Devices get just as cluttered as desks and drawers. Every once in a while, it’s useful to set aside some time for cleanup. There’s no time like the present, and there’s no heavy lifting, dirt, or cleaning supplies involved.

1. Review the apps on your phone and delete any you no longer use. Check the permissions on each app to ensure that you’re not allowing the app to access any files it does not need. If an app requires access to your microphone, your contacts, or other personal information, think about whether you really need it.
2. Move some of those photos and videos to the cloud or other storage. All the photos and videos you take can eat up your phone’s resources. Apps that are allowed to access photos and videos can see them as well.
3. Check your phone’s operating system and make sure it’s up to date. Likewise, make sure your apps are all up to date.

The Civic and Community Engagement’s Alternative Break student leadership team is hosting its fourth annual spring fundraiser to provide monetary support to students who would otherwise not be able to participate in an alternative break service trip experience as Buffalo State students.  

The student leadership team is selling locally grown, organic Genovese basil (sweet basil), oregano, marigold, teddy bear sunflower, and hollyhock seedlings to bring beauty, bees, butterflies, and bounty to your yard and garden this summer. Seedlings will arrive on May 10 with planting and care instructions, as well environmental information. A variety of seedling combinations can be ordered to meet your needs: 1 for $3 or 2 for $5.

Additionally, student leaders will be selling mason jar gifts. These jars filled with dry ingredients are a fun, festive, and creative gift for someone in your life who would enjoy delicious chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, yellow cake, quick bread, or brownies. Choose your amount and select which gift jar you’d like to order. Baking instructions and suggested ingredients for variations on each dessert will be included. For $8, mason jar gifts make a great gift for a host, Mother’s Day, or your child’s teacher.

You may choose to have your order of seedlings or mason jar gifts delivered to your office or you may pick them up on Thursday, May 10, between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in South Wing 130.  

Please submit your order by Friday, April 27.

Any questions regarding the spring fundraiser can be directed to alternativebreak@buffalostate.edu.

The Alternative Break student leadership team thanks you for your support!

Several news outlets are reporting that the State Department has filed notice of a proposed change to visa application documentation requiring foreigners to supply their user names for various social media accounts. The notice was filed in the Federal Register on March 29, giving the public 60 days to comment.

Read more on ABC News or Engadget.com.

Under Armour has just disclosed a data breach to My Fitness Pal users. According to a report on Engadget, affected users total 150 million. The breach happened in February, and Under Armour posted information on March 29. Anyone who uses My Fitness Pal should view the disclosure.

Please join us for a discussion on media and activism with filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw, associate professor of media theory and co-director of the Studio for Media Activism and Critical Thought at Ryerson University, on Friday, April 6, at 1:00 p.m. in Buckham Hall B145.

The Studio for Media Activism and Critical Thought promotes research-creation and graduate study in the areas of media studies; critical theory; Aboriginal, feminist, and queer studies; and media activism. Dr. Bociurkiw holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies from the University of British Columbia, an M.A. in social and political thought from York University, and a B.F.A from NSCAD University. Her academic research is broadly concerned with the intersections of affect, nation, and technology and their gendered, queered, and racialized ramifications. She is also a media artist, writer, blogger, and scholar whose media works and books about sexuality, ethnicity, food, and culture have been screened and read all over the world. Her films and videos are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the National Archives, and various universities and libraries. A longtime media activist, she founded Emma Productions, a feminist media collective in the 1980s and is currently engaged in documenting that history. She has written or directed nine films and videos, including "Unspoken Territory," a history of racial profiling in Canada, and "What’s the Ukrainian Word for Sex: A Sexual Journey through Eastern Europe."

Her visit is co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Interdisciplinary Unit, the Communication Department, and the Faculty-Student Association Founders Fund.

Please join us for This Is Gay Propaganda: LGBT Rights & the War in Ukraine, the next film in our Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse screening and discussion series, on Thursday, April 5, at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Filmmker Marusya Bociurkiw will be in attendance.

Since 2013, a Gay Propaganda Law has been in force in Russian-dominated Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. AIDS organizations have been defunded. LGBT parents live in fear of having their children seized by authorities, and LGBT activists have had to flee their homes.

This Is Gay Propaganda: LGBT Rights & the War in Ukraine follows several LGBT people and feminists who, after horrific experiences at the hands of Kremlin-funded militias, have fled Eastern Ukraine for the relative safety of a shelter in Kyiv. It also investigates the rise of hate crimes and nationalist fervor in central Ukraine, and the creative resistance of the LGBT activists as they organize for their first Pride Day since the 2013 Euromaidan revolution.

Marusya Bociurkiw is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants and an associate professor at Ryerson University. She has directed 10 films and written six books and over 75 scholarly, popular, and arts-based articles. Her books have won or been shortlisted for several awards including the Kobzar Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Independent Publisher Book Award. She is the director of the Studio for Media Activism and Critical Thought at Ryerson, and the recipient of this year's university-wide Knowledge Mobilization and Engagement Award. In her teaching, writing, and filmmaking, she works at the intersection of art, social justice, collaboration, identity, and friendship.

Please visit the event Facebook page or the film's website for more information.

This event is co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Interdisciplianry Unit and the Faculty-Student Association Founders Fund. 

Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse is sponsored by the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

All films are free and open to the public.

Blackboard Learn was upgraded on Tuesday, March 27. This included an upgrade to the operating system, feature enhancements, and fixes to known issues. Please visit the RITE Portal Knowledge Base to learn more about the new features.

If you experience any technical difficulties with Blackboard after this maintenance, please clear your web browser cache and cookies. If problems continue, please call the Open SUNY Help Desk at (844) 673-6786, submit a ticket request through the Open SUNY Help Desk web page, or send e-mail to OpenSUNYHelp@suny.edu.

The grading window for 2018 Summer Sessions C and II closes tomorrow, August 15, at 9:00 p.m. Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF 191 KB) is available on the Banner website. Additional assistance is available from the RITE Support Desk at 878-4357 between 8:30 a.m. and 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.

Faculty members will enter their summer 2018 grades using Banner. The grading window for Summer Sessions C and II opens today, August 9, at 9:00 a.m. and closes Wednesday, August 15, at 9:00 p.m. Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF 191 KB) is available on the Banner website. Additional assistance is available from the RITE Support Desk at 878-4357 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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.

Faculty members will enter their summer 2018 grades using Banner. The grading window for Summer Sessions C and II will open Thursday, August 9, at 9:00 a.m. and close Wednesday, August 15, at 9:00 p.m. In preparation, faculty members are encouraged to log on to Banner to be sure that all their courses are listed under their accounts. Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF 191 KB) is available on the Banner website. Additional assistance is available from the RITE Support Desk at 878-4357 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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.