SUNY Chancellor Malatras recently announced a systemwide policy requiring that all SUNY students using on-campus facilities in any capacity (living on campus, receiving hybrid or in-person instruction, or using campus facilities) test negative for COVID-19 within 10 days prior to their leaving campus for the Thanksgiving recess.

Testing for our students will begin Tuesday, November 10, and run through Friday, November 20. Students will receive an e-mail with their assigned testing date and time. Residential students will be tested based on their residence hall location. Commuter students will be assigned testing slots based on the days and times of their in-person or hybrid course enrollment.   

I ask faculty members to reinforce the message that students should read their e-mail to be sure they understand when they are required to report for testing and the steps needed to help the process move quickly. I also ask them to remind students that they will receive a written excuse should their COVID-19 testing make them late for or miss class. 

Faculty members may direct questions to the Dean of Students Office. Thank you for your assistance as we work to keep the Buffalo State community healthy and safe.

I am excited to announce that Natalie Szymanski, assistant professor of English and director of the College Writing Program, will present “Supporting Students through Agentic Classroom Practices” as the next speaker in our Elevating Student Success in Our Current Environment Conversation Series on Thursday, November 12, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. via Zoom videoconference. This series is co-sponsored by the Title III Task Force and the Professional Development Center. Please register online.

What does student success mean at Buffalo State College? What are the individual ways that we cultivate student success at the college, and how can we as individuals apply these practices to our own work to support the students we serve? Join us as we learn from our colleagues their definition of student success and the specific practices we as staff or faculty members can apply to better support the intellectual, personal, and professional growth of our students. Each conversation will involve a 10-to-15-minute presentation from a staff or faculty member focused on his or her definition of student success and effective practices that others can apply to their work with students. These conversations will then be followed by a 45-to-50-minute facilitated conversation by a member of the Title III Task Force about how we can apply these practices to our individual work with students. We will also discuss similar practices colleagues found to be effective and build off of the ideas presented to elevate these practices across campus.

About Natalie Szymanski
Natalie Szymanski earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Florida State University and previously worked as the writing program administrator at a small indigenous-serving institution on the west end of Oahu, Hawaii. Her research and scholarship focus on the intersection between composition pedagogy and writing program administration; the invisibility of administrative labor in traditional tenure and review processes; and the incorporation of sustainable, inclusive, and antiracist pedagogies in writing programs.

She currently teaches composition courses in the College Writing Program as well as upper-level courses in writing. She is dedicated to and passionate about improving the first-year experience for Buffalo State students.

Over the past year or so, I have had the opportunity to read and review some of the grant proposals submitted by faculty and staff members to various funding agencies.

In order to serve as the best advocate for these research, scholarship, and creative activities, I have asked the Sponsored Programs Office to begin sharing all grant proposals with me for review before their submission to the sponsoring agency.

This process will allow me to fully understand and support the great work that is being done here at Buffalo State College. It will also give me a view of the diversity of scholarly activity that is underway and allow me to recognize and encourage synergies across campus.

To facilitate this process, please continue to submit proposals to the Sponsored Programs Office five days in advance of the due date, which will allow for a thorough review and ensure that all requirements for submission are met and budgets are accurate.

Thank you for your hard work and for the many contributions to knowledge and discovery that you are making through your research and other sponsored activities.

As required by SUNY for Buffalo State College to remain open, and as announced in the Daily Bulletin on October 7 and the week of October 26, the college has implemented regular surveillance testing of its on-campus population to detect COVID-19 cases and identify pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic individuals who may still transmit the virus. This effort will help our leadership and local public health officials identify, trace, and contain the virus quickly.

The testing is being planned by Vice President Gordon and coordinated by the Events Management team, under the supervision of the Weigel Wellness Center and Environmental Health and Safety. Implementation requires the help of numerous staff volunteers to ensure a successful process. Testing for students will accelerate from November 10 to November 20 as they prepare to depart campus. More testing locations, which must be fully staffed, are therefore being added. Between 48 and 60 volunteer shifts a day must be filled during this 10-day period in order to ensure a successful process, so please pitch in if you are able.

Volunteer roles (PDF, 104 KB) primarily consist of checking in students and employees, and organizing and distributing test kits. All volunteers will be provided with personal protective equipment including masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Training will be provided to ensure a consistent and safe process.

At this time, we need you and your staff to take part in this herculean effort. Please share this message with staff in your areas and take advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the college’s well-being and continued success!

Volunteering is safe and is urgently needed at this time. If you can set aside a couple of hours, please register online or e-mail Mary Beth Wojtaszek, associate events manager. Thank you.

I am pleased to announce that Instructional Design and Training and the Teaching and Learning Center have updated the Workshop Registration System. More sessions will be added as the campus moves forward with remote and online instruction for spring 2021.

Session topics are focused on educational technology, online and remote teaching, accessibility, and various topics offered by SUNY Online.

Self-paced opportunities are also always available to faculty.

Thank you for your commitment to providing an excellent education during these challenging times.

As you know, the President’s Institutional Innovation Advisory Council (IIAC), in collaboration with ModernThink LLC, administered Buffalo State College’s Campus Culture and Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey in February of this year to better understand our collective workplace, campus culture, and employee engagement and satisfaction, and how these factors affect institutional performance. Today, we write to you to outline how the initial assessment data from the survey will be shared and how the IIAC will engage the campus community to help generate ideas for leveraging our strengths and addressing our challenges.

You may recall that the IIAC was appointed in November 2019 and charged with exploring how to best advance innovation on our campus. Specifically, the council was asked to make recommendations to the President’s Cabinet to help strengthen the foundation for Buffalo State, ignite innovation, and improve institutional performance. To begin this work, the council was asked to first assess campus strengths that can be leveraged and amplified, while also identifying challenges related to workforce agility and campus culture. The survey was designed to accomplish this.

It is important to note that the IIAC’s membership roster is composed of representatives from across campus, including from the College Senate. The work of the IIAC has been conducted independently of the College Senate and the administration, and we thank the IIAC members who have written and compiled the report. We applaud this work and look forward to ongoing close collaboration among the IIAC, the College Senate, and the college administration.    

Initial findings from the Campus Culture and Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey will be shared with the College Senate on Friday, November 13. A full copy of the IIAC’s findings will be shared with the campus community via the Daily Bulletin on Monday, November 16. In the weeks and months that follow, the IIAC’s research team will host a series of open forums and focus groups for the campus community to help interpret and build on the findings, starting with open forums on Thursday, November 19, and Friday, November 20.

Moreover, focus groups will be held through January 2021 to gather additional ideas and input from the campus community to inform the next strategic plan. More specifically, the IIAC is interested in connecting with faculty and staff members to learn more about the many ways our work environment and culture have shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a reminder, the survey data were gathered in the weeks before COVID-19 transformed our campus, country, and world.

Please visit the Workshop Registration System to register for an open forum or a focus group. Additional focus groups will be scheduled in the coming weeks. We encourage our entire campus community to engage in the dialogue during this critical process.

These forums and focus groups are critical for identifying how we can be more intentionally innovative and agile to meet the challenges of the future. As the uncertainty of our world and of higher education has been further heightened because of COVID-19, our urban-engaged campus has an opportunity to amplify our communities’ strengths with new and innovative practices. These changes and improvements will help Buffalo State continue to serve as an educational engine for social and economic mobility that is responsive to these new realities.

These data will help provide insight to better understand the complexity of perspectives, priorities, strengths, and challenges of our community. How we engage with each other—both in interpreting this information and prioritizing strategies to help us thrive in the future—will determine the success of this important process.

The answers to creating a bright future for Buffalo State College and our students can be found within our amazing community. Together, we can amplify our strengths and learn what we must change to address our challenges. We encourage you to engage and contribute your ideas for charting the future of Buffalo State College as we learn and grow together to transform the future of our urban-engaged mission.

Sincerely,

Katherine Conway-Turner
President

Bhakti Sharma
Chair, College Senate
Associate Professor, Art and Design

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

I am pleased to report that the 15-member task force, established to create the foundational structure for the college’s new School of Arts and Sciences, has made significant progress this fall.

The group, which is meeting regularly, most recently revised the guidelines for renewal, promotion, and continuing appointment. The revisions reflect responses faculty and staff members within the schools of Arts and Humanities (A&H) and Natural and Social Sciences (NSS) provided in the anonymous Qualtrics surveys sent to them last month.

The task force presented a draft of the work completed thus far to President Conway-Turner and me on November 6. We’re in the process of reviewing the document that includes the school’s mission, vision, and values statements and the tenure and promotion procedures.

The updated document will be available on the School of Arts and Science Task Force web page starting Wednesday, November 18.

However, this document is not final. Constituents within A&H and NSS will have the opportunity to provide final comments anonymously about the tenure and promotion procedures. A second Qualtrics survey will be e-mailed this week to faculty and staff members for their feedback.

Meanwhile, the search committee for the school’s dean conducted the first round of interviews with candidates this week. They plan to hold a second round during the two weeks following Thanksgiving. The goal is to have a new dean in place by January 2021.

I will keep you apprised of other developments as they occur. Thank you for your patience and support with this important process.

As announced in the Daily Bulletin on Thursday, November 12, initial findings from the Campus Culture and Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey by the President’s Institutional Innovation Advisory Council (IIAC) were shared with the College Senate on Friday, November 13. Also as stated, today we are sharing a full copy of the IIAC’s findings with the campus community. The full report that was presented to the Senate is now available online via the College Senate's SharePoint (login required; PDF, 3 MB).*

In the weeks and months that follow, the IIAC’s research team will host a series of open forums and focus groups for the campus community to help interpret and build on the findings, starting with open forums on Thursday, November 19, and Friday, November 20.

Moreover, focus groups will be held through January 2021 to gather additional ideas and input from the campus community to inform the next strategic plan. More specifically, the IIAC is interested in connecting with faculty and staff members to learn more about the many ways our work environment and culture have shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a reminder, the survey data were gathered in the weeks before COVID-19 transformed our campus, country, and world.

Please visit the Workshop Registration System to register for an open forum or a focus group. Additional focus groups will be scheduled in the coming weeks. We encourage our entire campus community to engage in the dialogue during this critical process.

These forums and focus groups are critical for identifying how we can be more intentionally innovative and agile to meet the challenges of the future. As the uncertainty of our world and of higher education has been further heightened because of COVID-19, our urban-engaged campus has an opportunity to amplify our communities’ strengths with new and innovative practices. These changes and improvements will help Buffalo State continue to serve as an educational engine for social and economic mobility that is responsive to these new realities.

These data will help provide insight to better understand the complexity of perspectives, priorities, strengths, and challenges of our community. How we engage with each other—both in interpreting this information and prioritizing strategies to help us thrive in the future—will determine the success of this important process.

The answers to creating a bright future for Buffalo State College and our students can be found within our amazing community. Together, we can amplify our strengths and learn what we must change to address our challenges. We encourage you to engage and contribute your ideas for charting the future of Buffalo State College as we learn and grow together to transform the future of our urban-engaged mission.

Sincerely,

Katherine Conway-Turner
President

Bhakti Sharma
Chair, College Senate
Associate Professor, Art and Design

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

*To facilitate distribution and ensure accessibility of the IIAC’s report, the document was posted and shared via the College Senate’s SharePoint November 13 meeting folder. As noted previously, the report was compiled independently of the College Senate.

Please join us for an informative presentation by trauma therapist Seaghan Coleman, LCSW-R, on the signs and symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on Thursday, November 19, at 12:15 p.m. Please register online.

We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our work and personal lives in various ways. Whether teaching remotely, socially distanced, or providing high-touch support to our students, we were thrown into a place where we had to quickly adapt to an ever-changing environment. We continue to deal with it gracefully, but we must realize that our mental health and well-being are the most important keys to a healthful future.

Whether on the front lines or sacrificing balance with one’s own family and well-being, the Buffalo State College family has exhibited the strength, grit, and resilience that serves as a model for our students. It is time to pause and focus on our well-being as professionals. ASD and PTSD are real conditions that can happen to anyone who is exposed to an extreme traumatic stressor, especially when it reoccurs on a regular basis.

During this presentation, we will gain skills to monitor our own mental health as well as our students' while we continue to serve them during this unprecedented time. There will be time for questions and conversation, and we will solicit ideas for a follow-up session(s) to chat and continue to lighten the load.
 

I am excited to announce that Sarah Young, dean of students, will present “Holistic Student Support” as the next speaker in our Elevating Student Success in Our Current Environment Conversation Series on Thursday, December 3, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. This series is co-sponsored by the Title III Task Force and the Professional Development Center. Please register online.

What does student success mean at Buffalo State College? What are the individual ways that we cultivate student success at the college, and how can we as individuals apply these practices to our own work to support the students we serve? Join us as we learn from our colleagues their definition of student success and the specific practices we as staff or faculty members can apply to better support the intellectual, personal, and professional growth of our students. Each conversation will involve a 10-to-15-minute presentation from a staff or faculty member focused on his or her definition of student success and effective practices that others can apply to their work with students. These conversations will then be followed by a 45-to-50-minute facilitated conversation by a member of the Title III Task Force about how we can apply these practices to our individual work with students. We will also discuss similar practices colleagues found to be effective and build off of the ideas presented to elevate these practices across campus.

About Sarah Young
Sarah Young has served as Buffalo State’s dean of students for the last three years. Before that, she served as the director of student life at Buffalo State. Ms. Young received a bachelor's degree in history from Hamilton College and a master’s in Counseling from West Virginia University. After graduate school, she worked in athletics at Hamilton College, Residence Life at Syracuse University, and Residence Life and Student Activities at Stony Brook University. Before coming to Buffalo State, she served as the executive director of student leadership and activities and interim dean of students at Hofstra University.

Over the last 20 years in higher education, Ms. Young has focused on providing student development opportunities, co-curricular education, and crisis management support to students through her varied roles on campuses. She is passionate about holistic student support and development. She also serves as a member of the Buffalo State Child Care Center and volunteers her time as a USA Swimming official.