By Michael Mroziak
Buffalo, NY – $40 million. That's how much the University at Buffalo's School of Medicine will receive from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The only thing UB officials will say about this individual is that the person is an alum of the medical school who is offering the gift to say thank you to a school that transformed his life.
"It's really tremendously exciting and historic gift for UB," said UB president Satish Tripathi in an interview with WBFO. "An inspiring example of love and appreciation that UB alumni have for UB."
The gift, a record-setting single donation for UB, can be used as the School of Medicine sees fit, according to officials. The medical school's dean says it will be used as an investment to bring in the talents who will work in the still-developing Buffalo Niagara Medical Corridor.
Dr. Michael Cain told WBFO, "Going forward in the 21st Century we now have the opportunity to build a new medical school on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, a rare opportunity actually when you look across medical schools nationally, to enrich our faculty by recruiting several new leadership positions in our basic science and clinical departments, and to provide these new leaders with resources to recruit faculty that will continue to allow us to fulfill our three missions of education, research and clinical care."
The gift, as UB leaders see it, will serve to boost the local economy in turn. UB's new medical school will be just one of the additions to the growing medical corridor. Dr. Cain notes that Kaleida Health will soon put its new Women and Children's Hospital on the campus, while a medical office building will go up as well. All of these are looked upon as the seeds for a major economic turnaround for the immediate neighborhood.
"When this is complete there will be an infusion of about 5,000 additional people working and living on that Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus," said Dr. Cain. "These individuals are going to need places to eat, places to live, places to buy clothing...
"It is now well-established nationally that for every dollar a medical faculty member brings in, the return on investment to the local community is seven dollars and 40 cents."
"UB is one of the largest employers in the Western New York region, and the intellectual property that we create, the professional that we train here, creates the environment for a lot of the jobs that are created in Western New York," added Tripathi.
Today's announcement is the second cash gift to UB announced in as many days. Yesterday it was Mary Wilson, wife of Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, who appeared on the medical campus to announce a $1 million gift to UB's orthopedic program.