Would you like help promoting your virtual event or program on social media?

Student Leadership and Engagement is happy to assist any student organization or campus department with the promotion of events and programs. You can submit event fliers and information to request promotion on the @LifeatBuffState social media accounts any time.

If you are interested, please submit a Social Media Promotion Request.

More information can be found on the Student Leadership and Engagement website.

Check out Life at Buff State on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook!

Please direct questions to Mason Meiler, programming coordinator in Student Leadership and Engagement.

Michael Spogli, TIAA’s financial consultant, will be available to speak with individual Buffalo State faculty and staff members through telephone consultations. Appointments are required.

Take this opportunity to review your financial situation and personal retirement goals. Learn how to invest in financial products such as mutual funds, brokerage, life insurance, and annuities. A detailed evaluation will tell you everything you need to know and do.

Mr. Spogli can help you open a supplemental tax-deferred annuity if you haven’t already. To arrange a telephone consultation, please visit the TIAA website.

On-campus essential employees and Remote Access desktop users in the Science and Mathematics Complex should be aware of a scheduled construction power outage on Thursday, March 26, from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m.

Most offices and all labs have emergency power and should not lose connectivity, but if your campus desktop computer should lose power, you will be disconnected from your campus computer. Once the power is restored at 10:00 a.m., your computer should power up and allow you to remote in again. Some computers may not turn back on; however, all campus desktop computers that have been turned off have been programmed to automatically turn on at 4:00 a.m. daily. If your computer does not turn back on after the power outage, it will turn on automatically at 4:00 a.m. Friday.

Please read this update, "COVID-19 Phishing Schemes Escalate," published by Data Breach Today. The FBI has issued warnings that the latest schemes are targeting at-home employees and health agencies. The update has examples.

Please remember to take your time when reading e-mail or information on websites. Don't just react; think first. Look at URLs, and look at the e-mail addresses of senders. Review this Knowledge Base article with information on what to look for. Be safe.

Blackboard will perform scheduled infrastructure maintenance for Collaborate from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, March 26. Users will experience intermittent availability during this maintenance window.

Currently, Collaborate customers using the telephone option may hear either a message stating that the call cannot be completed as dialed or a busy signal. The Blackboard operations team is actively investigating the issue.

When using Collaborate, please connect using a browser on your computer or mobile phone to access audio during your Collaborate session.

Open SUNY has been meeting with Blackboard leadership on a regular basis, and a robust solution for this challenge should be in place in the coming weeks.

As a result of suspended activity on campus, the IT Help Desk has been receiving hundreds of requests for Remote Desktop access from faculty and staff members who are working from home. The number of requests has quickly overwhelmed IT staff. Please be aware that in some cases, Remote Desktop access is not necessary, as many campus resources are accessible directly from personal devices at home. Please read the information below to ensure you understand how this technology works, and whether or not it is necessary for your particular situation. We ask that you have patience as we move through your requests.

Remote Desktop Connection only works from

• PC (Windows) to PC (Windows), or 
• Apple (Mac) to PC (Windows)

Remote Desktop Connection does not work from

• Apple (Mac) to Apple (Mac), or
• PC (Windows) to Apple (Mac).

In other words, one can only remote in to a PC (Windows) device. This is not because of the Buffalo State IT setup; it is simply the way the tool is designed.

Remote Desktop is necessary if

• one needs to use Banner Admin Pages,
• one needs to use applications that are not available on one’s home computer or laptop, but are available on the campus device that one is remotely accessing, or
• one needs to access files that are not on one’s home computer or laptop and not available in Office 365, including network drives and shares.

NOTE: If you have a fairly new campus-owned Dell laptop at home (one that was set up by campus IT), you should be able to access your network folders and files directly from your laptop just as you would if you were on campus.

Remote Desktop is not necessary if

• one needs access to programs like MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel; all faculty and staff members may download and install MS Office on personal devices),
• one needs to access Banner Self-Service (SSB), or
• one needs to access one’s campus e-mail.

Please remember: DO NOT choose the “Shutdown” option when ending your session!

If you already use Remote Desktop Connection, make sure you do not choose the Shutdown option. Rather, just sign out or disconnect. If you choose Shutdown, you will not be able to remote in again! 

You MUST request Remote Desktop access if you need it.

• Watching the video does not grant access.
• IT must create an individual configuration so that Remote Desktop will work for your campus desktop.
• You must complete a Remote Desktop access ticket to have the service enabled.

If you have completed the video tutorial, please include this information when you open your Remote Desktop access ticket.

Buffalo State Software Directory

Remember to sign in in the upper right corner of the Buffalo State IT Service Catalog so that you see all resources to which you have access.

The spring 2020 midterm grading window will remain open until 9:00 p.m. Monday, April 6, for faculty grade input.

The Civic and Community Engagement Office is providing information about ways faculty, staff, and students can be active citizens and support our community during the coronavirus outbreak. Erie County Medical Center is asking for the community’s help in protecting its dedicated caregivers in the coming weeks by donating any unused masks you may have. N95 and Non-N95 mask donations will be accepted. N95 masks that are in particularly high need are 3M 1860 models (size regular and small). If you would like to donate your unused masks to the ECMC clinicians, please contact the COVID-19 Task Force Command Center at (716) 898-3844 or hospitalcommandcenter@ecmc.edu. If you have other medical needs, please call (716) 898-3000.

Based on current federal, state, and local health department guidance, all meetings and events on campus must be canceled, rescheduled, or moved to a virtual platform. This restriction will remain in force until at least April 1, 2020, but may be extended as the COVID-19 situation progresses and updated guidance is received.

If you need assistance with setting up virtual meetings or rescheduling meetings or events, please e-mail the Events Management Office.

"Understanding the 2020 Census" is a series of Daily Bulletin posts meant to help educate the campus about the 2020 census. Please share this information with your colleagues, students, and neighbors. 

Between March 12 and 20, you should have received an invitation at your home address to respond to the 2020 census. If your home did not receive a paper questionnaire, then you should have detailed information and a census ID for completing the census online. You can complete your questionnaire online, by phone, or by mail.  

Find out more about each of these methods below:

• Online Response Guide
• Phone Response Guide
• Paper (Mail) Response Guide

Who Should Be Counted and Where?

One person should respond for each household. That person must be at least 15 years old.

If you are responding for your home, count everyone who lives and sleeps there most of the time as of April 1, 2020. This includes young children, foster children, roommates, and any family members or friends who are living with you, even temporarily. For more information, please visit Who to Count.

Please note: Many college students have left their on- and off-campus housing situations earlier than expected because of COVID-19. If your child is a college student who under normal circumstances would be living away, do not include your child in your household's count. Instead encourage your child to respond to the census survey on their own to indicate where they live when they attend college.

Language Support

You can complete the census online or by phone in one of 13 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, or Vietnamese.

To help you respond, the Census Bureau offers guides in 59 non-English languages, including American Sign Language, as well as guides in braille and large print. Visit Language Support to learn more.

Stay up to date on the latest information about the 2020 census on the Civic and Community Engagement website, on our Instagram profile, and with the hashtag #buffstatecounts.