THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

I am pleased to invite the campus community to the annual luncheon honoring our colleagues who are in their 25th year of service to SUNY. The event will take place Tuesday, April 14, at noon in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. Reservations will be accepted through Monday, April 6.

Employees crossing the 25-year mark this year:

John M. Abbarno, Lecturer, Philosophy
Josephine P. Adamo, Senior Academic Adviser, Academic Commons
D. Steven Barker, Associate Professor, Engineering Technology
Barbara J. Barone, Reference Librarian, Butler Library
David A. Brinson, Lecturer, Fashion and Textile Technology
Claire Collier, Donor Relations Officer, Institutional Advancement
Kimberly A. Fox, Administrative Assistant 1, School of Arts and Humanities
Laurie M. Graziano, Administrative Assistant 2, Equity and Campus Diversity
Ilya Y. Grinberg, Professor, Engineering Technology
Mark E. Hammer, Lecturer, English
Lin Xia Jiang, Professor, Art and Design
Michele Ninacs, Associate Professor, English
Suk Y. Oh, Professor, Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics
Susan Mary Paige, Lecturer, Academic Success
Amy M. Pedlow, Assistant Chief of Police, University Police
Renee M. Polniak, University Police Investigator 1, University Police
Dean J. Reinhart, Associate Director, Undergraduate Admissions
Richard J. Ross, Associate Professor, Art and Design
Jean M. Salisbury, Administrative Assistant 2, Academic Affairs
John Slaughter, Senior Manager, Public Assistance Program Development and Technical Services, Institute for Community Health Promotion
Lynne C. Sommerstein, Lecturer, Exceptional Education
Cynthia Thomason, Senior Business Adviser, Small Business Development Center
Aimable Twagilimana, Professor, English

To make a reservation, please complete and return the reservation form (docx, 12 KB) to the President’s Office, Cleveland Hall 517, or contact Melissa Slisz, staff assistant in the President’s Office, 878-4102, by Monday, April 6.

In 2017, we began celebrating those members of our Buffalo State community who have achieved 25 years of service in SUNY, not just at Buffalo State. If your name is not listed above and you have achieved 25 years of service in SUNY this year, please contact Melissa Slisz.

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

I am pleased to invite the campus community to the annual luncheon honoring our colleagues who are in their 25th year of service to SUNY. The event will take place Tuesday, April 14, at noon in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. Reservations will be accepted through Monday, April 6.

Employees crossing the 25-year mark this year:

John M. Abbarno, Lecturer, Philosophy
Josephine P. Adamo, Senior Academic Adviser, Academic Commons
D. Steven Barker, Associate Professor, Engineering Technology
Barbara J. Barone, Reference Librarian, Butler Library
David A. Brinson, Lecturer, Fashion and Textile Technology
Claire Collier, Donor Relations Officer, Institutional Advancement
Kimberly A. Fox, Administrative Assistant 1, School of Arts and Humanities
Laurie M. Graziano, Administrative Assistant 2, Equity and Campus Diversity
Ilya Y. Grinberg, Professor, Engineering Technology
Mark E. Hammer, Lecturer, English
Lin Xia Jiang, Professor, Art and Design
Michele Ninacs, Associate Professor, English
Suk Y. Oh, Professor, Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics
Susan Mary Paige, Lecturer, Academic Success
Amy M. Pedlow, Assistant Chief of Police, University Police
Renee M. Polniak, University Police Investigator 1, University Police
Dean J. Reinhart, Associate Director, Undergraduate Admissions
Richard J. Ross, Associate Professor, Art and Design
Jean M. Salisbury, Administrative Assistant 2, Academic Affairs
John Slaughter, Senior Manager, Public Assistance Program Development and Technical Services, Institute for Community Health Promotion
Lynne C. Sommerstein, Lecturer, Exceptional Education
Cynthia Thomason, Senior Business Adviser, Small Business Development Center
Aimable Twagilimana, Professor, English

To make a reservation, please complete and return the reservation form (docx, 12 KB) to the President’s Office, Cleveland Hall 517, or contact Melissa Slisz, staff assistant in the President’s Office, 878-4102, by Monday, April 6.

In 2017, we began celebrating those members of our Buffalo State College community who have achieved 25 years of service in SUNY, not just at Buffalo State. If your name is not listed above and you have achieved 25 years of service in SUNY this year, please contact Melissa Slisz.

Stephanie Zuckerman-Aviles, director of the Career Development Center (CDC), has announced her plans to retire effective June 2020.

Mrs. Zuckerman-Aviles began her tenure at Buffalo State within the Student Affairs division in 1982 as assistant director of the CDC and was promoted to her current position as director in 1989. She completed a bachelor of science in math education from Queens College and a master of education in college counseling and student personnel from the University at Buffalo. She has spent most of her career at Buffalo State and the University at Buffalo, always holding positions in career development centers. She has been dedicated to helping students develop their professional skills to be successful. Providing services that support students in being successful has been her mission as the director. 

Mrs. Zuckerman-Aviles has served as a leader in the career development field, is an incredible resource across SUNY, and has trained career development professionals across the country. She has held leadership positions in professional organizations such as SUNYCDO, and the WNYACCC among others. She is highly regarded for her historical, theoretical, and practical knowledge of the career development field. She has established applied learning supports here at Buffalo State, including forming the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center, now the Civic and Community Engagement Office, and leading Buffalo State’s involvement in SUNY applied learning efforts.

Please join me in expressing heartfelt appreciation to Mrs. Zuckerman-Aviles for her 38 years of exceptional service to Buffalo State and the Western New York community.

I have asked Laura Hill-Rao, director of the Civic and Community Engagement Office, and Amy Wilson, associate professor and chair of the Higher Education Administration Department, to serve as co-chairs of the search committee for the new director of the CDC, along with the following faculty, staff, student, and community members:

Philip Badaszewski, Assistant Dean, Residence Life
Mary-Jo Jagord, Director, Alumni Engagement Office
Gaelle Jean-Baptiste, President, United Students Government
Nigel Marriner, Registrar, Registrar’s Office
Brent Patterson, Associate Professor, Art and Design Department
Lynn Rogers, Senior Career Counselor, Career Development Center
Stanley Simmons, Say Yes Coordinator, Academic Success
Laura Tyrrell, Claim and Operations Manager, Travelers Insurance
Amanda Marzolf, Office Assistant 1 (Keyboarding), Information Technology VP Office (Administrative Support)

All professional staff members, faculty members, and librarians must submit their 2019–2020 individual annual reports online. Unique links were e-mailed to all faculty and professional staff members on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, and will remain open through the deadline for submission (June 30, 2020). Faculty and professional staff members can save and return to their individual forms at any time from any device. Our hope is that early access to this form will allow faculty and staff members to collect and enter accomplishments throughout the year.

Once the form is submitted, respondents will see a summary of the information submitted and a link to download the report as a PDF. Respondents will also receive an e-mail confirmation that includes a response summary in the body of the e-mail. Though annual reports must be submitted online, a template of each form is available on the Institutional Effectiveness Resources web page.

If you have questions about the content of the annual report, please contact Luke Krieg, interim associate vice president for institutional effectiveness. If you have technical questions, please contact Tiffany Fuzak, research analyst.

On Monday, February 3, every employee on campus will be invited to participate in a comprehensive study of our collective workplace, campus culture, and level of employee engagement and satisfaction.

While the survey is an extension of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Great Colleges to Work for program, our intention in conducting the survey is different from that in past years. Buffalo State College will use the survey as part of an internal study to help the campus, administration, and newly appointed Institutional Innovation Advisory Council (IIAC) identify the following:

• What are our organizational strengths, and how can we leverage those strengths in new and innovative ways?
• Where are we falling short as an organization, and how can we improve in those areas?

The IIAC has incorporated an additional set of questions into the survey to provide a more comprehensive data set to accomplish these objectives.

Higher education is undergoing significant demographic and technological shifts, which will require us to change how our institution operates, how we collaborate across departments and divisions to solve institutional challenges (retention, enrollment, developing new revenue streams, etc.), and how we prepare our campus workforce to address the ever-changing challenges of the future. The results of this survey and our inclusive and transparent review of its results will better position us to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

The survey will be sent to all Buffalo State employees via e-mail on Monday, February 3, and will remain open for responses until Monday, February 17. The survey will be administered and processed by ModernThink LLC, a research and consulting firm focused on workplace excellence. All responses will be anonymous and confidential. ModernThink will not provide any personally identifiable information when reporting results. All demographic questions will be optional, and any open-ended responses will be listed in alphabetical order by the first letter of the response to maintain anonymity. For additional information about the survey, please visit the Professional Development Center website for a list of frequently asked questions.

In May, the IIAC will present the survey findings to the campus community through a series of town hall meetings, providing an opportunity for the campus to ask questions about the data and survey results, while also initiating discussions that begin to address areas for improvement and ways to better leverage our strengths. In fall 2020, the IIAC will issue a written report to the campus community summarizing the survey results, campus feedback, and potential strategies to move the campus forward.

We encourage all members of the campus community to participate throughout the process, not only through the survey and town hall meetings, but also by engaging their colleagues and supervisors in discussions on how everyone can ignite innovation in his or her division or department. In addition to developing and analyzing the survey, the IIAC is concurrently developing a system and structure to cultivate further ideas from the campus community.

Thank you for your participation in the survey and in our collective efforts to move the campus forward. Together, we will ignite innovation and ensure that Buffalo State thrives in the future!

Sincerely,

Katherine Conway-Turner
President

Jonathan Hulbert
Chair, Institutional Innovation Advisory Council
Director, Leadership and Organizational Development

Joseph Marren
Chair, College Senate
Professor, Communication Department

Buffalo State’s 148th Commencement will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2020. The Commencement Ceremony Eligibility Policy and the Baccalaureate Academic Honors/Gold Honors Cord Eligibility Policy detail the protocols for various aspects for graduates and degree candidates participating in Commencement. The policies were developed within Academic Affairs and across vice presidential areas where degree conferral and Commencement planning take place, with the Registrar’s Office establishing the 102-earned-credit threshold for undergraduates to make degree application through self-service Banner. 

Please become familiar with the following graduation and Commencement ceremony information for undergraduates and graduate-level students and advise students accordingly: 

• Commencement Ceremony Eligibility Policy
• Baccalaureate Academic Honors/Gold Honors Cord Eligibility Policy
• Registrar's Graduation Preparation page for bachelor’s degree application requirements and procedures. 
  The bachelor’s graduating class of 2020 will include August 2019, December 2019, and January 2020 graduates as well as May 2020 degree candidates for all bachelor’s degrees. 
  Undergraduate certificate programs are not included in Commencement. 
• The Graduate School Graduation page for graduate level degree and certificate application requirements and procedures. 
  The Graduate School graduating class of 2020 will include all master’s degrees, certificates of advanced study, and graduate certificate graduates for August 2019, December 2019, and January 2020, as well as candidates for May 2020 and August 2020. 
  Postbaccalaureate programs are not included in Commencement. 
• Please advise students of Commencement-related policies. 

Three ceremonies will celebrate degree candidates by school. Faculty members are expected to participate in the processional for their school, as well as graduate faculty for the evening ceremony. 

• Morning Baccalaureate Ceremony | 9:00 a.m.
  School of Education
  School of the Professions 
• Afternoon Baccalaureate Ceremony | 1:30 p.m.
  School of Arts and Humanities
  School of Natural and Social Sciences
  Individualized Studies 
• Graduate School Ceremony | 6:00 p.m.
  Graduate Degrees
  Certificates of Advanced Study
  Graduate Certificates 

Thank you for advising students accordingly and planning now to participate in Commencement to honor the Buffalo State graduating class of 2020. Additional information is forthcoming from committees and offices involved in Commencement planning.

The search to identify the college’s next associate vice president for human resource management is underway. Members of the search committee are as follows:

Chair: Jill Powell, Senior Assistant to the Vice President for Finance and Management
Curtis Brickhouse, Director of Student Affairs Operations
Scott Burns, Associate Vice President for Development
James Fowler, Athletics Budget Manager; Ice Arena Manager
Kelly Frothingham, Associate Dean, School of Natural and Social Sciences
Yves Gachette, Director of Institutional Research 
Scott Kent, Manager of Custodial Services
Charles Lyons, Director, Butler Library
Sumana Silverheels, Technology Accommodations Coordinator, Student Accessibility Services
Amy Wilson, Chair and Associate Professor, Higher Education Administration

The prospectus (PDF, 1.8 MB) provides details about the position and the search, which is expected to be completed in May.

The Marketing and Communications Office has made a number of updates to its website, including revisions to the college’s Editorial Style Guide and Standards and Policies, as well as new guidelines and procedures for referring to Buffalo State College and for department- or office-level social media accounts.

The Marketing and Communications service catalog in Team Dynamix has also been updated. Faculty and staff members may now request assistance with web services, photography, and video production through Team Dynamix. Additional services will be added to the catalog later this semester, including publicity requests, advertising, and creative services.

Please contact the Marketing and Communications Office at 878-4201 or marcomm@buffalostate.edu with questions about these updates or any of its services.

With the intention of creating innovative interdisciplinary opportunities for our students, new teaching and research collaborations among our faculty, and additional administrative and academic efficiencies, I am pleased to announce the formation of a new School of Arts and Sciences at Buffalo State College.

The School of Arts and Sciences, which will be established ahead of the 2021–2022 academic year, will comprise the departments and programs currently housed under the School of Arts and Humanities and the School of Natural and Social Sciences.

For the spring 2020 semester and the 2020–2021 academic year, the areas of Arts and Humanities and Natural and Social Sciences will continue to operate as two separate entities under each school’s respective bylaws and procedures. Interim deans Carlos Jones and Scott Goodman have graciously agreed to lead each school through the transition.

The alignment of these disciplines within a single school has been under consideration for a number of years, by both the administration and the faculty. No academic majors or program offerings will be eliminated in this reorganization. Rather, we are hopeful that the new structure will create additional academic opportunities for our students across disciplines as faculties develop new synergies within the school.

Additionally, as plans for renovations continue for the Classroom Building and Upton Hall, we envision an exciting primary physical hub on campus for Arts and Sciences between these two buildings and the Science and Mathematics Complex.

In keeping with our commitment to collaborative and shared governance, interim provost James Mayrose will appoint an implementation team in the coming weeks to assist with the establishment of the School of Arts and Sciences—work which will include the development of new bylaws for the school. Dr. Mayrose will announce the implementation team next month in the Daily Bulletin.

Additionally, a national search for a founding dean of the School of Arts and Sciences will begin in earnest this summer, with the goal of filling the position on or before summer 2021. Consequently, the search that was underway for a dean of natural and social sciences has been closed.

Please join us for a lecture and performance by Galen Abdur-Razzaq of Flute Juice Productions to commemorate the civil rights movement on Wednesday, February 5, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Tower Auditorium. Mr. Abdur-Razzaq is an extraordinary flutist with an extensive performance career who has performed at colleges and universities for over 30 years.