Some higher education institutions on the West Side are receiving slight name changes from the New York State Education Department.
Medaille College, 18 Agassiz Circle, is in the process of applying for university status, just as D’Youville University, 320 Porter Ave., did in February.
“Unless the rule changed, we were never going to be able to apply for university status,” Kenneth Macur, the president of Medaille, said.
The department passed an amendment to their regulations in January that changed the requirements for a school to use the university designation.
One of the major components of past requirements was that a school had to offer a minimum of three doctoral degrees to be considered a university. The department amended this to instead require a minimum of three graduate programs.
The department along with several schools in New York state argue this will help with recruiting students locally, nationally and internationally.
“We'll be able to better recruit students to the university without having to explain that we are in fact the same as universities in Canada, Germany, Spain, England and so on,” Macur said.
He said the school’s application process has gone smoothly and predicts that the designation will boost enrollment for its graduate school and in turn, help grow the graduate programs substantially.
“It just sort of levels the playing field and gives each school an opportunity to choose the designation that it feels fits best with its mission and its brand,” he said.
Canisius College, 2100 Main St., does meet the criteria to become a university, but did not respond to a request for comment on its status.
Buffalo
State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave., said currently it is not considering a
change. “The amendment by the Board of Regents to the definition of a
university is interesting, but at this point we are not pursuing a change in
status,” Katherine Conway-Turner, president of Buffalo State, said in a
statement. By Elijah Robinson and Thomas Tedesco
