Members of the campus community are invited to submit nominations for the President’s Caring Bengal Award by 5:00 p.m. Friday, November 1. Please visit the award website for more information about the award criteria and recipient selection process or to submit a nomination.
 
Award Description
Each of us knows a faculty member, staff member, or administrator who transforms the work and personal lives of their colleagues by supporting them with compassion, care, respect, and collegiality. These caring colleagues in our community can be found at every level of our institution, and although they create positive work experiences for each person they encounter, their contribution to our community sometimes goes unnoticed. To recognize these supportive colleagues in our community, each month faculty, staff, and administrators across all ranks, unions, and titles can be nominated by a colleague or student to receive the Caring Bengal Award.

The Faculty and Staff Recognition Committee, which includes faculty and staff representation from UUP, CSEA, the College Senate, and the Professional Staff Caucus, will review award nominations and select the award recipient each month. Each month, award recipients will be announced in the Daily Bulletin, will receive a gift, and will be invited along with their supervisor to lunch with the president at the end of the semester.

Spring 2019 Winners
March 2019: Bhakti Sharma 
April 2019: Deborah Silverman 
May 2019: Kaylene Waite

Please contact Rebecca Eggleston, staff assistant in the Professional Development Center, with questions about the President’s Caring Bengal Award.

Please join us for the professional development workshop “Meeting Students Where They Are: Foundations for Understanding Student Development Theory,” presented by Thomas Priester, associate vice president for student success and director of the Educational Opportunity Program at SUNY Genesee Community College and lecturer in Buffalo State's Higher Education Administration Department, on Thursday, November 14, from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. in Chase Hall 109.

This workshop will introduce participants to the foundational theories of student development. Participants will develop an understanding of these theories and how they can be applied to promote our work with college students. Activities will focus on the college student, the college experience, and factors that affect success.

Light snacks will be provided. Please register through the Workshop Registration System.

Applications for the Robert J. Elmes Jr. Memorial Scholarship are now available for the spring 2020 semester. All CSEA Local 640 members and their dependent children who are registered or will register at Buffalo State College for at least 3 credit hours for the spring 2020 semester may apply for the $250 scholarship. Fliers were mailed to all CSEA members with application instructions. Applications must be completed in the Campus Application Portal for Scholarships (CAPS) system by Thursday, January 9. If you did not receive a flier or need assistance or instructions, please contact Mary Codick, secretary 1 in the Teacher Certification Office, 878-6121. Thank you and good luck.

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "GC-MS Analysis of Synthesized Biodiesel, presented by Courtney Whetstine, M.S. Forensic Science candidate, on Thursday, October 31, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 176.

Biodiesel (BD) is an alternative energy resource that can replenish depleting natural petroleum storage. Synthesis of biodiesel is cost efficient, as it can be chemically converted from renewable wastes, such as vegetable oil or animal fat. These fuels are also biodegradable; the exhaust emissions from BD are nontoxic and are environment friendly. Biodiesel is a stable fuel, that performs reliably in all diesel engines. BD is easy to synthesize and safe to handle, and it works with diesel fuel storage and pumping systems. 

The United States has an abundance of vegetable oils that have not been wisely used to our advantage. Additionally, fast food restaurants across the United States produce over 3 billion gallons of used cooking oil yearly. Though some of them may be used in pet food, makeup, and livestock feed, restaurants pay cash to dispose of cooked-oil wastes into sewers and landfills. In this project, we collected cooked oil from three local restaurants and chemically converted it into biodiesel through transesterification. Furthermore, we successfully developed a GC-MS method that can identify the chemical composition of the BD as well as quantify the esters of fatty acids that are present. Based on the GC pattern, we successfully confirmed the origin of two samples as soybean and sunflower oils. Interestingly, we found both BD contain same four FAMES but in different concentrations. To validate our scientific results, we synthesized BD from uncooked oil and confirmed our results without any ambiguity. Finally, we studied the physical properties of our BD and compared that with the pure natural diesel as well as BD-diesel mixture.

Want to learn more about available software and hardware for faculty and staff home use? Please read the Knowledge Base article.

The Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education (CEURE) is pleased to welcome Corey Bower, education specialist with the Cullen Foundation-Buffalo, for a special presentation, "Poverty, Stress, and Academic Performance: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Scores and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model in an Urban District," on Friday, November 1, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in Rockwell Hall 204.

Dr. Bower's talk supports “The Resiliency Project" within the School of Education's Professional Development Schools (PDS). CEURE is part of the Educational Pipeline Initiatives Office.

The Buffalo State community is saddened by the death of Thomas C. Renzi, academic adviser in the Academic Skills Center (retired), who died October 27, 2019. Dr. Renzi joined the college in 1984 and retired in 2013. He is survived by his wife, Deborah, and son, Matthew. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, November 2, at 9:30 a.m. at Christ the King Church, 30 Lamarck Drive, Snyder, NY 14226. More information is available online. Memorial contributions may be made to the Buffalo State College Jazz Ensemble Fund.

Please let your students know that spring 2020 scholarship applications are available in the Campus Application Portal for Scholarships (CAPS). Students may apply for spring 2020 scholarships until Thursday, January 9, 2020.

Services hosted through ITEC (Blackboard, Ensemble, Banner, library databases) may experience downtime during ITEC’s maintenance window from 4:00 to 7:00 a.m. on the following dates: 

Tuesday, October 29
Wednesday, October 30
Thursday, November 21
Friday, November 22

Please join us for a free screening of Patrimonio, the next film in the Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse screening and discussion series, on Thursday, November 7, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Tower Auditorium. This film recounts the struggle between a small coastal community in Mexico and the multibillion-dollar American development that threatened to engulf it with a mega hotel-condo complex. Local residents band together to save their way of life and the fragile ecosystem on which they depend.

Beyond Boundaries is co-presented by the Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Watch the trailer.