There is something that I find very upsetting about Buffalo. I came across this article recently:
New Center Will Work With Companies and Universities to Develop Next Generation Batteries and Capacitors
Here is my problem with Buffalo. We have SUNY@Buffalo doing all our heavy lifting while Buffalo State muddles. Soon we will be getting Solar City for solar energy, we have hydro, we have wind and in-between Niagara Falls and Rochester we have nuclear. Buffalo also has natural resources in coal, oil, natural gas, etc… particularly in our southern tier. Plus SUNY@Buffalo is making great strides in the Material Sciences and nanosciences.
We are fools to continue to put all our eggs in one basket and expect SUNY@Buffalo to perform all our new technology small business incubators.
Buffalo State waited decades to rebuild its math and science buildings, decades to build new dormitories, and their promises for a new football stadium on the site of the Buffalo impound is still on the waiting list.
Where are the technology partnerships between SUNY@Buffalo and Buffalo State that would allow technology degrees for many of SUNY@Buffalo’s research and engineering programs?
Where is the agenda for the new technology programs that Buffalo State will be offering to stay competitive in the 21st century instead of the same generic degree programs that practically every other college/university in upstate, if not the country, offers?
Granted RIT has a larger endowment to get things done and it’s a private college that doesn’t have state oversight. However, RIT gets the endowment because it consistently proves itself to be innovative, to survey the region, to offer new degree programs that are needed to attract new businesses to Rochester while Buffalo State lacks dynamism, lacks action, lacks innovation and it offers generic programs which FORCE local companies to train new hires in their business. RIT has specific programs so that students require minimum training and hit the ground running sooner.
The Lewiston Power Project for the Niagara Power Authority is the largest producer of not just power but renewable clean energy in the Northeast… if not west of the Mississippi. Yet the Niagara Power Authority will give Buffalo and Niagara Falls money for parks but they will not give money for a research park in energy technologies, energy management technologies, energy distribution technologies, etc.
Every time I hear something good about Buffalo State building a new dorm, there are five articles published about RIT doing something dynamic and innovative. Buffalonians should expect and demand more from Buffalo State. Buffalo State could be every bit as dynamic and innovative, especially if partnered closer with UB. RIT is a standalone. Buffalonians don’t expect it from Buffalo State – they don’t demand it from Buffalo State. Then they wonder why it’s a stuck in the mud patronage factory like ECC.