I am pleased to announce that Linda Rizzo, administrative assistant in the Student Accessibility Services Office, has received the President's Caring Bengal Award.

Ms. Rizzo was nominated for the award by Sumana Silverheels, interim director of student accessibility services; Amy Rosen-Brand, associate director of student accessibility services; Andrea Gustafson, learning and accommodations specialist in the Student Accessibility Services Office; and Jennie Silverman, administrative assistant in the Economics and Finance Department. I am so pleased to recognize Ms. Rizzo, and I encourage the entire campus community to join me in thanking her for her exceptional effort to make Buffalo State College a great place to live, learn, and work. Her award profile can be viewed on the Professional Development website.

I announced the creation and implementation of the President’s Caring Bengal Award in December 2017 to recognize supportive colleagues in our Buffalo State community who not only transform the lives of our students but also help create a caring and collegial environment for our faculty, staff, and administrators.

Nominations for the Caring Bengal Award will be collected again in September. For more information about the award criteria and recipient selection process, or to submit a nomination, please visit the Professional Development website.

Please contact Rebecca Eggleston, staff assistant in the Professional Development Center, with questions about the President’s Caring Bengal Award.

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen Mayoral as Buffalo State College’s next chief of university police. Mr. Mayoral, who will officially join the Buffalo State community on July 21, has more than 22 years of experience in law enforcement and currently serves as a lieutenant in the Los Angeles School Police Department in Los Angeles, California.

I thank the members of the search committee and co-chairs Amitra Wall and Donna Scuto for their outstanding service to Buffalo State in conducting this search.

Please join me in thanking Amy Pedlow for her dedicated leadership of the University Police Department (UPD) over the past nine months while she served as interim chief of police. Interim Chief Pedlow has maintained seamless operation of UPD during a challenging time and has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the department and to the college.

Please also join me in recognizing Stephen Cahoon, interim assistant chief, for his dedication to Buffalo State and his willingness to assume additional responsibilities during this interim period.

About Stephen Mayoral
Stephen Mayoral, who will be Buffalo State’s first Hispanic chief of university police, is a 1995 graduate of the University of Southern California (USC) and received a master of business administration from Trident University in 2015. He completed graduate-level specialized advanced training at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 2012. Mr. Mayoral holds the rank of major (retired) in the United States Army, where he served for 25 years.

Mr. Mayoral was a sergeant in the Los Angeles School Police Department—one of the largest school police departments in the United States—from 2010 to 2015 before being promoted to lieutenant. He was deputy chief from 2020 to 2021, serving as acting chief of police in the absence of the chief. Mr. Mayoral has supervised the department’s administrative services bureau and its 50 employees, including sworn police officers, detectives, sergeants, lieutenants, and civilian staff members.

He has been responsible for long-range planning for the department and functions as a liaison with local and national law enforcement agencies, addressing school safety and modern law enforcement management.

Mr. Mayoral served in Operation Desert Shield in Iraq in 1991 and was awarded the Bronze Star for his leadership as a United States Army Infantry company commander during combat operations in Iraq in 2004. He has received two law enforcement commendations from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, recognizing his management of a homicide investigation and his leadership of a successful prototype multi-agency task force. During his tenure at the Los Angeles School Police Department, he was recognized as Sergeant of the Year.

Mr. Mayoral has taught on a variety of law enforcement topics at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and in the University of Southern California Public Safety Leadership Program. He is a volunteer with the USC Alumni Veterans Network and the USC Latino Alumni Association. Mr. Mayoral is a member of the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association and the National Association of School Resource Officers.

“I am excited to have Stephen Mayoral join us as the new chief of university police,” said Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner. “His tremendous experience and expertise, and his significant command of urban educational issues and emergency planning, will bring great leadership to our campus.”

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Stephen Mayoral as he joins the Buffalo State College community.

Please join me in congratulating Austin Craig, director of the Bengal Kitchen and catering, as the recipient of the 2022 Service to the College and Community Award. Receipt of this award illustrates the high level of care and support that a Student Affairs staff member provides to faculty, staff, students, and the community and how closely he or she is admired by colleagues. We honor Mr. Craig for his dedication and commitment to Buffalo State College.

More information about the award is available on the Student Affairs website.

Beginning in the 2022–2023 fiscal year, the Campbell Student Union will assess rental fees at a discounted rate for the use of space and equipment to internal Buffalo State groups, including campus departments, units, and faculty and staff organizations. 

Effective July 1, 2022, an hourly charge will be applied to reservations and billed to the sponsoring unit. The rate schedule will be available on the Student Union website and within the Mazevo reservation software for planning and budgeting purposes. Assessment of the rental fees will support the use, as well as the repair and replacement, of items used by those renting the space.

The SUNY Telecommuting Program (PDF, 209 KB), previously set to expire on June 30, 2022, has been extended to August 31, 2022. All parameters and constraints of the SUNY-wide program remain in place.

While the SUNY program will continue through August, extensions of telecommuting arrangements for Buffalo State employees are not automatic. Employees must request extensions of their existing plans, or apply for new plans.

All telecommuting arrangements must be reviewed and approved by the employee’s immediate supervisor or manager, the department head or dean, the division leader, and senior campus leadership.   

Requesting an Extension of a Telecommuting Plan
Please discuss your request with your supervisor and submit the SUNY Telecommuting Program Application and Work Plan, checking the box labeled “Application for Renewal.” Your plan should be updated at this time to reflect any operational changes.

While your request is being reviewed for approval, your existing plan will remain in effect. The Human Resource Management Office will notify you of the outcome of the review process for an extension.

Requesting a New Plan
Please discuss your request with your supervisor and submit the SUNY Telecommuting Program Application and Work Plan, checking the box labeled “New Application.”

New telecommuting work arrangements must not commence until they receive final written approval. The Human Resource Management Office will notify you when the arrangement can begin.

Employees approved to participate in the telecommuting program must complete and submit to their supervisors biweekly progress reports describing work completed while telecommuting. The Human Resource Management Office may, at any time, request these reports to ensure compliance with the program.

Please note the following program highlights:

• All telecommuting work arrangements are subject to advance approval.
• This program supports employees whose work does not require in-person student or constituent service delivery and interaction, including classroom presence. 
• This program uses a set schedule during each pay period. It is not appropriate for “as needed” telecommuting arrangements.
• Telecommuting is limited to no more than 50 percent of a pay period.
• Telecommuting arrangements may be terminated at any time by the supervisor for operational reasons, or because the telecommuting employee does not complete the required progress reports.
• Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that the work described in the telecommuting plan is being done, and that the needs of the department are being met while the plan is in place.

Telecommuting Program information for employees and supervisors is available on the Human Resource Management Office home page. Please contact the Human Resource Management Office staff with questions about the program.

The Career Development Center (CDC) will be renamed the Career and Professional Education Center (CAPE), effective July 1. The new name reflects the center’s mission to educate the whole student on career exploration and professional preparation. This shift also reflects the center’s extensive work with the local and national employment community, faculty members across campus, and the multiple constituents it works with daily. The center’s focus continues to remain on serving all students in a safe and inclusive environment.

As college students continue to evolve and change, career centers must proactively prepare for their diverse and unique career-related needs. Last summer, the CDC staff came together to examine the role that career development plays in today’s college student experience. Staff members considered the following questions:

• What is the center’s role in preparing students for their future careers?
• How can it adapt, grow, and change?
• How can the center’s mission reflect career development and not just careers?

After examining best practices and reviewing their answers, the center’s staff members collaboratively agreed on the name change.

I ask that you help us celebrate the new name and make any necessary changes to your documents to reflect the center’s new identity. The website and email will also change to cape.buffalostate.edu and careers@buffalostate.edu, respectively. Thank you.

Over the past several years, I have detailed our budgetary and enrollment challenges at Buffalo State College, including a December 2021 message in which I announced that we would work together toward a multiyear plan to steady our enrollment picture and secure a financially stable and sustainable future at Buffalo State.

In April and May, we gathered for a series of listening sessions to discuss some of the factors that have contributed to our enrollment and financial challenges, and many of you shared outstanding solutions and ideas to improve our campus that are reflected in the plan I am sharing with you today. From suggestions about how to increase retention and improve the student advising experience, to discussions about new academic programs and recruitment tactics, to creative ideas about how to leverage our campus facilities to create new and sustained revenue streams—I was encouraged by the collective enthusiasm and can-do mindset that will contribute to our future success.

At last month’s College Senate meeting, Vice President Laura Barnum outlined our anticipated financial picture for next year and moving forward. While the New York State budget process did accelerate the closing of the TAP gap, likely resulting in roughly $3 million annually in new tuition revenue for Buffalo State, we are planning for a recurring structural deficit of about $12 million. While CARES COVID relief funding, along with our institutional reserve fund, has helped us weather a difficult storm over the past two years, those safety nets will help us bridge the gap between our revenue and expenses for just one more year. To that end, today I am announcing an aggressive four-year plan to ensure that we fulfill the mission and strategic priorities of campus and stabilize our financial footing. The plan, which runs from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, aims to fully align our revenue and expenses by fall 2026 through a series of seven priorities and key performance indicators, including increasing overall enrollment by 15 percent, increasing fundraising and advocacy efforts, and strategic workforce planning and development. The work will be difficult; however, I am optimistic that by working together, we will secure Buffalo State’s future and thrive.

The Environment
For the last several years, we have followed the demographic trends that have revealed smaller numbers of high school graduates within the Northeast. The heightened level of competition for a shrinking pool of students necessitated changes to our recruitment plan, our communication with prospective students, and the level of support that is needed to bring in similar numbers of first-year students. While the number of entering first-year students has decreased some, we have seen the number of transfer students plummet during the same period. Community colleges within our catchment area have revealed declines in enrollment within the last 10 years resulting in as much as a 50 percent drop in overall enrollment. This situation has been inflamed by retention struggles that have required significant shifts in the supportive efforts and structures to help students succeed. This has been the pattern across SUNY and throughout many higher education institutions for the last decade. And then in spring 2020, our campus and our world absorbed the impact of a global pandemic.

The immediate consequences of the pandemic were significant. Moving classes online, sending residential students home to complete their semester, refunding tuition, and providing virtual support became the mountain we climbed. Students finally returned to campus with guidance to maintain a healthy environment that included mask mandates, social distancing, and vaccination requirements. These changes escalated an already difficult situation, and students, faculty, staff, and administrators maneuvered a new environment, with new rules, unclear and frequently changing guidance, and concerns for their own health as well as their families’.

Today, two and half years after the start of the pandemic, we must strategize how to handle the old issues of enrollment challenges while recognizing the varied pressures of our new environment. The following plan has been developed to codify our current position and to guide the campus to new levels of success and future sustainability. The problems and constraints we experience are not unique to Buffalo State, but in order to move through our current situation, we must embrace the need for creative solutions, flexibility in thought and action, hard choices, and the willingness to work together to meet our mission as an urban-engaged campus that seeks to embrace our JEDI philosophy and transform the lives of every student that enters our doors.

Priorities, Goals, and Progress to Date

1. Priority: Increase enrollment with a focus on undergraduate retention and increasing our share of varied student sub-populations (transfer, out of state, international, and nontraditional students) and graduate populations. (Completed in collaboration with Academic Affairs to modify or develop attractive program offerings to address current student interests).

• Goal: Increase overall student population by 15 percent by fall 2026 (as compared with fall 2021).
• Responsible agents: Vice President for Enrollment Management Bowen in collaboration with Provost Mayrose.
• Progress: Earlier this month, Intercollegiate Athletics announced the addition of three new sports—acrobatics and tumbling, women’s wrestling, and men’s volleyball—that should eventually bring more than 100 new student-athletes to campus. Additionally, via the Strategic Resource Planning Process, we have increased our marketing and advertising budget in each of the past two years.

2. Priority: Increase community-directed programs (workforce programs, continuing education, special short-term programs).

• Goal: Increase the revenue from these programs by 20 percent by 2026.
• Responsible agents: Provost Mayrose with lead Kristin Fields, director of continuing and professional studies.
• Progress: Net revenue from programs such as dual credit, work-based learning, and workforce development have increased significantly since summer 2020. For instance, dual-credit enrollment has more than doubled from 117 students in 2020 to 284 in 2021.

3. Priority: Increase collaborations with partner agencies, organizations, and outside entities to promote the use of campus facilities to meet the needs of partners while offering a steady source of revenue for the college.

• Goal: Increase the revenue from these collaborations by 50 percent by 2026.
• Responsible agents: VPFM Barnum with lead Michael Lewis, senior director of administrative operations, in collaboration with Sarah Reid, campus planner; Brian Wittmer, interim director of capital design and construction; and others as needed.
• Progress: As announced in March, we are finalizing plans to welcome the Buffalo Public Schools back to campus in fall 2023, when Leonardo da Vinci High School moves into Buckham Hall. This will create dual enrollment opportunities and establish a new steady source of revenue for our campus. Events Management is hosting a number of conferences on campus this summer, while Intercollegiate Athletics has developed a number of new connections in the community leading to increased rentals of Coyer Field and our indoor athletic facilities.

4. Priority: Continue successful fundraising activities for programmatic needs of the college and cultivate additional supporters that fund program needs.

• Goal: Increase programmatic funds by 100 percent by 2026.
• Responsible agents: Vice President for Institutional Advancement Finnerty in collaboration with others as needed.
• Progress: Our 25th annual Bengala broke a fundraising record with nearly $500,000 raised to support the Muriel A. Howard Honors Program. A recent $2.1 million gift to our Speech-Language Pathology Department is another example of the good work already underway.

5. Priority: Continue current workplace efficiency plans and develop collaborations that use integrated services and technological solutions between campus units or with other SUNY campuses.

• Goal: Develop and implement at least two campus shared services that create savings by 2026.
• Responsible agents: Cabinet members in collaboration with their divisional leadership.
• Progress: Buffalo State is working with fellow SUNY comprehensive campuses in Western New York to look at opportunities to improve efficiencies and shared services related to human resources, payroll, and benefits. Additionally, similar to the SUNY WestCam (Western New York campuses) legal partnership, Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests will soon be managed through a collaboration between multiple WNY campuses. Furthermore, the college’s Sponsored Programs Operations Office is providing services to two other SUNY campuses.

6. Priority: Focus significant attention on advocacy goals with the state of New York to improve the college’s overall financial standing.

• Goal:

a. Vigorously advocate funding for negotiated salary increases (success would result in a $2 million to $3 million increase for campus).

b. Vigorously advocate targeted state tax support for Buffalo State due to its special urban-engaged mission and diversity of the student body (advocate a targeted amount of $5 million).

c. Advocate adjustments in state funding to account for inflation.

d. Advocate a tuition rate increase.

• Responsible agents: President with lead William Benfanti, associate vice president for institutional advancement.
• Progress: The 2022–2023 NYS Budget Process provided a down payment toward these goals by closing the TAP gap, resulting in approximately $3 million in new revenue for the campus.

7. Priority: Strategically continue workforce planning across the college to address the budget deficit while maintaining the essential components for our educational enterprise and adhering to compliance requirements. Workforce planning will be grounded in appropriate metrics, benchmarks, and the campus budgeting processes.

• Goal: Reduce campus expenses strategically across campus.

a. Institute a permanent reduction of 5 percent across all OTPS for the 2022–2023 budget cycle.

• By fall 2026, reduce workforce by 10 percent—including but likely not limited to retirements, attrition, and re-imagining of roles—resulting in a reduction of $7 million, and closely monitor the results. Just as we did during our budget rebalancing efforts from 2017 to 2020, where we reduced our expenditures by $7 million, these workforce planning decisions will continue to be managed at the divisional/VP level. During the pandemic, in response to SUNY and NYS Division of Budget spending constraints, each VP developed its workforce planning and development plans. These efforts will continue as we look to make an additional $7 million reduction in personnel expenditures as part of this financial sustainability plan.
• Responsible agents: All cabinet members led by VPFM Barnum with collaboration of James Thor, AVP for financial operations and comptroller; Jamie Warnes, interim AVP for human resource management; and Yves Gachette, director of institutional research.
• Progress: The college reduced expenditures by $7 million between 2017 and 2020 as part of the budget rebalancing efforts. Thanks in part to the spending constraints put in place in May 2020, we have reduced our salary expenditures by $3 million fiscally in each of the past two years. Our provost and vice presidents are carefully scrutinizing their workforce plans to consider if the $3 million savings can be realized on a permanent basis toward the $7 million salary reduction target. Using metrics and benchmarking, the college will evaluate current workforce staffing levels and set annual targets as part our annual Strategic Resource Planning Process.

(Note: A failure to meet the goals outlined in priorities 1–6 will result in the need to further reduce our expenses and workforce.)

In September, we will launch a website to track our progress toward these initiatives. Although our journeys to reach our goals may not be uniform, we will be transparent about our progress, updating the website regularly.

For 150 years, Buffalo State College has been a beacon of hope for social progress and a better life for our students and our community. As we work together to meet the challenges of today, let us not forget the importance of that work and the transformative impact we have on the lives of our students every day. While times may be tough please remember that, like our students, we are resilient. We will meet this challenge, and we will successfully position Buffalo State for the next 150 years.

Consistent with efforts across the campus to increase effectiveness and optimize resources, we are making changes to the organizational structure of the Graduate School, which reports directly to the provost and vice president for academic affairs. These changes are effective July 1, 2022.

Name and title changes:
The Graduate School will be renamed the Graduate Studies Office and will be led by Kevin Miller as director and Kim Jackson as associate director. 

Alignment of resources:
Over the 2022–2023 academic year, the Graduate Studies Office will work with Enrollment Management and Marketing and Communications to look for ways to streamline the admissions and program marketing processes for graduate programs.

The academic obligation for 2022–2023 at Buffalo State College commences Monday, August 22, 2022, and ends Wednesday, May 31, 2023.

The summer 2022 Orientation season is here, and we are excited to return to “normal” operations. Below are just a few reminders and some helpful information you can share in case you encounter students, families, or members of our campus community who have questions.

Our synchronous (in-person) sessions will commence Tuesday, July 12, and conclude Thursday, August 25. We will host eight in-person sessions in total. Sessions are as follows:

First-Year Student Sessions (two-day format beginning at 11:30 a.m. on day one and concluding at 4:00 p.m. on day two)
Wednesday, July 13–Thursday, July 14
Wednesday, July 27–Thursday, July 28

Transfer Student Sessions (one-day format beginning at 8:00 a.m. and concluding at 5:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, July 12
Tuesday, July 19
Tuesday, July 26

Community Sessions (beginning at various times)
EOP: Thursday, July 21–Friday, July 22
Fall Athletes: Thursday, August 18

Final Summer Session (Orientation makeup day: one-day format beginning at 9:00 a.m. and concluding at 5:00 p.m.)
Thursday, August 25

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Student Registration for Orientation
Upon submitting their deposit, students automatically receive an email that prompts them to self-register for their preferred session. (Please note that students identified as part of the special EOP or athlete Orientation sessions occurring this summer will be allowed to register only for those sessions.)

Students Unable to Attend Orientation
In addition to the seven summer sessions held in July, an in-person makeup session will be offered on August 25. We also recommend to students several tips to complete this summer for a smoother college transition.

Other Support Resources
Our asynchronous version of Orientation was once again made available to incoming students on Flipgrid. Reminders to access the content will be sent out periodically to students who have officially registered for a summer Orientation session. Instructions will also be posted on the SLE Orientation website. Content displayed on Flipgrid is meant to help acclimate students to the various campus departments and academic programs before Orientation. This is an effort to assist incoming students with making the most of their scheduled in-person session. This content will remain available to students throughout the semester. 

How You Can Help

• Volunteer to assist with summer Orientation. 
• Add items to the incoming student swag bag. 
• Staff a table during the summer Orientation student resource fair. 
• Reserve a table in our parent lounge. (You do not have to physically sit in the room the entire time; you can set up a table and leave information.)

If you are curious about what your department has planned for this summer’s Orientation, please connect with your departmental orientation committee member. These professionals also have access to the Orientation shared drive, which contains the most recent logistical schedules for the day.

If you have questions or need additional clarification, please email Shawnté Wilson, associate director of orientation and first-year retention programs, or Thomas Trzepkowski, assistant director of orientation and first-year retention programs.