Faculty and staff members, we need your help. Over the last seven years, the VSLC Alternative Break program has grown exponentially as a result of student demand and leadership. We are looking for a few great faculty and staff members to serve as Alternative Break trip advisers during an upcoming service experience.

Alternative Break is a student-led program that organizes and hosts service trips during academic breaks. The role of the faculty or staff trip adviser is to support and enhance the student experience by collaborating with student leaders. The trip adviser is not expected to plan or organize the logistics; student site leaders take care of the coordination. Advisers simply assist student site leaders in carrying out the logistics of the experience and solving problems.

To read a full description of the trip adviser role and trip dates and locations, please see the VSLC website. 

To express your interest in being a trip adviser, please complete the online form.

Interim Dean of the Graduate School Kevin Miller will host a meeting of all graduate faculty on Friday, October 28, at 3:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Assembly Halls. Attendees will be asked to contribute ideas to the development of the Graduate School strategic plan.

Please let us know that you will be attending by completing the online sign-up form.

The call for submissions is now open for the 17th annual Faculty and Staff Research and Creativity Fall Forum, held this year on Thursday, October 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Houston Gym.

The goal of this 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. All faculty and staff members are invited to organize an exhibit to present current research, creative activity, or other scholarship. Individual, departmental, or group exhibits are welcome. This is an excellent opportunity to network with other Buffalo State faculty and staff and to identify common scholarly and creative interests you may have.

To participate, please complete the online form on the Call for Submissions tab of the Fall Forum page. Titles and abstracts or descriptions are to be submitted electronically by Friday, September 30.

Please note: The Houston Gym is a smaller venue, with a limited number of electrical outlets, tables, and chairs. Display space is limited to one 5-foot table or one or two easels per individual submission.

If you plan to use RITE Graphic Design Services to prepare or print your poster(s), please note the deadlines in the confirmation e-mail that follows your abstract submission.

Please contact Mary Kren, manager of communications and learning development in the Sponsored Programs Office, 878-6700 ext. 2, with questions.

?Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, set in 1895, is a play about a woman who is bored and trapped in a stifling marriage. Jealous and callous, she seeks to control her former love’s destiny only to wreak havoc and destruction instead. Directed by Donn Youngstrom and produced by Buffalo State Theater Department and Casting Hall Productions. The preview performance is 8:00 p.m. today, September 27. Tickets are on sale now at the Rockwell Hall Box Office, 878-3005. Visit theater.buffalostate.edu for ticket information.

Join Kathy Shiroki, curator of museum learning and community engagement, and John Draeger, associate professor and director of faculty development, as they explore the ways that art can be a catalyst to promote student engagement and apply disciplinary learning in new ways during this faculty development workshop in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. As faculty participants tour the gallery, we will begin a conversation about a variety of evidence-based teaching practices.

Tuesday, November 1, 12:15–1:30 p.m. 
Wednesday, November 2, 3:00–4:15 p.m.

Register for the November 1 workshop.
Register for the November 2 workshop.

?Please join us for the faculty development workshop "Service Learning as a High-Impact Practice" on Friday, October 28, from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. in Butler Library 181B.

Service learning and other high-impact practices have demonstrated benefits for college students from many backgrounds. Incorporating successful service-learning activities can lead to increased student success and graduation. This interactive session for faculty members will focus on strategies for creating successful community-based projects in your courses. Topics will include an overview of the theory and practice of service learning, data and research on service learning as a high-impact practice, and discussion about appropriate community-based learning experiences for your particular courses. Facilitated by Gary Welborn, associate professor of sociology and coordinator of community engagement, and Laura Hill Rao, Volunteer and Service-Learning Center coordinator.

A light breakfast will be provided. Please register through the Workshop Registration System.

Department secretaries and staff members who are responsible for master schedule input and maintenance should be using the form SZACSCN (PDF, 303 KB), available in Banner-INB, to enter information directly in Banner for any active term for the following: 

• Instructor Change (add, delete, or change an instructor assigned to a section)
• Section Comment (form SSATEXT-Section Long Text)
• Class Restrictions from form SSARRES
• Field of Study Restrictions from form SSARRES

This data can be directly entered on SZACSCN for the following terms: Fall 2016 (201630), January Term 2017 (201705), and Spring 2017 (201710). Do not file a paper Course Schedule Change Notice Form for these types of changes. Instructions on how to use SZACSCN are also available on the Registrar's Office home page. This form is available for use even after input windows are closed for the semester.

Friday, September 30, is the last day to submit applications for the SUNY B-140W Tuition Assistance Program for the fall 2016 semester.

Staff members may apply for tuition assistance after six months of service; faculty members may apply after one semester of service. The following employees are eligible:

• Full-time Buffalo State faculty members and professional or classified employees
• Part-time or temporary Buffalo State faculty members and professional or classified employees who are employed at least half time (faculty must teach at least two courses in the semester)
• Full-time Research Foundation employees, provided they work on the Buffalo State campus

Program funds may be used for courses at SUNY campuses only. Eligible employees may apply for a 50 percent waiver of SUNY tuition for up to two courses a semester, to a maximum of 15 credit hours an academic year. Tuition assistance is limited to regular in-state undergraduate or graduate tuition rates. The level of support may be adjusted when necessary if funding is not adequate to cover applications received.

After submitting an application, employees who decide to drop a class or find it has been covered by another source are asked to please notify Human Resource Management immediately to update their applications.

Please contact Human Resource Management, 878-4821, for applications (PDF, 257 KB) or program guidelines.

Joseph A. Gardella Jr., SUNY Distinguished Professor and John and Frances Larkin Professor of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo, will present "Surface and Polymer Chemistry and Chemical Analysis Explorations for Tissue and Tissue Engineering: Imaging of Pharmaceuticals and Drug Delivery for Wound Healing" at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, November 3, in Science and Mathematics Complex 170.

This seminar series is sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association. An abstract of his talk appears below.

Abstract
This talk will review recent studies in collaborations with Roswell Park Cancer Institute on the role of surface chemical analysis to determine the spatial distribution of pharmaceuticals in tissue samples and in polymer membranes for drug delivery. A review of the methodology of the measurements, background into tissue preparation in cancer studies, and design of polymer membranes will be followed by results from multiple studies illustrates the role of modern chemical analysis into progress in cancer treatment and wound healing. Interdisciplinary work requires collaboration from very disparate disciplines, and the role of student learning in chemistry and biology is examined as part of these studies.

Paul Seidler, '05, '07, postdoctoral research fellow in molecular biology at UCLA, will present "Tau Protein Fibrils: Structure and Inhibition" at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, October 6, in Science and Mathematics Complex 170. This seminar series is sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association. An abstract of his talk appears below.

Abstract
The conversion of tau protein from a normal conformation to a pathological amyloid fold is highly correlated to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and severity of cognitive decline. The overarching aim of my research is to develop methods and agents to block the formation and spread of toxic tau conformations. Using the atomic-resolution structure of the tau amyloid fiber core that I determined from nanocrystals using a new technique called microelectron diffraction, I am designing peptide-based inhibitors to halt tau amyloid fiber growth and spread. I am also pursuing an orthogonal inhibitor design strategy, which consists of studying protective mutations I've identified that are capable of suppressing tau assembly into toxic conformations. Using this approach, I hope to discover additional classes of evolutionarily-inspired tau inhibitors that will complement my structure-based design efforts.