From the Chair of the College Senate
The first meeting of the College Senate for the spring 2010 semester will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, February 12, in Classroom Building C122.
The first Senate Chair and Agenda Meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 27, in Cleveland Hall 205. The chair meeting is at 2:00 p.m., followed by the agenda meeting at 3:00 p.m. Please call the Senate Office with questions: 878-5139.
From the Interim Provost
Applications are now being accepted for Provost’s Incentive Grants for academic year 2009–2010. Awards of up to $1,500 are available to tenured and tenure-track faculty members to assist with travel, purchase of materials, conference fees, and other support for scholarly, research, and creative activities.
A selection committee of representatives from the four schools will review all proposals, based on the criteria of benefit to the faculty member’s professional development and teaching, and service to the academic department.
Applications must be submitted by 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 10. Research and creative activities should be conducted from March 15, 2010, to March 15, 2011.
Selection criteria and application instructions can be obtained online or from the Academic and Student Affairs Office, Cleveland Hall 519. Please call Janet Ramsey, 878-4554, with questions.
From the Interim President
The Buffalo State College community welcomes the news of Gov. David Paterson’s Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act. This bill, which was designed in collaboration with SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, proposes to give the great public colleges and universities of the state of New York the flexibility they need and deserve to serve their students as best they are able.
The comprehensive bill will help institutions like Buffalo State explore mutually beneficial relationships with private and public partners and contribute, in more meaningful ways, to our local and state economies; it will also give our institutions more control over setting tuition and remove obstructive levels of bureaucracy from construction and procurement initiatives.
We at Buffalo State commend Governor Paterson and Chancellor Zimpher for their work on the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, and implore the citizens of New York to support its passage for the good of students across the SUNY system.
From the Chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee
The Buffalo State College Presidential Search Advisory Committee has been very busy since our last communication, as has been the case since our formation in spring 2009. I want you to know that I have had the opportunity to participate in the community as a volunteer for over two decades, and I have never had the pleasure to work with a smarter, more committed, more collegial and participative group of people. They have represented you well.
We are pleased to announce the interview schedules for bringing our finalists to campus, beginning January 31 and concluding February 9.
Campus Interview Schedule
Candidate 1: January 31–February 2
Candidate 2: February 2–February 4
Candidate 3: February 4–February 6
Candidate 4: February 7–February 9
Download the full Campus Interview Schedule (PDF).
First, a brief recap of activities related to the search: I hosted about 20 meetings with a variety of the college’s constituency groups in the spring, and we formed our search committee and began work in earnest in June. We hired our search consultant, Academic Search Inc., in July, and we hosted our search consultant, Jessica Kozloff, for two days in September so that she could learn more about Buffalo State. During Dr. Kozloff’s visit, we developed our recruitment ad and institutional profile. We ran the ad in a variety of key academic publications and Web sites and reviewed many dozens of applicants and nominees during the next few months.
In November we checked references, and in December our committee personally interviewed eight candidates. We will host four finalists on campus. We believe each candidate has the potential to be an outstanding leader as Buffalo State’s eighth president. Please know that the final number of candidates we interview may change, as is sometimes the case with competitive and public searches such as ours.
Our goal is to give the college community broad exposure to the finalists and to garner input from all of you during their two-day visits to campus. More details of the method by which we will collect your input will be provided soon.
Maintaining confidentiality is vital to a successful search process, and I am proud of the confidentiality that has been maintained since the inception of our committee. As you know, we owe that to our candidates first and foremost. It is a reflection of our professionalism and respect for others that we maintain such confidentiality. We will release the names of our finalists, along with their bios, on January 25. We are always mindful that we are both interviewing and being interviewed. We will endeavor to give our candidates broad exposure to our college and the college community during their visits. I am certain that this exposure will only heighten their interest in the position.
Our mission at Buffalo State College is vital to our community and our state. We are the largest comprehensive college in the SUNY system. We are in a fabulous place in our history as a college, poised to move forward and build on the many successes we have accomplished together during the past decade. Please participate and help us select the candidate best suited to lead our college in accomplishing our goals and identifying new opportunities for us to explore in the future.
The recommendations of our search committee, informed in large part by the feedback we receive from you, will be forwarded to the Buffalo State College Council for their consideration.
The College Council is expected to forward to the SUNY Chancellor’s Office their list of candidates (ideally three, per SUNY guidelines), along with a summary of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. As you may know, each SUNY president reports directly to the SUNY chancellor. Each recommended candidate meets with the chancellor, and the chancellor makes the final recommendation of a single nominee to the SUNY Board of Trustees. The SUNY Board of Trustees ratifies the recommendation of the chancellor in order to hire a new president. We believe we are on track to have our president hired by this summer.
I am confident that working with SUNY will be a collaborative and consultative process to the end, as it has been throughout. We have had an excellent working relationship with the Chancellor’s Office since the inception of the search.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Again, thank you for your participation, which is so vital to the successful outcome of our presidential search.
Sincerely,
Howard Zemsky
Vice Chair, Buffalo State College Council
Faculty and staff are invited to join Buffalo State’s new West African Drumming Ensemble, which meets Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. in Rockwell Hall 107.
The ensemble was organized by Tiffany Nicely, lecturer of music. An orchestral percussionist, music theorist, and composer, Nicely has been studying and performing West African music for 10 years. She spent several weeks in Guinea last winter, studying with master musicians there. Last semester, her class Sub-Saharan Music and Cultures was added to the Intellectual Foundations roster. This class incorporates drumming into the syllabus.
Ensemble rehearsals are held in the evenings to encourage faculty and staff participation. No experience is required. Participants who own djembes are asked to bring them. The group will perform live every semester. This semester’s performances will be held in April.
The West African Drumming Ensemble has received the support of the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office. Contact Nicely for more information.
From the Chair of the College Senate
College senator and SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Betty Cappella will serve as the new chair of the Senate Curriculum Committee for the spring 2010 semester. Thanks to Dr. Cappella for taking on this responsibility.
From the Chair of the College Senate
The first meeting of the College Senate for the spring 2010 semester will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, February 12, in Classroom Building C122.
The first Senate Chair and Agenda Meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 27, in Cleveland Hall 205. The chair meeting is at 2:00 p.m., followed by the agenda meeting at 3:00 p.m. Please call the Senate Office with questions: 878-5139.
From the Vice President for Finance and Management
An ad hoc group was formed in spring 2009 to create aVideo Surveillance Policy for Buffalo State College, as well as the related procedural document, the Security Survey Request Form.
The documents intend to address the campus’s needs both for appropriate surveillance-camera use and to outline a plan for the procurement of new systems. Having used guidance documents from SUNY Counsel’s Office and other SUNY institutions’ policies as a starting point, we believe these documents address the need for video surveillance policy and procedures at Buffalo State.
Campus constituents who perceive a need for surveillance or other security hardware in their area are required to complete a Security Survey Request Form for review by University Police. An officer will then perform a security survey of the area in question. Should a video surveillance system be recommended, the approval will come from the vice president for finance and management, and the system will be used in accordance with the policy.
Please contact the Vice President for Finance and Management’s Office or University Police with questions.
As you have no doubt noticed, work has begun to ready the site of Buffalo State’s newest residence hall. What you may not know, however, is how truly revolutionary this construction project is—and how many people have worked very hard to bring it to fruition.
The new dorm, which will welcome its first 507 residents in fall 2011, is being paid for under a new funding model for Buffalo State. In order to answer student demand for housing without taxing limited public funds, the college asked the Buffalo State College Foundation to form a new not-for-profit corporation, the Buffalo State College Housing Corporation, with the sole purpose of developing the project.
The members of the Housing Corporation are Ross Kenzie (president), Stanley Kardonsky (vice president), Gerald Cornish (secretary), Anthony Baynes (treasurer), Susanne Bair, Timothy Balkin, and Chris O’Donnell.
The project is funded via revenue bonds issued by the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. The bonds themselves (and the operating costs of the facility) will be repaid from the fees paid by the students who will reside in the new facility. The bonds were purchased by a consortium of local banks and groups led by M&T Bank. Closing was accomplished before the end of 2009 to take advantage of beneficial features of the federal stimulus program. The Buffalo State College Foundation is the guarantor of the loan financing construction.
From the Interim President
Though a funding model like this has been used elsewhere, it is a new way of doing business for Buffalo State—and one that helps us continue to serve our students as best we are able.
Building this new funding model took hours of dedicated work on the part of many. I want especially to thank Linda Dobmeier, Buffalo State alumna and chair of the Buffalo State College Foundation; Ross Kenzie, vice chair of the foundation and president of the Buffalo State College Housing Corporation; Stan Kardonsky, vice president for finance and management and vice president of the housing corporation; Hal Payne, vice president for student affairs; Susanne Bair, vice president for institutional advancement; and all members of the housing corporation and the foundation board. Thanks to these folks and others, we will soon have a magnificent new facility in which to house our students.
From the Chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee
During the first two weeks in February, Buffalo State College will welcome to campus our finalists for the position of president. The candidates will have the opportunity to meet with many constituent groups during their visits. The finalists will also give a presentation to the campus community that all faculty, students, and staff are invited to attend.
Biographies for each finalist, along with the date, time, and location of his or her campus presentation, full campus interview schedule, and curriculum vitae can be found here:
Candidate 1: Kathryn Cruz-Uribe, February 2–4
Candidate 2: Aaron Podolefsky, February 4–6
Candidate 3: William Lowe, February 7–9
Download the full Campus Interview Schedule (PDF).
I encourage all members of the Buffalo State College community to participate in as much of this process as possible to help us select the candidate best suited to lead our college in accomplishing our goals and identifying new opportunities for us to explore in the future. Several opportunities for providing your input will be announced next week. In the meantime, if you wish to communicate with me, please contact me at presidentsearch@buffalostate.edu.
Sincerely,
Howard Zemsky
Vice Chair, Buffalo State College Council