The Emergency Response Planning Group and University Police will conduct a test of the college’s outdoor emergency alert horn at 1:30 p.m. today, October 27.

People who are outdoors during the test will hear a series of three loud 60-second horn blasts emanating from the central heating plant. Please note: the horn is primarily intended to be audible at outdoor locations on campus—not inside buildings.

In a real emergency, the horn would sound for a minimum of five full minutes. If a real emergency alert is signaled, immediately seek shelter and await further instructions communicated via Buff State Alert, e-mail, suny.buffalostate.edu, or direct instructions from University Police. For more information on Buffalo State’s comprehensive emergency response plan, please visit the UPD website.

Approximately 30 minutes before the test horn sounds, the college will issue a campuswide test of the Buff State Alert emergency communication system. At this time, all students, faculty, and staff members who have registered with the service will be sent a test message.

Students, faculty, and staff members are strongly encouraged to enroll in Buff State Alert, or modify their preferences, by visiting the Buff State Alert website and logging in with their Buffalo State username and password. Those who do not have a Buffalo State username or password but want to receive text messages from Buff State Alert can sign up by texting the phrase “buffalostate” to 79516.

The next Bengal Business Forum is scheduled for Thursday, October 27, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. via Microsoft Teams. This virtual meeting will provide updates on the campus emergency plan, as well as the budget and Strategic Resource Planning Process. It will also include a greeting from Stephen Mayoral, Buffalo State’s new chief of university police.

Buffalo State’s Bengal Business Forum provides an opportunity for members of the campus community to learn about and engage in relevant business and administrative matters at the college. It is a place for issues updates, information sharing, and in-depth discussion about financial, administrative, and operational topics.    

All members of the campus community are welcome to attend. Please register online to receive Microsoft Teams information and the meeting agenda.

We look forward to seeing you at the October 27 Bengal Business Forum.

I am pleased to announce that the Buffalo State College Strategic Plan for 2022–2026 (PDF, 8 MB) was officially ratified by the College Council at its meeting on October 4, 2022. I thank the members of the Institutional Planning and Advisory Committee, under the leadership of Provost James Mayrose and Assistant Vice President Kim Barron, for their exceptional work over the past year. The spirit of shared governance, collaboration, and common purpose that emanated from all campus constituents is clearly evident in our final product. We have a plan that contains a set of strategic directions for the campus with well-defined objectives to guide our efforts toward achieving our mission over the next four years.

The approved version of the plan can be found on the Strategic Plan website. Again, thank you to the members of the IPAC for their leadership and to the entire Buffalo State community for your participation and input on this most important initiative.

Just in case you missed it before, I wanted to remind you that during the spring semester, we will be hosting Buffalo State Gives 2023, our fifth annual Day of Giving.

Institutional Advancement wants to partner with you to fundraise for your department’s most important and pressing needs on the Day of Giving. So if you are interested in participating, please remember to sign up by Friday, October 28.

Please contact Kate Lockhart, assistant to the vice president, (716) 878-3077, with questions about Buffalo State Gives.

In the October meeting of the College Senate, the Curriculum Committee brought forth for a vote a recommendation to revise DOPS Policy IV:12:00 Approval Process for Approval in General Education. The College Senate voted in favor of the resolution presented by the Curriculum Committee on October 14, 2022.

BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE
DIRECTORY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
Policy Number: IV:12:00                  
Date: Revision
Date Revised: October 2022
Subject: Approval Process for Approval in General Education

WHEREAS, the SUNY categories have already been identified (Communication, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Sciences and Scientific Reasoning, Humanities, Arts, US History and Civic Engagement, Social Sciences, World History and Global Engagement, and World Languages); and  

WHEREAS, the Student Learning Outcomes from SUNY are identified and similar to those of Intellectual Foundations 2014; and

WHEREAS, time is needed for the registrar to prepare technological systems for general education 2023,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the following process be used to approve courses in general education 2023 regardless of the framework implemented.

Approval Process for Inclusion in General Education 2023
If it is a course not previously approved for IF 14, the course approval process will follow DOPS IV: 12: 00. If it is a course previously approved for inclusion in IF 14, associate deans will submit to the College Senate Curriculum Committee (CSCC) via an email attachment (in place of the curriculum management system) for review by an ad hoc committee made up of members of the CSCC and the Senate Intellectual Foundations Oversight Committee (SIFOC). 1. Course Narrative 2. Existing Course Proposal 3. Frequency of Course Offering. Students in the IF 2014 program (fall 2014–spring 2022) will remain in the IF 2014 program. IF 2014 courses will keep the IF 14 designation, and if approved for GE23, the courses will include GE23 designation. Documents for courses that want to be included in General Education 2023 for fall 2023 must be submitted to the CSCC by November 1, 2022.

I hereby accept the recommendation of the College Senate and charge the provost with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of this policy change and for communicating the change to the campus community.

I am pleased to announce the following appointments to the 2022–2023 Subcommittee for Commencement Operations:

Chair: Bernadette Gilliam,* Interim Director, Events Management Office

LeVar Burke,* Chief of Staff, President’s Office
Katelyn Brickhouse, Interim Director, Alumni Engagement Office
Brent Ford, Athletics Facilities Manager, Intercollegiate Athletics
Kenneth Giangreco, Manager of Video Production, Marketing and Communications Office
Kimberly Jackson,* Deputy Director of Commencement Operations, Academic Affairs
Brian Kantz,* Creative Services Director, Marketing and Communications Office
Nigel Marriner, Registrar, Registrar’s Office
Lisa Morrison-Fronckowiak,* Interim Chief Diversity Officer, Equity and Campus Diversity Office
Kristen Mruk, Associate Director, Student Leadership and Engagement Office
Amy Pedlow, Assistant Chief of Police, University Police Department
Lynn Puma, Manager, Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore
David Ross, Chief TV Engineer, Marketing and Communications Office
Justin Sledz, Assistant Director of Classroom Technology, Information Technology Services
Mary Beth Wojtaszek, Associate Events Manager, Events Management Office
Rita Zientek,* Associate Dean, School of the Professions

The Subcommittee for Commencement Operations 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 the Commencement Committee.

I am pleased to announce the membership of the 2022–2023 Buffalo State Commencement Committee:

Chair: Marcus Watson, Assistant Professor, Individualized Studies
Vice Chair: Gliset Colón, Assistant Professor, Exceptional Education Department
Immediate Past Chair: Kathleen O’Brien, Chair and Lecturer, Hospitality and Tourism Department
Secretary: Ann Delmont, Administrative Assistant 2, Academic Affairs

Aaron Daniel Annas, Director, Television and Film Arts Program
LeVar Burke,* Chief of Staff, President’s Office
Bernadette Gilliam,* Interim Director, Events Management Office
Abdi Hajikandi, Assistant Director for Academic Services, Educational Opportunity Program
Andrew Hashey, Associate Professor, Exceptional Education Department
Luke Haumesser,* Associate Director, Student Leadership and Engagement
Kimberly Jackson,* Deputy Director of Commencement Operations, Academic Affairs
Brian Kantz,* Creative Services Director, Marketing and Communications
Ann Liao, Associate Professor, Communication Department
Amy McMillan, Director, Honors Program
Kevin Miller, Director, Graduate Studies Office
Lisa Morrison-Fronckowiak,* Interim Chief Diversity Officer, Equity and Campus Diversity Office
Rita Zientek,* Associate Dean, School of the Professions

Gabriella diSpirito, Graduate Student
Lisa Michael, Undergraduate Student
Tahynnis Newsome, Undergraduate Student

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.

*Also serves on the Subcommittee for Commencement Operations

Greetings, SUNY Buffalo State community.

With the recent announcement of the retirement of our current president, Katherine Conway-Turner, we have begun the process of finding a successor to become the 10th president of Buffalo State.

Recommending presidential candidates to the chancellor and the SUNY Board of Trustees is a major role of the College Council and requires engagement from a cross-section of campus community members. As chair of the Presidential Search Committee, I have been in contact with SUNY to begin the search process. The SUNY Guide to Presidential Searches at State-Operated Institutions (PDF, 600 KB) requires the campus to hire a search firm to support the national recruitment of qualified candidates, and we will soon begin the process of vetting and securing a firm.

Next Steps
In his capacity as secretary to the College Council, LeVar Burke, Esq., will assist me in managing the on-campus aspects of the search process and liaise with the SUNY chancellor’s representative. Mr. Burke has begun the preliminary procedures, and we will continue to work with SUNY to ensure a smooth selection process and transition. In the coming weeks, I will constitute a search committee consistent with the committee makeup outlined in the SUNY guidelines, which includes broad representation from many campus constituencies.

We will work with Kimberly Kline, chair of the College Senate, to develop a nomination and election process for faculty members to serve on the committee, as prescribed by the SUNY guidelines. Other campus constituencies, including United Students Government, the Alumni Association Board, and the Buffalo State College Foundation Board, will nominate potential committee members to me, as the College Council chair, and I will fill the remaining slots from those recommendations. Our goal is to recruit a diverse group of individuals who represent the campus community to serve on this important body.

The college will develop a website to provide information and updates regarding the search for the duration of the process. The website will contain information about the search, including timeline, listening sessions, campus surveys, search committee membership, the search ad, and campus profile. Throughout the process, we will share updates to ensure transparency. The website will archive all announcements from the search committee.

As both the chair of the College Council and an alumna of Buffalo State, I look forward to this new and exciting chapter of our college’s history!

Sincerely,

Linda A. Dobmeier, ’71
Chair
Buffalo State College Council

The deadline to submit proposals to the Grant Allocation Committee (GAC) for spring 2023 funding has been extended to Monday, November 28. The GAC requests proposals from individuals, departments, and student clubs and organizations for funding of programs, speakers, and events to take place during the 2022–2023 academic year.

Applications for funding and complete details of requirements may be found on the Student Affairs website. All proposals must be submitted electronically to Amanda Marzolf, executive assistant to the dean of the School of the Professions. Questions may also be directed to Student Affairs.

The next meeting of the Buffalo State College Council will be held at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 15, in Cleveland Hall 518.

Agenda

1. Call to Order
2. Action Items
   Approval of the Minutes: October 4, 2022
3. Chair’s Report
4. President’s Report
5. Committee Reports
6. Announcements
7. Executive Session  (If Necessary)
8. Adjournment