UB School of Informatics Disbanded; Library Program To Move

-- Library Journal, 7/7/2006

The University at Buffalo's (UB) Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) will become part of the Graduate School of Education next fall, and the Department of Communication, which with DLIS have constituted the UB School of Informatics, will return to the College of Arts and Sciences upon the dissolution of the School of Informatics. The decision was explained as "the best way to align and integrate strategically our academic programs and academic support services," according to provost Satish K. Tripathi. The School of Informatics was originally planned to also include the departments of computer science and engineering. According to a press release, after serving five years as dean of the School of Informatics, W. David Penniman has agreed to return to the faculty. Penniman had harsher words, in a statement posted on LISnews.com, stating that university officials "have misused their power and have discredited an innovative school, the university, and me."

According to Penniman's chronology, Tripathi had refused to free up resources to support faculty at the school; Penniman observed that the provost's "view is consistent with hard-core computer scientists who consider this emerging area to be limited strictly to computer technology." In early June, Penniman said, Tripathi "informed me that he intended to change the leadership of the School, but said I could remain as dean for one more year." The next day, Penniman agreed to go on leave for the year. A little more than a week later, Tripathi said he was closing the School.

Business First of Buffalo reported that some corporate supporters, including AT&T, which had provided more than $400,000 for the School, had asked the university to reconsider the decision. In the Buffalo News, Jeff Carballada, a member of the School's Founders Committee, observed, "Closure of the School of Informatics represents a reversal by UB, which established the school in 1999 to focus on the growing field of informatics, of which bio-informatics is an area of specialty. It seems contradictory that UB would be celebrating the opening of the Center of Excellence in Bio-Informatics on one hand, while completely dismissing the broader subject of informatics on the other. This reality can only be reconciled by considering the disparity of public funding between the School of Informatics and the Center of Excellence. As with all things, money talks."