The Student Life Office, along with other campus partners, will host Commuter Appreciation Week, filled with fun activities, giveaways, and other special treats for Buffalo State commuters, October 31-November 4. For more information, please visit the Student Life website.

An updated Course Prefix reference list has been posted online. Please be sure to print or bookmark the page for reference.

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 Buffalo State Theater Department and Casting Hall Productions proudly present The Mousetrap, a play by Agatha Christie, in Upton Hall's Warren Enters Theatre. Directed by Jennifer Toohey, assistant professor of theater.

Seven strangers are trapped together in an English guesthouse by a terrible winter storm when a police inspector arrives to tell them there is a murderer hiding among them, waiting to kill again. Secrets are uncovered and shocking identities are revealed in this spine-tingling thriller. See for yourself why The Mousetrap is, by far, the longest-running play in history.

Tickets are on sale now at the Rockwell Hall Box Office, 878-3005, or online.

Special pricing for preview night, Wednesday, October 26, at 8:00 p.m. Runs October 27 and 28, and November 3 and 4, at 8:00 p.m., and October 29 and November 5 at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m.

A training session on Blackboard Learn 9.1: Enterprise Surveys will be held on Monday, October 31, from 2:30 to 3:30 in Bulger Communication Center 122. Enterprise Surveys is a system tool that provides a way to collect feedback from specified groups of people. Surveys can be sent to any selection of courses or departments or to the entire institution. Surveys can also be sent to e-mail addresses outside the system. This training will focus on how to create a survey in Blackboard, how to deploy it in the most efficient manner, and how to create a report to analyze the results. This workshop is suitable for staff or departments that would like to deploy a global survey. The presentation will be one hour and is limited to 10 participants.

Please register online through the Workshop Registration System.

Fotini Galanes will present "Upton North," a talk about her drawing process and artwork, on Wednesday, October 26, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Upton Hall 230. The Buffalo State community is welcome to attend.

Ms. Fotini is creating a drawing in charcoal directly on the wall of the Upton Hall lobby. She began the work by spending time studying the wall and its surroundings, envisioning the movement and volume of the work as it will relate and function in the room. Throughout the organic process, there is constant deliberation and scrutiny of composition, light, balance, and volume.

Visitors are encouraged to approach Ms. Fotini on the following dates while she is working. Strike up a conversation with the artist while she shares her drawing process:

Friday, October 21: 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 25: 9:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 26: 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 27: 10:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Friday, October 28: 9:00 a.m.–TBA
Saturday, October 29: 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. (Fall Open House)

Sponsored by the Dr. Margaret E. Bacon Visiting Visual Artists Series Fund

To streamline inquiries and repairs, all non-emergency building or space access control, as well as video camera and intrusion alarm inquiries and service requests, should be directed to the RITE Support Desk, 878-4357. Security survey requests are included in the items to be directed to the RITE Support Desk. The security survey request form can be found on the UPD website. As always, police response to alarms and all emergencies should be directed to University Police at 878-6333 (6333 from a campus landline phone).

Could you write your own life story in only six words? Would you like to try? All students, staff, and faculty are invited to stop by the Writing Help Center (WHC) in Butler Library 157B today, October 20, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to celebrate National Day on Writing and enter our "Six Word Memoir" contest. Entries will be displayed in the WHC, and first- and second-place contestants will win prizes. Contact WHC director Maggie Herb for more information.

SUNY Open Access Week is October 24–30, and SUNY is offering daily webinars on open access issues relevant to SUNY faculty and campuses. Webinars will reflect the current range and relevance of open access. Topics include “Scholarship That's Scholar-Led: An Introduction to Open Access,” “Starting and Sustaining an OA Publication,” and “Understanding and Protecting Your Rights As an Author.” 

The open access movement was begun to break down the barriers involved with traditional scholarly publishing in an attempt to make information and research more openly accessible and available. Open access also relates to a variety of current trends, including Creative Commons licensing, open educational resources, and self-publishing.

Learn more about how your SUNY colleagues are innovating with open access and join the conversation by attending SUNY Open Access Week webinars. Webinars take place daily from noon to 1:00 p.m.

Schedule of webinars:

• Monday - Scholarship That's Scholar-Led: An Introduction to Open Access
• Tuesday - The Bigger Picture of OA: Alternate Models of Review and Emerging Practices
• Wednesday - SUNY OER Services: What They Can Do for You
• Thursday - Starting and Sustaining an OA Publication
• Friday - Understanding and Protecting Your Rights as an Author

For more information or to register, please visit SUNY Open Access Week.

Visit International Open Access Week’s website for more information about this annual event.

Buffalo’s own Tom Toles, Pulitzer Prize–winning globally syndicated editorial cartoonist, will participate in a panel discussion with fellow artists Alberto Rey, Joan Linder, and Thomas Aquinas Daly on the intersections of the environment, sustainable values, current events, and art on Friday, October 21, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium.

Panelists will address how art can act as an important forum for discussing the environment. The event will be an open conversation during which students, faculty, and staff can share their own ideas. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to speak candidly with the Washington Post cartoonist and other local artists about how art and other means of communication can help influence current events. The conversation will have something for everyone: art, culture, politics, environmental science, and more. 

This event is free and open to the campus community. Please contact Faherty Nielsen, executive assistant, 878-6012, with questions.