The Short Attention Span Festival is still looking for acts. Sponsored by the Buffalo State Marketing Club with funding from the Grant Allocation Committee, the festival is a rapid-fire entertainment spectacle featuring student acts of all sorts. The twist is that you have only two minutes, no more, to do your act. Comedy, dance, videos, acting, music of all types, fashion shows, poetry, juggling, juggling poets, and whatever else you can think of is what we need. Go for your two minutes of fame. Call or text Monet Lewis at (718) 395-0505 or visit the table in the Campbell Student Union during Bengal Pause. The event is Thursday, April 30, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. Can you last two minutes?

EVERGREEN is collecting eyeglasses and sunglasses during the month of April. Drop boxes are located at the information desks in the Campbell Student Union and Butler Library. Glasses can also be sent through campus mail to EVERGREEN, Moore Hall 124. By donating your glasses, you are helping people with eyesight difficulties worldwide. With the price of glasses exceeding three months' average salary in some African countries, donated eyeglasses are the only feasible way to bring sight to many visually impaired people.

Thank you for your help.

Please join Residence Life's first-year mentors for their annual Porter Pig Out: Circus de 60s, a circus-themed barbecue, on Sunday, May 3, at noon in Porter Quad (in front of Porter Hall).

Enjoy activities, food, raffle prizes, music by Porter Hall resident DJ Don, and performances by Buffalo State's student organizations. Please join us.

Please Join the Equity and Campus Diversity Office for an evening of networking, light refreshments, and fun as we wrap up another successful year on Thursday, April 23, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Campus House. All Buffalo State faculty and staff members are welcome to attend this free Faculty and Staff Networking event.

Please contact Jason O. Parker, diversity program coordinator, with questions.

The Employee Assistance Program and Weigel Health Center will sponsor the workshop "The Changing Face of Addiction" on Wednesday, January 7, at 2:00 p.m. in Butler Library 318.

The image of the addict has changed. An addict may be someone who followed a path from alcohol to marijuana to prescription drugs bought on the street to heroin. The new face of addiction may be someone who followed a doctor's orders to treat pain with prescription drugs and now cannot live without them. Come and learn about this new face of addiction.

Register online through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration website.

Please e-mail Kim Jablonski or call Weigel Health Center at ext. 6711 with questions or for additional information.

University Police will sponsor a Rape Aggression Self-Defense Training for women only January 5–9 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in Buckham Hall D203. The class is free to all female Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff members. Class size is limited. Participants must attend all sessions to successfully complete the class. Please register on the UPD website. Contact University Police Lieutenant Richard Myers, ext. 5650, with questions.

The Computer Graphics area of Instructional Resources will not accept any jobs between January 5 and 16. A new invoicing system will be integrated during that time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please e-mail Kaylene Waite with questions.

This is a reminder that the Ingeniux server (www1) will shut down effective December 30, 2014. At that time, Ingeniux sites will no longer be accessible. If you have an existing Ingeniux site that needs to be migrated over to Drupal, please contact Melissa Meehan, director of web administration, to request a Drupal shell site and sign up for Drupal training. The next Drupal training session will be held Monday, December 22, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Migration Exceptions
The following sites should not be migrated into Drupal:

• Very low traffic sites or sites that were established for short-run, event-specific purposes, and completed initiatives
• Sites that are not actively updated

Launching Your New Drupal Site
High-profile Drupal replacement sites should be in place by December 30, in order to provide continuity of service to visitors. Also, it’s important to note that your old Ingeniux site will not be viewable once the server is taken offline, so please ensure that any important documents, content, and files are captured from legacy sites and saved locally in advance of the December 30 cutoff.

Drupal sites may be developed and worked on after December 30.

If you have any questions or are ready to launch your new Drupal site or migrate an Ingeniux site, please contact Melissa Meehan.

Employees who wish to change their health insurance plan for the coming year have until Friday, January 16, 2015. We encourage you to complete and return the option transfer form (PDF) to Cleveland Hall 410 as soon as possible. This will avoid retroactive premium adjustments and should allow you to receive new health plan identification cards closer to the coverage effective date of January 1, 2015.

Health insurance rates for 2015 are posted on the Human Resource Management website. The 2015 "Choices" booklet (PDF), a comparison of the health insurance plans, is available online. Also, the Summary of Benefits and Coverage for all plans, as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), can be obtained from the Employee Benefits Division website. You may wish to review this information before you decide whether to change insurance carriers or remain with your current carrier for your health insurance coverage.

No action is required if you wish to keep your current health insurance option.

Please call the Employee Benefits Office at ext. 4821 with questions.

NYSHIP will continue to offer the Opt-Out Program in 2015 to CSEA, NYSCOPBA, PEF, PBANYS, UUP, and M/C employees. This program allows eligible employees who have other employer-sponsored group health insurance to opt out of their NYSHIP coverage in exchange for an incentive payment. The incentive payment is $1,000 for opting out of individual coverage or $3,000 for opting out of family coverage on an annual basis.

If you are enrolled in NYSHIP and wish to participate in the Opt-Out Program for 2015, you must complete and return the NYS Health Insurance Transaction Form (PDF) and the 2015 Opt-Out Attestation Form (PDF) to Cleveland Hall 410 as soon as possible.

If you currently participate in the Opt-Out Program, you must re-enroll for 2015. If you do not make the election for 2015, your enrollment in the Opt-Out Program will end, and the incentive payment credited to your paycheck will stop. You must elect the Opt-Out Program each year.

The complete Opt-Out Program description, including eligibility requirements and enrollment forms, is available on the Human Resource Management website.

Please call the Employee Benefits Office at ext. 4821 with questions or for additional information.