The Burchfield Penney Art Center invites its colleagues, Buffalo State faculty and staff members, for a coffee hour and private preview of The Likeness of Being: Portraits by Philip Burke on Friday, April 10, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. Experience gallery tours, visit the Museum Store, and enjoy coffee and snacks from Burchfield's Café. RSVP to burchfld@buffalostate.edu. Please join us.

The Small Business Development Center at Buffalo State is proud to introduce the BALLE Quick Impact Assessment, a free online tool to help you improve your social and environmental impact, and begin to “measure what matters.” Participants will learn how to use the Quick Impact Assessment to achieve the following during this one-hour workshop on Friday, April 24, at 1:00 p.m. in Butler Library 318:

• Assess how your company performs against best practices on employee, community, and environmental impact.
• See how your company stacks up against thousands of other businesses.
• Create a plan to improve your company’s practices, and help your staff implement them easily with best practice guides.

This workshop is a program of the Social Enterprise Center at the SBDC and is free and open to the public. To register, please contact Andrew Delmonte, social enterprise coordinator, ext. 4030.

Scholarship recipients for the 2015–2016 academic year should be selected by the end of this semester. Once scholarship recipients are selected, please send Kristin Van Slyke, development associate, the name and Banner ID number of each scholarship recipient and the name of the scholarship the student is receiving.

All 2015–2016 scholarship recipients will be invited to the 2015 Scholar and Donor Breakfast, which recognizes these outstanding students and those who made the scholarships possible, on Saturday, October 3.

If you have any questions regarding scholarships your department or office is responsible for or questions about the Scholar and Donor Breakfast, please contact Claire Collier, donor relations officer, ext. 5206.

The location for the April 15 Tech Talk on Buffalo State Geographic Information Systems has been changed to Technology Building 252.

If you're still interested in attending, please register online via the CyberQuad Registration System.

Please direct questions to Melissa Misziewicz, director of academic and research technology planning.

Buffalo State will offer training on the free analytics software package SAS University Edition on Saturday, April 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Butler Library 318. Conducted by Tom Bohannon from SAS in Cary, North Carolina, the training will include free materials and information about SAS certification and is open to faculty, staff, and students.

SAS University Edition isn't a watered-down version of SAS. You get the most recent releases of SAS Studio, Base SAS, SAS/STAT, SAS/IML, and SAS/ACCESS. It's the same world-class analytics software used by more than 75,000 business, government, and university sites around the world, including 93 of the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500 list. That means you'll be using the most up-to-date statistical and quantitative methods—right on your PC, Mac, or Linux workstation.

The hands-on workshop will allow participates to experience the various features of this software:

• An intuitive interface that lets you interact with the software from your PC, Mac, or Linux workstation. Learn more about SAS Studio.
• A powerful programming language that’s easy to learn and easy to use. Learn more about Base SAS.
• Comprehensive, reliable tools that include state-of-the-art statistical methods. Learn more about SAS/STAT.
• A robust yet flexible matrix programming language for more in-depth, specialized analysis and exploration. Learn more about SAS/IML.

To register, please e-mail Joaquin Carbonara, professor of mathematics.

The Research and Creativity Council Incentive Program will accept a second round of applications until the close of business Friday, April 17. Incentive funds administered by the Research and Creativity Council are intended to promote faculty creativity and research with the ultimate goal of generating additional funded programs. Revised submissions of previously unfunded or partially funded proposals are encouraged. Inquiries may be directed to Carol Darstein, director of pre-award and contract services, or Stephani Foraker, chair of the Research and Creativity Council. Please submit applications to the Sponsored Programs Pre-Award and Contract Services Office in Bishop Hall 24. Three council members have been appointed to review all applications received by the above deadline.

One year after receiving an incentive award, recipients are required to submit a full report documenting the use of the funds and to submit a grant proposal to an outside sponsoring agency through the Sponsored Programs Pre-Award and Contract Services Office. Submitting a proposal through the College Foundation does not meet this requirement. Recipients are also obligated to participate in the Faculty and Staff Fall Forum, which takes place in October.

Expenditures considered for support under this program include student assistance, consultation with grant specialists, specialized equipment or supplies directly used in the research or creative project, preparation of specialized support materials for proposal (e.g., graphs, drawings, resource books), release time, travel to consult with a funding source or collaborators, secretarial assistance, and any other expense that can be justified as enhancing the likelihood of a competitive external grant or contract application. Funds cannot be requested for the purchase of computers. Also, it is not the council’s intention to directly pay an individual for writing a proposal.

Application guidelines (PDF) are available on the Sponsored Programs website.

The Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Office is accepting public comments on the draft Storm Water Management Program Annual Report. This draft report, which documents campus storm water pollution prevention measures undertaken during the reporting year ending March 9, 2015, is a requirement of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) discharge permit issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The draft MS4 report, instructions for submitting written comments, and other information on campus storm water pollution prevention efforts can be found on the EH&S Office storm water pollution prevention web page. A paper copy of this report is also available for viewing during normal business hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays) at the Customer Service Center, located in the Clinton Center.

Severe Weather Spotter Certification training will be provided by the National Weather Service (NWS) on Friday, May 1, between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. in Classroom Building A209. The SkyWarn Storm Spotter Program was created by the NWS to improve warning services. The NWS needs real-time reports of hail size, wind damage, flash flooding, heavy rain, tornadoes, and waterspouts to effectively warn the public of inclement weather. This training is open to anyone with an interest in the weather and a desire to serve the community. By attending, you are not committing yourself to be a spotter.

Advance registration is required. Please contact Stephen Vermette, professor of geography and planning, to register. The training is sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association, the Geography and Planning Department, and the Arthur W. Gielow Meteorology Fund.

Chloe Wigston-Smith, assistant professor in the University of Georgia's Department of English, will present the illustrated lecture "Textual Fashions: Clothes, Paper, and Fashion Culture in Eighteenth-Century Britain on Friday, April 24, at 3:00 p.m. in Technology Building 160. A reception will follow.

The lecture will address the complex ties between texts and textiles within the fashion culture of eighteenth-century Britain. Wigston-Smith examines garments and accessories that incorporated paper into their construction and textile designs that were inspired by literature. She investigates why some eighteenth-century authors resisted the correspondence between texts and textiles by criticizing contemporary fashion culture. Specializing in eighteenth-century studies, Wigston-Smith studied the history of dress at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Free and open to the public, this lecture is sponsored by the Buffalo State English Department, Theater Department, History and Social Studies Education Department, and Oscar’s Bed & Breakfast with generous support from Bob Budin.

Download the promotional flier (PDF).

The following Blackboard training sessions and workshops will be held this week. Please register online. All sessions will be held in Bulger Communication Center 104.

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Assessments
This workshop focuses on the available assessment tools in the latest version of Blackboard Learn. By the end of this workshop, learners will be able to create, configure, and deploy individual and group assignments, auto-graded tests, discussions, and Turnitin Direct Assignments. Collecting student submissions to manage grades and feedback for each student and the use of rubrics to simplify the grading process will also be covered.

Tuesday, April 7; 10:00 a.m.–noon
Friday, April 10; 10:00 a.m.–noon

A complete schedule of Blackboard training sessions and workshops for April and May is also available. Please register online.