Buffalo State’s Rotaract Club will host its April bake sale on Thursday, April 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All baked goods are made fresh on campus in the Caudell Hall kitchen and will be sold for $1 each. All baked goods for this sale will be delivered by Rotaract Club members. No pickup is available. If you’re interested in having one of our members stop by your office with a basket of goodies, please e-mail the Rotaract Club and we will be sure to make a special visit to your location. All proceeds will be donated to Jericho Road Community Health Center. We thank you for your support.

New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has directed that flags on all state government buildings be lowered to half-staff in honor of New York Department of Transportation maintenance worker Dennis "Matt" Howe of Owego, New York (Tioga County). Mr. Howe died from his injuries on Monday, March 18, after a tractor trailer collided with his DOT truck in a work zone on March 13. Flags will be flown at half-staff until his interment.

"I am saddened by the loss of Matt Howe, a dedicated public servant and Department of Transportation employee, who passed away last night due to injuries from when a tractor trailer collided with a DOT truck in the work zone," Governor Cuomo said on Tuesday.

"Since 2006, Matt served DOT Region 9 and the people of the State of New York honorably. As a maintenance worker, he was a jack-of-all-trades who was always eager to lend a hand to the team.

"His death is a tragic reminder of the dangers our workers face every day braving the elements and our roadways, all while looking out for the safety of one another. There is nothing routine about what our maintenance forces do to keep New York's highways safe, and we have zero tolerance for anyone who flagrantly puts the lives and safety of our workers in jeopardy. This year I called for stricter protections for transportation workers to send a clear message that New York stands with our workers.

"In honor of Matt Howe and his service to the people of New York, I am directing that flags be flown at half-staff across this great state. On behalf of the entire family of New York, I extend my deepest condolences to his friends, colleagues, and the loved ones he leaves behind."

The Newman Center appreciates the support of all faculty and staff members who participated in our meat raffle fundraiser on March 9. Because of you, we are able to continue to serve the Buffalo State community and especially our students, for whom we exist. We hope your evening was fun-filled and your cooler meat-filled. We look forward to seeing you again next year on Saturday, March 7, for our fourth annual raffle. Thank you!

Classical Tai Chi of Buffalo is offering free introductory Tai Chi classes every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in Rockwell Hall 302. Classes are taught by Sifu James Roach, who has more than 40 years of experience in the practice of Tai Chi Chu'an. More information is available on the Classical Tai Chi of Buffalo website.

The FBI reports that criminals are using highly publicized recent tragedies to perpetuate malware campaigns. Please read your e-mail carefully, hover over links to see where they go before clicking on them, and if you’re not sure about something, delete the e-mail. Be aware and protect yourself at all times.

The Spring 2019 Critique and Evaluation Schedule (CEP) with Block Exams has been posted on the Registrar's Office Courses page.

It's Random Acts of Kindness Week. Spread kindness and bring joy to others. There are ideas on the Civic and Community Engagement Office website, and we encourage you to share your activities to Instagram using #GiveKindness, which will enter you to win a prize.

Let’s celebrate spontaneous acts of kindness on campus and in the Buffalo community! 

Questions? Contact the Civic and Community Engagement Office, South Wing 130, 878-3919.

From the Institutional Effectiveness Office
In October 2018, Buffalo State was awarded a U.S. Department of Education Title III grant (Insight to Impact: Increasing Student Achievement, Retention, and Degree Attainment). The grant is to be carried out over the next five years (2018–2023) and will focus on increasing retention using a two-pronged approach: (1) strengthening student services and (2) strengthening academic services. As stated on page 18 of the proposal:

"Insight to Impact directly addresses the key problem of declining student success and links explicitly to the critical institutional goals of increased engagement, achievement, retention, and perseverance to graduation as shown in Table 13. These goals will be achieved by developing capacity to efficiently engage students through scalable delivery of integrated student and academic supports with measurable impact demonstrated annually."

The spirit of Insight to Impact is rooted in the use of data to monitor student performance and provide targeted interventions to enhance the likelihood of student success. A predictive analytics system will be developed to draw on data from a wide range of sources including a client relationship management platform (Slate), student information system (Banner), and retention management system (Starfish). This approach is based on the 2016 Strategic Plan, which identified a need to develop a culture and infrastructure to support students in need of academic assistance. It also represents Buffalo State's commitment to a more engaging and rewarding college experience for our students.

The interim associate vice president for institutional effectiveness, Eric "Luke" Krieg, is the Title III project director. A Title III web page is under development and will be available soon with more information and updates.

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "Nonprecious Metal Nanostructures: Syntheses, Properties, and Applications," presented by Jingyi Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of physical chemistry at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, on Thursday, March 21, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 173.

Controlling the 3-D morphology of nonprecious metal nanostructures is important for understanding the structure-property-performance relationship, but challenging to achieve due to their highly-reactive nature. In turn, the high reactivity of nonprecious metals opens up the possibilities to use them as templates for access to well-defined hollow nanostructures or to convert them into corresponding metal compound nanostructures. In this presentation, Dr. Chen will take Cu as an example to illustrate the research progress on the shape-controlled synthesis of nonprecious metal nanostructures in her laboratory. The metallic form of Cu exhibits a number of unique properties including distinct optical properties in the visible region; however, once metal Cu is oxidized, its unique properties will diminish. Through surface chemistry, the oxidation of Cu could be prevented to some degree as monitoring by its optical properties. On the other hand, Cu can be used as templates to synthesize well-defined hollow nanostructures and to convert into Cu compound nanostructures. These new nanostructured materials provide more tools for new discovery. Dr. Chen will share some interesting findings on the structural sensitivity of Cu2S nanoplates under electron beam irradiation and elucidate the possible mechanism and pathway of the reversible structural changes. Furthermore, she will extend the discussion to the synthesis of other nonprecious metals, the Ni-Fe-based nanostructures for the oxygen evolution reaction. This study highlights the importance of the effects of 3-D morphology, composition, and crystallinity on the electrocatalytic activity and stability of nanocatalysts.

Butler Library will host two demonstration sessions on Primo, the new library interface that will replace Summon as the search tool for library resources, on Tuesday, April 16, and Thursday, April 18, at noon in Butler Library 314.

SUNY libraries will migrate to Primo this summer. Primo and Summon share many common elements, and those who are comfortable with searching in Summon will be equally comfortable in Primo. Interested faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend these sessions to learn more about Primo and about how Primo will change access to library resources across SUNY.

Please use the links below to register. Direct questions to Joseph Riggie, systems librarian. 

Register for the April 16 session.
Register for the April 18 session.