Welcome spring with a bowl of hearty soup and support the Buffalo State Nutrition Club during the Dietetics and Nutrition Department's annual Soup Sale on Tuesday, March 17, from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the Buckham Hall Program Center A114.

Choose Buffalo chicken wing soup or vegetarian pasta fagioli with bread, fruit, and water for just $5. St. Patrick's Day–themed cookies will also be available for $1. Eat in, take out, or let us deliver to you. Please place your order in advance and indicate if delivery is needed. Advance orders will be accepted until Thursday, March 12. Please contact Jenna Guadagna.

Policy Statement
Only authorized signers listed herein may sign or execute purchasing agreements for goods and services or contracts and agreements that involve the use of college-owned departmental equipment, supplies, or facilities or require the college to provide any nature of services.

Those authorized to sign such contracts and agreements are the vice president for finance and management, the associate vice president for finance and management/comptroller, the director of procurement services, and the purchasing manager. The facilities procurement coordinator has the authority to sign construction contracts. Any contract or agreement that originates in a department must have the approval of the area supervisor or department chair before it is submitted to the business office for signing.

Any other college employee who signs a contract or agreement may be held personally responsible for its performance (payment, liability, etc.). Any contract executed by an employee without express prior authorization is not valid or binding at Buffalo State College. Employees place themselves at potentially great financial risk by entering into such agreements, written or oral, on behalf of the college without express prior written authorization.

Examples of campus contracts and agreements include the following:

• Procurement contracts
• Revocable permits
• Sponsorship agreements
• Memoranda of Understanding
• Leases
• Academic programs (3+2 programs)
• Software agreements
• Maintenance agreements
• Master service agreement
• Cleaning agreements
• Off-campus meeting venues  
• Consultants
• Construction contracts
• Events, entertainment, rentals
• Revenue or instructional (ESL tuition, etc.) contracts
• Continuing Education agreements

Please contact Steve Olsen, assistant to the comptroller for procurement, ext. 4113, with questions.

Recent audit testing has revealed that all Citibank procurement cardholders must submit their monthly Citibank statements along with accompanying receipts to their assigned supervisor, listed on their cardholder authorization form, for final review and signature before submitting documentation to the Citibank procurement and travel card administrator, Bonnie McKay, Cleveland Hall 414. Cardholders are required to sign certifications after reconciling each month. Supervisors are required to sign monthly Citibank statements printed out by cardholders. This procedure is consistent with Audit Guidance provided by SUNY. If you have questions or need assistance about this requirement, please call the Accounts Payable and Travel Services Office at ext. 4117.

John-David Rocha, assistant professor of chemistry at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will present his research talk "Using Near-Infrared Spectrofluorimetric Analysis toward Production and Applications of High Purity Metallic and Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Samples" at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in Science Building 272. The Chemistry-Physics Seminar Series is supported by the Faculty-Student Association. An abstract of Rocha's talk appears below.

Abstract
Development of new instrumentation for near-infrared spectrofluorimetric analysis (NIR-SFA) of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is useful in many applications relevant to SWCNT research and production level quality control. Synthesis methods such as CoMoCAT, HiPco, PLV, and CVD produce several different distributions of (n,m) structures. Post-synthesis processing such as functionalization and/or separations must therefore be employed to yield high-purity, electronically (metallic vs. semiconducting) separated SWCNTs or samples highly enriched in single (n,m) SWCNT species. Methods to rapidly detect and analyze these initially highly heterogeneous mixtures and the resulting enriched samples requires appropriate understanding of both spectrophotometric instrumental design techniques and fundamental photophysical data representing individual SWCNT species. Using multiple fixed wavelength lasers for excitation, appropriate near-infrared photodetection systems (Si or InGaAs), and in-house-developed "global" spectral analysis routines, one can obtain full (n,m) sample distributions in real time. This instrumentation further allows for concerted study of samples obtained following post-synthetic methods, for instance, individual (n,m) species are monitored in real time during a gel-based column separation process. System designs and optimization will be presented using initial datasets for SWCNT electronic and (n,m) separation, as well as the monitoring of (n,m) specific kinetics.

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

Sarah Maria Young
Monday, March 9
2:00 p.m.
Butler Library 210

The Learning Communities Oversight and Assessment Committee is pleased to announce the new name for the Learning Communities program: Bengal Community of Scholars Program (or Community of Scholars). The new name reflects the success of the program and the students involved in it. The name also reflects the depth and range of program offerings. In addition to the traditional five-course communities, the program offers different models including linked courses and instructor-advisement models. If you are interested in participating in the Bengal Community of Scholars Program, please join us for an informational meeting at 3:00 p.m. Monday, March 30, in Twin Rise 102. RSVP to Amitra Wall, assistant dean for intellectual foundations.

University College and the Professional Development Center invite proposals for workshops and roundtable discussions for the 2015 Pedagogical Institute.

The Pedagogical Institute is a collaboration between the assistant dean for intellectual foundations and the Professional Development Center. The institute provides excellent research-based professional development experiences in the form of workshops and discussions that cover a variety of subjects related to student-centered teaching and learning, building community in the classroom, teaching for integrative learning, student-development theory, assessment, civic engagement, and advisement. Sessions have traditionally been relevant for those teaching in programs for our incoming first-year class, Learning Communities, UNC 100, Intellectual Foundations program, and co-curricular programs but are now open to all areas relevant to students in higher education.

While workshop and roundtable discussion proposal topics are open, this year's topics will center on Buffalo State values—One Buffalo State—with particular attention given to a unified commitment to excellence that unites the campus and strengthens the college’s commitment to distinctive programs built on access, engagement, inclusion, and service to the community.

Proposals of no more than 250 words must be submitted to hodgeaa@buffalostate.edu by 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 3. Proposals must address how the workshop or discussion will benefit the campus community. Please include a title and key words. Notification will be made by April 17.

The Pedagogical Institute serves to benefit the campus community through the following:

• Shared Expertise: Buffalo State faculty members have considerable experience and expertise in teaching and learning in addition to their disciplinary expertise. The institute allows the community to access and share that wealth of knowledge in ways that can benefit colleagues and students.
• Creation of Substantive and Strategic Connections: Faculty and staff members discuss the many ways they contribute to the success of our students—ways that transcend the classroom. These conversations allow both course and program planning that is thematically connected, purposefully designed, and conveniently scheduled.
• Time to Integrate and Implement Changes: The timing of the institute allows faculty and staff members sufficient time to apply new skills to familiar topics and include new topics in their courses and programs. 
• Maximum Impact on Our Incoming Class: The emerging skill development and knowledge base reaches the significant majority of our incoming class. Whether through their basic composition courses, residence hall programming, or other learning experiences, our first-year students should benefit from these principles of first-year-student success.

The College Senate Standards for Students Committee will host one additional open forum for faculty academic advisers on Thursday, April 2, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center East to gather feedback on the current state of advisement at Buffalo State and suggestions you may have for improvement at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

We encourage at least one faculty adviser from each department to attend this open forum. Your feedback will be used in addition to national, SUNY, and departmental information to provide recommendations to the Senate for improving the advisement experience on campus.

The midterm grading window will open in Banner on Monday, March 16, at 9:00 a.m. and close Friday, March 27, at 9:00 p.m. In addition to assigning an estimated midterm grade, faculty members can mark how regularly a student has attended a course by entering 0 (never attended), 1 (sporadic, unsatisfactory attendance), or 2 (consistent, satisfactory attendance) in the “Hours Attended” field. 

Although all faculty members can provide mid-term feedback for any of their students in Banner, the Early Intervention Program (EIP) seeks information on particular student populations. Faculty members with EIP students in their courses will receive a hard-copy list of students requiring midterm feedback via campus mail. Your comments concerning attendance and performance are deeply appreciated and quite helpful to us in our academic intervention efforts. New this year: students will be able to view their grades in Degree Works after the midterm grading window closes.

Please call ext. 5222 or e-mail maldonhd@buffalostate.edu with questions or concerns. Thank you for your commitment to our students’ success.

The Career Development Center is proud to host the Job and Internship Fair 2015 tomorrow, April 7, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. This event is open to all students from all majors and year levels as well as alumni. Employers from local, regional, and national organizations will be in attendance to recruit for full-time jobs and internships. View the full list of attending employers on the CDC website.