From the Chair of the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee
The College Senate elections for two at-large senators, one University Faculty Senate (UFS) senator, and one UFS alternate senator concluded Friday, April 26. Congratulations to the following individuals who received the most votes. Their terms begin September 1, 2019, and are three years in duration. Thank you for your participation in this election cycle. 

At-Large College Senators
Carol A. DeNysschen, Chair and Professor, Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department, School of Natural and Social Sciences
Bhakti Sharma, Associate Professor, Art and Design Department, School of Arts and Humanities

University Faculty Senator
Heather D. Maldonado, Assistant Provost, Academic Success

Alternate University Faculty Senator
Julie A. Wieczkowski, Associate Professor, Anthropology Department, School of Natural and Social Sciences

From the Chair of the College Senate
Reports to the College Senate are posted on the College Senate website. The most recent reports are from the April 12, 2019, Senate meeting.

Podcasts serve as the official audio record of each College Senate meeting. If you missed a Senate meeting and want to catch up, podcasts are posted to the Senate's podcasts web page. Senate meeting summaries are posted to the website after they are presented to the Senate.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The final College Senate meeting of the spring 2019 semester will be held at 2:00 p.m. (not 3:00 p.m.) Friday, May 10, in Bulger Communication Center 215. Please note the one-hour time change. The meeting agenda will be posted on the College Senate website on May 3.

The College Senate Office is located in Cleveland Hall 211. Joseph Marren, professor of communication, serves as chair of the College Senate for the 2018–2019 academic year. Please stop by the office, call 878-5139, or e-mail Vincent Masci, assistant to the College Senate, with questions or for general information.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The campus community is invited to comment on the SUNY Green Paper on General Education Revision, which is available on the College Senate’s General Education Ad-Hoc Task Force on Curriculum web page. Please send comments to SUNY.

From the Faculty and Staff Appeal Committee
The 2019 Faculty and Staff Appeal—the annual fundraising campaign that supports the outstanding students and programs of Buffalo State—is under way, but there is still time to make your donation. Your generosity has helped many of our students who struggle with food insecurity.

College student hunger is a nationwide problem. In a 2016 national survey (PDF, 6 MB), nearly half of students said they had experienced food insecurity (having limited access to nutritious food) within the past 30 days, meaning they have limited access to the food they need to live active, healthy lives and keep up with their studies. To address the need in New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2018 directed all SUNY schools to provide food pantries or other stigma-free ways for students to consistently have access to healthful foods.

For nearly 20 years, Milligan’s Food Pantry has been doing exactly that, ensuring that Buffalo State students can obtain nutritious food in a respectful way that maintains their dignity. This academic year, nearly 200 Buffalo State students have made over 400 visits to Milligan’s Food Pantry.

While the food pantry receives non-perishable food throughout the year—including bulk items such as cereal, sugar, and flour—proteins such as canned meat and fish, and canned fruit are often in short supply. This is where your donations help. Gifts to Milligan’s Food Panty are used to purchase much-needed food items as well as bags for repackaging bulk food items.

The Food Pantry Fund is just one of hundreds of funds that you can support through the Faculty and Staff Appeal. The full list of funds (PDF, 289 KB) is available on the Giving website.

Whether you make a one-time gift or opt for payroll deductions throughout the year, your gift will help ensure that more students have the chance to realize their dream of a college education. Please use the form enclosed in your donor packet or make your gift online. If you did not receive a donor packet through campus mail, or if you have questions about the appeal, please contact a member of the Faculty and Staff Appeal Committee.

Join us! It’s What Bengals Do.

Learn how to strengthen your online and hybrid skills to enhance your course design and increase student engagement with the Online Course Development Series. This series prepares instructors to design, teach, and enhance online or hybrid courses using best practices of online teaching and learning.

Both the basic and advanced Online Course Development Series will be offered in an online asynchronous format during summer 2019. All learning and instructional activities will occur in Blackboard for the duration of the series.

The basic Online Course Development Series is composed of the following six modules:

1. Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning
2. Backward Design Step 1: Developing Course Objectives and Priorities
3. Backward Design Step 2: Developing Course Assessments
4. Backward Design Step 3: Developing the Learning Plan
5. Interaction: Communication and Collaboration
6. Designing and Organizing Your Online Course

The Advanced Online Course Development series is composed of the following four modules:

1. Creating Interactive Content for Your Course
2. Authentic Assessment
3. Universal Design for Learning
4. Open SUNY Course Quality Review (OSCQR) Rubric

Both the basic and advanced series will be offered twice this summer: session one will be held from June 17 to July 12, and session two will be held from July 22 to August 16. When registering, please indicate which session you'd like to enroll in.

There is no cost to participate in this series. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Brooke Winckelmann, instructional designer.

Register for the online asynchronous Online Course Development Series.

Buffalo State Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) students took first place for the second year in a row at the 27th annual CSTEP Statewide Student Conference, “Journeys Beyond Excellence,” April 12–14. Buffalo State’s team successfully defended its first-place title from among 600 participants representing schools throughout New York State.

Since returning to the Buffalo State campus in January 2017, CSTEP has inspired increased participant growth in collegiate science and technology entry programs among historically underrepresented minorities and economically disadvantaged undergraduate and graduate students.

The CSTEP team—director Tamara McMillan, academic coordinator Carlis Pope, and graduate assistant Richard Sanders—has successfully transitioned 175 students into the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines and health-related professions. While providing a continuum of activities to support and sustain systemic advancement, the CSTEP team successfully secured renewed grant funding from the New York State Education Department earlier this year.

Congratulations to our student research winner, Maimouna Ndiaye ("The Effects of Childhood Trauma during Adulthood"), as well as to our poster presentation winners Victor Kasper ("What Is Affecting the Growth of Nigeria?") and Bryanna Marshall (Observation of Speech and Language Pathology in Accra, Ghana”). Continued success to all.

Hello, runners, walkers, and sitters. Registration is open for the J. P. Morgan Corporate Challenge on Thursday, June 13, at Delaware Park. You may register for the Buffalo State College team online.

The $38 registration fee includes a Corporate Challenge T-shirt, refreshments at the hospitality tent, conviviality, and camaraderie. Registration closes Tuesday, May 21. Don't miss out! We hope you encourage your colleagues to join our Buffalo State team to represent the Bengals spirit. 

A special thank-you to our sponsors: the President’s Office, UUP, PSC, and Chartwells.

For additional information, please contact Jude Jayatilleke, senior academic adviser in EOP, 878-6028.

The Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Program will celebrate the exemplary academic performance of its students at the annual EOP Honors Convocation on Thursday, May 9, at 3:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. This year's theme is "We the People: Believe, Inspire, Achieve." Highlights of the program include the high points of EOP during the year, as well as the presentation of special awards to students, staff, and faculty.

This year, two individuals will be recognized as distinguished alumnae: Crystal Rodriguez, '05, assistant professor in the Social Sciences Department at Bronx Community College, and Cassandra St. Vil, '05, CEO of Amateka College Preparatory Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. The EOP Honors Convocation ceremony recognizes students who have obtained a 3.0 semester or cumulative GPA during the 2018 calendar year. The campus community is invited to attend. A catered reception will immediately follow.

The Buffalo State Best Buddies team raised more than $4,400 for the New York Best Buddies Friendship Walk on Sunday, April 28. Buffalo State had the largest team, with over 30 registered participants who braved cold, rainy weather outside the Buffalo Bills Field House. Best Buddies is the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical, and economic isolation of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Their programs empower the special abilities of people with IDD by helping them form meaningful friendships with their peers; secure successful jobs; live independently; improve public speaking, self-advocacy, and communication skills; and feel valued by society.