The Career Development Center (CDC) will host the Job and Internship Fair today, March 22, from noon to 2:30 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. More than 50 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 Amazon, BestSelf Behavioral Health, Calspan, GEICO, M&T Bank, Odoo, Premium Mortgage Corp., and Travelers.

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.

Many departments and programs across campus have come together for the fourth annual Buffalo State Gives, which starts today, March 16, at noon.

I encourage you to visit the Buffalo State Gives website and make a gift of any size to an area meaningful to you. Faculty and staff members who donate during Buffalo State Gives will have their support counted toward this year’s Faculty and Staff Appeal.

As part of our 24-hour giving event, be sure to stop by the Campbell Student Union from noon to 4:00 p.m.

If you have any questions about Buffalo State Gives, please email Kate Lockhart, development coordinator, or call (716) 878-4658. I truly am inspired by the camaraderie and collaboration among our faculty and staff, especially as we come together during this special time to celebrate our 150-year legacy.

The Class of 2022 eagerly anticipates celebrating at the 150th Commencement on Saturday, May 21, in the Sports Arena. Your participation in the most auspicious campus event of the year makes it especially meaningful for our graduates and their families. Please honor them by marching in the procession or serving as a volunteer usher to help with graduate lineup or to greet and guide guests.

Ceremonies by school are as follows:

• 9:00 a.m. Baccalaureate Ceremony: School of Arts and Sciences and Individualized Studies

• 1:00 p.m. Baccalaureate Ceremony: School of Education and School of the Professions

• 5:00 p.m. Graduate School Ceremony: Master's Degrees and Advanced Graduate Certificates

Please visit the Faculty and Staff section of the Commencement website. Registration is online and includes

• volunteer ushers registration;
• marchers registration, including all platform party members and administrators;
• rehearsals.

Regalia rentals are available to order through the Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore until Friday, April 8. A limited inventory of doctoral and master’s gowns, caps, and hoods are available for loan through the Academic Affairs Office until Monday, May 9. Please place loan requests early for best options. Rental pricing and the loan request information are provided in the Marcher Regalia Rentals and Loans section of the Commencement website.

Thank you for your dedicated service on Commencement Day.

Buffalo State College has initiated multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect its strategic campus data assets.  An industry best practice, MFA adds a layer of computer security by requiring users to provide information in addition to a username and password. This will make sharing information within the Office 365 (O365) environment more secure from outside threats. 

Consistent with SUNY’s mandate that all campuses implement MFA, Buffalo State IT has initiated the rollout during which faculty and staff members can have the service activated for their O365 accounts. Your account includes all applications and shared documents in the O365 environment (e.g., email, Microsoft Office files, calendar). 

Full participation is now required from every Buffalo State account holder—including administrators, faculty, staff, and students—by Monday, March 21. An exception is shared departmental email accounts, for which MFA is not required at this time. 

Please don’t wait: Set up MFA today! Here is how to get started: 

1. Go to https://aka.ms/mfasetup.
2. Sign in with your Buffalo State email address and password.  
3. Follow the prompts to add your verification methods (e.g., cell phone, office phone, authenticator app). 
4. Complete this form to have MFA “turned on” for your account: https://bscintra.buffalostate.edu/MfaRequest/  

If the enrollment process is not completed by March 21, you will be required to set up MFA the next time you sign in to any Microsoft services.

If you have questions about multi-factor authentication, please review the MFA frequently asked questions page. You can also open a Technology Help ticket and select “Multi-Factor Authentication” from the drop-down menu labeled, “I need help with.” You can also email the IT Help Desk at ithelpdesk@buffalostate.edu. Thank you for enrolling in this important service.

Please join the Buffalo State community today, March 16, at 5:00 p.m. as we gather to remember a cherished member of our Bengal family, Royden Cave.

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to join in remembrance at the Campbell Student Union Social Hall to honor Royden’s memory. Following the program, a candlelight vigil will take place in the Plaza. 

Thank you for your support during this difficult time.

I am proud of how our campus community, alumni, and donors have come together to support the fourth annual Buffalo State Gives, which ends at noon today, March 17. Every gift, especially today, makes a difference. 

If you donate online before noon on the Buffalo State Gives website, your gift will count as participation in both the giving day and annual Faculty and Staff Appeal. Buffalo State Gives features 18 unique “stories," or causes for support, so donors can choose an area meaningful to them. 

As the 150th anniversary celebrations culminate, it is vital to recognize the impact of giving for our students, departments, and programs to ultimately build Buffalo State's future. If you have already made a gift, consider sharing why you support our campus on social media using #BuffaloStateGives to highlight this philanthropic event even more broadly. Buffalo State Gives would not be possible without our dedicated faculty and staff, and I thank both those behind the scenes of this initiative and those who have donated.

If you have any questions about Buffalo State Gives, please contact Kate Lockhart, development coordinator, or call (716) 878-3077.

The Bengal Success Portal Student Progress is being distributed for a second time this semester and will be available for instructors of record Wednesday, March 16, through Sunday, April 3.

Instructors completed 83 percent of surveys in the first distribution, which enabled professional advisers and completion coaches to connect with students early in the semester to proactively address their needs and refer them to the appropriate support services on campus.

As we approach midterms, we are looking for a 100 percent completion rate in the survey’s second iteration to provide students with the support services they need to succeed. The tracking items for this survey have been updated to reflect how the student is progressing through the semester. We included a new “pass/fail/course withdraw flag” as the withdrawal deadline is Friday, April 8.

Completing this survey is an essential step to getting students the advising and support they need to finish the semester strong and register for fall 2022, as well as to increase academic achievement, retention, and graduation rates.

A two-minute video on how to complete the Student Progress Survey is available online. Please email Gabriel Marshall, senior adviser for student success and retention, with questions about completing the survey.

Thank you.

We would like to thank the college community for supporting our in-person Open House programs this academic year. These recruitment events are vital to our success in showcasing our campus. As a way to extend our visit opportunities, Undergraduate Admissions will be offering Virtual Open House presentations throughout March and April.

These virtual presentations are designed for students who were not able to make our in-person Open House but still want to learn more about our programs. If your department would like to offer an optional live virtual presentation for prospective students, please complete the RSVP form for our Virtual Open House series.  

Any questions about this program can be directed to Thomas Karanas, assistant director of admissions and open house coordinator.

Following the Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) Board of Education meeting Wednesday evening, BPS officials announced that Leonardo da Vinci High School will call the Buffalo State College campus, and specifically Buckham Hall, home starting in fall 2023. 

Buffalo State is excited to welcome BPS back to our campus as the former Campus West School becomes home to da Vinci High School, which enrolls approximately 400 students across grades nine through 12 each year and was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2020. 

As we recognize our 150th anniversary at Buffalo State, we have celebrated our proud origins of teacher preparation first as the Buffalo Normal School, eventually as State Teachers College, and with the creation of the College Learning Laboratory—or Campus School—in 1969. Wednesday’s announcement feels in many ways as if we are coming full circle. Not only will the presence of da Vinci High School on campus create new opportunities for partnerships between our School of Education, BPS, and our teacher education candidates at Buffalo State, but it will also open the door to a college education for hundreds of da Vinci students each year as we explore dual enrollment opportunities and experiences across our academic programs to prepare students for a college experience at Buffalo State or beyond. 

The first step in our new partnership with da Vinci High School is a BPS-funded feasibility study to prepare for necessary renovations and planning before the start of the 2023–2024 academic year. Buffalo State academic departments and services currently located in Buckham Hall will remain in place. 

The campus community is invited to attend the college’s 65th annual Honors Convocation on Friday, April 22, at 3:00 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. A reception with light refreshments will immediately follow the ceremony.  

One of the oldest traditions at Buffalo State, Honors Convocation is held each spring to celebrate students who have achieved academic excellence. In an effort to add to the pomp and circumstance of this event, we will have a procession wearing academic regalia. We invite faculty and staff to march in the academic procession.

If you plan to march, please register by Friday, April 1, through Marcher Registration; however, if you are invited by a student, we encourage you to sit with them as their guest instead of participating in the procession. Academic regalia is encouraged but optional. 

Regalia rentals are available through the Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore. Please email Marybeth Keller, general merchandise manager, or call (716) 878-5509 by Friday, March 25, to place rental orders.  

If you are also planning to march in Commencement, you will not be required to return the rented regalia until the Monday after Commencement. If you are not participating in Commencement, rented regalia must be returned by Monday, April 25.   

A limited inventory of doctoral and master’s gowns, master's and doctoral hoods, and caps are available for loan through the Academic Affairs Office. Hoods will not match the marcher's discipline or institution where the degree was earned. For guaranteed colors, marchers should purchase or rent hoods through the bookstore. Please email the Academic Affairs Office by Friday, April 15, to arrange for regalia loan for Honors Convocation. Sizes and hood colors are limited, and requests are filled in the order they are received. 

Honors Convocation provides a great opportunity to celebrate the academic excellence of our outstanding students. We hope that you will join us.

Please contact Carolyn Martino, executive assistant to the provost, with any Honors Convocation questions.