The following Blackboard faculty development workshops are upcoming in January. These workshops can be taken independently or as a part of the Blackboard Specialization Certificate:

• Introduction
• Assessments
• Grade Center
• Collaboration Tools
• Rubrics
• Retention Center
• Collaborate

Detailed descriptions of each workshop session (PDF, 66 KB) are available on the RITE website. All sessions will be held in Bulger Communication Center 122. Please register online through the Workshop Registration system.

Earn the Blackboard Specialization Certificate and the Advanced Blackboard Specialization Certificate in a compacted four days. Earning a Blackboard Specialization Certificate will demonstrate your ability to enhance student learning and foster better engagement, interaction, and quality learning. This certificate is suitable for instructors teaching face-to-face, hybrid or blended, or online courses.

To earn your certificate, you must self-enroll in a Blackboard organization called RITE Professional Development Certifications. Follow the directions on how to self-enroll, attend the workshops, and post in the accompanying blog.

Blackboard will be unavailable from midnight to 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 20, for extended server maintenance. At this time the current Blackboard Assignment inline grading tool (Crocodoc) will be transitioned to New Box View. This update will provide a seamless upgrade experience for users as all Crocodoc data will be migrated to New Box View. New Box View is very similar to Crocodoc with improved rendering fidelity and expanded support for new file types.

Learn more about the transition from Crocodoc to New Box View:

Blackboard Assignment - Inline Annotation Grading in New Box View

Transitioning from Crocodoc to New Box View

Buffalo State’s 2018 Faculty and Staff Directory is now available on the college's Directories page. Click on the "Faculty and Staff Internal Directory" link, and then log in to access the PDF. As an environmentally friendly and cost-conscious measure, bound copies of the directory will not be supplied to employees this year, but the PDF version is available for those who would like to print individual copies. In addition, the online Faculty and Staff Directory provides users with a digital directory that is searchable by first name, last name, or department.

State employees may update their individual digital directory information via SUNY HR Self-Service. Non-state employees may add or update their individual digital directory information via Directory Add/Update.

Human Resource Management maintains the department database for the campus. Please contact Human Resource Management by phone at 878-4822 or by e-mail with any requests for changes to your department's name, campus address, phone, fax, or e-mail.

The third annual Fostering Innovation in Teaching with Technology (FITT) Academy will be held June 4–8, 2018. The FITT Academy is a hands-on project-specific faculty development opportunity sponsored by Resources for Information, Technology, and Education (RITE).

Project proposals should be submitted by Sunday, February 11, 2018, and will be reviewed by the FITT Academy Committee, which includes RITE staff members and previous FITT scholars. Applicants will be notified of accepted project proposals by early March.

Buffalo State undergraduates are cordially invited to submit proposals to participate in the fourth annual SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC), which will be held on the campus of Monroe Community College on Saturday, April 21, 2018, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Student proposals for research poster sessions, oral presentations, and performances of creative work are welcome. For further information, please visit the SURC conference website. The deadline for online submission of proposal abstracts is Monday, February 19.

From the Director of Business Services
The Procurement Customer Service Survey is now closed. We congratulate Jason Overholt, purchasing manager in RITE, who won lunch for two at Campus House. Thank you to all who participated.

We have reached out to those individuals who requested to speak to me directly; however, if you would like to schedule a meeting, please contact Mary Kren, assistant to the director, to arrange a time.

We are considering a campus session in the spring semester to present the survey results. If you have an interest in participating in such a session or have questions, please contact Mary Kren.

Thank you for sharing your perspective of the procurement process at Buffalo State through the survey. Your participation is appreciated.

Robert Baumet
Director of Business Services

The Graduate Advisory Council announces a call for nominations for Outstanding Master’s Theses and Outstanding Master’s Projects. The purpose of these awards is to recognize outstanding student research and applied work at the graduate level. Up to three thesis awards and three project awards will be made. Applications will be accepted for students who graduated in J-Term 2017, May 2017, August 2017, or December 2017.

Nominations may be made by thesis or project advisers, or by students themselves. Additional reviews are required from the department chair and one external evaluator. Guidelines and forms are available on the Graduate School website.

The deadline for submission of nominations and evaluation forms to the Graduate School, Cleveland Hall 204, is Wednesday, February 21. Please direct questions to Marnie Letzelter, assistant to the dean of the Graduate School, 878-5609.

In order to maintain a safe and secure computing environment at Buffalo State, as well as to ensure that the campus is compliant with the support schedules dictated by Microsoft and Apple, RITE Services will begin a campaign to upgrade campus computers to the latest supported operating systems over the next several months.

This includes

• upgrading all PCs currently running Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10,
• upgrading existing Windows 10 PCs to the latest build, and
• upgrading all Macs currently running older versions of OS X to OS 10.12 (Sierra).

Starting next week (December 11–15), RITE Services will begin making operating system upgrades available on a department-by-department basis (view detailed OS rollout schedule). This will enable you to install the upgrade yourself, at your convenience, using the self-service tools available for PCs and Macs. We have step-by-step guides that explain how to upgrade your PC to Windows 10 and your Mac to Sierra. These upgrades are "in-place," meaning your applications, peripherals, data, and settings are automatically migrated.

Self-service upgrades will be available for approximately three months. At the end of March 2018, RITE Services will begin deploying the operating systems upgrades to any computers that did not get updated. For more information, please visit the Planned Operating System Upgrades for 2017/2018 page.

A J-Term 2018 informational flier (PDF, 411 KB) is now available on the Registrar's Courses web page. Please be sure to bookmark or print the flier for reference.

Please remember that the Leave of Absence/Withdrawal from College form (PDF, 283 KB) has been revised to reflect last year’s change in policy. The new form (Rev. 2/17) does not require the Dean of Students signature. Please ask your departments to discard all old Leave of Absence/Withdrawal from College forms (Rev. 10/16) and to use only the new form to avoid unnecessary delays in processing.

The updated form is available only online. Thank you.