A Billion and Beyond

At his annual State of the University address, University at Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi announced that UB has raised more than $1 billion through a comprehensive fundraising effort.

“Everywhere you look,” he said, “you can see how philanthropic giving to UB is catalyzing student success, accelerating faculty research and impacting the world.”

The Boldly Buffalo campaign originated in 2013 and launched publicly in 2018. Since then, nearly 80,000 donors have helped UB fulfill its three key campaign priorities—supporting student success, empowering faculty research and scholarly activity, and making an impact on the world.

UB achieved record fundraising outcomes in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, and surpassed its billion-dollar goal with eight months to go until its official close date of June 30, 2024.

A signature gift that will catalyze construction

Tripathi also announced at the address a $40 million commitment from longtime UB benefactor and alumnus Russ Agrusa, BS ’76. Agrusa’s gift, which pushed the campaign over the billion-dollar mark, will elevate engineering education and the student experience in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. An initial $20 million has been designated to kickstart the construction of a new student-focused engineering building on UB’s North Campus, which will be named Russell L. Agrusa Hall. The balance is allocated for the long-term needs and priorities of engineering and computer science education and research.

Agrusa, the founder and retired CEO of ICONICS, Inc., based outside of Boston, is committed to nurturing the next generation of students through his philanthropy. Considering his own journey of discovery and leadership, he was excited by the idea of providing a physical place for students to take risks and collaborate across the many different disciplines within the engineering school and across the university. The new building will be uniquely student-focused, housing the many engineering and computer science-based student organizations and clubs at UB. Equipped with the latest technology for hands-on learning, the building will serve as a meeting point for student activities alongside learning and enrichment.

“Everything about the new building will be designed to enhance the student experience,” said Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “It will be a central gathering point where all students are welcomed and supported in a space that encourages them to pursue their intellectual curiosity and tackle the grand challenges that we, as a society, face.”

The enduring impact of a fundraising campaign

The nearly 32,000 students who call UB home are already benefiting from more than $117 million invested in new scholarships and fellowships. Since the beginning of the campaign, more than 300 have been created or enhanced thanks to donor investment.

“Year after year our donors continue to enthusiastically invest in UB’s educational mission,” said Jason Diffenderfer, UB vice president for university advancement. “They are supporting the promise and potential of our outstanding students by contributing the essential resources that are helping UB to pursue its ambition to be in the top 25 of public research universities.”

In addition to student support, a key part of propelling UB to the upper echelon of public research universities is the ability to bolster faculty research that leads to real-world improvements and outcomes. Donors to Boldly Buffalo have contributed more than $62 million toward UB’s faculty, with 41 new faculty positions established to date.

The university’s three campuses also have been transformed during the campaign period, with donor support helping to build or renovate 21 signature spaces, including the landmark home of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in downtown Buffalo and the Murchie Family Fieldhouse on the North Campus.

Donor investment also has enabled UB’s acclaimed services for the community to reach the areas where they are needed most. For example, a second “S-Miles to Go” mobile dental unit now provides much-needed dental care to underserved individuals throughout the Western New York region.

A tremendous period in UB’s evolution

The success of the Boldly Buffalo campaign is just one marker of UB’s extraordinary rise as a premier public research university.

Following the announcement in January of a historic hiring plan to recruit upward of 200 full-time faculty in areas of university strength and global importance, UB welcomed this past semester its largest cohort of new faculty in more than 40 years.

Sponsored research expenditures, which were at an all-time high just one year ago, increased by another 16% this past year. Among the awards: a $20 million National Science Foundation grant—the largest of its kind—to found the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, cementing UB’s reputation as an AI powerhouse.

Members of UB’s faculty have been elevated to prestigious scholarly bodies and have received esteemed honors for their contributions to medicine, art, urban planning, public health, anthropology, education, social work, dental medicine and many other disciplines. UB students, too, have received national and international acclaim for their efforts in pursuits as varied as reducing the burden of heart disease, making computers more energy efficient, and improving emergency room workflow using strategies from the game of chess.

And yet, said Tripathi, this is just the beginning. “As we are experiencing this tremendous period in UB’s evolution as a premier public research university,” he said, “I would argue that we still have much to do—and even more to look forward to.”

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