A new airline contract between New York State and Child Travel New York Inc. (also known as Albany Travel) went into effect in January, and new procedures have been implemented. When planning airline travel for official business purposes, please start by using the campus’s Business Travel Account with Child Travel as outlined in Buffalo State's travel policy.

Buffalo State airline travelers are encouraged to establish a profile with Child Travel as soon as possible by contacting Mary Taylor or Dave Lysiak in the Travel Services Office. Child Travel agents will not set up a profile for the traveler over the phone. Information needed for this profile is brief and must be provided to Buffalo State's travel services manager, ext. 4117. Soon after this information is submitted to Travel Services, Child Travel will send a welcome e-mail to the traveler's e-mail address, providing registration and training instructions to access the Online Travel Reservation System (Concur). Once a profile is established, travelers can book airfare through Child Travel over the phone with an agent or through the website at a reduced fee. Airline and rail transaction fees through the Online Travel Reservation System (Concur) are $4.95. This is significantly less than the agent-assisted airline transaction fee of $14.95.

Any traveler who does not have a profile with Child Travel but needs to book airline travel immediately should provide Buffalo State’s agency ID number to the agent. Buffalo State’s agency ID number is 28160.

Please call the Travel Services Office at ext. 4117 with questions or to set up a user profile with Child Travel.

All members of the Teacher Education Unit (TEU) are invited to attend the next meeting of the Teacher Education Council (TEC) on Friday, April 10, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in Cleveland Hall 418. Please direct any questions to Pixita del Prado Hill, professor of elementary education and reading.

If you were unable to attend the Professional Development Center's conversations on the Unique Buffalo State Experience, Proactive Change, or the Buffalo State Community, we invite you to keep the conversation going. Please fill out our interactive surveys about what students need at Buffalo State. All answers will be anonymous. We value your feedback and plan to use the information for discussion in this year's Pedagogical Institute.

Please contact Lauren Turner, professional development assistant, with questions.

The following Blackboard training sessions and workshops will be held in April. 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
Tuesday, April 28; 10:00 a.m.–noon

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Enterprise Surveys
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.
Wednesday, April 22; 1:00 p.m.–noon
Tuesday, April 28; 1:00 p.m.–noon

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Grade Center
The Grade Center in Blackboard Learn is more than just a way to record students' grades. It is a dynamic and interactive tool, allowing you to collect student submissions, record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. This workshop focuses on the skills necessary to use the Grade Center to manage students' grades for assignments, tests, discussion posts, etc. You can also create grade columns for any activities or requirements you want to grade, such as special projects, participation, or attendance. The Grade Center can be individualized to fit your needs.
Wednesday, April 15; 10:00 a.m.–noon
Thursday, April 16; 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 29; 10:00 a.m.–noon

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Open Lab
This lab is an open forum devoted to answering questions and solving problems that faculty members may have about navigating Blackboard Learn 9.1. Bring your course-specific questions and have them answered here.
Wednesday, April 15; 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 21; 10:00–11:00 a.m.

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Retention Center
Blackboard’s Retention Center is an early alert and monitoring system that provides an easy way for you to quickly identify which students in your course are at risk. You can communicate with struggling students and help them take immediate action for improvement. You can also keep track of patterns over time. This training will focus on using Blackboard's Retention Center, creating Grade Center Grading Color Codes to identify specified criteria, and producing Smart Views. Smart Views are focused views of the Grade Center. Any number of Smart Views can be created based on a variety of criteria, including grading periods, categories, and performance.
Wednesday, April 22; 10:00 a.m.–noon
Thursday, April 23; 10:00 a.m.–noon
Friday, April 24; 10:00 a.m.–noon
Thursday, April 30; 10:00 a.m.–noon

These Blackboard training sessions and workshops will be held in May. Please register online.

The Western New York Blackboard User Group (WNYBUG) will host the webinar "How Much Is Too Much? Avoiding the Course-and-a-Half Syndrome" on Thursday, April 2, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Katie Sabourin and Pamela White from St. John Fisher College will discuss how much content and how many activities to put into the design of an online or hybrid course. How do faculty members know if there is too much or too little content, or how it compares to the content of other courses in their departments? At St. John Fisher, the presenters use a time-on-task analysis to lay out the overall design of the course from the perspective of how much time students must spend to complete all course activities. This presentation will provide the justification for this model of training, examples of how it is used, and how it has been received by faculty members.

Please register for this webinar on the WNYBUG website.

Weigel Health Promotions has released the second issue of the Promotional, a newsletter created by the Weigel Health Promotion peer educators. The newsletter includes workshops and events, facts and information, resources on campus, and the Peer Educator of the Month. Look for it around campus or download or print (PDF) it from the Weigel Health Center website to share with students, faculty, and staff. We strive to provide our information and resources to people in new and creative ways.

Please e-mail Paula Madrigal, wellness and prevention coordinator, or call ext. 4719 with questions.

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.

As part of Women's History Month, Katharine Morrison, M.D., of Buffalo Womenservices and the Birthing Center of Buffalo will present "The Problem with Birth in Buffalo: The Connection between Abortion Rights and Birth Justice" today, March 31, at 4:30 p.m. in Butler Library 210.

Women have many different reproductive needs over the course of their lifetimes, and there is a clear connection between women's reproductive rights and their ability to enact their birthing preferences. As part of her talk, Morrison will discuss the development of the innovative services model at Buffalo Womenservices, which combines a birthing center with abortion and other reproductive health services.

This talk is free and open to the Buffalo State community. Please encourage students to attend. Sponsored by the women and gender studies program with support from the Faculty-Student Association and the School of Natural and Social Sciences.

The grading window for Summer Session ES will close Wednesday, June 3, at 9:00 p.m. Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF) is available on the Banner website. Assistance is available by calling the Computing Help Desk at 878-4357 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

If you have questions about grading, please call the Registrar's Office at 878-4811. We have provided a grading tip sheet (PDF) to assist you in successful grading.

Faculty members will enter their summer 2015 grades using Banner. The grading window for Summer Session ES is now open and will close Wednesday, June 3, at 9:00 p.m. Detailed documentation for entering grades (PDF) is available on the Banner website. Additionally, assistance is available by calling the Computing Help Desk at 878-4357 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

If you have questions about grading, please call the Registrar's Office at 878-4811. We have provided a grading tip sheet (PDF) to assist you in successful grading.