Many of our students face economic, academic, and social pressures. These conditions often compromise their academic achievement and affect their ability to stay in school.

Kognito At-Risk for University and College Faculty is an online, interactive gatekeeper training simulation used at more than 300 campuses nationwide. In this 45-minute training, faculty and staff members learn how to recognize when a student is exhibiting signs of psychological distress and how to approach and connect the student with support services on campus. As a part of a SAMHSA grant, “Buffalo State Cares: A Call to Bystanders to Prevent Suicide on Campus,” this training is free to the first 100 faculty or staff members who sign up below. Faculty members who attend this seminar will be introduced to an interactive training by Kognito. Kognito is an award-winning developer of role-playing training simulations and games in the areas of health and behavioral health. Users of the online training will learn effective communication tactics for managing challenging conversations by practicing speaking with intelligent, fully animated, and emotionally responsive avatars that act and respond like real humans.

Avatar-Based Learning
Users engage in conversations with emotionally responsive student avatars who exhibit signs of psychological distress. Participants practice and learn to use open-ended questions, reflective listening, and other motivational interviewing techniques to effectively

• broach the topic of psychological distress;
• discuss their concerns with the student;
• avoid common pitfalls, such as attempting to diagnose the problem or giving unwarranted advice.

Workshop participants will be guided by members of the Counseling Center and SAMHSA grant team and will conduct the training in the computer lab on Tuesday, April 8, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 318. We hope you attend this session. Please register through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

If you would like to take this workshop on your own time and would like to learn how to identify students who may be at risk of suicide and what you can do about it, please create an account at www.kognitocampus.com/faculty to take this interactive training. Enter enrollment key buff816.

Learn about the latest guidelines and web-based platforms for promoting student involvement in online coursework during this faculty development workshop on Thursday, April 24, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the Professional Development Center, E. H. Butler Library 181B.

Register online through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

Find out how to sort your teaching materials and assessments in ways that make the best of face-to-face vs. online instructional contexts in this faculty development workshop on Thursday, April 10, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 181B.

Register through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

Buffalo State faculty members are invited to an introductory session on E. H. Butler Library's scholarly communication services on Tuesday, April 1, during Bengal Pause (12:15 to 1:30 p.m.) in the Professional Development Center, E. H. Butler Library 181B. Scholarly communication is "the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated, and preserved for future use" (Association of Research Libraries). This session will highlight online tools related to publishing and how they may be used to inform and manage the publication process. Topics will include research resources, citation management, professional bios, journal identification, author rights, and manuscript preparation. Attendees will gain a greater understanding of how scholarly communication issues affect them and their ability to publish research effectively.

Register for this workshop through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

An introductory workshop on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) review process and ethics training requirement will be held on Tuesday, March 18, during Bengal Pause (12:15 to 1:30 p.m.) in the Professional Development Center, E. H. Butler Library 181B.

Before the review process, researchers must be sure that their project is, in fact, research with human participants as defined by the federal government. In order to qualify as research with human participants, the following must be true: (1) The participants must be living. Thus, oral history projects fall under the guidelines, but research involving diaries kept in the 1800s does not. (2) The project is a systematic investigation; that is, it is designed to be a study. For example, instances in classrooms where teachers ask students’ opinions on the material to gauge progress are not research. However, if that same teacher designs a study to evaluate two different methods of teaching the material to see which is more effective, this would be research if the third criterion is met. (3) The project is designed to contribute to the generalized knowledge. To qualify as research, the person conducting the project must intend for it to be disseminated at some level. On our campus, we also review student projects that may not be disseminated but that meet the first two criteria so that our students will learn the process of research with human participants and because we have contracted with the federal government to do so.

Register for the IRB workshop through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration system.

The Faculty Interest Group on Student-Centered Learning invites participants to join a discussion on rethinking activities, assignments, and assessments on Friday, March 14, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in the Professional Development Center, E. H. Butler Library 181B. Ann Emo, associate professor of theater, will lead the session by introducing ways that students can take a more physically and intellectually active role in their learning. Instructors are encouraged to rethink existing exercises to create less-static teaching and learning outcomes.

Register for this workshop through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration System.

Please join us for our first seminar of the spring semester on Friday, February 28, in the Campus House boardroom from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., when two papers will be presented:

"We (or At Least Some of Us) Are Coming, Father Abraham: Buffalo and the 1862 Militia Draft," by M. Stephen Pendleton, associate professor and chair of the Political Science Department; and "The Use of External Financial Advisors by Financial Institutions: Why Does a Bank Use an Investment Bank to Acquire Another Bank?" by John Wilcox, lecturer in the Economics and Finance Department.

Refreshments will be served. RSVP by e-mail to schmidtp@buffalostate.edu.

The second seminar is scheduled for Friday, April 25. Details forthcoming.

The Travel Services Department invites and welcomes the campus community to our training sessions. Training sessions will take place during Bengal Pause. We will begin promptly at 12:30 and end at 1:30 p.m.

Available March dates are March 6, 18, 25, and 27. Please e-mail Dave Lysiak to reserve your seat.

Space is limited.

Buffalo State is pleased to welcome Charlotte Walker-Said, assistant professor of Africana studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, on Thursday, March 6, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. in Bacon Hall 117. Her talk, "Women, Traditional Marriage, and Modern Families in Africa: Christian and Nationalist Propaganda in the 20th Century,” is free and open to the public.

Walker-Said's talk will explore the intersection of Christianity and nationalist politics in Africa and how the resultant religious debates framed conceptions of women’s role in society, family, and nation in the late colonial and early post-independence periods. It will also examine Christian symbols, images, and slogans of the 1950s and 1960s and analyze their impact on African nations.

This event is part of the Black History Month and Women’s History Month celebrations and is sponsored by the Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the History and Social Studies Education Department, and the African and African American Studies Interdisciplinary Unit.

The Academic Affairs Office and the Anne Frank Project are proud to support the AFP Fellowship Program. Individual incentives of $500 will be awarded to four Buffalo State faculty or staff members and one community leader. More than 13,000 people have attended the Anne Frank Project’s annual conferences from 2009 to 2013. Join the AFP family by directly connecting the AFP 2014 theme and three days of content to your courses for innovative curriculum throughout the fall 2014 semester. The Anne Frank Project is an ideal “dialogue starter” for important topics like social justice, conflict resolution, hate crimes, bullying, reconciliation, forgiveness. and the moral dilemmas facing crimes against humanity.

The Anne Frank Project 2014 Fellowship deadline is Thursday, May 1. For details, information, and applications, please visit the AFP 2014 Fellowship web page. With questions about the AFP 2014 Fellowship, please contact Drew Kahn, director of the Anne Frank Project.

AFP 2014: Change through Stories: September 8–10

AFP 2014 Youth Day: October 21