Buffalo State faculty, staff, and students who wish to learn more about or register for CarShare membership are encouraged to attend the upcoming CarShare orientation on Thursday, April 25, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210B.

Registrants will be instructed on how the program works, have their questions answered, and receive their CarShare key fob. Sign up online beforehand at buffalocarshare.org or register at the orientation.

Current CarShare members can refer a friend and receive a $20 driving credit! And as always, Buffalo State department accounts, as well as personal accounts held by drivers from a department account, incur no monthly fees.

All Buffalo State faculty, students, and staff who registered for CarShare before St. Patrick's Day were entered into a drawing to win $100 in Bengal Bucks. We are pleased to announce that the winner is Buffalo State student Ohanes Kalayjian. Congratulations, Ohanes!

Questions about the CarShare program can be directed to (716) 898-0850.

Anthony Agnello and George Deshaies spent several years in Afghanistan with the Peace Corps in the '70s, where they were involved in multiple educational and cultural programs and activities that have left indelible marks on their lives and personalities. They have retained strong ties with that country and have established strong networks focusing on Afghanistan throughout the United States with the support of the Peace Corps program. They look forward to sharing their memories, today’s realities, and their dreams for the future during this lecture on Tuesday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, please contact Jean F. Gounard, director of international student affairs, ext. 5331.

Join us for a lecture and discussion, "Two Perspectives on Color: Pigment and Light," by artists Ellen Steinfeld and Shasti O'Leary Soudant, with a question-and-answer period to follow, on Thursday, April 25, from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium.

Color evokes passion, creates a statement, and can easily transform the shape and composition of a sculpture or a painting. Steinfeld’s use of various pigments goes beyond the comfort zones of black, white, and gray as seen in her current exhibition, Suspended Motion.

What is light, really? This omnipresent, life-giving stuff is taken for granted in much the same way as air, but it is infinitely more complex in the ways it nurtures us, charms us, and cons us. Light, properly wielded, can make you believe anything! So what is it, where does it come from, and how does it work its magic on us? Artist and educator O'Leary Soudant will present in conjunction with her Useum installation, Let There Be Light.

My Appreciation of Watercolor: A Personal View with Nancy Weekly, part of the International Center for Watercolor Lunchtime Lecture Series, will be held Friday, May 3, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Enjoy lunch at the Burchfield Café before attending the lecture and discussion. Watercolor presentations are held on the first and third Fridays of the month from February 15 to May 3 in the conference room. Lectures are free with gallery admission.

"Charles Ephraim Burchfield—the primary focus of my curatorial career—evolved from traditional watercolor methodology to mastery of a unique language of expression, doing whatever it would take to construct his paintings. What I appreciate about watercolor I learned through him and his aberrant approach to the medium. After more than 31 years at this museum, I channel Charles Burchfield—especially in appreciation of nature through the lens of art, music, and literature, with an amateur’s curiosity for science." — Nancy Weekly

For more information, please visit the Burchfield Penney website.

On a Clear Day: Small-Format Landscape with Sally Treanor, a class and workshop designed for intermediate to advanced watercolorists, will be held on Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Using small pieces of watercolor paper, color triads, and personal photos or sketches, participants will explore aerial perspective, pigment qualities, and the miracle of small paintings. Sally Treanor’s workshop will explore watercolor skill-building exercises that she first demonstrates and then follows with a full-class critique.

An aquarellist, Treanor employs traditional transparent watercolor techniques using no opaque white or black pigments. Works are done with great attention to color in a limited palette based on triads. Paintings are open ended, developed directly from natural materials and artifacts, juxtaposing calligraphic strokes with sweeping washes and soft edges. She also includes sumi-e elements in many of her paintings. Her landscapes and florals are strongly dependent on drawing and design. She believes that each painting communicates a personal encounter with her environment. Treanor has been teaching watercolor since 1976. She takes great joy in the progress of her students, thoroughly introducing materials, techniques, and vocabulary of watercolor and art in general.

Cost: $32 for "not yet" members; $25 for Burchfield Penney members. To register, please contact Kathy Gaye Shiroki, curator of museum learning and community engagement, ext. 3549. For more information, please visit the Burchfield Penney website.

From the Chair of the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee

The College Senate will hold elections Monday, April 22, to Friday, April 26.

Election One: Filling one university faculty senator position and one alternate faculty senator position

Election Two: Filling three at-large senator positions (two three-year terms and one two-year replacement term)

Once again, the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee will make use of an electronic voting system supplemented by paper ballots to conduct two elections—one for a university faculty senator and an alternate university faculty senator, the second for two at-large college senators to serve three-year terms and one at-large college senator to serve a two-year term replacement. Voting begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 22, and continues until 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 26.

Our primary goals are to encourage participation in the shared governance of Buffalo State and to share information on each candidate. If you have not already visited the College Senate's Elections Information Site to review candidate qualifications, please do so.  

Voter Eligibility
Election one (UF senator and alternate UF senator): All full-time academics and professionals (Negotiating Unit 8) and all managerial (Negotiating Unit 13)

Election two (at-large senators): All full-time academics and professionals (Negotiating Unit 8)

Electronic or Paper Ballot
If you plan to vote electronically:

• The election e-booth will be located at www.buffalostate.edu/collegesenate/x682.xml. Log in using your e-mail user name and password.
• When you log in, the system will identify the election(s) in which you are eligible to vote. If you think you have been misidentified or some other issue arises, please contact Vince Masci, clerk 1 in the College Senate Office, ext. 5139.

If you plan to vote by paper ballot, you must request a ballot. Ballots will be sent only to voters who request them. Please request a paper ballot in one of the following ways during the election period:

• Call the Senate Office at ext. 5139. Provide your name and phone number. If you leave your message on voice mail, a follow-up call will be made to you before we send out the ballot to make sure we correctly record your name.
• Send an e-mail to Vince Masci in the College Senate at collegesenate@buffalostate.edu.

Paper ballots, to be distributed during the second week of April, will contain the same information about each candidate as the electronic site (with the exception of photographs or information from candidates’ web sites, should any of the candidates have web sites) and must be returned to the Senate Office by the close of business on April 26 in order to be counted.

Thank you for your participation in this year’s election. Please share any feedback, questions, or concerns with Bill White, chair of the Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee.

Faculty and staff members of the Teacher Education Unit are requested to read and vote on the proposed TEC bylaws. You will receive an e-mail soon that will direct you to our voting platform. 

Copies of current and proposed bylaws may be downloaded from the Teacher Education Council website.

Highlighted changes in membership, committees, and voting are 17 faculty, two students, and one TEUPAC member on the council; one new committee for communication; and just four members on the executive committee. Faculty members are distributed by program enrollment. Check out all the updates and changes from the TEC website. Just click on "Bylaws."

If you have questions or if you would like a paper ballot, please contact the TEC chair, Robin Harris, via e-mail.

The voting window is two weeks, so please cast your vote soon.

United Students Government presents Operation Graduation, featuring guest speaker Dave Farrow, on Wednesday, April 24, at 6:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. Free buffet dinner to follow the speaker. Farrow will teach students the Farrow Memory Ultimate Study and Exam Prep System.

Imagine that genius could be taught. You can have the ability to trigger focus at will, breeze through work that leaves others frustrated and overwhelmed, and speed through technical information and retain it better than you ever thought possible. Students will get this result in just one talk. Farrow shows you the simple method that will cut all study time to a fraction and triple your recall.

Students learn:

how to breeze through mountains of material and memorize it all;
how to easily memorize high-tech or medical jargon;
to be in total control of their ability to focus, even with ADD and ADHD;
the simple way to memorize any amount of information without repetition;
how to memorize definitions—even hundreds at a time—to ace the next exam.

The Farrow memory method is the best-selling and most effective memory training system in the world today.

This workshop focuses on tips and strategies to help improve a student's ability to have conversations with peers and faculty. Learning to advocate for oneself has been found to have significant impact on academic success. Please encourage your students to attend.

Wednesday, April 24, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Weigel Health Center 203. Please be punctual. For more information, call the Counseling Center at ext. 4436.

The final concert of this year's world music series will feature guest artists Diaspora Drumming, presenting music of Africa and the African diaspora, on Tuesday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Ciminelli Recital Hall. The group will be joined by the West African Drumming Ensemble, directed by Tiffany Nicely, and the student-run Spirit Gospel Choir. Tickets are free for students and $10 for the general public.