In 1970, President Robert Ketter established five task forces to study major issues facing the University at Buffalo. At that time, the University had experienced significant events, including campus unrest, an academic restructuring of the College of Arts and Sciences into Faculties, and planned expansion to the Amherst (North) campus. The task forces consisted of Community Relations (Richard G. Brandenburg and Ralph W. Loew, chairs), University Community (Alan J. Drinnan, chair), University Governance (Donald W. Rennie, chair), University Organization (Daniel H. Murray, chair), and University Goals (Charles H. V. Ebert, chair). Each chair served as a general steering committee, preparing final reports and recommendations of the task forces forwarded to Ketter.

Ketter charged each task force as follows:

Community Relations

“No matter is more urgent…than the establishment of courses of action which will make the relations between the University and its communities continuously fruitful for both. Our mutual dependence is itself one of the causes for the traditional strains between town and gown….I ask this Task Force to suggest proposals which will make it possible for us to achieve the kinds of mutual understanding and acceptance of each other, even tolerance, that will allow us to enrich each other’s lives.”

University Community

“Universities have traditionally been known as places where people of divergent and even hostile views, could work together in the search for truth as members of a community….I ask this Task Force to identify the most important University activities which can assist in re-creating a sense of community; to suggest roles which existing campus social, political, and academic organizations can effectively play,…suggest new groups or programs which may be necessary to help us achieve this goal.”

University Governance

“The fact that substantial segments of the University community are not now participants in existing governmental structures and have no separate structures of their own means that they are not represented in decisions affecting their lives and their professional interests….I ask the Task Force to determine the status of existing proposals for change in local University governance and of proposals for changes affecting our governmental structures now being considered by the Board of Trustees…I also ask the Task Force to suggest means of creating an appropriate body for presenting a proposal for the establishment of a coordinated governmental system for the University.”

University Organization

“A careful evaluation and emendation of our administrative patterns is needed to achieve a managerial structure which more effectively assists us in the teaching, learning, research, and creation which are the goals of this University and its instruments of public service.”

University Goals

“I am asking the Task Force to summarize and publish the University’s long-term plans which have been accepted by the SUNY Board of Trustees; determine the extent to which these plans and goals, so far as they can be expressed in quantitative terms, have been met or are likely to be met on schedule; and suggest whether some of our broad purposes should be changed and the appropriate bodies within the University which should be involved in discussions of such changes….we will need the help of the Task Force in defining general criteria and procedures to be used in determining excellence in teaching, learning, research, public service, and administration.”

**Charges text taken from “Ketter Names Task Force Heads, Issues Charges,” UB Reporter?, no date.