The Buffalo State College Senate elections begin today, April 22, and run through 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 26. ?Candidate information can be found on the College Senate elections website. Log-in is required to access the official voting site.

Two at-large, one University Faculty Senate, and one alternate UFS seat are up for election. ?We urge the campus to vote for these important Senate seats as part of the vital process of shared governance at Buffalo State.

Experts tell us now is the perfect time to amp up your studying efforts for your final exams. Wondering how? Attend the "Preparing for Exams" workshop facilitated by Lauren Copeland on Tuesday, April 23, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Butler 314. Register online or take your chances and drop in.

Would you like more one-on-one attention? Come and see one of our academic coaches (Richard, Carly, Kendall or Sarah) in the Tutoring and Learning Center.

Thank you to all who showed their support for Buffalo State’s Rotaract Club during our spring bake sale. We were able to raise a grand total of $202. All proceeds will be donated to Jericho Road Community Health Center. On behalf of the Rotaract Club officers, we cannot thank you enough for all the support to help make our bake sales a true success. Watch for our H.O.P.E. Haiti pie sale coming up.

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.

IT Alerts are posted whenever it is known in advance that maintenance will be performed on an IT system or server. When unplanned outages occur, IT posts information about them on the IT Alerts page as well. You can check this page anytime to see if maintenance is planned. If you try to log in to a system and cannot, please check the IT Alerts page to see if the system is down and when it will be back up.

Do not confuse IT Alerts with any other alert system on campus. IT Alerts are placed on the IT Alerts page in the IT self-service portal.

Please join us for a Big Dig Tree-Planting Day on Saturday, April 27, as Friends of the Maud Gordon Holmes Arboretum partners with the Campus Planning Office and the Grounds and Garage Department on a fun and productive morning of tree planting. Your participation is welcome.

Volunteers will work in teams to plant 35 trees along Bengal Walk north of the Student Apartment Complex between Rees Street and Grant Street. The planting will increase the number and diversity of trees in the campus arboretum and offset trees lost to storm damage, construction, infestation, and disease.

“Big diggers” should meet in the Classroom Building lobby at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 27. Please bring along your own work gloves and, if possible, a shovel. Planting will take place from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. Refreshments will be provided at registration.

We are delighted that Buffalo State students—members of the USG-recognized Rowing Club—have already signed up to help with the Big Dig. Please register here to join them.   

For more information, please contact Sue McCartney, director of the Small Business Development Center.

The final Assessment and Reporting Seminar focusing on co-curricular and functional areas will be held on Thursday, April 25, during Bengal Pause (12:30–1:30 p.m.) in the computer lab in Classroom Building A108.

The Institutional Effectiveness Office has offered this series of assessment and reporting seminars, open to all faculty and staff members, during the spring 2019 semester. Sessions have alternated between those focusing on academic programs and those focusing on co-curricular and functional areas. The intent is to assist academic programs and units, co-curricular programs, and functional areas with various areas of assessment and reporting, such as designing an assessment plan, using Taskstream, completing a department annual report, and developing indirect and direct methods of assessment.

Departments and units are encouraged to attend as groups of colleagues. Please register for this session. For more information, please contact Luke Krieg, interim associate vice president for institutional effectiveness, 878-3838.

Here's one easy thing you can do this week to help the students you advise:

Psychologist Abraham Maslow's well-known hierarchy of needs theory states that basic physiological needs must be met before individuals can learn and self-actualize to reach their full potential. Yet, according to two recent studies by the Association of American Colleges and Universities that surveyed more than 7,000 college students across 12 states, 48 percent of students face food insecurity. Of those students who reported hunger or housing instability, 81 percent said that these problems harmed their academic performance. 

Fortunately, Milligan's Food Pantry at Buffalo State enables students to order healthful groceries with the click of a button. This video demonstrates the incredible impact that the Buffalo State's food pantry has on student lives and academic success.

Make sure your students are aware of the easy process for accessing the food pantry, and do your part to end student hunger today. Donations are always accepted in the Dean of Students Office.

This Tip of the Week has been brought to you by the Academic Advising Advisory Council (AAAC). Got a great advising tip you'd like to share (or some feedback about academic advising at Buffalo State)? Contact AAAC co-chairs Lisa Berglund, professor of English, or Aimee Woznick, director of the Academic Commons.

Each year, the SUNY University Faculty Senate opens its nine standing committees to new membership. It is time for interested individuals to apply for academic year 2019–2020. Please visit the SUNY UFS website to apply for a committee.

The grading window for Summer Sessions VS and LS closes at 9:00 p.m. tomorrow, August 14.

Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF, 191 KB) is available on the Banner website. Additionally, assistance is available by calling the IT Help Desk at 878-4357 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. If you have questions about grading, please call the Registrar's Office at 878-4811. We have provided a grading tip sheet (PDF, 712 KB) to assist you in successful grading.