University at Buffalo

The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as the University at Buffalo (UB), UBuffalo, UBuff, or sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 as a private medical college and merged with the State University of New York system in 1962. It is one of two flagship institutions of the SUNY system, along with Stony Brook University. As of fall 2023, the university enrolled nearly 32,000 students in 13 schools and colleges, making it the largest public university in the state of New York.

Since its founding by a group which included future U.S. president Millard Fillmore, the university has evolved from a small medical school to a research university. Today, in addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, the university houses the largest state-operated medical school, dental school, education school, business school, engineering school, and pharmacy school, and is also home to SUNY's only law school. UB has the largest endowment and most research funding among the universities in the SUNY system. The university offers bachelor's degrees in over 140 areas of study, as well as over 220 master's programs and over 95 doctoral programs, and 55 combined degree programs. The University at Buffalo is one of two universities founded by United States Presidents.

The University at Buffalo is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In 1989, UB was elected to the Association of American Universities. The University at Buffalo intercollegiate athletic teams are the Bulls. They compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Mid-American Conference.

History

City leaders of Buffalo sought to establish a university in the city from the earliest days of Buffalo. A "University of Western New-York" was begun at Buffalo under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church and property was purchased at North Street and College (the site of the later YMCA), on the north side of the Allentown district. "University of Western New-York" was chartered by the state on April 8, 1836. Following the charter, private funding was secured for the "Western University," which would endow six or seven professorships at $5,000 each; an addition $12,000 or $15,000 was also collected for a general fund, and a building lot was donated by Judge Ebenezer Walden, one of the wealthiest men in the city. However, the project collapsed and no classes were ever offered, and only the layout of the College Street campus remains.

Founding

The University of Buffalo (as it was originally named) was founded on May 11, 1846, as a private medical school to train physicians for the communities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and surrounding villages. Future U.S. President Millard Fillmore, then a lawyer who had recently served in the United States House of Representatives, was one of the principal founders. James Platt White was instrumental in obtaining a charter for the university from the state legislature in 1846. He also taught the first class of 89 men in obstetrics. State Assemblyman Nathan K. Hall was also "particularly active in procuring the charter". The doors first opened to students in 1847 and after associating with a hospital for teaching purposes, the first class of students graduated the medical school in July 1847. Fillmore served as the school's first chancellor, a position he held until 1874, even as he served in other capacities during that time, including Comptroller of New York, U.S. Vice President, and eventually President.

Initially, the university did not have its own facilities, and early lectures were given at an old post office on Seneca and Washington streets in Buffalo. The first building specially built for the university was a stone structure at the corner of Main and Virginia streets, built in 1849–50, through donations, public subscription, and a state grant. There were continuous expansions to the college medical programs, including a separate pharmacy division, which is now The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 1887, a law school was organized in Buffalo, which quickly became associated with Niagara University just to the north of Buffalo. After four years, in 1891, the law school was acquired by the University of Buffalo as the University of Buffalo Law School, which had a downtown Buffalo facility. In the first few years of the 20th century, the university began planning for a comprehensive undergraduate college to complete the basic structure of a university, and in 1909 the university acquired the Erie County Almshouse grounds from the county of Erie, which became the University of Buffalo's initial campus. The establishment may have been influenced by the 1910 Flexner Report which criticized the preparation of the medical students at the university. With that additional space, in 1915, the then University of Buffalo formed the College of Arts and Sciences, creating an undergraduate division in addition to its prior educational work in the licensed professional fields. In 1916, Grace Millard Knox pledged $500,000 (equivalent to $14,794,000 in 2025) for the establishment of a "department of liberal arts and sciences in the University of Buffalo", which was at the time still a private institution. The initial gift of $100,000 was for the purchase of what would become Townsend Hall and the remainder was to establish the university's first endowment, in her husband's name, to support the department.

Name

The university's official legal name is "State University of New York at Buffalo". It is commonly known as the "University at Buffalo" (UB). The institution was known as the "University of Buffalo" for over a century. Other names such as "SUNY Buffalo", "SUNY at Buffalo", and "Buffalo" are also used. The university's athletic department, particularly on uniforms, uses the name "Buffalo".

Administration and organization

Buffalo is a public university and is one of four university centers of the 64 campuses in the State University of New York (SUNY) which enrolled 467,991 students and employed 88,024 academic staff in 2014. SUNY is governed by an 18-member Board of Trustees, of which 16 vote. 15 of the voting members are appointed by the Governor of New York and the remaining voting member is elected by students as President of the Student Assembly of the State University of New York. The other two members are non-voting faculty from the University Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges. Merryl Tisch is the Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees and John King Jr. is the Chancellor of the SUNY system. Satish K. Tripathi was appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees as the 15th president of the University at Buffalo in April 2011, becoming the first international-born president the school has had. He previously held a six-year tenure as the UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. He receives compensation of $385,000, $115,000, and $150,000 annually from each of the university, SUNY Research Foundation, and the UB Foundation respectively.

The University at Buffalo Foundation (UB Foundation) was chartered in 1962 as an independent non-profit corporation and is controlled by a privately appointed board of trustees. It serves as a vehicle to raise private funds for the university, develop real estate, and manage endowment investments on behalf of the university. The foundation managed a $685.2 million endowment for FY2011.

UB is organized into 13 academic schools and colleges.

The School of Architecture and Planning is the only combined architecture and urban planning school in the State University of New York system, offers the only accredited professional master's degree in architecture, and is one of two SUNY schools that offer an accredited professional master's degree in urban planning. In addition, the School of Architecture and Planning also awards the original undergraduate four year pre-professional degrees in architecture and environmental design in the SUNY system. Other degree programs offered by the School of Architecture and Planning include a research-oriented Master of Science in architecture with specializations in historic preservation/urban design, inclusive design, and computing and media technologies; a PhD in urban and regional planning; and, an advanced graduate certificate in historic preservation.

The College of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1915 and is the largest and most comprehensive academic unit at UB with 29 degree-granting departments, 16 academic programs, and 23 centers and institutes across the humanities, arts, and sciences.

Academics

The University at Buffalo is a large, public research university with very high research activity. In 2020, the university offered 140+ undergraduate programs, 220+ master's programs, 95+ doctoral programs and 55+ combined degree programs.

The four-year, full-time undergraduate program comprises the majority of enrollments at the university which emphasizes a balanced curriculum across the arts, sciences, and professions. The university enrolled 21,607 undergraduate and 9,896 graduate students in the fall of 2018. Women make up 48% of the student body and 78% of the student body is from the state of New York. Over 7,000 students live in on-campus residential halls and 10,172 students live off campus in affiliated housing (including on-campus affiliated housing). Over 79% of students live on campus their first year. Undergraduate tuition, room & board, and fees for New York state residents for the 2020–2021 school year totals $24,860 and costs to out-of-state residents totals $42,330. New York State also offers free tuition for all public college and universities through the Excelsior Scholarship program for families who have an income of lower than $125,000 and are residents of the state. Other requirements to qualify for free tuition include full-time enrollment and staying in the state for a number of years after graduating.

UB is noted for offering an early Computer Science major that was distinct from a mathematics major.

University at Buffalo academic and professional faculty are represented by United University Professions. The two UUP chapters at the University at Buffalo are Health Sciences and Buffalo Center. United University Professions has over 34,000 members at 29 campuses of SUNY. The organization serves as the collective bargaining agent representing SUNY faculty and professional staff, negotiating contracts and employment conditions.

Admissions

UB offers some flexibility in admission deadlines. For the Class of 2024 (enrolling Fall 2020), the university received 27,652 applications and accepted 15,233 (55.1%), with 4,119 enrolling. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 600–699 for math, 600–699 for evidence-based reading and writing, and the ACT composite score range was 24–29.

Rankings and reputation

Forbes's 2025 American Top Colleges list ranked UB 134th in overall, and 57th among US public universities. U.S. News & World Report's the 2023–2024 Best Colleges ranked UB 76 on their list of "Best National Universities", and 36th among public universities. U.S. News ranking of best online programs ranks UB eighth in "Best Online Bachelor's Programs" and 25th in "Best Online Graduate Education Programs".

Campuses

The University at Buffalo is the state's largest and most comprehensive public university and is spread across three campuses: North Campus, South Campus, and Downtown Campus. The Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card awarded the university a B+. UB was awarded the EPA "Environmental Champion Award" in 2015 and is ranked as one of the top 50 "green colleges and universities" in the nation, working towards becoming climate neutral by 2030.

North Campus

The North Campus, a census-designated place also called "University at Buffalo", located in the suburb of Amherst, began in the 1970s. Many academic programs, including the entirety of the undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, the University at Buffalo Law School, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Management, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the Graduate School of Education, as well as Lockwood Memorial Library, Oscar A. Silverman Library, and many administrative offices, are located on UB's North Campus.

The North Campus is home to administrative and academic offices. The main buildings are arranged along one academic "spine", a second floor connecting corridor, that connects most of the main academic buildings. The whole campus covers 1,192 acres (5 km2) with 146 buildings containing 6,715,492 sq ft (623,890 m2), 11 residence halls and 5 apartment complexes. Its size was supported by the implementation of a shuttle system circling the academic sector and surrounding areas including the administrative complex, located nearly a quarter mile from the central academic area. When originally built by the state of New York, the North Campus was provided with two Interstate exits, from I-290 and I-990, its own internal parkway, the John James Audubon Parkway, and two small lakes created from Ellicott Creek. As a census-designated place, the residential population recorded at the 2010 census was 6,066.

The North Campus offers a variety of entertainment programming and activity for students. It contains the Student Union, which houses offices for the Student Association and student-interest clubs; Slee Hall, which presents contemporary and classical music concerts; Broadview Arena, the home-court for University Athletics; the UB Center for the Arts, a non-profit presenter of a wide variety of professional entertainment and Broadview Stadium, the 30,000 seat football stadium.

South Campus

The South Campus, also known as the Main Street campus, located on 154 acres (0.62 km2) in North Buffalo, is the former grounds of the Erie County Almshouse and Insane Asylum, of which four buildings still remain (Hayes Hall, the former insane asylum; Wende Hall, a former maternity hospital; Hayes D; and Townsend Hall, a former nurses' quarters). Edmund B. Hayes Hall located on South Campus is a registered U.S. National Historical Place. The college was designed by architect E.B. Green in 1910, and was intended to resemble Trinity College Dublin. Its 53 buildings contain (3,045,198 sq ft (282,908 m2)) and include two residence halls. This campus is served by the northernmost subway station on Buffalo's Niagara Frontier Metro Rail system.

Student life

Associations and activities

UB has two student-run periodicals: The Spectrum, and Subject, both of which are run as independent nonprofits. The Spectrum is a campus newspaper, which distributes on campus and online. Subject is a student-run online multimedia outlet that includes student-written articles, and radio shows, video, and podcasts by students and alumni.

Subject was founded in 2020 by alumni of former campus radio station WRUB, and campus magazine Generation,, after Sub-Board I, the student services corporation that funded them both, was shut down in 2019.

After the retirement of John B. Simpson, the undergraduate students have also developed a university forum with the hopes of developing a thriving online campus. This move was supported by now-incumbent president Satish K. Tripathi who called it a "model of University spirit and entrepreneurship".

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