Timeline of UB History
1964-1983

1964

• The University Archives is established by President Furnas.
  
  
• Full-time student enrollment is in excess of 10,000.
  
  
• In June, the Board of Trustees approves the site recommendation and makes public its decision to acquire land in Amherst, NY, a suburb north of Buffalo. [At this time the Board stated that the Main Street Campus (now South Campus) would be used for the expanded Health Sciences program of the University at Buffalo.]
  
  
• Center of the Creative and Performing Arts is created though a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
  
  
• Carolyn Tripp Clement Hall, a women's residence hall, is dedicated on October 9th (James, Meadows & Howard, architects).
  
  
• The "Thallus of Marchantia" arrives at the Buffalo Airport on December 16th. The Buffalo News bares the brunt of this large-scale hoax by UB students, which included a rally of students protesting the visit of the supposedly-evil Thallus. The hoax ended up causing $600 of damage to the Greater Buffalo International Airport.

1965

• University acquires land in Amherst.
  
  
• The School of Health Related Professions (now the School of Public Health and Health Professions) is established.
  
  
• The UB Alumni Association elects the first group of sports alumni to the UB Athletic Hall of Fame: James Ailinger (1925), Louis Corriere (1949), Daniel Dalfonso (1938), Edmund Malanowixz (1932), Philip Wells (1937, '39, '41).

1966

• School of Information and Library Studies (now the School of Informatics) is established by SUNY Board of Trustees on April 15th. It would not become an accredited MLS program until 1972. Dr. Vincent Giuliano is appointed the first Dean.
  
  
• The first student sit-in to protest the war in Vietnam begins in President Furnas' office on May 2nd.
  
  
• Martin M. Meyerson becomes the University's 10th president.

1967

• The University purchases the Darwin D. Martin House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) on 125 Jewett Parkway.
  
  
• SUNY Board of Trustees approves development of a School of Architecture (now the School of Architecture and Planning) on March 9th.
  
  
• The Faculty Senate approves a university reorganization scheme on January 31st. The reorganization divides the University's academic departments into seven faculties: Arts and Letters, Educational Studies, Engineering and Applied Science, Health Sciences, Law and Jurisprudence, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social Science and Administration.
  
  
• On November 1st, Dr. Benjamin Spock came to the University to speak on peace and November 9th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a University lecture at Kleinhans Hall
  
  
• The University Libraries is elected to membership in the Association of Research Libraries.

1968

• Gordon Bunshaft of the architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, presents the first master plan for the new North Campus on June 12th. This plan called for the constuction of one mega-complex, measuring one mile long and 1,4000 feet wide. The State University Construction Fund ultimately rejected Bunshaft's plan.
  
  
• J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winning author and one of the infamous "Faculty 45," becomes a member of the Department of English faculty. He remained in the department through 1971. Coetzee also served as Butler Professor of English at UB in 1984 and 1986.
  
  
• On October 31st ground is broken for North Campus, New York State Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller presides.
  
  
• The University Libraries acquire their 1,000,000 volume.

1969

• Governor Rockefeller is presented the Office of Planning Coordination's report entitled "The Buffalo-Amherst Corridor Technical Report" on March 21st.
  
  
• Peter F. Regan III becomes Acting President on August 11th, a post he would hold until June 30, 1970.

1970

• Robert L. Ketter becomes University's 11th president.
  
  
• First issue of The Reporter is published on January 22nd.
  
  
• Riot breaks out in Norton Union on February 25th. The police are called to campus.
  
  
• On March 8th, the "Greiner Report" detailing the events of February 25, 1970, is released. Police occupy campus.
  
  
• On March 15th the "Faculty 45" are arrested in a Hayes Hall anti-war sit-in.
  
  
• Hired in October 1968, the architectural firm, Sasaki, Dawson, DeMay and Associates presents the final North Campus master plan in July.
  
  
• During the fall semester, postmodern philosopher Michel Foucault held the Melodia E. Jones Chair in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. He held this chair again during the spring 1972 semester.
  
  
• Dr. George S. Bobinski is named the new dean of the School of Information and Library Sciences. He later served as Acting Director of the University Libraries.
  
  
• The University football program is cancelled once again.

1971

• Howard H. Kohler, Thurber LeWin, and Stuart L. Vaughn are the first to receive Distinguished Alumni Awards.

1972

• French writer and culture critic, Roland Barthes, was a resident scholar at UB, holding the Melodia E. Jones Chair in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
  
  
• The Black populace of UB submits five demands to President Ketter: that Black Studies be upgraded to departmental status, that two black faculty members be reappointed and given tenure, that minority faculty members be involved in the tenure review of other minority faculty, that minority faculty and students be involved in an ongoing dialogue with academic departments on minority issues, and that a "privileged communication channel" be established between the president's office and the black contingency.
  
  
• First meeting of Professional Staff Senate occurs on September 9th.
  
  
• North Campus' first building, Governors Residence Hall, designed by I.M. Pei is completed in November.
  
  
• The Center for Media Studies (now the Department of Media Studies) is established under the Faculty of Arts and Letters.

1973

• The first classes are held on the North Campus September 20th.
  
  
• Leslie Fiedler becomes the first Samuel L. Clemens Chair in English. His early papers are held by the University Archives, collection 16/4F/284.
  
  
• Terry Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air and UB alumna, begins her radio career at WBFO.
  
  
• Undergraduate Library opens its doors on December 3rd.

1974

• On April 8th, John Lord O'Brian Hall, North Campus' first academic building, is dedicated.

1975

• Twelve students, members of the "Attica Brigade" that protested the treatment of Attica State Prison riot defendants at time of trial, were detained by the police.
  
  
• The first June in Buffalo festival is held on June 2nd. Composers John Cage, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff are invited by UB professor and composer, Morton Feldman to perform.
  
  
• Jacques Derrida, French postmodernist and leader of the deconstructionist movement, is the Melodia E. Jones Chair during the fall semester

1976

• African American authors, Maya Angelou and Sam Greenlee speak at UB during the fall semester

1977

• UB is closed by the "Blizzard of 77" from January 26th until February 7th, an unprecedented seven working days.
  
  
• On April 28th, President Ketter announces that football will return to campus. Football program is reinstated that year at the Division III level.
  
  
• Robert J. Genco (DDS, 1963), a professor and administrator at the University who specializes in Periodontics, receives the George W. Thorn Award, which is given to University at Buffalo graduates under 40 in recognition of their outstanding national or international contributions to their career field or academic area.
  
  
• Talbert Hall, named for Mary Burnett Talbert, a prominent African-American Buffalonian, is completed.
  
  
• After the completion of the Capen/Norton/Talbert complex on North Campus during the 1977-78 academic year, the North Campus becomes the University's main campus.

1978

• The ionic columns of Baird Point are formally dedicated on September 14th. They were once part of the facade of the Federal Reserve building on Main and Swan Streets in downtown Buffalo which was destroyed in 1959. Through the efforts of Cameron Baird and Major Burt Hamilton, the columns were brought to the University. Originally intended to be used as a backdrop for a proposed open-air Greek amphitheater, they sat unused between Schollkopf Hall and Baird Music Hall (today Allen Hall) for almost 18 years. In 1978 they were cleaned and transported to Lake LaSalle on the North Campus and rededicated as Baird Point.

1979

• The Marian E. White Anthropology Museum opens to the public. Dr. Marian White (1921-1975), a well-known archaeologist in New York State and professor of anthropology at UB, laid the groundwork for establishing a departmental museum in the 1960s. The collections in the museum are now one of the most complete of the extant collections of prehistoric artifacts and site records in Western New York.
  
  
• The Nancy Welch Award is established in honor of Nancy Welch, a residential coordinator who played a key role in creating a sense of community among students when the Ellicott Complex was new. The Award is presented to students for organizing events that increase UB's level of community.

1980

• UB becomes the first American university to have a center in the People's Republic of China when Dr. Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, establishes a UB center in Beijing, China in cooperation with the Beijing Municipal System of Higher Education.

1981

• Robert J. Wagner appointed to newly-created position of Vice President for Academic Services on September 30th.
  
  
• On November 19th, Slee Concert Hall was dedicated.
  
  
• Noted scientist, David Harker is awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science
  
  
• University Libraries add two millionth volume.

1982

• In February hundreds of students protest the closing of Squire Hall as the Student Union. Many are arrested for criminal trespassing and 32 students are suspended. There will not be another unified student union at the University until 1992.
  
  
• Steven B. Sample becomes the University's 12th President.
  
  
• During the June graduation, the 1000th MLS degree is granted in the School of Information and Library Sciences.

1983

• On November 10th, a $1.5 million earthquake simulator in Ketter Hall is dedicated at UB. Dr. George Housner of the California Institute of Technology, widely regarded as "the father of earthquake engineering", is the keynote speaker at the event.
  
  
• Political scientist and Canadian Ambassador from 1981-1989, Alan E. Gotlieb is awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws