Student Employment Week is April 8–12. Celebrating your student workers can be done in a variety of ways.  Here are some ways to celebrate:

• Office potluck or pizza/snack party
• Gift certificates to the bookstore for student workers
• A thank-you card or “thank-you gram”
• A flower, balloon, candy, or gift certificate left at the student's work area
• A banner hung in your office that reads “Thank You, Student Employees.”

The Career Development Center has also planned the following activities:

• Small thank-you gifts are provided to campus offices; if you need additional pens for your students, please contact the CDC.
   
• Where’s ORCA Facebook Contest — Using the “Year of the City” theme, ORCA visited various places in the city of Buffalo. Students should go to the BuffState Career Development Facebook page and tell us where ORCA visited. New pictures will be posted each day along with a chance to win a T-shirt or a $50 Buffalo City Prize Pack. Winners will be selected Friday.
   
• Free popcorn — Monday, April 8, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union lobby. Send your student workers for free popcorn! (Quantities are limited.)
   
• Need a summer job? —  Tuesday, April 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union lobby. Students can stop by and get help looking for and applying for summer jobs.
   
• Department celebrations — Wednesday, April 10. Celebrate your student employees!
   
• Student Employment Awards Reception — Thursday, April 11, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. Recipients of the Student Employee of the Year Award, Supervisor of the Year Award, and Student Employer of the Year Award will be recognized.

Stress can sometimes be beneficial—sharpening your senses and providing the adrenaline rush you need to conquer deadlines. But it can also be harmful. Michael F. Roizen, M.D., chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said, “Stress is the greatest ager of your body in general, especially the nagging, unfinished-tasks kinds of stress that hang over you day after day or the stress of things that are out of your control…. Just as chronic stress can damage your heart, actively working at reducing stress will keep your heart healthier.” Conquering everyday stressors and thoughtful ways to reduce stress are addressed in this session with tips, strategies, relaxation techniques, and meditation to get stress-free now! De-stress on Wednesday, April 17, from noon to 2:00 p.m. in the Professional Development Center, E. H. Butler Library 181B. A light lunch will be provided.

R.S.V.P. by Monday, April 15.

Based on faculty feedback from fall 2012 grading, we wish to highlight the proper input of Last Date of Attendance covered in the grading tip sheet.

Last Attend Date entry: If you are entering the “Last Attend Date,” Banner will accept only one format: MM/DD/ YYYY; for example, for a student who last attended March 8, 2013, the entry would be 03/08/2013. Incorrect entries will cause all subsequent grades to be lost, resulting in X grades.

The spring 2013 grading window opens today at 9:00 a.m.

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 members 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 so that your end-of-semester grading will be smoother and more successful.

The Center for China Studies invites you to attend the spring 2013 seminar, "The Chinese Traditional Medicine Care," on Thursday, April 11, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Classroom Building C122. Presented by
Ma Lieguang, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and translated by Li Na of Capital Normal University. Refreshments will be served.

Faculty members will see two links added to their menu selections in Self-Service Banner: Detail Wait List and Summary Wait List. Click on these links to see student waitlist information. Both links show the same information, but the Detail Wait List shows more detail on each student, such as major, class, and level (graduate or undergraduate).

Both links show you students who are waitlisted for your class. You have the ability to send an e-mail to an individual student or to all students waitlisted for your class. This ability may come in handy if your department wants to add a new section of the same course.

The fourth annual Mental Health Awareness Week starts Monday, April 8, and runs through Friday, April 12. This year’s theme is "Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies." Come and meet with us at several events. Faculty members, please consider offering class time or credit for students to attend one or several of this year’s events. Discussions, presentations, and trainings such as QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer—a suicide-prevention training), Mindful Meditation, CPR, a screening and discussion of the film After Stonewall, the Mental Health Awareness Fair, Stress Management, Healing Grief, Embracing Loss, Take Back the Night, and the Celebration of Life memorial service are described in more detail on the Counseling Center's website. Click on the schedule of events to see times and locations. Must-see exhibit and fair on Thursday in Bulger Communication Center. All events are free.

Please pass on this information and don’t hesitate to contact the Counseling Center at ext. 4436 if you have any questions or comments (or by e-mail at johnsosk@buffalostate.edu). Thank you!

The National Professional Science Master's Association will hold a two-day conference, "Professional Science Master’s Opportunities in Data Sciences," on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, May 28 and 29.

Data scientists are in high demand, and this demand will only grow in the twenty-first century. A wide range of companies, from small start-ups to large corporations, in all economic sectors look for professionals who can make discoveries in the world of big data analytics. While there are a few programs that train data scientists, many more are currently being developed.

This workshop intends to address the major questions related to identifying the skills professionals need to
structure and analyze large quantities of data. The three Vs of big data—volume, velocity, and variety—will
be explored. The workshop will bring together employers from business, industry, and government; faculty
from existing programs; and representatives of funding agencies to discuss the following:

• Workforce needs for professionals trained in data science
• Training professionals in data sciences: necessary skills and possible pathways
• Case studies of existing master’s programs in data sciences
• Challenges and opportunities in developing new programs
• Internship and project opportunities for students
• Resources for new programs

Further details are available at https://npsma.memberclicks.net/assets/flyer%20may%202013.pdf.

James Sobol, associate professor of criminal justice, will share his research as part of the Year of the City Emerging Scholar series on Friday, April 12, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. This series of presentations provides faculty members with an opportunity to share their intellectual work with the rest of the campus.

Sobol notes that there is hardly a more argumentative issue in American politics today than guns. Tens of thousands of people are injured or killed by firearms each year. Firearms are used to defend against and deter an unknown number of acts of violence; they are also used frequently for recreational purposes. For public authorities to make reasonable policies on these matters, they must take into account divergent constitutional claims and divided public opinion as well as facts about the relationship between guns and violence.

A large body of research on firearms has addressed the consequences of firearm usage in crimes, particularly homicide. Studies suggest that firearm usage increases crime-related injury severity and mortality. It has been reported that firearms increase the likelihood of death by 40 times compared to incidents not involving any weapon. Conversely, knives increase the likelihood of death by four times, highlighting the particularly serious nature of firearm violence.

Adequate data and research are essential to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence-control policies. Those judgments are key to many important policy questions. Sobol's presentation focuses largely on what we know about reducing guns and gun violence, and comprehensively explores one gun-violence-reducing initiative: gun buyback programs. It aims to inform policymakers about existing evidence and highlight what other strategies police departments might use to effectively address the problems of guns and gun crime.

Have cupcakes your way today at Buffalo State Dining's cupcake bar in the Resident Dining Hall, located in the Campbell Student Union, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Choose from delicious chocolate or vanilla cake topped with buttercream frosting and a variety of sweet toppings including sprinkles, chocolate, and coconut.

Enter with a meal swipe or lunch door price of $8.79.

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