Buffalo State Pursuing More Full-Time Faculty

By The Buffalo News, N.Y.

Feb. 22–Buffalo State College intends to hire more full-time faculty members who can engage students inside and outside the classroom, its president said Thursday.

“Achieving excellence from within not only requires additional faculty; it requires the right faculty members,” Buffalo State President Muriel Howard said in her State of the College address in Upton Hall.

She renewed the college’s commitment to increase the percentage of full-time faculty to 65 percent of the teaching staff by the 2010-11 school year.

Buffalo State’s 416 full-time faculty members make up 55 percent of the college’s 755 faculty members. The school has 339 part-time faculty members, according to a college guide produced by Peterson’s, an academic information company.

The college, with an enrollment of about 11,000 students, has hired 129 new full-time faculty members in the past five years.

“We currently have ongoing searches for 46 additional faculty positions for fall 2008. So we are well on our way,” Howard said. “With further funding from New York State and a continued focus of resources, we will achieve our goal.”

The college also has made progress in getting more of its programs accredited, Howard said.

“Accreditation is the stamp of excellence that all higher-education institutions pursue and covet,” she said.

“In 2003, we made a commitment to seek 100 percent accreditation for all eligible programs. The college is now at 90 percent of that goal,” she said.

New undergraduate programs in writing, television arts and interior design have been approved, while new graduate program proposals in forensic science and foreign language teaching have been completed, she said.

Buffalo State’s service learning program, in which undergraduate students are placed in service positions at nonprofit groups across the region, has increased from 15 courses in 2004 to 39 courses in 2007, she said.

The number of participating students has increased from 350 to more than 800, and last year the students completed more than 23,000 hours of volunteer service.

The American Council on Education, at its annual conference two weeks ago in San Diego, recognized the college’s Volunteer and Service Learning Program as a community service program of honor, she said.

citydesk@buffnews.com

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