Today’s SUNY Open Access Week webinar is “The Bigger Picture of OA: Alternate Models of Review and Emerging Practices” presented by Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Find out how open access is affecting peer review and what new models are emerging. What does the future of open access publishing hold?

To register for or to learn more about this webinar, or for the full SUNY Open Access Week schedule, please visit the SUNY OA Week 2016 website.

Service learning is a form of hands-on learning that links learning in the classroom with activities that address community needs. Service-learning students participate in a minimum of 10 hours of service that directly connects to course learning and are graded on the learning that results from the service. Specific service-learning course details can be obtained from the course instructor or the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center. Students can search directly in Banner using instructional method Service Learning to find the designated classes each semester.

The Presidential Electoral College Prediction Contest is back.

Contest: Correctly predict the electoral college vote totals for this year's presidential candidates. Ties are broken by predicting the percentage of the national vote garnered by Donald Trump.

Prize: Fame and glory! Your name published in the Buffalo State Daily Bulletin!

Deadline: All entries must be delivered to the appropriate envelope, posted next to the Political Science Department, Classroom Building B218, by noon, Monday, November 7. No late entries will be accepted.

Method: Entry forms are available outside Classroom Building B218. Only one submission per contestant. No replacements allowed. Multiple submissions presented by the same contestant will nullify all submissions by that contestant. Any attempts to look at other previously submitted entries will be grounds for dismissal of that contestant and shall bring lasting shame to his or her family! No peeking!

Background: The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in Congress and election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for president and vice president, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. A state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for its senators. Read more about the allocation of electoral votes. Under the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated three electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “state” also refers to the District of Columbia. Each candidate running for president in a state has his or her own group of electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. Read more about the qualifications of the electors and restrictions on who the electors may vote for. Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation.”

Students are encouraged to forward messages from their student Gmail accounts to their personal mobile devices: Android or iPhone.

Safeguards are in place to prevent students from accidentally registering for two courses whose times overlap. If a student attempts to register for a course that overlaps with the time of another course, the student will receive the error message "time conflict with CRN xxxx." If students have a valid reason to obtain a time override, they should contact the instructor of the course for which they are attempting to register and for which they received a time conflict registration add error message.

A detailed list of Registration Add Errors is available on the Registrar's website.

Spring 2017 registration posters (PDF, 5 MB) have been mailed to all academic departments and administrative offices via intercampus mail. Please display these posters to encourage our students to register. If you would like additional posters, please call our office at 878-4811. Registration for J-Term and Spring 2017 semesters begins Wednesday, November 2.

The 17th annual Faculty and Staff Research and Creativity Fall Forum will be held Thursday, October 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Houston Gym. President Conway-Turner will offer welcoming remarks at 12:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided for all participants and attendees. The event is open to the campus community. Please share this information with your classes. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Please view the floor plan (PDF 102 KB), (list arranged alphabetically by the main presenter’s last name), and view details and current presentations from your desktop or mobile device on the fall forum website.

Important: Alternating Viewing
To create greater opportunities for presenters to interact with one another, an alternating viewing plan will be in place:

11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. presenters on the left side of the room (location numbers 61–110 and decorated in orange) will be at their displays, allowing presenters from the right side (location numbers 1–60 and decorated in black) an opportunity to visit and connect with other forum participants and visitors.

After the president concludes her remarks (approximately 12:45 p.m.), the presenters from the right side of the room (black) will return to their display area, allowing those from the left side (location numbers 61–110, decorated in orange) the opportunity to visit and connect with other forum participants and visitors.

The goal of the forum is to develop, encourage, and support Buffalo State faculty and staff research and creativity and to make collaborative research endeavors and grantsmanship more accessible. This is an excellent opportunity to network with other Buffalo State faculty and staff members and identify common scholarly and creative interests that you may have.

Please note: setup time for poster displays is 8:30–10:45 a.m.

This is Open Access Week, October 24–28, and the Digital Commons @ Buffalo State offers some excellent open access collections.

Digital Commons @ Buffalo State is a campuswide open access repository managed by the staff and faculty of Butler Library. Content in the Digital Commons is produced by faculty, staff, and students and ranges from scholarly journals to archival collections to master's theses and projects. The open access aspect of these materials allows them to be available and accessible to all.

Explore the digital commons and consider making your own research and scholarship available through open access. To learn more about open access, attend SUNY Open Access Week’s daily webinar “Scholarship That’s Scholar-Led: An Introduction to Open Access” from noon to 1:00 p.m. today, October 24. Visit SUNY Open Access Week’s website for the full schedule of webinars.

In preparation for the spring 2017 semester, RITE will be completing the transition to the latest version of the TurningPoint software: TurningPoint Cloud. TurningPoint 5 will no longer be supported after the fall 2016 semester. Engaging your students is easier and more effective with the new response software TurningPoint Cloud.

Even if you've used clickers in the past, you'll want to learn about the enhancements to TurningPoint that will make getting real-time feedback from your students quick and easy.

About TurningPoint Cloud
TurningPoint Cloud brings new and improved features to increase student engagement, including

• Word cloud response type,
• improved speed and ease of use,
• enhanced attendance feature,
• seamless integration with Blackboard.

If you are interested in using TurningPoint Cloud, you will need a new USB receiver. Below are a few things you can take advantage of before the spring 2017 semester:

• Attend a TurningPoint Workshop
  • ?Sign up for a workshop to get ready to use TurningPoint Cloud in the spring. New USB receivers will be given to instructors during the workshops.?
• Pick up a new TurningPoint USB receiver
  • Your new USB receiver will have the software installed on it. TurningPoint will no longer be installed on classroom computers. You can take the software, content, session data, and participant lists with you wherever you go. To get your new USB receiver, attend a TurningPoint workshop or contact Brooke Winckelmann, instructional designer.
• If your students will be using clickers, contact the Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore
  • Please place your clicker order through Faculty Enlight or contact the textbook manager at lucasr@buffalostate.edu or (716) 878-5509 with the approximate number of students in your class(es) to ensure adequate clicker inventory.

Questions? Want more information?
Please contact Brooke Winckelmann, 878-3688.

For your convenience, representatives from Fidelity, Voya, and TIAA will be on campus in November to meet with you, help you understand what you need to do to save for your retirement, and answer any questions you may have. Whether you are currently enrolled with one of these companies or you wish to set up an account, take this opportunity to ensure your retirement future and invest in a supplemental retirement plan. Appointments are required.

Make your money work for the future you want.
Schedule an appointment with one of these advisers today.

Fidelity: Tuesday, November 1
Ken Woods, Retirement Planner
8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Cleveland Hall 416
Register: (844) FOR-SUNY or register online.

Voya: Thursday, November 3
“The Retirement That Works,” Educational Retirement Seminar
Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Butler Library 210
Lunch is provided.
RSVP: Molly Pecoraro or (716) 626-3928.

TIAA: Wednesday and Thursday, November 16 and 17
9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Michael Spogli, Financial Consultant
Wednesday: Cleveland Hall 416
Thursday: Butler Library 210B
Register for Wednesday.
Register for Thursday.