Academic Support Programs is pleased to announce its Workshops to Success Series for spring 2016. Each workshop in the series seeks to provide practical, easily adoptable tips to improve student performance immediately. ASP’s Academic Skills Center also hopes to work individually with students with its all-professional tutoring staff. Workshops are free and open to all students. Please download the Workshops to Success 2016 poster (PDF) for more information.

The campus community is welcome to attend the following campus presentation by a candidate for the position of director of new student and family programs at Buffalo State. For a complete description of the duties of the position, please visit the Human Resource Management website.

Daniel Heims
Thursday, March 10
11:00 a.m.
Ethel Lockman Newman Lecture Hall (Bulger Communication Center North)

The swimming and diving team will host swimming lessons in Kissinger Pool during the month of April. This program is open to all Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff members and their families. Lessons will be one-on-one in very small groups with members of the swim team. Two sessions are available (see below). Applicants may sign up for one or both sessions. Sessions will take place from 6:15 to 7:00 p.m. The cost is $40 per session (breaks down to $10 per lesson). Spots are limited, so reserve your place today. We hope to see you in the pool!

Session 1: April 5, 6, 12, and 14
Session 2: April 19, 21, 26, and 28

If you’re interested, please e-mail Nick Stone, head swimming and diving coach, with the following information:

1. Name of swimmer(s)
2. Age of swimmer(s)
3. Preferred session(s)
4. Level of experience (e.g., comfortable but not fluent)

Please join us for the upcoming screening of BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, a documentary about legendary Black Arts activist and poet Sonia Sanchez, on Thursday, March 17, at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. The film's co-director and editor, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, will be present to introduce the film and lead a post-film Q&A. The film is free and open to the public.

Schmidt Gordon has been committed to cultural and social issues documentary filmmaking for over a decade. She has worked as a producer, director, or editor on numerous award-winning documentaries and programs for public television and cable, including Mrs. Goundo's Daughter, Documented, and Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. She also teaches documentary filmmaking at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Schmidt Gordon will also speak with interested students, faculty, and staff members about making social justice documentaries at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday. Please contact Ruth Goldman, assistant professor of communication, for more information.

"For 81-year-old Sonia Sanchez, writing is both a personal and political act. She emerged as a seminal figure in the 1960s Black Arts Movement, raising her voice in the name of black culture, civil rights, women's liberation, and peace as a poet, playwright, teacher, activist, and early champion of the spoken word.... In BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, Sanchez's life unfolds in a documentary rich with readings and jazz-accompanied performances of her work." Directed by Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon. 2015, 90 minutes (source).

This event is sponsored by the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Faculty-Student Association, the Equity and Campus Diversity Office, and the Communication Department.

All members of the Teacher Education Unit (TEU) are invited to attend the Teacher Education Council (TEC) meeting on Friday, March 11, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in Cleveland Hall 418. The Spring Summit on Teacher Education, "Dispositions," in Task Stream, and potential integration across teacher education curriculums will be discussed.

Buffalo State's Spring Open House will be held Saturday, April 2. Check-in begins at 9:00 a.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. The schedule is provided below.

Details and register information are available on the Admissions website. For additional information, please contact the Admissions Office, 878-4017.

9:15–9:45 a.m.
Welcome (Rockwell Hall)

9:45 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Tour the campus. Meet the faculty. Learn about academic departments, student services, and financial aid.

The Small Business Development Center will present "Survive and Thrive: Essentials for Starting Your Own Business," a workshop covering all the essential information needed to start a business, on Tuesday, March 22, from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Burchfield Penney Art Center (second floor). Specific topics will include creating a business plan; competition analysis; and tax, legal, and insurance issues. The workshop is free for Buffalo State College faculty, staff, students, alumni, and U.S. military veterans and $20 for all others.

Registration will take place immediately before the workshop, from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. To register in advance, please call the SBDC at 878-4030.

Photography student Anushruti Bhatnagar's Senior Studio exhibition work is currently on display in Upton Hall's Margaret Bacon Gallery. A reception will be held on Thursday, March 10, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Her exhibit runs through March 18.

The ceramics program welcomes visiting artist Linda Cordell for an artist talk and demonstration of various sculptural techniques on Wednesday, March 9, from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. in Upton Hall 128. Everyone is welcome.

Cordell received her B.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in Alfred, New York, and her M.F.A. from Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge. She has been an artist in residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Her work has been exhibited in the Cheongju International Craft Biennale at the National Cheongju Museum, in South Korea; the Fuller Craft Museum, in Brockton, Massachusetts; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, in Sheboygan; the Philadelphia International Airport; the Nancy Margolis and Garth Clark Galleries in New York City; Mindy Solomon Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida; the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Massachusetts; the Everson Museum of Art, in Syracuse, New York; and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, among others. Cordell received an Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship in 1998 and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in the category of crafts in 2003. She also received individual artist grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 2003 and 2007 and an Artists’ Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2011.

The English Department is delighted to announce the second annual Laurence Shine Research Fellowship. This $2,000 cash award, funded through Buffalo's riverrun foundation, is given to support a student working on a full-year research project.  

Eligible students must have completed at least 45 credit hours and have at least two semesters remaining at Buffalo State to complete their bachelor’s degree. They must also agree to engage in a year-long scholarly research project, culminating in a presentation of their work in a public forum. 

For more information on this award, and all English Department awards and scholarships, please visit the English Department website.