Buffalo State Dining is very excited to announce that students, faculty, and staff can now use their Bengal Bucks off campus at select locations! Bengal Bucks are currently being accepted at Zonies and Elmwood Taco & Subs, located on Elmwood Avenue, and Subway on Delaware Avenue. Buffalo State Dining is still in the process of recruiting additional vendors to be a part of the Bengal Bucks Off-Campus Program. For updates on vendor locations, please visit our website. If there are any vendors you would like to see be a part of the program, please submit your request through our website under the "Be Heard" tab.

Bengal Bucks are a declining balance dollar account that can be used on the Buffalo State campus, including at the bookstore, at the library, in vending machines, on Performing Arts Center tickets, at the Burchfield Penney café and gift shop, and now off campus at select locations. Faculty and staff receive a 10 percent discount on all on-campus Bengal Bucks purchases.

Add Bengal Bucks to your account online at www.dineoncampus.com/bsc, in person in E. H. Butler Library 108, or by phone at ext. 5152.

On behalf of the Buffalo State College Intercultural Communications Committee, the International Student Affairs Office is delighted to invite all internationally minded faculty, staff, and students to attend our well-known weekly International Social Hour, which allows all international students, scholars, and their friends to meet informally.

This special informal weekly get-together takes place every Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 208. Coffee, tea, and other light refreshments are graciously shared.

On behalf of the Buffalo State College Intercultural Communications Committee, the International Student Affairs Office is delighted to invite all internationally minded faculty, staff, and students to attend our well-known weekly International Social Hour, which allows all international students, scholars, and their friends to meet informally.

This special informal weekly get-together takes place every Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 208. Coffee, tea, and other light refreshments are graciously shared.

On behalf of the Buffalo State Campus Intercultural Communications Committee, the International Student Affairs Office is delighted to invite all internationally minded faculty, staff, and students to attend our well-known weekly International Social Hour, which allows all international students, scholars, and their friends to meet informally.

This special informal weekly get-together takes place every Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 208. Coffee, tea, and other light refreshments are graciously shared.

The Small Business Development Center presents "Survive and Thrive: Essentials for Starting Your Own Business," a workshop covering all the essential information needed to start a business, on Wednesday, March 14, 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 the SBDC website or call the SBDC at ext. 4030.

Join Buffalo State Dining to celebrate Mardi Gras with guest chef José Gonzalez from Thompson Hospitality. Thompson Hospitality is a strategic Chartwells partner and is the leading minority-owned food service company in the United States. Stop by Bengal Hall and enjoy the tastes of Southern favorites, such as Louisiana spicy turkey jambalaya, shrimp Creole served with Bayou brown rice pilaf, and cornmeal-crusted catfish.

The party will take place in Bengal Hall, resident dining located in the Campbell Student Union, on Tuesday, February 21. Brunch will be served from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner will be served from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Enter with a meal swipe or brunch door price of $8.39 and dinner door price of $11.99.

For more information on Buffalo State Dining, visit our website.

The State of New York is implementing a new Statewide Financial System (SFS) that will go live on April 1, 2012. The shutdown period for the transition will be from approximately March 16 to April 18. No purchase orders or payments can be made during this time.

Impact

• No purchase orders can be processed during this time.
• No payments to vendors or reimbursements to people can be processed during this time. This does not affect payroll.
• All purchase orders and contracts must be taken off the current system and reentered on the new system.
• New vendor information must be processed through the state system and will take three to four days, possibly longer if additional information is needed.

Recommendations

• Please submit all receivers immediately upon receipt of materials or goods. Check your work areas for stragglers!
• Submit a requisition for all your needs from March 16 to April 18 as soon as possible. No requisitions can be received in Procurement after March 9.
• All requisitions received after March 9 will be held until the system is up and running, approximately April 18.
• Submit invoices to Accounts Payable and Travel Services immediately upon receipt. No payments will be made after March 16.
• Complete your February procurement card certification by March 15.
• Use the P-Card for all purchases during this period, if possible.
• All airline travel must go through the business travel agent, Albany Travel. The telephone number for Albany Travel is (800) 774-0655.

Questions: Call Procurement Services at ext. 4113.

More information regarding the shutdown will be forthcoming.

Are you willing to share your teaching practice with faculty colleagues at Buffalo State? Would you like the opportunity to see a colleague in another discipline or department teach? Is there a particular pedagogy, teaching style, or technology you would like to see in action? Teach and Share, an interdisciplinary classroom visitation program, offers you these opportunities as part of Faculty Focused on Teaching: Innovations Week, March 5–9. 

Find out how to participate at www.buffalostate.edu/professionaldevelopment/x1520.xml.

Novelist and Columbia University writing professor Ellis Avery will read from her latest novel, The Last Nude, at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, February 23, in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. A book-signing and reception will follow the reading. For more information, please contact Jennifer Ryan, ext. 6820. This event is supported by the Grant Allocation Committee, the Faculty-Student Association, the English Department, and the School of Arts and Humanities Dean's Office.

The spring 2012 “Conversations” lecture series begins Friday, February 24, as Philip B. Ogle, department chair and professor of fine arts, presents “Public Art: Selected Work" at 3:00 p.m. in Ketchum Hall 320. Colleagues, friends, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students are welcome.

Please also mark your calendars for the second and third talks in the series: on Friday, March 30, Kyeonghi Baek, assistant professor of political science, will present “The Tide and the Turbulence: Analysis on Political Risks and the Flow of Foreign Direct Investment”; and on Friday, April 13, John D. Draeger, associate professor of philosophy and humanities, will present “Respect for Humanity, the Battle against Bigotry, and the Cost of Moral Mistakes.”