The SUNY system had its first uptick in enrollment in a decade last year, but a report issued Tuesday recommends a broad series of moves to expand the system’s research initiatives and increase its potential economic impact across the state, while reaching out to groups of potential students that typically drew little attention in the past.
The report calls for investing in more faculty and research to strengthen programs in areas of projected growth – namely artificial intelligence, biotechnology, the production of semiconductors and their packaging, sustainability and renewable energy.
The idea is that more university-based research can help turn UB into a powerful force that can help grow the Buffalo Niagara economy.
It recommends that SUNY do more to recruit students from populations not traditionally sought after, such as those from “high adversity” neighborhoods who need more support, but whose success would pay off in generational wealth and upward mobility.
And it calls for the most financially challenged schools within the system – including Buffalo State University and SUNY Fredonia – to implement cost-savings plans to erase deficits running in the millions of dollars and balance their budgets, rather than rely on bailouts.
The SUNY…
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