The final fitness classes of the spring semester will take place on Thursday, May 9.

The remaining schedule:

Monday, May 6
10:00 a.m. Body Sculpting
5:00 p.m. Zumba

Tuesday, April 30 and May 7
5:30 p.m. Yoga

Wednesday, May 1 and May 8
10:00 a.m. Body Sculpting
11.30 a.m. Yoga
5:00 p.m. Zumba

Thursday, May 2 and May 9
4:00 p.m. Yoga

Yoga and Body Sculpting take place in Buckham Hall 209 and 210.

Zumba takes place in Buckham Hall Dining Hall, first floor.

For more information, contact Rudy Pompert.

Thank you to all faculty and professional staff members who have already registered to march in the Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 18. Additional marchers are greatly needed to make the 141st Commencement a welcoming celebration of the Buffalo State Class of 2013. Please help in honoring our graduates and welcoming their guests to campus by registering online to march for any of the three ceremonies. The greatest need is with the 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. ceremonies. Please contact Patricia Alessandra, senior staff associate in Academic Affairs, with any questions. Thank you.

Faculty members will enter their spring 2013 grades using Banner. The grading window will open at 9:00 a.m. Monday, May 13, and close at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 22. In preparation, faculty are encouraged to log on to Banner to be sure that all their courses are listed under their accounts. Detailed documentation for entering grades is available at http://buffalostate.edu/banner/documents/grading.pdf.  Additionally, assistance is available by calling the Computing Help Desk at ext. 4357 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
 

If you have any questions about grading, please call the Registrar's Office at ext. 4811. We have provided a grading tip sheet at http://www.buffalostate.edu/registrar/FacultyGrading.xml  so that your end-of-semester grading will be smoother and more successful.
 

The second volume of the History and Social Studies Education Department student journal, the Exposition, has been published. The articles included in this volume are 

• "Tribute to Gary Marotta" by David Carson 
• "Baptism By Fire: Ireland, the Easter Rising of 1916, and Its Experiment with Radical Republicanism" by Travis K. Becker
• "Moving Toward Modern: How the Steel Plant Museum of Western New York Is Embracing the Paradigm Shift of Museums in the 21st Century" by Steve Bukowski
• "Death by Bullet, Fire, or Vapor: Examining the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb to End World War II in the Pacific Theater" by Jonathan Keenan

The articles can be found at http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/exposition.

Thank you to all faculty and staff members who have already volunteered to assist with Commencement. Additional volunteer ushers are greatly needed to make the 141st Commencement on Saturday, May 18, a success. Please help in honoring the Class of 2013 and welcoming their guests to campus by registering online to volunteer usher for any of the three ceremonies. The greatest need is with the 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. ceremonies. Please contact Mary Beth Wojtaszek, assistant events manager, with any questions. Thank you.

Student-athletes from Buffalo State are offering a free night of sports and fun for children from grades 3 through 5 on Thursday, May 2. The children will interact with college student-athletes in numerous sports and teamwork activities. 

• Registration will be held at the main entrance to the Buffalo State Sports Arena.
• Please drop off by 5:45 p.m. Doors close at 6:00 p.m. You are welcome to stay with your child or leave and return.
• Please pick up your child promptly at 8:30 p.m.

Please contact Meg Stevens, ext. 6526, for more information or to get a registration form. Registration will also be available at the door the evening of the event.

The Grant Allocation Committee (GAC) is requesting proposals from individuals, departments, and student clubs and organizations for funding of programs, speakers, and events to take place during the 2013–2014 academic year.

The deadline for submitting applications under this funding cycle has been extended to Friday, May 24, for summer and fall 2013 program proposals.

Please note that the application and guidelines have been updated. Old applications will not be accepted by the committee. The application for funding and complete details of requirements may be found on the Student Affairs website. In an effort to cut costs and in line with our institutional efforts to go green, all proposals must be submitted electronically at marzolkl@buffalostate.edu, with one hard copy delivered to Cleveland Hall 519.

Questions about the GAC may be addressed to Daniel Vélez, assistant to the vice president for student affairs, Cleveland Hall 519, ext. 4704.

Kids Day is Tuesday, April 30, this year, and the Inter Greek Association (IGA) will hit the streets to sell a special Kids Day edition of the Buffalo News. Proceeds from the sale of this special edition are presented to Variety, the Children’s Charity, to benefit Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo; the Robert Warner MD Center for Children with Special Needs; and Children’s Charities of Western New York. Please have your dollar ready as you approach campus to assist IGA with its fundraising goal.

Buffalo State Dining and United Students Government will be collaborating today during Bengal Pause to give great information on dining programs, sustainability initiatives, meal deals, and much more! Stop by the Campbell Student Union upper lobby to learn about all the great things that Buffalo State Dining has to offer.

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

Casey Brown, a master's degree candidate of forensic science in the Chemistry Department at Buffalo State, will present her master's defense seminar, "Microfabrication of Single Cell Hydrogel Array for Studying Cell Volume Regulation," at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, in Science Building 272. This seminar series is supported by the Auxiliary Services Grant Allocation Committee, the Vice President for Student Affairs Office, and the Faculty-Student Association. The seminar abstract follows.

Abstract
In response to external stimuli, cells alter their chemical and physical properties. One interesting physiological phenomenon is cell volume regulation. This particular mechanism is critical for cell survival and responsible for maintaining cell volume homeostasis after osmotic shock. Many efforts have been made to develop techniques of measuring cell volume change; however, previously developed techniques lack the ability to screen malfunctioning single cells among a population of cells with high throughput. Probing the behaviors of single cells can provide valuable information that can be hidden by the averaged information of a population of cells.

By using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) template and photocrosslinkable hydrogel precursor solution, we have created a new method of fabricating a single cell array based on hydrogel. The hydrogel array was constructed on the glass, and the glass surface within the wells was treated with fibronectin to promote cell adhesion. The size of the hydrogel microwell was controlled to contain a single cell. Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells were grown in the well array. Greater than 50 percent of the array was occupied by single cells. After exposure to hypotonic solution, a cell volume regulation experiment was performed using the cells loaded with Calcein-AM dye. Since the microwell array can precisely locate the positions of individual cells, dynamic behaviors of same single cells could be conveniently traced over a long period of time. By exploring volume regulation phenomena using our single cell array, it is possible to screen malfunctioning cells in high throughput and therefore clarify the cause of heterogeneous responses of single cells. In addition, the cells in the well array can be easily accessed for further genomic or proteomic analysis.