The University Police Department, working with the Buffalo Fire Department, Residence Life, and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), will conduct its annual fire safety training exercise for Residence Life staff and University Police student assistants on Friday, August 15, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Cassety Hall.

For this exercise, you may see fire trucks along Bengal Drive and Bengal Walk, police action, and actors portraying victims. Please do not be alarmed; this is a simulated event.

If you have questions, please call University Police at (716) 878-6333 or ext. 6333 from an on-campus phone.

The Western New York Network of English Teachers, a teacher-driven, professional social network for ELA teachers in our region, will hold its third annual Summer Conversation at Buffalo State on Tuesday, August 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Bacon Hall 115.

The conference, Reclaiming Education: Teaching beyond the Common Core, features a panel of ELA teachers and administrators from across Western New York discussing student-centered teaching in the age of the Common Core State Standards.  

The conference will feature the following presentations:

Bridging the Gap between Pop Culture and Academic Culture in Urban Education
Ian Lewis, Buffalo Public School 17

Treading beyond the Shallows of the Common Core: Research and Documentary Filmmaking in the High School English Classroom
Joel Malley, Cheektowaga Central High School

Reading as a Revolutionary Act: Why Fiction Never Stopped Mattering
Melinda Callihan, Western New York Maritime Charter School

We Do Care What You Think: Why Personal Writing Matters in an ELA Classroom
Shannon Burke-Krukowski, Elmwood Village Charter School

Crying, Cutting, and the Common Core: A Principal's Observations of the Social/Emotional Impact of the CCLS on Middle School Students
Gretchen Cercone, John F. Kennedy Middle School

Following these presentations, attendees will join a breakout session of their choice, where issues raised by each panelist will be explored in more detail.

The conference is free and open to all Western New York teachers and administrators as well as interested members of the Buffalo State community. RSVP to wnynet@gmail.com by Sunday, August 10.

Spot Coffee will be open during the summer, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Resident Dining Hall, located in the Campbell Student Union, will be open for breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday featuring an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.

For lunch today in the dining hall, enjoy hamburgers, turkey burgers, hand-cut fries, corn on the cob, baked macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, loaded potato salad, and garden salad.

The door price is $6.69 for breakfast and $8.99 for lunch. Faculty and staff members, save 10 percent on every purchase when you use your Bengal Bucks. For information on how to sign up for a Bengal Bucks account or for a full list of summer hours of operation, please visit our website.

Spot Coffee will be open during the summer, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Resident Dining Hall, located in the Campbell Student Union, will be open for breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m Monday through Friday featuring an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.

For lunch today in the dining hall, enjoy lime cilantro grilled chicken, Cajun style rice and beans, Southern sweet potatoes, tofu jambalaya, taco salad, and Southwestern potato salad.

Tomorrow, August 8, for lunch in the dining hall, enjoy hamburgers, turkey burgers, hand-cut fries, corn on the cob, baked macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, loaded potato salad, and garden salad. 

The door price is $6.69 for breakfast and $8.99 for lunch. Faculty and staff members, save 10 percent on every purchase when you use your Bengal Bucks. For information on how to sign up for a Bengal Bucks account or for a full list of summer hours of operation, please visit our website.

Buffalo State Cares UPstanders invite Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff to join us for the Out of the Darkness Community Walk for Suicide Prevention on Saturday, September 13, at Delaware Park (off Nottingham Terrace). Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 10:30 a.m. For more information, to register with the UPstanders, or to donate to a team member, please visit our website, click on "Get Involved," and enter "Upstanders" in the search engine.

Do you love art and people? Do you possess a true passion for learning, the ability to think creatively, and a desire to connect museum visitors to art and ideas? Are you enthusiastic, interested in sparking conversation, and committed to creating a unique and meaningful experience for all? If so, you will make an excellent docent!

The Burchfield Penney Art Center is seeking volunteers to join the 2014 docent class. Docents are required to attend regular two-hour sessions, a total of 22 sessions in all, scheduled on Wednesday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Docents are expected to commit to the program for one full year after completing training, providing two tours monthly. Applicants accepted for the docent program will be fully trained before conducting tours.

The deadline for applications is Tuesday, September 9.

Please contact Mary Kozub, education and tours manager, ext. 3156, for more information.

Burchfield Penney Art Center docents will hold a book sale to benefit the docent library on Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2. We are seeking donations of books from docents, staff, and friends of the Burchfield Penney and the Buffalo State community. Books of all sorts will be part of the sale, but we gratefully decline the following: magazines and other periodicals, encyclopedias, textbooks, and books for "Dummies."  

Please contact Joseph Lonzi, ext. 3215, if you are uncertain about your donation. We have had great success in selling art books, and most of them seem to stay in the docent family! 

Books can be dropped off during gallery hours. If you need assistance in collecting your books, please ask.

Do you need an overhead transparency projector in your classroom for the fall 2014 semester? Please contact Instructional Resources Equipment Loan to make arrangements: call ext. 4535, e-mail irloan@buffalostate.edu, or complete and submit the web form.

Overheads will be placed in rooms for the duration of the semester. Please do not remove them from the rooms. If you require additional units in other rooms, please place another request. Overheads are intended for projecting content printed or written on transparent acetate; they will not project opaque objects or computer signals.

If you wish to receive training for digital alternatives such as smart boards or document cameras, please call IR Classroom Support at ext. 6670.

The Employee Assistance Program and Weigel Health Center are collaborating to bring an informative program of smoking cessation to interested faculty and staff members. If you are a smoker who is struggling to quit, we urge you to join us, share your story, and get support. The program will include a casual discussion regarding the facts of smoking and how it affects your health as well as the options available to quit. We will provide resources for quitting and review the benefits of quitting. For those who qualify for and are interested in nicotine replacement therapy, nicotine patches will be provided free of charge as part of the program.

If you are interested in this program, please e-mail Julie Nichols, nurse practitioner at Weigel Health Center. It is important that we gauge interest before setting a roll-out date for the program. The frequency of the program will be subject to demand. If a day or time of day works best for you, please note that in your e-mail so that we can best meet the majority’s needs. Please reserve questions specifically about quitting smoking for the program itself.

Spot Coffee will be open during the summer, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Resident Dining Hall, located in the Campbell Student Union, will be open for breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m Monday through Friday featuring an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.

For lunch today in the dining hall, enjoy Asian beef or vegetable stir fry, brown fried rice, pot stickers, sesame noodle salad, and green salad.

Tomorrow, August 7, for lunch in the dining hall, enjoy lime cilantro grilled chicken, Cajun style rice and beans, Southern sweet potatoes, tofu jambalaya, taco salad, and Southwestern potato salad.

The door price is $6.69 for breakfast and $8.99 for lunch. Faculty and staff members, save 10 percent on every purchase when you use your Bengal Bucks. For information on how to sign up for a Bengal Bucks account or for a full list of summer hours of operation, please visit our website.