A fundraiser to benefit the Jaelah Yannis Jenkins Educational Opportunity Fund will be held Wednesday, November 11, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Silverthorn Mansion, 877 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. The EOP fund is named in honor of the late daughter of EOP Director Yanick Jenkins, Jaelah, who passed away from a brain tumor November 11, 2007, at the age of 10. The fund provides support for students, program activities, and other expenses that enhance and supplement EOP resources.

The evening will be hosted by Rock Doyle, associate director of Weigel Health Center. As part of the evening’s activities, an EOP veteran will be honored in recognition of Veterans Day. Also featured will be special guests Andrew Dan-Jumbo, from TLC’s While You Were Out, and musical entertainer Drea D’Nur.

The Educational Opportunity Program provides access and opportunity, academic support, and supplemental financial assistance to make higher education possible for students who have the potential to succeed despite poor preparation and limited financial resources.

Tickets are $50 each. To purchase tickets, or to make a donation to the EOP fund, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/hj4h52zc.

Capacity is limited. Please register your attendance by Monday, November 9. For more information, please contact Rock Doyle, (716) 812-0049.

The English Department's “Conversations In and Out of the Disciplines” lecture series continues today, November 6, when Kelly Frothingham, department chair and professor of geography and planning, presents “Stream Restoration: Local WNY Activity in the Context of National Trends” in Ketchum Hall 320 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. A short, informal wine-and-cheese reception will be held after the talk. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Take 50 percent off already-reduced clearance clothing items during the Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Flash Sale today, November 5.

A workshop on Blackboard Learn 9.1: Enterprise Surveys will be held on Friday, November 20.

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 presentation will be one hour and is limited to 10 participants. The instructor will be available for an additional 30 minutes after the workshop for further questions and discussion. Please register through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

Three hundred black crosses will be installed in Horace Mann Quad from November 9 to 13 as part of the Black Cross Project. The crosses represent the number of unarmed people of color who have died in police custody or have been killed by officers from 2012 to 2015. The crosses are meant to signify the enduring historical legacy of racism and racial profiling in the United States. Ultimately, the crosses strive to make all forms of racism visible and subject to public acknowledgment and conversation.

The Black Cross Project group invites all faculty, staff, and students to use the field of crosses for reflection on social justice, public security, and the meaning of democracy.

Instructional Resources is now offering a three-course Community of Inquiry (CoI) Specialization Certificate. CoI is a theoretical framework that explains the online learning experience in terms of interactions between three overlapping presences: teaching, social, and cognitive.

Teaching presence is the core role of the online instructor. The three components of teaching presence include instructional design, course facilitation, and direct instruction.

Social presence is the ability of learners to project their personal characteristics into the learning community. In many face-to-face classes, social presence occurs naturally as students engage with one another in a variety of ways. In online courses, opportunities for students to engage in social presence must be purposefully designed into the course.

Designing cognitive presence into online courses provides students with opportunities to construct meaning through sustained communication. These opportunities include exchanging information, connecting and reflecting, and applying newly developed understandings.

The CoI Specialization Certificate will be issued for those who attend the following workshop series. All classes will be held in Bulger Communication Center 120 at noon:

1. Community of Inquiry: Teaching Presence – Monday, November 9
2. Community of Inquiry: Social Presence – Monday, November 16
3. Community of Inquiry: Cognitive Presence – Monday, November 23

Please visit the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System for more information or to register.

The blue bins on campus are for paper and cardboard recycling. All types of office paper can be recycled in these bins. This includes junk mail, envelopes (with or without plastic windows), fliers, brochures, postcards, newspapers, phone books, and all types and sizes of magazines and catalogs. Softcover books can also be recycled in the blue bins.

The following items cannot be recycled in the blue bins:

• Hardcover books: Please place hardcover books in boxes and call Business Services for pickup: 878-6835.
• Shredding: Please contact Jill Powell, records management officer, to complete a Certificate of Destruction. For more information, please visit the Records Retention and Disposition website.

If you have any questions about what can and cannot be recycled or any other recycling concerns, please contact Lauren Bostaph, staff assistant in Campus Services, 878-6835. Thank you.

Did you know that Buffalo State has a surplus warehouse full of office furniture for campus use? Used filing cabinets, desks, tables, chairs, and much more are available for campus reuse. There is no cost for the surplus furniture.

Please call Business Services at 878-6835 to schedule an appointment and see what we have in the surplus warehouse that could be useful for your department.

Unneeded property should not be left in the hallway or on the loading dock. When property is no longer needed, please send an original surplus form (PDF) to Business Services.

The form must be signed by the department chair or director or it will be returned. When the completed form is received, a work order will be placed for the removal of the property, and a copy of the work order will be e-mailed to the person who submitted the surplus form.

Please call Business Services at 878-6835 with questions about surplus property.

In select circumstances, property owned by Buffalo State can be included ("traded in") as part of a procurement transaction to acquire a new or replacement piece of property. "Property" is defined as vehicles, boats, furniture, or equipment where a trade-in option is available.

The Property Trade-In Form (PDF) should be used to secure the appropriate campus approvals for the disposition of the property to be traded in. The form is available on the Campus Services website.

Please call Business Services at 878-6835 with questions. Thank you.