From the Vice President for Finance and Management
The Emergency Response Planning Group and University Police will conduct a test of the college’s outdoor emergency alert horn at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 29.

People who are outdoors during the test will hear a series of three loud 90-second horn blasts emanating from the central heating plant. Please note: the horn is primarily intended to be audible at outdoor locations on campus—not inside buildings.

In a real emergency, the horn will sound for a minimum of five full minutes. If a real emergency alert is signaled, immediately seek shelter and await further instructions communicated via Buff State Alert, e-mail, www.buffalostate.edu, or direct instructions from University Police.

Approximately 30 minutes before the test horn sounds, the college will issue a campuswide test of the Buff State Alert emergency communication system. At this time, all students, faculty, and staff who have registered with the service will be sent a test alert via text message, automated phone message, or e-mail.

Students, faculty, and staff who wish to enroll in Buff State Alert or modify their preferences may do so by visiting https://buffstatealert.buffalostate.edu and logging in with their Buffalo State user name and password. If you do not have a Buffalo State user name or password but still want to receive text messages from Buff State Alert, you can sign up by texting the phrase “buffalostate” to 79516.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, November 8, in E. H. Butler Library 210.

From the Vice President for Institutional Advancement
The 21st Century Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, is now accepting applications for the 2013–2014 grant cycle. The $100,000 grant will be awarded in March 2014 to a Western New York nonprofit organization.

Buffalo State faculty members are invited to submit ideas for proposals to their academic deans by noon Monday, October 21. Each dean will forward one recommendation to Susanne Bair, vice president for institutional advancement, who with Provost Dennis Ponton will decide which project or program to advance. The faculty member whose suggestion is chosen will be notified on Wednesday, October 23, and will be required to attend a briefing session on either October 24 or October 29.

Every two years, the 21st Century Fund funds one high-impact project that is of strategic importance to Western New York. Since its inception, the 21st Century Fund has awarded more than a half million dollars in grants. Projects vary widely, ranging from architectural restoration to urban farming. Past winners include the Darwin Martin House Complex Restoration, the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Materials Reuse Project/Art on Wheels, Buffalo State’s Community Maritime Center, the Buffalo Zoological Society Rainforest Exhibit Design, the Massachusetts Avenue Project’s Community Food Resource Center, and the Buffalo Museum of Science’s Science Studios.

More information can be found at www.cfgb.org/21cf. Please contact Mary Dwyer, director of corporate and foundation relations, ext. 3141, with questions.

The President's Office welcomes Gil Lainer, consul for public affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, on Thursday, October 17, for a presentation at 2:00 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. This event is open to all faculty, staff, and students who are interested in exploring research, exchange, and study-abroad opportunities in Israel.

If you are interested in attending, RSVP to Michelle Eisenstein, coordinator of services in the International and Exchange Programs Office, ext. 3896, by Tuesday, October 15.

Prior to his arrival in New York, Lainer was a counselor in the Bureau for Middle East Economy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, where he worked to establish Israel’s current policy on humanitarian aid and projects in the Gaza Strip under the direction of the MFA director general. He also served as MFA liaison to the IDF in coordinating and implementing this revised policy.

In 1998, after joining the ministry and while still a diplomatic cadet, he was posted to the Israeli Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, as second secretary and later deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires. He was then appointed to the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco as deputy consul general to the Pacific Northwest. In this position he dealt extensively with media relations and public diplomacy.

From 2002 to 2004, Lainer worked at the ministry’s North American Division, where he was desk officer for Israel’s consulates in the United States.

Lainer took a leave of absence from the ministry in 2006 to serve as the Aliyah emissary (“Shaliach”) for Montreal and eastern Canada. During his time in office, more than 120 people emigrated from Montreal to Israel. On the last day of the Second Lebanon War, Lainer was privileged to lead a special Aliyah flight, organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel and Nefesh B’Nefesh, with more than 200 new Canadian immigrants to Israel.

Before beginning his diplomatic career, Lainer worked in the private sector as an account executive for a Tel Aviv public relations firm, representing primarily high-tech companies. Prior to that, he was a reporter, producer, and editor in chief in the news section at Israel’s largest commercial radio station, 103 FM Tel Aviv.

Lainer served in the military intelligence apparatus of the Israel Defense Forces, and holds a bachelor of arts in media studies and management from the School of Media Studies at the College of Management in Tel Aviv. He resides in Givatayim, a suburb of Tel Aviv. He is married to Sharon, also a career diplomat. They have two children, Ori and Noam.

From the Vice President for Student Affairs
The announcement in the October 9 Daily Bulletin, "Tobacco-Free Campus: Open Forums," contained an error. The following language is retracted from the announcement:

". . . however, progress on the tobacco-free campaign was delayed pending authorization from the statewide leadership of employee collective bargaining units to participate in planning efforts aimed at making Buffalo State a tobacco-free campus. That authorization was received late last spring, allowing full implementation of the campaign to begin in fall 2013."

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, October 11, in E. H. Butler Library 210. The meeting agenda is posted on the College Senate home page.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, October 11, in E. H. Butler Library 210.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The next meeting of the College Senate will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, October 11, in E. H. Butler Library 210.

From the Vice President for Finance and Management
The SUNY Office of General Counsel advises that all college offices be notified of the procedures to follow regarding the receipt of legal papers of any kind by a campus employee. Accordingly, Buffalo State’s procedures are as follows:

The associate vice president for finance and management/comptroller is the institution’s official liaison to the Office of General Counsel for the purpose of receipt or service of legal papers on Buffalo State and is responsible for coordinating a campus response, notifying the appropriate campus and external parties. When legal papers of any kind are served upon a campus employee or Buffalo State, the campus liaison should be contacted immediately and the legal papers should be forwarded to the liaison. If the associate vice president for finance and management/comptroller is unavailable, the referral should be made to the assistant vice president for finance and management.

This procedure is especially important when legal papers request personnel files or information on students or are requests made under the USA Patriot Act. Various other rights, such as those afforded by FERPA, the Personal Privacy Protection law, and collective bargaining agreements are involved in those situations.

Requests under Freedom of Information Law
In addition, Buffalo State complies with New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which requires that all state agencies, including entities within SUNY, make certain records available to the public. Once a request for records has been received, Freedom of Information Law permits Buffalo State five business days in which to acknowledge or respond to the request. To ensure compliance, any campus employee in receipt of a Buffalo State FOIL request should forward it without delay to the senior assistant to the vice president for finance and management, who is the records access officer.

Questions about these procedures may be e-mailed to vpfm@buffalostate.edu. Thank you for your cooperation.

From the Vice President for Finance and Management
For all emergencies on campus, call University Police directly at ext. 6333. Calls to 911 will be redirected by the City of Buffalo 911 operator to University Police and could waste valuable response time. The blue-light phones located throughout the campus and in most campus parking lots are a direct link to University Police and will ensure an immediate response. Call University Police at 878-6333 with questions or concerns regarding campus safety.