We are all aware of the economic difficulties the college is facing. In an effort to meet the coming challenges while maintaining academic excellence as a priority, we would like to remind employees of the Voluntary Reduction in Work Schedule (VRWS) program that is available to eligible employees and may be of interest to you. Participation is optional and is subject to operational needs and supervisory approval. 

Please contact Human Resource Management with any questions. Human Resources can provide additional information on how this program you may be eligible for would affect your pay, benefits, retirement, seniority, and other factors. 

The VRWS is a program that allows eligible full-time employees to voluntarily trade income for time off, reducing their work schedules to reflect personal needs and interests. The VRWS program is available to eligible annual-salaried CSEA, PEF, UUP, and M/C Professional employees. Individual VRWS agreements may be entered into for any number of payroll periods up to a maximum of 26 biweekly pay periods in duration and must expire at the end of the last payroll period in the fiscal year. The eligibility criteria for CSEA- and PEF-represented employees and the eligibility criteria for UUP- and MC-represented employees are available on the Human Resource Management website.

Employees can decrease their salary while reducing their workday or work week. Or employees can decrease their salary while continuing to work full time to bank leave credits to use at a later time. 

How It Works

• Participating employees may reduce their work schedules (and salaries) a minimum of 5 percent, in 5 percent increments, up to a maximum of 30 percent.

• The employee and supervisor can establish a VRWS agreement on a fiscal year basis of any number of payroll periods in duration from 1 to 26.
• Employee accrual rates will be reduced depending on the accrual rate and percentage of the reduction taken for the duration of the agreement.
• The VRWS contract expires the last day of the last payroll period in the fiscal year.
• The VRWS agreement must begin on the first day of a payroll period and end on the last day of a payroll period. The 2020–2021 payroll calendar (PDF, 63 KB) is available on the Human Resource Management website.
• The employee and supervisor may, by agreement, discontinue or modify the VRWS agreement if the employee's needs or circumstances change.
• VR credits earned during an agreement may be carried on the employee's time card past the end of the individual VRWS agreement and past the end of the fiscal year but must be liquidated by September 30 for classified staff and December 30 for UUP staff following the end of the fiscal year in which the individual VRWS agreement expires.

Below are several examples of ways VR time can be used. They are not intended to be restrictive. Combinations and variations should be considered for an employee’s individualized schedule.

1. Shorter Workday/Normal Workweek
   • A 10 percent reduction on a 37.5-hour-per-week schedule could produce a workweek of 5 days at 6.75 hours each, or 5 days at 7.2 hours for a 40-hour-per-week schedule.
   • A 20 percent reduction on a 37.5-hour-per-week schedule could produce a workweek of 5 days at 6 hours each, or 5 days at 6.4 hours for a 40-hour-per-week schedule.
2. Shorter Workweek/Normal Day
   • A 10 percent reduction could produce a 4.5-day workweek, either 37.5- or 40-hour schedule.
   • A 10 percent reduction could produce a workweek of 3 days at 8.5 hours plus a fourth day of 8.25 hours on a 37.5-hour workweek, or four days of 9 hours each on a 40-hour work week.
   • A 20 percent reduction could produce a 4-day workweek with no change in the length of the work day. Same for a 40-hour workweek.
3. Block of Time
   With a 20 percent reduction for 10 pay periods, an employee can accumulate VR time to take a month off. By working the normal full schedule for eight pay periods and banking VR time earned, an employee could take off two pay periods (a month). The employee would receive a paycheck representing a 20 percent reduction in pay for each of the 10 pay periods. At the end of the agreement period, the employee returns to his or her normal work schedule and salary.

I am happy to let you know that the division of Finance and Management will introduce the Bengal Business Forum on Monday, December 7, with a virtual meeting from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. This forum will provide an opportunity for all members of the campus community to engage and learn about relevant business and administrative matters at the college.

The forum will be a place for issues updates, information sharing, and in-depth discussion about relevant financial, administrative, and operational topics. When timely, the forum might delve into administrative policies and procedures, resource planning, facilities construction, human resources, or enterprise risk management, for example.

Our first forum will feature the presentation “The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Regional Public Universities” by David Attis, managing director of research at EAB. Please join us for this timely discussion of strategies that colleges and universities are using to plot their course through challenging times. 

All are welcome. Please register to attend.

As you know, Buffalo State College is experiencing a serious budgetary shortfall. Faced with an unprecedented pandemic, we have a projected deficit of nearly $15 million for this year. Campus leadership has been laying the groundwork for several years to reduce expenses and foster innovation across campus to meet the current challenges and prepare for the future. Although we still face many unknowns, what is certain is that it will take time to make the needed changes on campus that will result in decreasing our expenses by such a significant amount. I anticipate a three-year process to reduce a deficit of this magnitude. Our immediate work will be guided by our Strategic Priorities, and we will move ahead in our budget planning guided by our Strategic Resource Planning Process (PDF, 149 KB). Please review this information for the details and timetable of this important plan. We will work to reduce as much as possible each year as we move to complete this goal in 36 months.

Our Budget Landscape before COVID-19
A series of compounding challenges have necessitated thoughtful and intentional changes on campus to stabilize our financial standing and help meet our collective mission to serve our students within Buffalo State College’s urban-engaged context. These include the well-documented demographic shift of fewer high school graduates throughout the Northeast, the corresponding increased competition across the higher education landscape, declines in transfer student populations, and decreased student retention rates.

For several years, we have worked toward identifying greater efficiencies and creative solutions, recognizing that measured changes to our workforce—which accounts for nearly 90 percent of our operating budget—would be necessary. Further, as you recall, I led the campus through a three-year rebalancing process (2017–2020) that has reduced our expenses by $7 million, offsetting some of the consequences of the national and regional shifts that have negatively affected our campus budget. In order to rebalance our budget at this scale, the provost and vice presidents sought to carefully reduce expenses by focusing on savings from retirements, resignations, modifications, and reorganizations. These efforts were executed to be minimally disruptive to our work, our systems, and our current norms. I knew more radical changes and efficiencies would be needed if these downward trends persisted; however, I thought we would have more time to make significant changes. My hope was to allow our renewed focus on innovative practices to stabilize campus finances gradually.

COVID-19 Budget Impact and Our Response
What I did not foresee was a worldwide pandemic, and no one anywhere, not any institution, had planned for the drastic and precipitous drop in the financial resources required to maintain and sustain our campuses. And so we are faced with an unprecedented pandemic and a projected deficit of nearly $15 million for this year as well as a lack of clarity for the upcoming years. We must strategically plan and work together both to survive this situation and to prepare to thrive in the future. Those efforts will be guided by our newly established Strategic Priorities, which will be used to guide our budgetary decisions and allow the campus to continue to invest in those areas that are necessary to sustain mission-critical work now and in the future.

Last spring, division heads accelerated workforce planning to meet our new pandemic reality and the challenges we anticipate post-pandemic. During spring and summer 2020, with serious concerns about the ramifications of the pandemic, I asked all divisional heads to hasten their review and look carefully within and across their divisions to better align our work and find efficiencies that would reduce expenses. To this end, greater cross-divisional cooperation has occurred, additional efficiencies have been developed, and some staff roles have been refined.

These are some of the ways the campus has reduced expenses and shifted our work in creative and innovative ways since last spring:

1. Eliminating all travel
2. Instituting a spending constraints committee
3. Developing a list of potential shared services
4. Leveraging technology
5. Freezing all but essential hiring
6. Eliminating duplication of activities and services
7. Combining positions when possible, including at the cabinet level
8. Reducing energy consumption
9. Promulgating the Voluntary Reduction in Work Schedule program
10. Renegotiating institutional contracts
11. Implementing an enhanced relationship with EAB to provide information, best practices, and benchmarks and to lead campus units in collaborative discussions and planning

I also asked division heads to develop plans that involve a data-informed process to define our strengths and identify areas for improvement.

Moving Forward Together
Campus leadership has been laying the groundwork for several years to foster innovation across campus and to prepare for a prosperous and sustaining future. Planning has been key to this work. It is clear that handling the $15 million deficit we face will require collaboration among all campus constituents, keeping innovation at the center of our efforts as we fulfill our urban-engaged, anchor mission to educate our diverse student body. As noted above, we will move ahead in our strategic budget planning guided by our Strategic Resource Planning Process (PDF, 149 KB). Throughout the process and with a strong commitment to shared governance, our College Budget Committee will meet and consult with the College Senate’s Budget and Staff Allocations Committee (BSAC) on a regular basis to share ideas and receive feedback on the budget process. Additionally, I encourage members of the campus community to participate in the first Bengal Business Forum on Monday, December 7.

As we plan to reduce the deficit over the next 36 months, I will continue to work with the chancellor and the SUNY system to support the campus in the short run. I know this is daunting, and we will need to make significant changes in how we deliver on our mission to meet the challenges we face. I look forward to full campus engagement as we ignite our innovation in new, exciting, and mission-consistent ways.

I am pleased to announce the membership of the 2020–2021 Buffalo State College Commencement Committee:

Chair: Jane Cushman, Chair and Associate Professor, Mathematics Department
Vice Chair: Kathleen O’Brien, Chair and Lecturer, Hospitality and Tourism Department
Immediate Past Chair: Theresa Janczak, Associate Professor, Exceptional Education Department
Secretary: Catherine Cook, Administrative Assistant 2, Academic Affairs

Patricia Alessandra, Commencement Director for Academics, Academic Affairs
Aaron Daniel Annas, Director of Television and Film Arts Program, Communication Department
Pixita del Prado Hill, Professor, Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department
Victoria Furby, Chair and Associate Professor, Music Department
Abdollah Hajikandi, Assistant Director of Academic Services, Educational Opportunity Program
Thomas Koller, Officer in Charge, Intercollegiate Athletics
Margaret “Marnie” Letzelter, Executive Assistant to the Dean, Graduate School
Michael Lewis, Director, Events Management Office
Amy McMillan, Director, Muriel A. Howard Honors Program
Nyandusi Nyachae, Lecturer, Social and Psychological Foundations of Education Department
Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, Chief of Staff, President’s Office; Chief Diversity Officer
Ramona Santa Maria, Associate Professor, Computer Information Systems Department
Marcus Watson, Assistant Professor, Individualized Studies and Africana Studies Program
Rita Zientek, Interim Dean, School of the Professions

The Commencement Committee is responsible for advising the president, the provost, and other appropriate college administrators on matters pertaining to Commencement; planning and implementing Commencement ceremonies and related events; submitting  proposed actions and changes of a substantive nature to the president for his or her consideration; disseminating information about Commencement throughout the institution to appropriate departments and other interested constituents; and making recommendations to the president for Commencement speakers, if necessary. Members of the committee serve as institutional advocates and champions for Commencement activities.

I am pleased to announce the following appointments to the 2020–2021 Commencement Operations Group:

Chair: Michael Lewis, Director, Events Management*
Co-chair: Bernadette Gilliam, Assistant Director, Events Management

Patricia Alessandra, Commencement Director for Academics, Academic Affairs*
Cheryl Byer, Director, Facilities Business Operations Services
Peter Carey, Chief of Police, University Police
David Cox, Assistant Dean, Student Leadership and Engagement
Brent Ford, Athletics Facilities Manager, Intercollegiate Athletics
Kenneth Giangreco, Manager of Video Production, Marketing and Communications
Luke Haumesser, Associate Director, Student Leadership and Engagement
Mary-Jo Jagord, Director, Alumni Engagement
Brian Kantz, Creative Services Director, Marketing and Communications
Margaret “Marnie” Letzelter, Executive Assistant to the Dean, Graduate School*
Nigel Marriner, Registrar, Registrar’s Office
Mason Meiler, Programming Coordinator, Student Leadership and Engagement
Kristen Mruk, Associate Director, Student Leadership and Engagement
Lynn Puma, Manager, Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore
Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, Chief of Staff, President’s Office; Chief Diversity Officer*
Justin Sledz, Assistant Director of Classroom Technology, Information Technology Services
Rita Zientek, Interim Dean, School of the Professions*

The Commencement Operations Group serves as the support and implementation arm to the Commencement Committee. This group consists of nonvoting members who by virtue of their position on campus have responsibilities for implementation of Commencement activities and events.

*Also serves on Commencement Committee

Starting in January, I will be launching “Let’s Learn Together,” a Buffalo State College reading club focused on topics such as cultural competency, diverse perspectives, and self-improvement. Each month, I will highlight a new book and invite the campus community to read along with me as we learn together. At the end of each month, readers will be welcome to engage and share their own learnings via social media. The first book in the series will be What If I Say the Wrong Thing? 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People, by Verna Myers. In this book, you'll find innovative and surprising ways to keep your personal diversity journey moving. Written in a way that makes this information bite-size and accessible, the book contains quick answers to typical What should I do? questions, like What if I say the wrong thing? What should I do? or What if I am at work and someone makes a sexist joke? What should I do?

The purpose of the book club is to engage the Buffalo State community in further learning and discussion that can expand everyone’s minds on these topics, creating a culturally competent community right here at Buffalo State. All are welcome to participate! Sharing will take place on the Equity and Campus Diversity Facebook page at the end of January. I hope you will join me. Let’s Learn Together!

At its April 24, 2020, meeting, the College Senate voted to adopt the Bylaws of the College Faculty, from the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee. The full document is available on the College Senate SharePoint drive (login required; PDF, 553 KB).

I hereby accept the recommendation of the College Senate and charge the chair of the College Senate with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of these new bylaws and for communicating the change to the campus community.

Campus leadership is investigating the need for an online payment solution (i.e., e-commerce, electronic payment). If your department or program currently uses or needs an online payment solution, please complete this quick survey. When you log in, we will collect your name, department, and e-mail address. Thank you.

IT governance is a broad concept that is centered on the IT department or environment delivering business value to the enterprise. IT governance includes the processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling the organization to achieve its goals.

IT governance works to engage those policies, requirements, and resources necessary to ensure the efficient, cost-effective approach to the implementation of technology solutions across the campus. For IT governance to succeed, the institution acknowledges that it is critical to require attention and support, including staff resources and commitment.

Over the course of several months, IT has been working internally and with campus representatives to revise and redesign the IT governance structure. The goal of these formal and informal conversations has been to build a process that is responsive, strategic, transparent, and inclusive. Full campus feedback is the next step in our process.

This stakeholder-driven structure uses an executive committee to make final recommendations based on evidence, and recommendations presented by dedicated subcommittees. New subcommittee membership will be announced when the rosters are complete. Each committee has a defined purpose, mission, objectives, and responsibilities,

The proposed 2021 IT governance document is located in the IT Knowledge Base (please log in at the top right corner of the page to access this document). We are seeking your feedback and ask that you please review the document and contribute to our collaborative process by completing this survey. We will collect your name, e-mail address, and department when you authenticate to the survey so that we can follow up with you if needed. We are interested in contributions from all areas of the campus, and all job descriptions. Thank you.

As announced last month, Buffalo State College will enter a phase of reduced campus operations and limited building access starting Saturday, December 19.

From Saturday, December 19, to Sunday, January 10, all exterior doors to campus buildings will remain locked 24 hours a day. Essential employees can access work spaces by scanning their Bengal ID cards at electronic-access entrances. Starting Monday, January 11, electronic access doors will again be unlocked during documented hours of operation and mirror the fall semester building access plan as we prepare for the spring semester.

As a reminder, only essential college employees are permitted to work on campus at this time. Those individuals who are required to report to campus for some or all of their work obligation will be subject to Buffalo State’s ongoing COVID-19 surveillance testing plan and must continue to fill out their daily COVID-19 symptom screening questionnaire. All non-essential employees must continue to work remotely and ensure that an updated alternate work arrangement agreement is on file with Human Resource Management.

Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions, please contact us at 878-4311 or vpfm@buffalostate.edu.