By Mary A. Durlak

The only sound louder than the bullfrogs is the birdsong, and the June morning mist is fragrant with wildflowers. This could be a hundred miles away from civilization, but if you look above the trees, you can see windmills turning where Bethlehem Steel once stood.

Here, in the wetlands at Woodlawn Beach State Park, Buffalo State faculty members and students are collecting data. “The master plan for this park includes wetlands remediation,” said Stephen Vermette, professor of geography and planning. “But there is no information about the wetlands, so we’re establishing a baseline.”

Woodlawn Beach is usually closed after a heavy rainfall because the presence of E. coli makes it unsafe to go swimming. Wetlands remediation may be a tool to reduce the amount of E. coli as well as other pollutants, because properly functioning wetlands clean the water that travels through them.

Vermette received a grant of $9,940 from the Great Lakes Research Consortium to assess the physical and chemical characteristics of the wetlands. Charlotte Roehm, assistant professor of geography and planning, received a grant of $18,200 from the New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University to study water cycle dynamics within the wetlands and the spatial and temporal variability and transport pathways of E. coli. Vermette and Roehm decided to combine their projects and pool their resources. Although they are working together, Vermette’s research focuses on surface waters, while Roehm is investigating the movement and chemistry of the ground water.

On this particular morning, Vermette and two students collected data from five sampling sites. The information collected by Andrew Panczykowski, a senior, and Joe Petre, a graduate student, including the water’s pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen content. They also collected samples that will be analyzed in the lab to measure the presence of other pollutants including phosphorous, ammonia, and nitrates; metals such as iron, copper, and chromium; and E. coli bacteria. Thomas Reeverts, a graduate student, is also working with Vermette and Roehm.

The five sites were selected strategically, and two contain weather stations to characterize conditions just above the wetlands. The water is sampled when it enters the wetlands and again just before it flows into the lake. Inflow and outflow are important, because, Vermette explained, “For wetlands to work, the water has to move very slowly, allowing the plants to do their magic.”

The other sites provide information about the water in each of three distinct wetlands. Wetland A, the cattail wetlands, includes a weather station, where the students measures the pH of the water caught in the rain gauge. As usual, it’s less than the relatively neutral pH of the water throughout the wetlands, which means the rainwater is more acidic than the groundwater. Vermette explained that a high concentration of limestone in the Great Lakes region mitigates the effect of the acid rain on the lakes’ pH, keeping them from becoming too acidic.

There are few cattails in Wetland B. Instead, duckweed, which removes some of the metals from the water, is abundant. Water from Wetland C, where the vegetation is again different, shows a lower level of dissolved oxygen. Different aquatic species need different oxygen levels to survive. For example, carp—abundant in Blasdell Creek—need less than 1 mg per liter; other species, such as trout, need much more.

Above, turkey vultures circled for a few minutes before continuing on their way. Woodlawn Beach State Park offers three different habitats for bird life: the shore; the wetlands; and the forested area that screens the nearby railroad tracks.

These wetlands began to evolve in about 1966. Earlier photos show sand dunes with little vegetation, according to Panczykowski, who is researching the area’s history. Much of the ground appears to be fill, perhaps from the steel plant. The higher areas in the wetlands are sand, evidence of the dunes that remain a unique feature of Woodlawn Beach State Park.

The sampling takes two hours, a process that’s repeated once a week. Additional samples are taken two or three times a week. “Once our research is completed,” said Vermette, “we’ll be able to provide the park manager with ideas for making the wetlands work as well as they possibly can.”

From the Chair of the Senate Curriculum Committee
Department curriculum chairs and associate deans, please note: if you received a request for revisions to courses or programs from the Senate Curriculum Committee, we urge you to complete them and get them to the Senate Office by mid-August. There are still many outstanding courses/programs that were approved by the Curriculum Committee, pending revisions. The course/program approval process is halted when revisions are not completed. Revisions are needed in order for the courses to be approved by the associate deans. Without the signature of an associate dean, the Senate Office cannot accept courses or programs.

From the Chair of the College Senate
If you wish to serve on a College Senate standing committee for the 2010-2011 academic year, please visit the committees section of the Senate Web site and complete the Committee Interest Form. Chairs of the standing committees will begin their search for new candidates soon. You must complete this form to be considered. If you cannot submit electronically, please print and complete the form, and send it via intercampus mail to the College Senate Office, CLEV 211, Attention: Vincent Masci, by September 1.

The chairs of the standing committees make the final decisions regarding committee membership in preparing committee rosters for approval by the College Senate. Many factors are taken into account when forming a well balanced committee. If you have a question about being considered after having submitted your form, please contact the chair of the committee directly.

I. Introduction

A. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to set forth Buffalo State College’s continuing commitment to nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy regarding veterans. The affirmative action plan for qualified veterans is reviewed and updated annually by the Equity and Campus Diversity Office in conjunction with the college affirmative action plan.

B. Reaffirmation of Policy

Buffalo State College will make every effort to assist employees identified as veterans with disabilities, recently separated veterans, veterans who were awarded the Armed Forces Service Medal pursuant to Executive Order 12985, and other protected veterans to reach their full employment potential (Policy Number: VI:01:01 May 1986) (Revised March 2004; revised June 2010).

In accordance with applicable federal laws* and with Buffalo State’s own policies and programs of equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination, the college reaffirms its policies, responsibilities, and commitments to veterans. The college will not discriminate because of status as a veteran with a disability, recently separated veteran, other protected veteran, or veteran who was awarded the Armed Services Service Medal and shall take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment of such veterans at all levels of employment, including executive level of employment. The college will recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered without regard to such veterans and will ensure that all employment decisions are based solely on valid job requirements.

*Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA) of 2002, effective September 2007.

C. Definitions

JVA eliminated the category of Vietnam era veterans under VEVRAA.

Veteran with a disability, for the purpose of this policy, means (1) a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the secretary of veterans affairs, or (2) a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

Recently separated veteran means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran’s discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

Armed Forces Service Medal veteran means any veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service, participated in the United States military operation for which an Armed Forces Service Medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Other protected veteran means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service during a war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized, under laws administered by the Department of Defense.

D. Responsibility

The senior adviser to the president for equity and campus diversity is given the responsibility for implementation of the college’s affirmative action activities for eligible veterans. The office is located in Cleveland Hall 415, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, 14222. Those who believe that they have been discriminated against in application or employment because of their status as veterans are able to file a complaint in the Equity and Campus Diversity Office. The college will follow the SUNY Grievance Policies for the Review of Allegations of Discrimination to resolve complaints of unlawful discrimination based on veteran status.

Administrative- and supervisory-level employees have the responsibility to ensure that all necessary actions are taken to achieve equal employment opportunity and affirmative action for persons with veteran status.

II. Implementation

a) Review of personnel processes

All personnel processes involving veterans shall follow the policies and procedures established for all employees of the college. Only that portion of the applicant’s military record relevant to the requirements of the position will be reviewed in employment evaluations.

b) Training

All persons involved in the recruitment, screening, selection, promotion, disciplinary, and related processes are trained in the college’s affirmative action program. All search and selection committee chairs are provided with a copy of the Guide to Administrative Faculty and Staff Searches, which contains information on the administration of affirmative action searches and contacts for increasing the pool of eligible veterans.

c) Physical and mental qualifications

d) Reasonable accommodations to physical and mental limitations

All physical and mental qualifications for positions will be job-related and are consistent with business necessity. The college will make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified veterans unless it can be shown that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the college.

Revised June 2010

From the Vice President for Institutional Advancement 
Following the completion of the readership survey in May, the College Relations Office continues to work toward merging the Daily and the Bulletin.

The Daily Bulletin, delivered via e-mail and posted to the Web, will provide faculty and staff with a centralized source for important information each day. In addition to serving as the college’s official source for policy, personnel, and curricular matters, the Daily Bulletin will feature campus news and events, faculty achievements, and “Today’s Messages” submitted by the campus community.

To assist Daily Bulletin readers, some sections will be tied to a particular day of the week. Curricular items and actions will continue to appear on Thursdays, while faculty achievements will run on Wednesdays.

As this week’s issue of the Bulletin concludes the 2009–2010 publication schedule, the Daily will serve as the college’s official communication vehicle until the Daily Bulletin is launched this fall.

From the Vice President for Institutional Advancement
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer L. Heisey as alumni affairs director, effective June 14.

Heisey comes to Buffalo State after five years at the University of Cincinnati, where for the last two years she served as the director and chief operating officer of the University of Cincinnati Alumni Association (UCAA). She oversaw all programs and services for Cincinnati’s more than 230,000 living alumni. As the chief strategist for the UCAA, Heisey managed an operating budget of approximately $2.4 million and participated in establishing university-wide goals for the institution’s alumni relations priorities.

A member of the invitation-only Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE), Heisey has also served on the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District V Board of Directors.

Previously, Heisey spent four years at Ohio University, primarily as the director of outreach and engagement for the Ohio Alumni Association.

She also held positions outside of academia as a Xerox sales agent and as a sales and marketing specialist for Epic International, a premium promotional sales and marketing company.

Heisey received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Cincinnati, a sales training certificate from Xerox Document University, and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Wright State University.

The following grants were awarded through the Research Foundation at Buffalo State College in May. For more information, contact the principal investigator or theResearch Foundation at Buffalo State College.

May 2010

Lyuba Burlakova, Research Scientist, Great Lakes Center
$9,473
Great Lakes Research Consortium
“Preliminary Risk Assessment of the Parasites of Aquatic Exotic Invertebrates in the Great Lakes Region”

Joaquin Carbonara, Professor, Mathematics
$697,039
National Science Foundation
“SMP: Professional Applied and Computational Mathematics”

Dwight Hennessy, Associate Professor, Psychology
$5,010
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development via subcontract from University at Buffalo
“Improving Parenting Capacity to Promote Safe Driving for Adolescents with ADHD”

Kim Irvine, Professor, Geography and Planning
$40,500
CRA Infrastructure & Engineering
“Water Quality Sampling Plan for Smokes Creek”

John Siskar, Associate Professor, Art Education
$17,500
Buffalo Public Schools
“Art Day Camp Summer Enrichment Program”

By Lindsay Hawkins

The School of Education and the Ellicott-Masten Family YMCA have partnered to provide YMCA members with technology training and education. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Archie L. Hunter Media Discovery Center was held June 3 at the Ellicott-Masten Family YMCA.

YMCA senior and youth members will learn how to use computer hardware and software, printers, scanners, and digital cameras in the technology center, which will be maintained by Buffalo State’s Computing and Technology Services and YMCA Buffalo Niagara’s information systems department. Buffalo State student, faculty, and staff volunteers will serve as the instructors.

The collaboration was made possible through the efforts of Ronald Rochon, dean of the School of Education and associate vice president for teacher education; Tamara Horstman-Riphahn, executive assistant to the dean; Matt Hilton, former Ellicott-Masten executive director; Andre Scott, Ellicott-Masten board member; and Irma Cole, Ellicott-Masten business manager.

By Mary A. Durlak

Even after four months of sorting the McClurg Museum’s collection of stone tools, Buffalo State anthropologystudents are awed by the experience of touching ancient North American history.

“The Clovis points were used by people who were hunting woolly mammoths,” said Joshua Mauro. “They had to make these tools or die.”

Mauro is one of four students invited to take part in a special project under the guidance of Lisa Marie Anselmi, archaeologist and assistant professor of anthropology. Anselmi is an expert on technology among the native people of North America. The project involves the researching of 2,500 stone tools, a collection owned by the Chautauqua County Historical Society

Mauro, along with Jessica Stabell and Joe Dudek, is an anthropology major with a minor in indigenous studies. The fourth student, Lindsey Higgins, is a geography and planning major with a minor in anthropology who will pursue graduate studies in paleoclimatology at Ohio State University next year.

Clovis points are named after people whose culture flourished about 11,000 BCE across what is now the United States. These points are the oldest items in the collection; the newest date back to 1500 CE. Orry B. Heath amassed the collection, which includes about 2,500 artifacts; his wife donated it to the McClurg Museum, run by the Chautauqua County Historical Society, after his death.

“This collaboration is a win-win,” said Anselmi. “The McClurg Museum’s Heath collection will be professionally cataloged, and our students are getting invaluable experience.” So far, the students have cataloged fewer than 200 items. However, Anselmi pointed out that preliminary work was very time-consuming. “First we sorted out four boxfuls of lithics [stone tools]. Then we had to interpret Heath’s identification system, so that we can incorporate his information about each item, including where it was found.”

The students are examining each item, using existing reference material to identify the tool. Most are projectile points—arrowheads, spearheads, and points for darts. Others are scraping tools. “We know the Clovis points were used in hunting mastodons and woolly mammoths because they’ve been found at kill sites with the animals’ bones,” explained Higgins.

All four students agree that handling such ancient human tools is a profound experience. Each has attempted “flint knapping,” the technique of using one stone to tap flakes off another stone to create a tool. “It’s incredibly difficult,” said Dudek. “You realize quickly that these people were very skilled.”

Thanks to a minigrant from the College and Community Partnerships Office, the project will move into a second phase in fall 2010. With the acquisition of a digital camera, Anselmi and her students will create an online, searchable database containing photos of each artifact. “We’re very grateful for the minigrant,” said Anselmi. “The contribution to North American archaeology is very important.”

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Read previous Focus on College and Community Partnerships stories: 

David Wilson
Louis Colca
Keli Garas-York
Robin Lee Harris

By Mary A. Durlak

Successful invasive species may share certain characteristics, which could help scientists predict and control non-native species that are introduced to an environment.

That was the initial finding of research conducted by Alexander Y. Karatayev, director of Buffalo State’s Great Lakes Center, and Lyubov E. Burlakova, a research scientist with the center, and other scientists who collaborated to develop a preliminary profile of organisms most likely to succeed as freshwater, macroinvertebrate invasive species.

Karatayev and Burlakova worked with Sergey E. Mastitsky, recently of the center; Dianna K. Padilla, professor with the Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University; and Sergej Olenin, professor with the Coastal Research and Planning Institute, Klaipeda University in Lithuania, to investigate whether freshwater, macroinvertebrate invaders were a random or selected group. The resulting paper, “Invaders are Not a Random Selection of Species,” was published in 2009 inBiological Invasions.

“The study grew out of a workshop we held in Ireland,” explained Karatayev. “We decided to see if we could make any generalizations about invasive species, with the hope that eventually it will be possible to predict and control potential problems.”

Before meeting, each scientist researched about 20 invasive species and brought information about specific characteristics such as reproduction, life cycle, and resistance to pollutants to the workshop. In “Invaders are not a random selection of species,” the team showed that successful freshwater invasive species are likely to be mollusks or crustaceans that are tolerant of at least some pollution. Additionally, Karatayev said, “They are not fussy eaters.”

For example, the zebra mussel, a well-known invasive species in the Great Lakes, is a filter-feeding mollusk; essentially, it strains its food out of the water. Macroinvertebrates with such feeding habits are far more likely to be successful invaders than macroinvertebrates that are predators.

To draw their conclusions, the researchers compared 119 invasive species to all native macroinvertebrate freshwater species in North American and Europe. Of the native species, about 35 percent can live only in water that is excellent or very good quality; they do not tolerate organic pollution. However, all the successful invaders tolerate at least some organic pollution—pollution that lowers the amount of dissolved oxygen in water.

Karatayev pointed out that many invasive species cannot survive their initial contact with a new environment. On the simplest level, for example, very few saltwater organisms can survive in fresh water. Those that survive must be able to establish a viable population—a population that can perpetuate itself, meaning that the invaders must be able to eat and reproduce.

One of the strongest arguments against the notion that invasive species are random is that the research demonstrated a significant difference between the make-up of native species and the make-up of successful invasive species. In North America, only 6.5 percent of native invertebrates are crustaceans; however, 38 percent of successful invasive species are crustaceans.

“Certain processes seem to be very similar in North America and Europe,” said Karatayev. “It’s certainly possible that these patterns are common all around the world.”