New beginnings for students, president at University at Buffalo

Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's a big school year ahead at the University at Buffalo for not just incoming Freshmen on campus, but also for new school president Caroline Attardo Genco.

Students were busy Thursday unpacking vehicles in parking lots across campus, loading up carts and transporting them to their dorm rooms, where many are excited for the opportunities ahead of them at UB's three campuses.

"It's been very exciting. I'm excited to meet so many new people, and meet my roommates and probably get to know them better," said Katie from Webster, outside of Rochester.

"It's a new chapter of life. I'm excited to start, new friends, new classes, new teachers, and I get to do something that I enjoy. So I'm excited," added Alex from Long Island.

While some students are sad to be leaving home and their families for the upcoming school year, others are itching at the chance to make new friends and expand their horizons in Western New York.

"Everyone that I've heard who has been here has loved it, and I think it's beautiful here. I'm excited. It's not too close, but not too far from me," said Ashley from Camillus, just outside Syracuse.

"Classes start Monday, we just drove out here this morning. I'm just pretty excited to move in, meet my roommates," added Thomas from Westchester County.

As for Genco, she is excited to be on campus at the school's first woman president, and first Buffalo native to serve as school president.

"I have not been here since my college days, I graduated from SUNY Fredonia a few years back. I obviously have family in Buffalo, but I haven't been here in quite some time," said Genco during a visit to move-in day on Thursday. "And let me tell you what a thrill it is to be here to watch all of these students come onto campus. I remember what it felt like when I got onto campus, and my family brought me onto campus. There's so much excitement, and I'm just so thrilled for the year ahead."

In the immediate start to her first year as president at UB, Genco is hoping to establish a sense of community for the students making their way to classes starting next week.

"This is something new for many people, they're obviously leaving their homes and things that are really familiar to them. But they're also coming to a place where there are so many possibilities," Genco said. "It's going to feel a little scary the first few days, but there is so much excitement with the diversity of ideas that people have around here. So what I'm really hoping for is that students really begin to kind of stretch their ideas and think of doing things in different ways, and take advantage of all the possibilities that the UB community, the Buffalo community, and the Greater Western New York region have to offer."

Another initiative for Genco in the opening weeks as president will be to meet with all kinds of people and listen to their thoughts on what they want in their experience at UB.

"I am President 16, and we're going to embark on a 16-week listening tour. We're going to go across all of our campuses, to our students, our faculty and our staff, and we're going to hear from them. What are they looking for in the future at UB? How can we support them, their aspirational goals? And we're going to come back after that 16 weeks, and then we're going to begin thinking about what we can do at the leadership level to begin to support them in the days ahead," Genco explained.

Genco is replacing Dr. Satish Tripathi this year after he retired as school president just before this academic year kicked off. While she acknowledges the work and momentum Tripathi has built up as president at UB, she can only hope to expand on it and get to the next level.

"There's a new chapter at UB, I have new ideas, I have slightly different ideas," Genco said. "My background is in the health sciences, and I'm going to really build on the breadth of the five professional health schools that we have here at UB, and how we can begin to expand and do more interdisciplinary work across those disciplines. We have Empire AI here, which is phenomenal - housed here at consortium. So I'm going to take advantage of that and build upon Empire AI in all the different disciplines, not only in our in our educational programs, but our research programs and some of our administrative programs. There's so much here that we have to offer."