The Daily Bulletin Archive

SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Janet E. Ramsey, dean of University College, is retiring on June 1 with mixed feelings. “I love my job and I love Buffalo State,” she said. “But I reflected very carefully, and I’m ready to live a life that’s a little less demanding.”

Ramsey came to the college in 1979 to teach journalism, one of her undergraduate majors. She trained as a Chaucerian and a scholar of medieval literature in her doctoral program, and she makes a connection between the two. “Chaucer uses details to illuminate his stories,” she said, “just as a journalist does.”

After serving as coordinator of the college’s interdisciplinary humanities program, she became chair of the Communication Department. Under her leadership, the department began work toward professional accreditation, revised its curriculum, and acquired digital television and audio facilities. The department voted unanimously to appoint her to a second term as chair. She became associate vice president of undergraduate education in 2003 and was appointed dean of University College when it was created in 2004.

From 1997 to 2000, Ramsey served as chair of the College Senate. “I felt honored to be representing faculty, staff, and students when making recommendations,” she said. “Policies are where the values of the institution play out.”

Her current position has provided her with opportunities to draw on her experience to make a difference. “As department chair and president of the Senate,” she said, “I learned how things work at Buffalo State. I really doknow whom to call.”

Her greatest satisfaction in University College is seeing the school grow from an idea—making first-year programs more coherent and meaningful—into an institutionalized central office for first-year, enrichment, and support programs for students. “We struggled with how to bring many different offices together,” she said, “including international programs, CASTL, the All College Honors Program, the Undergraduate Research Office, student support, EOP, Academic Standards, and the revised general education program.”

Ramsey is confident that many good ideas are now part of the way Buffalo State does its work. Take, for example, the Intellectual Foundations curriculum andBSC 101, the college course designed to help undergraduates understand the purpose of the breadth of a liberal arts education while learning the rudiments of critical thinking.

“When we go to conferences these days,” said Ramsey, “others come to us and ask questions. We are engaged in best practices and doing some cutting-edge work including Intellectual Foundations, CASTL, and ourundergraduate research program.”

The dean’s role is not unlike a professor’s, according to Ramsey. “A dean works hard to nourish and bring out the best in people,” she said. “In a sense, they are my class, and I am their advocate, telling the good story.”

After she retires, Ramsey hopes to remain involved with the college. She is also looking forward to getting back to her beloved Chaucer.

“When I studied him,” she said, “I hadn’t been to England. Now I’ve been there many times. I would love to read The Canterbury Tales along the route the pilgrims traveled.”