Active Minds started its founding year at Buffalo State in spring 2010, and it has quickly made its presence known through several innovative initiatives such as the BeSeCret Community Art Project and Send Silence Packing, and through partnerships with several organizations and offices such as Health Promotions, Student Life, and the Counseling Center.

Active Minds is an official chapter of the national Active Minds organization. The next general meeting is on Monday, October 3, at 3:00 p.m. in Classroom Building A303.

Officers will be elected in the next few weeks. There are rewarding opportunities to continue to open up the conversation at Buffalo State regarding mental health, to decrease the stigma associated with mental health concerns and receive support, and to increase awareness of mental health resources. Students interested in leadership, empowerment, and connecting with others will really enjoy their involvement with Active Minds. See the Buffalo State Active Minds Facebook page for more information. Any student who is interested in the group but is unable to attend the meeting should contact Suzanne Johnson at counselingcenter@buffalostate.edu.
Please contact Johnson with any questions.

The midterm grading window will open In Banner on October 17, 2011 at 10 AM and close on November 1, 2011 at 9 PM.  In addition to an estimated mid-term grade, faculty can note how regularly a student has attended a course by entering 0 (never attended), 1 (sporadic, unsatisfactory attendance), or 2 (consistent, satisfactory attendance) in the “Hours Attended” field.   

Although all faculty members can provide mid-term feedback for any of their students in Banner, the Early Intervention Program (EIP) seeks information on particular student populations. Faculty members with EIP students in their courses will receive a list of students requiring mid-term feedback.  Your comments concerning attendance and performance are deeply appreciated and quite helpful to us in our academic intervention efforts.

Should you have questions or concerns, please feel free to call ext. 5222 or e-mail maldonhd@buffalostate.edu. Thank you for your commitment to our students’ success.
 

The Modern and Classical Languages Department, the Alliance Française de Buffalo, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center present an evening of French theater on Wednesday, October 19, at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center auditorium. The Caravague Theatre Company’s André Nerman and Yannick Rocher will perform Georges Courteline’s La peur des coups and Jean Cocteau’s La voix humaine as part of the Year of the Arts celebration at Buffalo State College.

Ticket information is available on the Arts and Humanities website.

Have you heard about Summon, the library’s new discovery service? The Summon service, found on the library home page, allows users to search all of the library’s formats—books, articles, newspapers, databases, and more—from a single search box.

Want to learn more? Join us for a Summon demonstration session today, September 27, in E. H. Butler Library 314 from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. No registration is required. Questions? Contact Al Riess.

The Faculty-Student Association is accepting applications for grants to enhance the educational and cultural life of the Buffalo State College campus.

The application form is available online.

Program guidelines are available on the USG website, which also contains a link to the application form.

Completed applications must be received in the Clinton Center Mail Room by Friday, December 9, in order to be considered. Only one completed application per program request is required. Grant awards will be announced at the beginning of the spring 2012 semester.

For further information, please call 983-0084 or e-mail vickerge@buffalostate.edu.

For a limited time, SUNY has acquired an Open Access License for Elluminate, a web meeting and conferencing tool that may be used for instructional use. The trial period runs though June 30, 2012, during which time Elluminate will be available free of charge.

The Professional Development Center offers many opportunities to learn how to use Elluminate. See its calendar of events for dates, times, and locations.

Elluminate is integrated in ANGEL within the communicate tab in both courses and groups. Faculty members may create as many Elluminate “rooms” as they need and assign moderators to them from their course roster. Moderators can be students in the course or others faculty members who are provided course access via the instructor. For instructions on how to use Elluminate within ANGEL, go to the ANGEL Resources for Faculty page and scroll to Elluminate Live. When using Elluminate via ANGEL, instructors and students may direct questions to the SUNY Learning Network Help Desk at (800) 875-6269 or e-mail slnsupport@itec.suny.edu.

Information Services and Systems will solicit formal feedback from those who choose to take advantage of this trial offer in order to determine use and value of Elluminate as a teaching and learning tool beyond the trial period.

You are invited to attend the first of four lectures on the history and culture of the Caribbean today at 3:30 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center West. Gillian McGillivray, associate professor of history at York University, will present “Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities and the Rise and Fall of Populism in Cuba, 1898–1959.”  The talk is free and open to the public.

Members and guests are invited to Campus House for German-style beers and traditional fare at Oktoberfest 2011 on Tuesday, September 27, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The cost of the event is $20 and includes a complimentary beer mug.

Campus House membership is open to all Buffalo State faculty, staff, emeriti/retirees, alumni, and select friends of the college. Becoming a member is easy; simply complete and return the invitation to join.

Make your reservation for Oktoberfest today at ext. 3300.

As of September 21, Buffalo State awaits posting of the July 1, 2011, Departmental Budget Allocations. SUNY System Administration has completed its review and reconciliation process for beginning-of-year allocations, but all state-appropriated allocations also require the review and approval of the Office of the State Comptroller. When this final review is complete, SUNY will be able to post campus allocations at the department level, and managers will then be able to view account detail using the SUNY Management Reporting Tool (SMRT) application.

We will inform you when departmental allocations are visible via the SMRT application. In the interim, primary managers of State Purpose Fund accounts may view initial allocations for their departmental accounts via the 2011–2012 Budget Development Process files. Additionally, new managers may find it useful to sign up now for an upcoming SMRT workshop to learn about resource management using the SMRT application.

A new schedule of workshops offered by the Budget Office is now available.

Please contact the Budget Office, ext. 4312, if you have any questions.

Faculty members who teach courses in the Intellectual Foundations program are invited to attend an open forum with the external evaluators as part of the IF five-year program review today, September 22, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Collection Study Room.