The Buffalo State Alumni Association has partnered with Kissing Bridge to offer perks to members of the Buffalo State community. Buffalo State faculty and staff members, alumni, and their families can purchase an adult season pass for $500 (regularly priced at $555). Visit www.kbski.com/corporate-signup and use account code Buffstate527 to take advantage of this great deal! Act now: this offer expires on Thursday, November 15. For more information, please contact our Kissing Bridge representative, Chuck Dickhut, at (716) 592-4963, ext. 2237.

The CSEA Local 640 Women’s Committee is sponsoring a food drive to benefit the Food Bank of Western New York. We will be collecting nonperishable food items, which will be brought to the Food Bank on November 16, in time to provide those less fortunate than us with food for a happy Thanksgiving and beyond.

Please bring in your donation items by Thursday, November 15. You may drop off your items with any of the committee members listed below, or call for a pickup. If you have any questions, please call one of the committee members:

Mary Codick, ext. 6121, Caudell Hall 101
Michelle Downey, ext. 5331, Campbell Student Union 400
Sue Fischer, ext. 4611, Twin Rise 206
Sue McKnight, ext. 6001, Cleveland Hall 204
Sue Polich, ext. 3333, Twin Rise C3
Jennie Silverman, ext. 5412, Classroom Building 205
Lynn Weldon, ext. 6014, Upton Hall 502

The Procurement Services purchase requisition form has been redesigned. Please visit the Forms page on the Procurement Services website to download a copy of this form. Please remember to print your requisition on pink paper as usual before you send it to Procurement Services. Thank you.

Father Patrick Zengierski, director of the Newman Center, invites you to the Feast of All Saints on Thursday, November 1, to celebrate the lives of all those who have gone before us. Mass will be celebrated at 12:05 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center East 2, and again at 6:00 p.m. in the Newman Center chapel, 1219 Elmwood Avenue. There will be time during the liturgy to inscribe the names in a Book of Remembrance.

Because of the renovation of Houston Gym and the temporary move of the Athletics Department to Campus West, all fitness classes for this week (October 29–November 4) are canceled. All fitness classes will resume on Monday November 5, in Campus West (Buckham Campus School) 209 and 210. For more information, contact Rudy Pompert, men's soccer coach.

The "urban heat island" elevates temperature above that of the surrounding countryside. In a world of rising temperatures, what are the implications for our cities? Stephen Vermette, professor of geography and planning, will explore the interdependence of urban infrastructure, how it contributes to heating, and what steps may be taken locally to mitigate the warming during this presentation on Wednesday, November 14, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Classroom Building A209. Presented as part of Buffalo State's Year of the City and Geography Awareness Week.

Please join us for the applied mathematics talk "Penalization Techniques for Latent Class Regression," presented by Anthony Franklin, a Ph.D. candidate at North Carolina State University, at 3:00 p.m. Friday, November 2, in Cleveland Hall 418.

Abstract: When data are believed to have hidden clusters, it is common practice to identify the clusters and then conduct analysis in each cluster separately. Methods have been proposed to perform the cluster and regression analysis simultaneously for a pre-specified number of clusters. This process has been referred to in literature as "latent variable regression analysis." This research investigates imposing penalization techniques to identify and collapse regression parameters that may be "shared" or redundant across clusters for a given model.

University College is pleased to announce that the author of the 2012 Buffalo State Common Reading, Victor Villanueva, will speak to the campus on Friday, November 2, at 3:00 p.m. in Rockwell Hall. This event is free to all members of the Buffalo State community. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Villanueva is a professor of composition and rhetoric in the English Department at Washington State University. He is the author or editor of five books and more than 40 articles and chapters, and his Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color has been recognized with two national awards. In 1999, he was declared Rhetorician of the Year by the Young Rhetoricians Conference. A past president of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, he received the organization's Exemplar Award in 2009. His body of work revolves around issues of language, racism, and identity. A complete biography is available on the WSU website.

The common reading, "Colonial Memory and the Crime of Rhetoric: Pedro Albizu Campos," will be the focal point of a series of events taking place throughout the fall term. The article, which was originally published in College English in 2009, explores issues of rhetoric, colonization, racism, and cultural identity. Villanueva uses personal narrative and the story of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos to explore the power of words and the risks and rewards of giving voice.

For more information on the Buffalo State Common Reading or Villanueva’s visit to campus, contact Michele Ninacs, director of the College Writing Program, ext. 5451.

Please attend Adopt a Book, the Global Book Hour fundraiser, today, November 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the main lobby of E. H. Butler Library. Join in a read-aloud and enjoy art, music, and food!

The Global Book Hour, a collaborative literacy initiative sponsored by the Elementary Education and Reading Department and Wegmans on Amherst Street, invites all campus and community members to join in the effort to get books into the hands of our children during our weekly book hour led by Buffalo State teacher candidates.

For only $15, you can sponsor the purchase of book that will be given to a Buffalo child. Sponsors can design, dedicate, and sign a bookplate that will be adhered to the inside cover of the donated book.

Direct questions to Pixita del Prado Hill, associate professor of elementary education and reading.

Check out the Global Book Hour online. Like us on Facebook.

Please attend Adopt a Book, the Global Book Hour fundraiser, on Tuesday, November 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the main lobby of E. H. Butler Library. Join in a read-aloud and enjoy art, music, and food!  

The Global Book Hour, a collaborative literacy initiative sponsored by the Elementary Education and Reading Department and Wegmans on Amherst Street, invites all campus and community members to join in the effort to get books into the hands of our children during our weekly book hour led by Buffalo State teacher candidates.

For only $15, you can sponsor the purchase of book that will be given to a Buffalo child. Sponsors can design, dedicate, and sign a bookplate that will be adhered to the inside cover of the donated book.

Direct questions to Pixita del Prado Hill, associate professor of elementary education and reading.

Check out the Global Book Hour online. Like us on Facebook.