Interim President Dennis K. Ponton will give the annual State of the College address Thursday, February 18, at 12:15 p.m. in Warren Enters Theatre.

All are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be provided in Upton Hall lobby following the presentation.

Health insurance rates for 2011 have been established and are listed below:

CSEA, UUP, M/C, NYSCOPBA & PEF
Health Plan: Individual / Family
Empire Plan: $27.26* / $115.12**
Community Blue: $25.36 / $169.09
Independent Health: $24.53 / $114.42
*$28.01 for CSEA
**$117.74 for CSEA

Council 82
Health Plan: Individual / Family
Empire Plan: $28.11 / $118.22
Community Blue: $25.36 / $167.39
Independent Health: $24.53 / $114.42

Employees who wish to change their health insurance plan for the coming year have until Friday, December 31, 2010. We encourage you to complete the option transfer forms 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, January 6, 2011.

"Choices," a summary of health insurance plans, is available online. You may want to review this before you decide to change insurance carriers or to remain with your current carrier for your health insurance coverage in 2011.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held Friday, February 4, at 3:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. The complete schedule is available on the College Senate website. Happy holidays from the College Senate Office.

From the Interim Vice President for Finance and Management
The Internal Control Act of the State of New York establishes certain standards that define a minimum level of quality acceptability for internal control systems. These internal control standards apply to all operations and administrative functions.

Among these standards is the one for execution of transactions and events. Specifically, transactions and other events are to be authorized and executed only by persons acting within the scope of their authority. Another standard provides that all transactions and other significant events must be clearly documented and that the documentation be readily available for examination.

Grading and grades constitute administrative functions that are subject to the internal control standards. The advent of online grading makes it all the more important that these standards be explicated and followed.

Therefore, the entry of grades for students taking any coursework at Buffalo State College or any subsidiary thereof must be carried out by the faculty member in whose course the student is registered.

The faculty member is responsible for understanding how to submit grades in Banner. Difficulty in submitting grades in Banner is not an excuse for failure to submit grades.

The faculty member is responsible for ensuring that grades are submitted by the stated deadline.

In the event the faculty member is for any reason unable to personally enter these grades, a delegate must be named. This delegation must be approved in advance by the faculty member's department chair and dean. The process for this approval will be as follows:

The faculty member shall, no later than two weeks prior to CEP (Critique and Evaluation Period), petition in writing to the dean via the department chair for permission to delegate to a specific individual. If approved, the faculty member and the delegate shall be advised in writing. The original request to delegate grading and a proven copy of the approval shall be retained in the dean’s office for inspection as needed. The two-week deadline may be waived by the dean in emergency situations.

Under no circumstances may a faculty member delegate grading entry responsibility to an employee who is a student at the college.

August 2011

From the Chair of the College Senate
The final College Senate meeting for the fall 2011 semester will be held at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, December 9, in E. H. Butler Library 210. Please note the earlier start time. The agenda can be found on the home page of the Senate website. Happy holidays to all from the Senate Office.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The final meeting of the College Senate for the fall 2011 semester will be held on Friday, December 9, at 2:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. Please note the earlier start time.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, November 18, in E. H. Butler Library 210. The meeting agenda is posted on the home page of the College Senate website.

The final College Senate meeting for the fall 2011 semester will be held at 2:00 p.m. Friday, December 9, in E. H. Butler Library 210. Please note the earlier start time.

From the Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Buffalo State will celebrate the official opening of the new Community Academic Center with an open house on Tuesday, November 15, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at 214 Grant Street, just south of Lafayette Avenue. The Buffalo State community is welcome to attend.

Parking will be available on Grant Street. Refreshments will be served.

To confirm your attendance, R.S.V.P. to ext. 5115 by Thursday, November 10.

For more information about the Community Academic Center, please visit www.buffalostate.edu/cac.

We hope to see you on November 15!

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, November 18, in E. H. Butler Library 210. The meeting agenda is posted on the home page of the College Senate website.

From the Interim Vice President for Finance and Management
Introduction
Buffalo State electronic resources (including such services as e-mail, Internet access, and file and print services) are made available to employees to facilitate the official work of the college. These electronic resources are provided for employees and people legitimately affiliated with the college for the efficient exchange of information and the completion of assigned responsibilities consistent with the mission of the college.

The use of campus electronic resources by any employee or other person authorized by the college must be consistent with this electronic resources policy and other applicable policies.

Principles of Acceptable Use
Buffalo State users of campus electronic resources are required

• to respect the privacy of other users: for example, users shall not intentionally seek information on, obtain copies of, or modify files or data belonging to other users unless explicit permission to do so has been obtained;
• to respect the legal protection provided to programs and data by copyright and license;
• to protect data from unauthorized use or disclosure as required by state and federal laws and SUNY and college regulations;
• to respect the integrity of computing systems: for example, users shall not use or develop programs that harass other users or infiltrate a computer or computing system or damage or alter the software components of a computer or computing system;
• to safeguard their accounts and passwords. Accounts and passwords are normally assigned to single users and are not to be shared with any other person without authorization. Users are expected to report any observations of attempted security violations.

Unacceptable Use
It is not acceptable to use Buffalo State electronic resources

• for activities unrelated to the college mission;
• for activities unrelated to official assignments or job responsibilities;
• for any illegal purpose;
• to transmit threatening, obscene, or harassing materials or correspondence;
• for unauthorized distribution of NYS data and information;
• to interfere with or disrupt network users, services, or equipment;
• for private purposes such as marketing or business transactions;
• for solicitation of religious or political causes;
• for unauthorized not-for-profit business activities;
• for private advertising of products or services;
• for any activity meant to foster personal gain.

E-mail Privacy and Access
E-mail messages are not personal or private. E-mail system administrators will not routinely monitor individual staff members' e-mail and will take reasonable precautions to protect the privacy of e-mail; however, program managers and technical staff may access an employee's e-mail

• for a legitimate business purpose (e.g., the need to access information when an employee is absent for an extended period of time);
• to diagnose and resolve technical problems involving system hardware, software, or communications;
• to investigate possible misuse of e-mail when a reasonable suspicion of abuse exists, or in conjunction with an approved investigation.

Staff members are prohibited from accessing another user's e-mail without his or her permission.

Staff members must not e-mail personally identifiable and protected information (such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, class schedules, grades, health information, etc.) unless the data is in encrypted format. For information on how to encrypt a Word or Excel document, see www.buffalostate.edu/cts/documents/ext-encryptfiles.pdf.

E-mail messages sent or received in conjunction with college business may

• be releasable to the public under the Freedom of Information Law;
• require special measures to comply with the Personal Privacy Protection Law.

All e-mail messages, including personal communications, may be subject to discovery proceedings in legal actions.

Management and Retention of E-mail Communications
Applicable to all e-mail messages and attachments:

Since e-mail is a communication system, messages should not be retained for extended periods of time. If a user needs to retain information in an e-mail message for an extended period, the message should be transferred from the e-mail system to an appropriate electronic or other filing system.

Applicable to records communicated via e-mail:
E-mail created or received in the normal course of official business and retained as evidence of official operations, functions, policies, procedures, actions, decisions,  transactions, or other activities are records subject to records management requirements under the New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law (Article 57-A) and specific program requirements. The SUNY policy on records retention and disposition is available at www.buffalostate.edu/recordspolicy.

The Buffalo State e-mail address is the only one that is recognized by the college; therefore, faculty and staff members must use the Buffalo State e-mail address when corresponding via e-mail in an official capacity with students, and must not copy any additional outside e-mail addresses. Inquiries from outside e-mail addresses should be treated as public inquiries—only general information (no student-specific information) may be shared in the response.

The college has developed electronic letterhead to be used for the electronic distribution of official college documents (records). The letterhead is available at www.buffalostate.edu/collegerelations/x861.xml and should be used in Word or e-mail documents that are to be distributed in electronic format only. Questions regarding electronic letterhead usage should be directed to the College Relations Office: Cleveland Hall 307, ext. 4201, or collrel@buffalostate.edu.

Examples of messages sent by e-mail that typically constitute records include

• policies and directives;
• correspondence or memoranda related to official business;
• work schedules and assignments;
• agendas and minutes of meetings;
• any document that initiates, authorizes, or completes a business transaction;
• final reports or recommendations.

Some examples of messages that typically do not constitute records are

• personal messages and announcements;
• copies or extracts of documents distributed for convenience or reference;
• phone message slips;
• announcements of social events.

Record Retention
Records communicated using e-mail need to be identified, managed, protected, and retained in accordance with New York State Law and SUNY policy.

Users should

• delete e-mails after messages and attachments are opened and records have been saved in an appropriate electronic or paper file outside the e-mail system. Messages and attachments that are records should be maintained and disposed of consistent with applicable schedules for those records (www.buffalostate.edu/recordspolicy);
• delete transitory e-mails—those that do not contain records of official operations or functions—when they are no longer needed. Many e-mail communications are not records and are therefore suitable for immediate destruction.

Agency Rights
Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (18 USC 2510 et seq.), notice is hereby given that there are NO facilities provided by this system for sending or receiving private or confidential electronic communications.

The college reserves the right to log network use and monitor file server space utilization by users and assumes no responsibility or liability for files lost due to violation of file server space allotments.

The college reserves the right to remove a user account or device from the network.

The college will not be responsible for any damages that result from the use of campus electronic resources. This includes the loss of data resulting from delays, nondeliveries, or service interruptions caused by negligence, errors, or omissions. Use of any information obtained is at the user's risk.

Enforcement and Violations
This policy is intended to be illustrative of the range of acceptable and unacceptable uses of the electronic facilities and is not necessarily exhaustive. Questions about specific uses related to security issues not enumerated in this policy statement and reports of specific unacceptable uses should be directed to the associate vice president for computing and technology services. Other questions about appropriate use should be directed to your supervisor.

The college will review alleged violations of the Policy on the Use of Electronic Resources on a case-by-case basis. Clear violations of the policy that are not promptly remedied may result in termination of network access for the person(s) at fault and referral for disciplinary actions as appropriate.

Policy date: September 2002
Revised: August 2010