Buffalo State will host the American Mock Trial Association 2019 Great Lakes Regional Tournament on Saturday and Sunday, February 23 and 24. The college will accommodate nearly 300 guests representing 22 teams from 16 colleges and universities throughout the Northeast.

Faculty and staff members who are familiar with the mock trial experience and those with a solid background in evaluating oral presentations are encouraged to volunteer as scoring judges for a session. There will be two trial sessions each day (morning and afternoon), with local attorneys presiding as judges. We are happy to provide breakfast and lunch. Volunteers are also needed for short-term tasks such as welcoming and directing guests, tabulating results, and posting notices. All activities will be held in the Science and Mathematics Complex.

Please contact Jon Lines, lecturer in the Political Science Department, or Kelly Boos, executive assistant to the dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences, to volunteer or for more details.

Buy one Champion clothing item at regular price and receive 50 percent off a second item during the Barnes & Noble flash sale in the Buffalo State Bookstore. Three days only—Wednesday, February 6, through Friday, February 8.

Do you need office furniture for your campus department or office? Did you know that Buffalo State has a surplus warehouse full of office furniture for campus use? Used filing cabinets (lateral and standard), desks, tables, chairs, and much more are available for campus reuse. There is no cost for surplus furniture, and the warehouse is filled to the brim with some great items!

Contact Property Control to schedule an appointment and see what we have in the surplus warehouse that could be useful for your department.

Applications are currently being accepted for the Ron Brown ITEC Scholarship. This scholarship will be given to a Buffalo State student who is enrolled for the fall 2019 semester and shows promise in the use of computing and technology.

The application and information on the selection criteria are available through the Campus Application Portal for Scholarships. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, May 1.

Finalists will be interviewed by the selection committee. Notification will be sent to all applicants via e-mail, and the committee's decision is final.

Ensemble Video is Buffalo State’s media server software, making it easy to store and distribute video materials through Blackboard Learn or other publishing points. Here are the top five new Ensemble features: 

1. Sharing – Sharing media with other Ensemble users is now easier than ever. See shared videos in your Shared Library tab.
2. Audio descriptions – Use your own MP3 or M4A audio files or Ensemble’s text-to-speech audio description generator to make the visual elements of your videos more accessible to people of all visual abilities. 
3. YouTube – With an existing YouTube or Google account, users now can import videos from YouTube to their Ensemble Video libraries. 
4. Interactive transcripts – Videos with closed captions can now be viewed with a scrolling transcript with current captions highlighted while the video plays. You can also search for specific words and play the video from the point that word appears.
5. Image gallery – You can now embed a set of images saved in Ensemble into Blackboard Learn, a web page, or a blog. The images can be viewed as an automated slideshow or viewed manually one at a time. 

To learn more about these or any other features of Ensemble, please check out the Knowledge Base article "Newest Features in Ensemble Video 5.0" or request a training from IDT.

The “Top Five Things to Know About…” series is sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center. If you’d like to contribute to the series, please e-mail John Draeger, TLC director.

Top five things to know about the Child Care Center:

1. Our mission is to provide high-quality child care for students, faculty, and staff of Buffalo State as well as members of the community.
2. The Buffalo State Child Care Center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and is one of only eight early programs in Western New York with that distinction.
3. Over 75 percent of the teachers currently employed at the center are Buffalo State alumni.
4. The Child Care Center currently works in partnership with several agencies throughout the community, including Bornhava, the Child Care Resource Network, SUNY Erie, and the United Way.
5. The center regularly collaborates with the departments of Exceptional Education; Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership; Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics; Music; and Speech-Language Pathology as well as the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic on campus.

The “Top Five Things to Know About…” series is sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center. If you’d like to contribute to the series, please e-mail John Draeger, TLC director.

Top five things to know about the Students of Concern Care Team:

1. If you have a concern, do not wait to send a report, and when in doubt, report your concern. Reports are private. It is better to err on the side of caution to ensure that students are receiving as much support as they need.
2. If there is imminent risk, first contact the University Police Department, the Counseling Center (during business hours), or Crisis Services (after hours), and then complete a report.  
3. If you are concerned for a student, you can always walk him or her to the Weigel Wellness Center. You do not have to stay; the staff will take over when you arrive.
4. We appreciate all you do to support our students and to intervene when something does not feel right. Everyone has a role to play in supporting our students and responding to crises.  
5. You can make a report online.

The “Top Five Things to Know About…” series is sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center. If you’d like to contribute to the series, please e-mail John Draeger, TLC director.

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

If you haven't done so already, set up specific advising office hours in the Bengal Success Portal to allow students to easily schedule advising sessions with you. Take 30 seconds to watch this video to see just how easy it is. You can also sync your Outlook calendar to view any appointments made in the Bengal Success Portal in Outlook and to import your free and busy times in Outlook to BSP. 

(Note: If you are also an instructor and you already use the Bengal Success Portal to schedule office hours for the classes you teach, it is strongly recommended that you set up advising hours as a separate appointment type to avoid confusion. As shown in the above video, simply click the box next to "Advising" under "Appointment Type.")

Five Advantages to Making Advising Appointments in the Bengal Success Portal

1. It is so much easier than endless e-mail exchanges with students.
2. Students receive a reminder the day of the appointment, helping minimize no-shows.
3. It is flexible! You can set up one-time-only advising hours or recurring weekly blocks. Many faculty advisers find it convenient to set up specific windows during peak advisement times. That way, they can simply send a mass message to advisees requesting that they use this method to make any advising appointments.
4. All first-time freshmen admitted for fall 2017 or later have already used the Bengal Success Portal with their assigned adviser in the Academic Commons, so most students know how to use it; however, you can always point students to these directions for appointment scheduling if they encounter any difficulties.
5. You will be able to quickly pull up any student to view the last time you met with him or her and any notes you may have made in the system.

This Tip of the Week has been brought to you by the Academic Advising Advisory Council (AAAC).
Have a question, concern, suggestion, or technical problem with the Bengal Success Portal? Contact bengalsuccess@buffalostate.edu.

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.

The campus community is welcome to attend the following campus presentation by a candidate for the position of assistant dean of residential experience at Buffalo State. Attendees can view a complete description of the position duties and requirements at the session.

Amy Franklin-Craft
Thursday, February 7
11:30 a.m.
Campbell Student Union Assembly Hall

Do you have a connection to the LGBTQ+ community? Would you like to help bring more acceptance and celebration of diversity to our campus? Join the Bengal Allies! We are a group of staff, faculty, and students who work together to enhance the efforts of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and Pride Alliance (student group) on campus. We are currently meeting biweekly until the end of the year to plan our spring semester events, opportunities, and services.

Our next meeting will take place today, February 4, at 1:00 p.m. in the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Campbell Student Union 105G (bottom floor).* Additional meeting and mixer dates are listed below.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Sean P. Terry, student activities assistant for evening and weekend life, in the Student Leadership and Engagement Office, or Char Vetter, associate director of the Weigel Wellness Center. We hope to see you there!

Can’t make this meeting? Come to one of our next meetings or mixers:

Bengal Ally Mixers
Wednesdays 3:00–5:00 p.m.; Campbell Student Union Fireside Lounge

• February 6
• March 6
• April 3
• May 1

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Bengal Allies Meetings
Mondays 1:00 p.m.; LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Campbell Student Union 105G

• March 4
• March 18
• April 1
• April 15
• April 29
• May 13

*To find us: Go to the Student Union basement and walk down the hallway to the left of the USG Game Room; we are the last door on the left.