The Buffalo State Elementary Education and Reading Department (EER) already offers its teacher education students multiple opportunities for field experiences. Now, we’re taking that to a whole new dimension!

This summer, EER has two PDS abroad experiences in place: Pixita Del Prado Hill is leading a group of eight students in Santiago, Chile, and Hibajene Shandomo and Nancy Chicola are leading a group of 12 students in Lusaka, Zambia. 

You can visit the project websites at http://chilepdsatbsedu.wordpress.com and http://zambiapdsatbsedu.wordpress.com. Enjoy reading the students' blogs, follow their experiences in this new venture, and leave them your well wishes for this learning adventure.

A Google grant has been awarded to faculty members Sarbani Banerjee (project director), Neal Mazur, Ramona Santa Maria, and Barbara Sherman of the Computer Information Systems Department to host a three-day CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) workshop June 26–28 for in-service teachers from area high schools. With the goal of broadening participation in computing, the high school teachers will learn various concepts of computer science and different strategies for attracting students to computing. If you know of any in-service high school mathematics, science, or technology teachers who might be interested in attending, please encourage them to check out the CS4HS website and register for the workshop.

E. H. Butler Library will undergo an asbestos-abatement project this summer to remove floor tile in several areas of the building and replace it with new tile. The Creative Studies balcony and the reference collection below it will be closed from mid-July until the end of August. Creative studies books will be temporarily relocated to the third-floor Northeast Quadrant. Reference books will be moved to a new permanent home on the third-floor Northwest Quadrant. The Emeriti Room will not be available during this project. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Donna Davidoff, ext. 6301.

Effective with the implementation of the Statewide Financial System, budgetary object codes are now distinct from expenditure object codes. Consequently, a number of budgetary object codes have been changed or consolidated. Managers of state-appropriated accounts should note that the new codes are in use now and will be used to establish July 1, 2012, departmental allocations. The new codes can be viewed on the Budget Office website and have been incorporated into an updated Reassignment of Funds form. The revised form will populate the correct budgetary object code when a budgetary category is selected from a drop-down menu.

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

A farewell reception for Jennifer Heisey is scheduled for Wednesday, June 13, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Campus House. Cash bar. Please join us in wishing her success in her new position as associate vice president for alumni relations at the University of Louisville. R.S.V.P. to Tracey Anderson.

June transfer advisement will take place on Thursday, June 14, with check-in beginning at 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library. Parking for students attending this advisement session will be in Lot G.

What exactly do you want done for you medically if you're in critical condition and can't speak for yourself?

The Health-Care Proxy/Living Will workshop, sponsored by Buffalo State's EAP office and developed by Community Conversations on Compassionate Care, will show you how to have the conversations necessary to determine your own wishes and to have them carried out. You will leave the workshop with the tools you need to choose your spokesperson and to communicate your wishes.

The presenter, Mary A. Durlak, is a trained facilitator who has offered the workshop several times. She was involved in her parents' end-stage care, guided by their written wishes. Attend the workshop on Tuesday, June 12, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Caudell Hall 214, and let her help you plan for the unexpected.

Please e-mail Tamara Horstman-Riphahn if you plan to attend.

Tired of trekking across campus to find out what is being served in the Resident Dining Hall? Wish you could have been at the dining hall when they made your favorite dish but you didn’t know about it? Now you can check out what Buffalo State Dining is dishing up on its website before you head out to eat! On a special diet? Use the new online menus to view the portion size and nutritional content of each food being served.

To view the daily Resident Dining Hall menu, simply log on to www.dineoncampus.com/bsc, click Places to Eat, and then What's On the Menu. Select Resident Dining from the drop-down menu on the left side of the page. Or, follow this link.

The Small Business Development Center presents "Survive and Thrive: Essentials for Starting Your Own Small Business," a workshop covering all the essential information needed to start a business, on Wednesday, June 20, from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Burchfield Penney Art Center (second floor). Specific topics will include creating a business plan; competition analysis; and tax, legal, and insurance issues. The workshop is free for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and U.S. military veterans and $20 for all others.

Registration will take place immediately before the workshop from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. To register in advance, please visit www.buffalostate.edu/sbdc or call ext. 4030.

Bengal Bucks are a declining-balance dollar account that can be used not only at any campus dining location but also at the bookstore, in the library, in vending machines, on performing arts sales tickets, at the Burchfield Penney café and gift shop, and off campus at select locations. Faculty and staff receive a 10 percent discount on every Bengal Bucks purchase made at Buffalo State Dining locations.

Add Bengal Bucks to your account today! Sign up online, in person in E. H. Butler Library 108, or by phone at ext. 5152.

For more information on Buffalo State Dining, please visit www.dineoncampus.com/bsc.