be used. This begs the question, WTF does it say "State University of New York at Buffalo" on my 2005 diploma? This naming convention is pre-2005. I swear, they should just call it New York State University or University of Buffalo. Note that in Ohio, Miami University, University of Cincinnati, Ohio University, The University of Akron, and the University of Toledo are all part of the state system, but there is no reference to the State system. Why can't we just go that route?

No. 2 is a shortened version of State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, so the at Buffalo makes sense. I myself am a student at UB, and if I have to write it on some kind of space limited form, I use something like SUNY at Buffalo, or just SUNY Buffalo. I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that there are two simmilary named schools, UB (University at Buffalo) and Buffalo State University, both of them SUNY Schools. University of Buffalo could be ambiguous, even though it makes sense to us. HeavyD14 03:49, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

- University at Buffalo

Yes, the name University at Buffalo does sound awful. I think the administration of the school had to try and find some middle ground between SUNY at Buffalo, which no one uses, and UB (short for University of Buffalo), which is used by most people. The name University of Buffalo has been around a lot longer (1846-1962) than University at Buffalo or SUNY at Buffalo. I'll stick with the wisdom of our forefathers on this one and keep using the name University of Buffalo.

How about this for a name:..... State University of New York at Buffalo

Every year we can shrink further the font size of "State" and "New York at" !!!!Truthunmasked 14:10, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

- "The name change was enacted to clarify the position of the component universities in the SUNY system." What exactly does this mean? What "position" needed to be clarified? - Lykaon

Well, I think it refers to the position of the 'University Center' of UB over the SUNY 'college' refered to as Buffalo State College, SUNY Buffalo or "Buff State." (aka 'Teachers College') Buffalo State is the other SUNY-aquired institution in Buffalo. It is a smaller, separate school, often confused with UB in name. With two SUNY-Buffalo institutions, it's easy to see why SUNY at Buffalo and SUNY College at Buffalo would be confused.

[edit] varied contributions

Hi, one of the contributers put an automatic edit on any contribution from me! This web page amounts to an advertisement. I wanted to put some discussion about U.B. into what is otherwise just a promotional page. Can someone include on this page something negative about U.B.? I mean the theme of wikipedia seem to have the idea of everyone contributing to each article. The only negative things on this page are in the talk section. Clearly, while my contribution may or may not have the right style to go with the rest of the article, someone else may be able to fit this in or to modify the style of the article as a whole to accompany such a more objective contribution. Further, it seems that one of the authors of this article has included automatic deletion coding into the page! Maybe that is a Wikipedia tool, but I don't think any contributions into what is presented as an open contribution page warrant programming techniques. Couldn't he just manually delete it? My contribution was not bad! I would include it here, but it would be deleted too most likely! Ok, after giving some people a chance to read my complaint, then feel free in a few weeks to shorten it to the main point that promotional pages in the wikipedia should have some usefull, and I emphasize usefull so it doesn't turn mean negative content, carefully edited to soften the harshness while retaining the idea of adding depth-- 02:14, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

You can make contributions criticising the school, they just have to fit into the article, be encyclopedic, and satisfy a neutral point of view. What you were doing was inserting biased essays into the article blindly, which was not appropriate. Please review Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines.

Criticism of UB would be a very good contribution to this article, however; for example, a discussion of the controversial decision in the '60s to build the new campus in Amherst instead of in downtown Buffalo and its effects on Buffalo would be a very valuable addition. -℘yrop (talk) 04:03, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

I did put a watch on this, but more for copyediting purposes than anything else. I have no vested interest in promoting the university, but I don't know if a lengthy discussion on how people felt about the placement of North Campus is appropriate here. The criticism relates more to the city in general than the university itself; as such it would probably be better suited to the Buffalo, New York article. My edits were specifically directed towards clarifying the roles and expansion histories of the two campuses, not towards squelching dissenting voices. At this point, I think the article would be better served by the inclusion of a broader discussion of the acquisition and expansion process in general. This would include the construction of the Ridge Lea shanty-school, the "Berkeley of the East" movement, the volatile political environment at the school during the 1960's and 70's and the subsequent miltary and federal law-enforcement presence, Project Themis, and so on.

Again, I assure you that I'm not trying to build a wikiadvert here. I'm having a hard time maintaining an NPOV here myself, as I have a very overwhelming urge to critically discuss the way the school is slowly abandoning the humanities and less profitable pure sciences in favor of Informatics and commercially-oriented research... Well, I'm willing to work on it, anyhow. User:Tomlillis

Agreed. The student unrest of the late 1960s, early 1970s would be a welcome addition to this article. Flyerhell 00:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] From the Horse's mouth

This page describes it all. The most formal name is University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. University at Buffalo is the less formal name, and UB is th eleast formal name and the preferred causal name.

http://www.buffalo.edu/toolbox/visualidentity/elements_names.html

"Although State University of New York at Buffalo is still an acceptable name, it is reserved for those instances in which the communication is directed primarily toward an international audience; as the international audience becomes increasingly familiar with our formal "University at Buffalo, The State University of New York" name, the "State University of New York at Buffalo" name should no longer be used." Cyferx 02:59, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

• In line with Wikipedia naming conventions (WP:NC) I am going to move the article to the full name as stated on the page linked above: "University at Buffalo, The State University of New York." The current page will, of course, redirect to the new, complete name. ⇒ BRossow ^T/_C 17:32, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mascots

UB has 2 mascots, Victor E. Bull and Victoria S. Bull (http://www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/spirit/mascots.shtml). I am not sure with the formatting of the page how to add these, but if they are not added in a few days I can do it. Flyerhell

It has been added Baboo

[edit] Sections

The University at Buffalo page is too messy and the Alumni list is half the size of the whole wiki. I think we need to make new sections and maybe create a List_of_University_at_Buffalo_People page.

ok, I sectioned off Athletics and Miscellaneous, somebody do History, Campus, Clubs.

Baboo

[edit] Most recent overhaul.

There's being NPOV, and then there's wackiness. I'm not going to launch into it myself without soliciting feedback, but the "Sprawl" section really needs to be incorporated with the history of the article and a general description of the division of the campuses. The complaining about the "lack of affordable housing" and the bus system also needs to be put into some kind of context. Most major universities have their own internal transit systems, believe it or not. I would know, since I spent a hell of a lot of time researching that fact last semester. The affordable housing thing is also questionable. I'm not an "invisible hand of the market" guy, but I really think it should be "lack of housing"--affordable or not, every housing unit is filled every year. Comments appreciated, anyhow. Tom Lillis 18:21, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I just decided to check out UB's wikipedia entry today and agree that the "Sprawl" section needs some work. It is much too long (longer than the Academics section) and seems to belabor something that is not really going to be of much interest to outsiders. Tom is right that shuttle buses and insufficient housing are hardly unique to UB either. There also seems to be a disconnect between the student population cited in the "Sprawl" section, 50,000, and that in the fact box, ~27,000. The latter figure agrees with the UB website. --BCAttwood 14:49, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Agreed as well. It is not NPOV:

"UB has a total student capacity estimated around 30,000 total students, a number which is quite common among other “super university” schools. Though the school has never seen this many enrolled students, the design of UB is nonetheless accommodating of so many."

This is false. Even with the large amount of dormitories, UB does not have enough room to house every student. I am not sure about this year, but from the fall of 2003 on, UB has been housing students in local hotels.

"However, despite the division among academic discipline lines, the school cannot mask the fact that it is actually indeed two separate institutions displaced by several miles between them."

Two seperate institutions?

"Students on the north campus who find the isolation of Amherst, the suburb that surrounds the university, to be too stifling often venture into the diverse environment of the nearby city of Buffalo to enjoy its comparative diversity. Since most residents are not drivers, due to a variety of constraints, students from the north campus often find themselves isolated from Buffalo, despite being at the University at Buffalo."

This is COMPLETELY false. Busses run from North to South campus up until 2 AM over the weekend. A lot of students hang out on Main Street near south campus. Furthermore, South Campus is connected to the Metro, which many students utilize to take them downtown. Third, cabs run ALL DAY AND NIGHT between the North and South campuses. I don't know who wrote this section but I seriously doubt they ever attended UB. If a source is not presented for the "most residents not being drivers" idea I am removing it. I will work on this article tomorrow. Flyerhell 10:10, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

UPDATE: As promised, I have re-written the sprawl section to make it sound less like an advertisement for UB and attempted to paint more of an accurate picture of what the so called "sprawl" really is like. Let me know your thoughts on my additions/corrections. Thanks. Flyerhell 01:58, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to comment on the housing situation. To the best of my knowledge, all residnetial students live in a campus operated facility. They do, however, at the begining of the semester, force some first year students to live in "over-capacity," meaning there are three people living in a two person room. I'd know, as I was in one of those rooms. This is to be expected, as they do room assignments before they have a final count. In most cases they are resolved within the first week.

The reason for less overcrowding is the construction of a nearby primarily UB student apartment complex. This seems to be an atractive option, as many have moved there. Aparently they are really nice, but they werent' held to the highest construction standards.

The only time I know of students being housed in a hotel would be after a fire in a residence hall, and durring finals week. They kick out anyone in violation of quiet hours durring that time.

Also, most of the residents I know here don't have cars here, but that doesn't keep us isolated by any means. Everyone knows someone who has a car, and there are always the busses. In addition to the north-south busses, there are UB busses that go to a nearby mall and supermarket. And there is the city bus system, I don't know much about its operation schedule or routes, but they do make stops on the campus.HeavyD14 23:02, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I know for a fact that students were housed in local hotels in both 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years, as well as having the OC rooms that you mentioned. I am not sure if they were there the entire year (I think I read somewhere that students were still at one hotel in the spring of 2005) and I am not sure if UB continued to use hotels during the current academic year. The new apartment complex that you speak of is most likely the massive University Village at Sweethome apartment complex. As this entire complex was booked by the middle of spring 2005, it makes sense that there is a lot more room available in the on campus dorms. Flyerhell 04:12, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It was the Red Roof Inn and the students were there for the whole year :) Baboo

UB is a commutter school plan and simple. Main street area and the heights are chuck full of students there are even students as far off as Downtown buffalo. Last semster fall 05 they housed two students in a motel due to a fire.

[edit] Natural gas buses?

Since when do the buses run on natural gas? Did I miss something? (See the Sprawl section). I'll remove it if nobody can confirm it.

Since 2003ish... Baboo

If the buses run on natural gas, why are there articles like this in The Spectrum?

The sentence doesn't sound right anyway, so I'm going to reword it. -Varco 06:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about the busses, but the university definately has a fleet of vans that run on CNG. HeavyD14 16:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Academics

Mathematics at UB have not been reduced to a supporting role. The department has many operations. My professor works for a software firm developing mathematical algorithms for graphics. Plus about 40% of the school's budget comes from companies for reasearch anyhow. Look, at Furnas Hall that whole building is reasearch. 69.162.218.114 10:46, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree, and have removed the statement and added a request for a citation to that section. -128.205.74.158 05:26, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

This is the first time I've felt obliged to add my two cents to a Wikipedia discussion. I, too, think this article needs some reference to the controversy over the bifurcation of campus. A general article about UB might not require it; but this article, which seems to celebrate the division, demands balance. I was at UB in 1981, as Squire Hall was closing; here we are, more than twenty years later and, some of us, continue to grumble. Of course, the ire at the division of the campuses was fueled by a perception that the choice to expand to Amherst was designed, in part, to quiet student activism, divide and exhaust students, and so on. Whether there was any truth to that, I can't say. Bottom line: in the twenty-some years since I left, I've never failed to mention the exodus to Amherst when telling my UB story.

Also, this sentence can't be correct: "Additionally, UB's role as a crucial internet hub for the eastern seaboard during the internet's inception cannot be understated." Do you mean, "overstated."

[edit] UB userbox

If anyone wants it, I have created a userbox for those who want to advertise their UB student/alum status on their user pages (it also automatically adds you to a category, which I can see I misnamed now, but whatever ... Daniel Case 23:33, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Coordinate

Does anyone know how to find the coordinates?141.155.144.95