University at Buffalo

The University at Buffalo, formally known as The State University of New York at Buffalo, has campuses located both in and near Buffalo, New York, USA, and is one of the four university centers operated by the State University of New York. It has had several similar names since the State of New York purchased the University of Buffalo in 1962. Before that time, it was a private university that began in 1846 as a medical college. Millard Fillmore, who would later become President of the United States of America, was its first chancellor. Despite the many name changes, the university is still frequently called the University of Buffalo.

As of 2005, it is the largest and most comprehensive unit in the SUNY system.

The original campus, located at the edge of the northeastern part of the city, is now the South Campus of the University at Buffalo. This campus is served by the northernmost station on Buffalo's Metro Rail system. Today, it is the home of some of the university's more specialized academic programs and services, including: the Schools of Medical and Dental Sciences; the undergraduate and graduate departments of urban planning and architecture; the University-supported NPR charter affiliate station, WBFO; and some minor administrative and bureaucratic offices. Additionally, a portion of the school's resident undergraduate population continues to live in the original residential complex.

After the University of Buffalo was acquired by the State University of New York in 1962, a massive capizalization and expansion project was conceived to build the institution to a level befitting a major public university. The centerpiece of this initiative was the development of what is commonly known as the North Campus, located roughly three miles away from the original campus in suburban Amherst, New York, and the adjacent Ellicott Residential Complex. Construction commenced in the late 1960s, beginning with the construction of the core academic buildings and libraries. Expansion of this campus continued through the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, with a new Division I-A football stadium, a massive performing arts complex, commercial and retail space, several academic buildings relating to the natural and mathematical sciences, and hundreds of new undergraduate and graduate housing units having been completed within the past fifteen years. The new campus is now the focal point of the university, housing almost all of its graduate, undergraduate, and professional programs, including the Schools of Law and Business.

The school is well regarded as an educational institution, and the admissions process is somewhat competitive, particularly for out-of-state applicants. However, in recent years an increasing emphasis in both publcity and financial consideration has been placed on the development of a thriving community of research scientists, mostly centered around an economic initiative to promote Buffalo as a center of excellence for Informatics. The university's Center for Computational Research is one of the most powerful academic supercomputing sites in the eastern United States.

The school's sports teams are called the Bulls. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football) and in the Mid-American Conference.

The location in and near Buffalo, New York, provides students, faculty, and staff with the usual urban facilites (museums, zoo, entertainment, transportation centers) without the congestion and high costs normally associated with large cities. Some, however, criticize some of the isolation that comes from North Campus' suburban setting. It is within driving distance of Niagara Falls and two of the Great Lakes.

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The university is different from Buffalo State College, another SUNY school in Buffalo, located in the northwestern part of the city.

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External links

• University at Buffalo (http://www.buffalo.edu/)
• Official Buffalo athletics site (http://www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/)

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