President Aaron Podolefsky will deliver his first State of the College address to the Buffalo State community on Tuesday, February 15, at 12:15 p.m. in Warren Enters Theatre at Upton Hall. All are encouraged to attend.

In order to provide improved support and significant cost savings, the campus will migrate ANGEL to SUNY ITEC’s hosting service. This migration will take one week and will occur from Sunday, May 15, at 11:59 p.m. through Monday, May 23.

During this time, ANGEL will be completely unavailable. No one will be able to login to ANGEL. Faculty and students will not be able to enter grades, view grades, retrieve grades, or download grades. There will be no access to drop boxes or submitted papers/projects/exams. Students will not be able to submit papers/projects/exams to drop boxes or to take assessments/exams/course evaluation surveys through ANGEL during this time.

Faculty who use ANGEL can prepare now by reviewing syllabi, taking note of dates that require students to use ANGEL between May 15 and May 23.

Student paper/assignment submission: Tell students to submit papers to you directly via Buffalo State e-mail.

Faculty grading: Before Sunday, May 15, print out a copy of your ANGEL grade book and export a copy to Excel so you have access to grades outside of ANGEL.

Faculty accessing assignments stored in ANGEL: Before Sunday, May 15, export all drop box submissions and save to a flash drive or your computer.

During the week of May 9, in-person ANGEL assistance for exporting grades and student submissions will be available. For the location, dates, and times for ANGEL assistance, and for other temporary solutions, see http://www.buffalostate.edu/offices/ir/E-Learning/endofspring2011.html.

Submitted by: Melaine Kenyon, Instructional Resources

Construction of the new Technology Building is well under way. To accommodate underground utility work, the sidewalk that runs from Lot F-1 to Academic Drive north of the Power Plant will be blocked from Tuesday, August 9, through Friday, August 12.

Pedestrians heading east from Lot F-1 and beyond should walk south of the Power Plant on Rockwell Road or north to the pedestrian spine to avoid this blocked sidewalk. Your patience is appreciated as progress is made on this important project. For more information about this and other construction projects, please visit www.buffalostate.edu/construction, or e-mail VPFM@buffalostate.edu.

From the Chair of the Senate Curriculum Committee

The deadline for all course and program proposals was Tuesday, March 15. Proposals received after that date may not be reviewed until fall 2011.

From the Chair of the College Senate

The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Classroom Building C-122. Please note the location change for this meeting only. The May 13 Senate meeting will return to E. H. Butler Library 210, with a 2:00 p.m. start time. The annual Senate Caucus will also take place on May 13, at 12:30 p.m., prior to the Senate meeting, in E. H. Butler Library 21

From the Provost
In the past year, faculty and staff in Buffalo State’s teacher preparation programs were invited to participate in a dialogue regarding the unit’s institution-wide governance and operational structure. A report (Recommendations for Restructuring the Teacher Education Unit at Buffalo State) was prepared and released in February. Following review of the report’s recommendations and with extensive consultation, the following will be effective for the Buffalo State Teacher Education Unit as of September 1, 2011:

1. Leadership for the Teacher Education Unit will be vested in the Council of Deans at Buffalo State. The Council of Deans consists of the provost and the six deans (Arts and Humanities, Education, Graduate School, Natural and Social Sciences, Professions, University College). This action establishes a structure to ensure that “all deans should take increased responsibility for teacher education in order to continue to validate teacher education as central to the mission of Buffalo State.” Almost 93 percent of participants in the review survey strongly agreed or agreed with this statement. This arrangement also reflects the distributed nature of teacher preparation programs across all four academic schools. Acting as unit head, the Council of Deans will create operational processes to provide the required attention to institution-wide teacher education issues and affirm that expectations of external accrediting and regulatory entities are met.
    
2. Campus offices responsible for institution-wide teacher preparation initiatives will receive oversight and guidance from the Council of Deans. This action is in keeping with recommendations in the report. Institution-wide units are the Teacher Certification Office, the NCATE/CAEP Accreditation Office, the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education (CEURE), and the Teacher Education Council (TEC). Monthly meetings are scheduled with the leadership of the above units and the Council of Deans to consider and address institution-wide teacher education matters. Operational protocols and guidelines for the interaction of institution-wide teacher education units with the Council of Deans will evolve with subsequent dialogue.
    
3. Decisions that must be made before the full development and understanding of the operational procedures described above, or decisions that are needed to address items outside the span of this organizational structure for institution-wide teacher education, will automatically default to the provost.

The efforts of all who participated in the review of teacher education are greatly appreciated. My sincere gratitude is extended to John Siskar, Paul Theobald, Jill Gradwell, and Kevin Railey for leadership to the effort. I look forward to implementation of this new governance and organizational model to continue to advance the richness, responsiveness, and quality of Buffalo State’s teacher preparation programs.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The first meeting of the College Senate for the spring 2011 semester will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, February 4, in E. H. Butler Library 210. The meeting agenda is available on the College Senate website.

President Aaron Podolefsky will deliver his first State of the College address to the Buffalo State community on Tuesday, February 15, at 12:15 p.m. in Warren Enters Theatre at Upton Hall. All are encouraged to attend.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Classroom Building C122. Please note the location change for this meeting only. The May 13 Senate meeting will return to E. H. Butler Library 210, with a 2:00 p.m. start time. The annual Senate Caucus will also take place on May 13, at 12:30 p.m., prior to the Senate meeting, in E. H. Butler Library 210.

President Aaron Podolefsky will deliver his first State of the College address to the Buffalo State community on Tuesday, February 15, at 12:15 p.m. in Warren Enters Theatre at Upton Hall. All are encouraged to attend.