By now, you should have received an e-mail from the Bengal Success Portal asking you to respond to the Student Progress Report. This early intervention tool enables faculty members to inform both advisers and students about signs of academic difficulty early in the term. Advisers can use this information to reach out to their students, who in turn can make positive changes while there is still time to shift course.

Thank you to the many instructors who have already responded to the Student Progress Report for spring 2019. If you have not yet responded to the e-mail reminders, you can still simply log in to easily view your class list(s) and mark whether any of your students have encountered issues. Alternatively, if you choose, you can award students “kudos” for a job well done. Students will receive e-mails with this feedback; students' advisers will receive a copy as well. If there is cause for concern, students will be alerted that they need to take action—and, by the same token, advisers can conduct proactive outreach to help these students reach their academic goals.

Thank you to our top five responders for fall 2018:
Daniel Blum, History and Social Studies Education Department
Adam DePriest, Biology Department
Ashley Martin (and her dedicated team of SI leaders), Student Retention Programs
Amy McMillan, Biology Department and Honors Program
Angela Thering, Computer Information Systems Department

The extra “nudge” you give students might make a big difference for them this term!

The next meeting of the Buffalo State College Council will be held at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, in Cleveland Hall 518.

Agenda

1. Call to Order
2. Action Items
   Approval of the Minutes: December 4, 2018
3. Chair’s Report
4. President’s Report
5. Committee Reports
6. Announcements
7. Executive Session (If Necessary)
8. Adjournment

I am pleased to announce that Yola Monakhov Stockton, assistant professor in the Art and Design Department, has received the President's Professional Development Award. She will attend the Society for Photographic Education annual conference, which will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, from Thursday, March 7, to Sunday, March 10. At this conference, Ms. Stockton will have the opportunity to meet with high school, community college, and university educators at local, regional, and national levels and will be able to share the developments of the photography program. Her professional development award profile can be viewed on the Professional Development website.

The President’s Professional Development Award supports professional development opportunities that enrich the experiences of all employees on campus by promoting opportunities that allow employees to build on their expertise, identify best practices, and network with others.

Members of the campus community are invited to submit nominations for the President’s Professional Development Award by 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 1. If you submitted an application and did not receive the award in past months and you are interested in submitting again, please resubmit your nomination. For more information about the award criteria and recipient selection process, please visit the Professional Development website.

Across campus and throughout higher education, we frequently talk about the twenty-first-century skills that our graduates should develop during their college years to meet the reality of today’s and tomorrow’s careers...

Please follow my blog at http://kateconwayturner.tumblr.com.

As Buffalo State continues to improve access to learning and content for students, I am happy to announce that Blackboard Ally will go live across all Buffalo State Blackboard Learn course sites on Wednesday, April 17. This means that Ally will be available in spring 2019 Blackboard course sites after April 17 and into the future.

The Blackboard Ally tool, embedded in Blackboard Learn, is designed to make digital course content more accessible to all students. Alternative formats include OCRed PDF, HTML, ePub (for e-book devices and apps), electronic braille, audio (MP3), and machine translation. The Ally tool also assists faculty members in identifying and correcting accessibility issues within their own course content.

A detailed message has been sent to all deans, chairs, and directors of student support services. Please review the IT Knowledge Base article about Blackboard Ally, and sign up for training via the Workshop Registration System. A summary of feedback from the Ally pilot conducted on campus is available online.

Watch how students can choose alternative content delivery in this generic Blackboard Ally video. Messaging to students begins after April 17.

I have approved the following dates for 2019 First-Year (FY) and Transfer (TR) Orientation

Summer 2019
First-Year (FY) Orientation will be held in six sessions:
FY Session 1: Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, June 25
FY Session 2: Thursday, June 27, and Friday, June 28
FY Session 3: Monday, July 1, and Tuesday, July 2
FY Session 4: Monday, July 8, Tuesday, July 9
FY Session 5: Thursday, July 11, and Friday, July 12
FY Session 6: Monday, July 15, and Tuesday, July 16
FY Session 7: Wednesday, August 21, and Thursday, August 22 (make-up session)

Transfer (TR) Orientation will be held in three sessions:
TR Session 1: Friday, June 21
TR Session 2: Thursday, July 18
TR Session 3: Tuesday, August 20

I thank the campus community for its work to prepare our new Bengals in their transition to Buffalo State College.

For additional information, please visit the Student Leadership and Engagement website or e-mail the SLE office.

The Honors Program is undergoing a rapid evolution as we move toward the goal of an Honors College. Below is an overview of some recent changes:

1. We have changed the minimum cumulative GPA requirement for Muriel A. Howard Honors students (previously 3.5, now 3.3), which puts us more in line with GPA requirements for other SUNY comprehensive colleges.
2. For the first time ever, a group of current Buffalo State students has been admitted to the Honors Program. These students applied for a position in the Honors Program and were selected based on their GPAs and credits earned (3.3 minimum cumulative GPA and 45 or fewer credits earned). We welcomed 64 new students for spring 2019 and will solicit applications again at the end of the spring 2019 semester.
3. The incoming class of honors students for fall 2019 will all be Muriel A. Howard Honors Program students. A select group of these students will be offered scholarships. The Honors Advisory Board is working to develop a flexible curriculum to better serve the wide range of students at Buffalo State who will encompass the best of the Dean’s Honors and previous Muriel A. Howard Honors programs.

If you have questions or would like to be part of what is happening in the Honors Program, please contact Amy McMillan, interim director of honors, 878-3093.

Don’t forget to register for the next Assessment and Reporting Seminar on Thursday, February 28. The Institutional Effectiveness Office is offering this series of assessment and reporting seminars, open to all faculty and staff members, during the spring 2019 semester. The intent is to assist academic programs and units, co-curricular programs, and functional areas with various areas of assessment and reporting, such as designing an assessment plan, using Taskstream, completing a department annual report, and developing indirect and direct methods of assessment.

Faculty and staff members are welcome to attend any date; however, sessions will alternate between those focusing on academic programs and those focusing on co-curricular and functional areas. Departments and units are encouraged to attend as groups of colleagues. Remaining dates and times are listed below. All sessions will be held on Thursdays during Bengal Pause, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., in the computer lab in Classroom Building A108. Please use the links below to select and sign up for a seminar.

Focus on Academic Programs
March 14
April 11 

Focus on Co-Curricular and Functional Areas
February 28
March 28
April 25

Please note that advising PINs (also called “alternate PINs”) are now posted in Banner (PDF, 308 KB) and the Bengal Success Portal (access instructions are included in the links). Advisers may wish to start scheduling advising sessions now to avoid a mid-semester crunch.

If you’re looking for an easy way to set up advising sessions with your assigned advisees, please consider using the Bengal Success Portal to set up advising office hours. (If you’re an instructor, it is recommended that you distinguish these blocks from office hours for the classes you teach.) Then you can simply send instructions to students about how to sign up for an appointment if they’ve never used the system. You may also want to sync your Outlook calendar with the portal. If you encounter any issues, please e-mail bengalsuccess@buffalostate.edu for a swift response.

The Career Development Center (CDC) will host the 2019 Job and Internship Fair on Thursday, March 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. This event is open to students from all majors and class years, as well as alumni.

Students, staff, and faculty will have the opportunity to meet with local, regional, and national employers recruiting for full-time and paid internship opportunities. A record number of employers will be in attendance this year, representing a diverse cross-section of industries. Many of the recruiters are alumni, eager to hire Buffalo State students and graduates. Gold sponsors for the Job and Internship Fair include Aurubis Buffalo, M&T Bank, Travelers, Wendel, and Northtown Lexus.

The Job and Internship Fair is a great opportunity for our students to explore a variety of jobs and paid internships. Please encourage students to dress professionally and bring multiple copies of their résumé.

More information, including a list of participating employers, is available on the CDC website.