As many of you are aware, Buffalo State welcomed another large class of first-year students to campus this fall. Approximately 1,700 freshmen joined our academic community in August, marking the third-largest cohort of first-year students in the past 25 years. While interest has been high among potential first-year students, we continue to experience downward trends in transfer and graduate enrollments, as well as declines in returning upperclassmen and part-time students.

These declines have resulted in an overall student enrollment of 9,475 for this fall, which is about 800 students lower than our fall 2015 enrollment. As a result, the college faces a structural deficit of $3.3 million for the coming year. Coupled with $1.4 million in one-time unfunded costs for negotiated salary payments, we are projecting an all-funds budget deficit of $4.7 million for 2016–2017.

To help minimize the impact of this projected deficit on our campus reserves, effective immediately, we are instituting a freeze on hiring and other personnel actions that commit campus budget resources through the end of the fiscal year. The President’s Cabinet will continue its current practice of reviewing all proposed personnel actions and may permit hires deemed critical to move forward, such as those related to campus safety, accreditation, and regulatory compliance.

Over the next several months, personnel in the Accounting and Budget units will be working with campus leadership to review all campus budgets for opportunities for reductions and strategic reallocations, and to identify potential revenue-generating opportunities. We also welcome campus input into this process and ask that ideas be submitted to vpfm@buffalostate.edu.

Concurrently, our efforts to improve transfer enrollment and retention numbers will continue. In the coming days, we will announce a new articulation agreement with Erie Community College called the “Kat to Bengal Bridge Program.” We also believe that initiatives such as our “Roar in 4” four-year graduate guarantee, Phase I of the centralized Academic Achievement Center in Butler Library, changes to the advisement process, and a greater emphasis on high-impact practices will lead to more students persisting and graduating from Buffalo State.

I will continue to keep you updated as we work together to address these challenges. Thank you in advance for your contributions, collaborations, and assistance with the important work that lies ahead.

I want to thank the many members of the Buffalo State community for developing such a wonderful array of Homecoming activities...

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I am seeking nominations for individuals to serve on the Advising Implementation Team to lead the campus in developing a plan for mandatory advisement beginning in fall 2017. Self-nominations from faculty and staff members are welcome. The Advising Implementation Team will work with academic departments to determine the best strategy for each program in concert with the college’s overall goal of every student receiving high-quality academic advisement every semester.

Please send your nominations to Carolyn Martino, assistant to the provost, by Wednesday, October 12.

I am pleased to announce that the following faculty and staff members will serve on the 2016–2017 Honorary Degree Committee:

Co-Chair: Ann Colley, SUNY Distinguished Professor, English
Co-Chair: Maryruth Glogowski, Associate Vice President, RITE

William Benfanti, Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Alumni Affairs
John Cabra, Associate Professor, Center for Studies in Creativity
Kathy Doody, Assistant Professor, Exceptional Education
Krista Vince Garland, Assistant Professor, Exceptional Education
Charles Kenyon, Associate Vice President; Dean of Students
Lawrence Maheady, Horace Mann Endowed Chair, Exceptional Education
Kathleen O’Brien, Lecturer, Hospitality and Tourism; Director, Campus House
Gary Pettibone, Professor, Biology
Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections, Burchfield Penney Art Center
Amy Wilson, Assistant Professor, Higher Education Administration

Bonita R. Durand, Chief of Staff, President’s Office, will provide staff support to the committee.

The Honorary Degree Committee is charged with identifying candidates for the State University of New York honorary doctorate, SUNY’s highest academic honor, and preparing nomination portfolios. Honorary degrees are awarded to recognize excellence that exemplifies the mission and purpose of the State University of New York in the following fields: public affairs, the sciences, humanities and the arts, scholarship and education, business and philanthropy, and social services.

Honorary degrees also can honor meritorious or outstanding service to the university, the state of New York, the United States, or humanity at large, or people whose lives serve as examples of the university’s aspirations for its students.

Please forward names of suggested nominees for SUNY honorary doctorates to Maryruth Glogowski, Cleveland Hall 511, or any other committee member by Monday, October 24.

Buffalo State is known for its outstanding education, the many ways we engage students inside and outside the classroom and in the community, and as a campus committed to social responsibility...

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We are excited to announce that the migration of all faculty and staff mailboxes from the on-premise e-mail environment, Exchange 2007, to the new cloud-based Office 365 environment has been completed. We are now ready to proceed with the final stages of cutover to the new Office 365 environment to provide full functionality to the campus community. To facilitate this final step, it will be necessary to schedule downtime for the following services as noted below:

• Shared Folder/Calendar Access: Access to shared folders or calendars through the Outlook client will be disrupted as those folders are migrated. Migration is planned for this coming weekend, October 8–10. Please note: E-mail service will NOT be disrupted during this time.

We are also pleased to announce the availability of our official Office 365 training sessions, including “What Is Office 365?” “What’s New in Mail and Calendar?” and “Office in the Cloud.” For details and registration for these sessions, please visit our Office 365 Training page. 

As a reminder, we have resources available to assist you with the new Office 365 environment, including the Office 365 Migration Guide and the Office 365 FAQ pages available on our website.

Please send your questions, comments, and concerns to the RITE Support Desk via e-mail. After migration, if you encounter a problem with your e-mail or calendar that needs to be addressed, please call the Support Desk at 878-4357.

I am pleased to advise you that the Buffalo State College Strategic Plan for 2016–2021 was officially ratified by the College Council at its meeting on October 4, 2016. I thank the members of the College Planning Council (CPC), under the leadership of Provost Melanie Perreault, for their exceptional work over the past year. The spirit of shared governance, collaboration, and common purpose that emanated from all campus constituents is clearly evident in our final product. We have a plan that contains a set of strategic directions for the campus with well-defined objectives to guide our efforts toward achieving our mission for the 2016–2021 period.

The approved version of the plan can be found at http://suny.buffalostate.edu/strategicplan. Again, thank you to the members of the CPC for your leadership and to the entire Buffalo State College community for your participation and input on this most important initiative.

Members of the campus community are invited to submit nominations for the following student awards:

President’s Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate Student
One undergraduate student and one graduate student will be awarded the President’s Medal. The President’s Medal is the highest honor awarded to a student by SUNY Buffalo State. This award is given to a student who, through use of his or her natural talents and acquired skills, has demonstrated a commitment toward meeting the goals of higher education as set forth in the university’s mission statement. The recipients will deliver the student address at Commencement. A grade point average of at least 3.5 is required for consideration for this award. Only students graduating in December 2016, May 2017, or August 2017 will be considered.*

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence
The Chancellor’s Award is the highest honor bestowed by SUNY upon a student. This award recognizes model students who have integrated academic excellence with achievement in areas such as athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, entrepreneurship, leadership, and career achievement. Although there is no prescribed grade point average for this award, it is assumed that recipients will have high academic achievement. Award recipients will be recognized at a spring ceremony in Albany and at Commencement. Only students graduating between June 2016 and May 2017 will be considered.*

Nominations are being sought for both awards. Students must be nominated by a faculty or staff member at SUNY Buffalo State. Candidates must have demonstrated the qualities recognized by each award. Selection criteria are similar for each award; however, to be considered for the President’s Medal, a grade point average of 3.5 or higher is required. A student may be nominated for either or both awards.

Selection Criteria for Both Awards
Academic Performance: Documented via grade point average, honors received, rank in class, research, and other scholarly projects.

Citizenship: As measured by university and community service, the quality of extracurricular activities, or involvement in professional organizations.

Leadership/Creativity: Documented local, state, national, or international recognition for excellence (e.g., recipient of major national scholarships or athletic awards, or recognition by national and international associations and honor societies).

For graduate students: documented by activities related to the discipline of graduate degree program or other university service leadership in a professional organization, or community outreach activities related to the field of study.

More information and nomination materials are available on the Student Life website.

Nominations and supporting documentation must be delivered to the Student Affairs Office, Cleveland Hall 519, by 4:00 p.m. Monday, December 19.

Please call Kathy Marzolf, secretary 2 in Student Affairs, at 878-4704 with questions or concerns regarding the application process.

*Information will be verified with the Registrar's Office.

The campus community is invited to attend the workshop "LGBTQ 101: Terminology, Identity, and Inclusion" on Thursday, October 13, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Butler Library 208. Steve Jagord from the Pride Center of Western New York will lead a discussion on LGBTQ terminology, identity, and inclusive practices.

This interactive workshop is designed to help answer questions as well as share information about how you can be involved in supporting your colleagues, students, and employees. By learning more about our unique identities, members of our campus can create an even more welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community.

More LGBTQ resources are available on the Butler Library website. This event is sponsored by the Equity and Campus Diversity Office.

Following last week's announcement that RITE would be completing the migration of shared folders and calendars to the new Office 365 environment over the weekend, we are pleased to share that the process was successfully completed and users should now have access to these folders through the Microsoft Outlook client installed on their campus workstations or laptops.

We will now begin the process of preparing for the decommissioning of the current Exchange 2007 e-mail server to complete the transition to the cloud-based Office 365 environment. We will announce to the community when this has been scheduled.

Another important change made over the weekend was the restriction on user-created Office 365 Groups. Groups are a powerful feature available in Office 365 to promote collaboration and communication across teams. We were delighted to see that a significant number of Groups have already been created in the Buffalo State Office 365 environment; however, it became evident that a uniform naming convention would be required for Group management going forward. Therefore, the ability to create Office 365 Groups will remain with RITE for the time being. Any user who wishes to establish a new Group should contact the RITE Support Desk, 878-4357, to submit a request for immediate assistance. Additional training on how to best use and manage Office 365 Groups will be available for the community shortly.  

 As a reminder, please take full advantage of our official Office 365 training sessions, including “What Is Office 365?” “What’s New in Mail and Calendar?” and “Office in the Cloud.” For details and registration for these sessions, please visit our Office 365 Training page.

Please send your questions, comments, and concerns about the Office 365 suite of tools to the RITE Support Desk via e-mail.