Weigel Health Promotions is looking for students, faculty, and staff members who would like to collaborate with us on assignments, projects, or class activities—or just to share ideas. We can accommodate work from all majors and are also interested in help with graphic design, infographics, workshops, web design, social media, event planning, office support, photography, and videography, and much.

We also have a wide range of opportunities for internships, volunteers, and the sharing of any ideas you have!

Please contact Paula Madrigal, assistant director of prevention and health promotions, 878-4719, if you are interested in working with us.

For more information on Weigel Health Promotions and the services we offer, please visit our website, check out our newsletter, follow us on social media, and watch us in action on our Youtube channel!

Gary Witten from VOYA Financial will present the seminar "Staying the Course" on Tuesday, April 5, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Butler Library 210. Lunch will be provided.

This seminar provides information and options to help you stay focused on your retirement objectives and weather the ups and downs of the stock market. This presentation will touch on topics such as dollar-cost averaging, asset allocation, and diversification along with top retirement bloopers and how to avoid making some very common mistakes.

Reserve your seat by phone at 626-3928 or contact Molly Pecoraro by e-mail.

The Great Lakes Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Friday, April 15, from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. In 1966, under the direction of Howard Sengbusch, dean of arts and science, the Great Lakes Center was established along Buffalo's waterfront to conduct research and provide education in water resource management. Today, under the leadership of Alexander Karatayev, the GLC engages scholars, lake management professionals, and students in the study of the Great Lakes. Their work informs and ultimately advances the restoration of our life-sustaining resource: water. The Great Lakes contain over 80 percent of the surface water supply in North America.

The center also participates in the biological monitoring of the lakes to follow their ecosystem health. Karatayev's team includes 12 full-time staff members, several research assistants, undergraduate and graduate students, and collaborators worldwide. In addition to the waterfront location, with its stunning views of the international Peace Bridge and the Canadian shore, the center manages several laboratories on the Buffalo State main campus.

For more information, please call the Great Lakes Center at 878-4329.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning office (SoTL) continues its series of breakfast conversations focused on general education on Friday, March 18, with a discussion of "What General Education Courses Contribute to Essential Learning Outcomes" from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in Butler Library 181B. The reading (and all previous readings) can be found on Zotero. RSVP to John Draeger, associate professor of philosophy and director of SoTL.

Future conversations will be held on the following dates. All meetings will take place on Fridays from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in Butler Library 181B.

April 1
April 15

The fall 2016 master schedule is available online in Banner SSB and Schedule Planner starting today, March 16. Students can also view their assigned timetickets (registration start date) today as well. Students are encouraged to plan ahead by reviewing the courses offered and using Schedule Planner. Students can leave their desired schedule selections in their Schedule Planner cart and then submit the schedule starting at 6:00 a.m. on their designated registration start date. After the assigned registration start date, registration is then continuous, and students can continue to alter their schedules until the add/drop deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday, September 5.

Until June 1, both manila and white business envelopes bearing obsolete college logos are available free from Central Stores for non-mailing use only. Please use the order form (PDF) on the Campus Services website or call 878-5729 for assistance.

Buffalo State is pleased to welcome Mary Ann Huntley, senior lecturer of mathematics and director of mathematics outreach K–12 education activities at Cornell University, for the presentation "Variability in the Algebra Content of Six High-School Textbook Series" on Wednesday, March 30, at 4:30 p.m. in Butler Library 210. Huntley will share the results from a textbook analysis project in which every item in each of six popular textbook series was examined and classified in terms of content, the cognitive behavior of students as they solved the problems, the presence of real-world context, and the use of tools to solve the problems (technology and manipulatives). Implications for practice will be also be discussed.

This event is sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association Founder's Fund.

Please join us for a screening of "Through These Gates," a tribute to Buffalo's first African American architect, John Edmonston Brent (1889–1962), and his contributions as an architect, landscape architect, and draftsman in Buffalo and Western New York, on Thursday, March 17, at 12:15 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. This 20-minute video documentary was written and co-produced by Christine A. Parker, a Buffalo State museum studies graduate student and diversity research fellow. She is the principal researcher of a recent comprehensive study of John E. Brent that culminated in an exhibition organized for the Burchfield Penney Art Center by Nancy Weekly, head of collections, Charles Cary Rumsey curator, and Burchfield Penney instructor of museum studies. The production of “Through These Gates” was directed by local television journalist Sandy White at Mustard Seed World Productions, with an award-winning crew, TVRE Productions Inc.

As an added feature to Parker’s master’s project, this mini-documentary features reenactments of historical nineteenth- and twentieth-century highlights of Brent’s life and accomplishments, played by Aaron Moss, assistant professor of theater at Buffalo State. The documentary also showcases interviews with local historian and author Lillian Serece Williams and Uncrowned Community Builders co-founder Barbara Seals Nevergold. The two historians, along with Parker, provide added insight into the “soul” of John E. Brent, who lived through segregation and went on to contribute to the landscape, culture, and sociopolitical development of the city of Buffalo and the surrounding region.

"Through These Gates" takes viewers on a journey back in time through local and national historical events, narrated by Rev. Pedro A. Castro Jr., who is the WNY conference presiding elder of the AME Church, pastor of Fellowship AME Church, and chaplain at Syracuse University. The cast also includes historian and Buffalo Criterion columnist Eva Doyle, community activist Derrick Byrd, and students Jaylen Hearon (as young John Brent) and Kenneth Parker Jr. (as senior John Brent). Special cameo appearances were made by Clifford Bell, a representative of Buffalo State’s Small Business Development Center, entrepreneur, and former city councilman; Rev. Diann Holt, director of Durham Central City Baby Café; and Brent Rollins, great nephew of John E. Brent. Mayor Byron W. Brown provided special commentary about the importance of education and preparation in shaping the future of the City of Buffalo. Wardrobe was provided locally by Allita Stewart (AllitaLee.com and her Apple’s Haberdashery wardrobe collection). The soundtrack includes music by international recording artists Chor Leoni of Vancouver, British Columbia, and national recording group D.E.M. of Silver Springs, Maryland.

Financial and in-kind support were provided by the following collaborating groups, institutions, and individuals: Buffalo State College, the Museum Studies Program, the Graduate School, the Graduate Student Association, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Buffalo History Museum, the City of Buffalo Mayor’s Office, and local educators and historians under the direction of executive producer Parker.

In 2013, the Buffalo Zoo’s entrance gates 3 and 4 were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was “through these gates” that John E. Brent’s professional contributions, social advocacy, and distinguished life of service as a leader in the African American community would become reintroduced to a new generation. The documentary “Through These Gates” tells his story.

This is a free event.

More information is available at www.burchfieldpenney.org.

More information on the exhibition is available at www.burchfieldpenney.org.

Blackboard Learn will be off-line for emergency extended maintenance from 10:00 p.m. Friday, March 18, to 7:00 a.m. Saturday, March 19. This maintenance will include an upgrade to the Blackboard file servers and will enhance the overall stability of the Blackboard Learn environment.

If you experience any technical difficulties with Blackboard Learn after this maintenance period, please call the Open SUNY HelpDesk at (844) 673-6786 (844-OPENSUNY), submit a ticket request through Footprints at our HelpDesk web page, or e-mail OpenSUNYHelp@suny.edu.

Carol Townsend, associate professor and coordinator of the design foundations program at Buffalo State, will present “Rwanda: Not in Kansas Anymore” on Thursday, March 17, at 12:15 p.m. in Upton Hall 230. This lecture, part of the yearlong series “Artists on the Road: Travel as a Source of Inspiration,” is free and open to the public.

Townsend’s presentation features the tiny nation of Rwanda, where she traveled with students associated with the campus’s Anne Frank Project, overseen by AFP director Drew Kahn, in 2013.

This group spent two weeks touring the east central African country torn apart by a brutal genocide in 1994. Along with visiting genocide memorial sites, Townsend and the group participated in a number of educational tours, including seeing giraffes in Akagera National Wildlife Park, participating in the donation of a cow in a small village of the Muhanga District (Buffalo’s sister city), learning about the native Rwandan justice system, visiting a Congolese family’s mud hut in the Gihembe Refugee Camp, and swinging high on the Nyungwe Forest Canopy Walkway.