I am pleased to announce that Sumana Silverheels, interim director and technology accommodations coordinator for Student Accessibility Services (SAS), has received the President’s Caring Bengal Award.

Ms. Silverheels was nominated for the award by the SAS Office's Andrea Gustafson, learning and accommodations specialist; Linda Rizzo, administrative assistant; Jordan Raine, accommodations specialist; Eliza Lefebvre, intern; Stephanie Rivera, work-study student; and Tai Prescott-Salako, undergraduate student.

I am so pleased to recognize Ms. Silverheels, and I encourage the entire campus community to join me in thanking her for her exceptional effort to make Buffalo State 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.

Members of the campus community are invited to submit nominations for the President’s Caring Bengal Award by Monday, November 14, at 5:00 p.m. Please visit the award website for more information about the award criteria and recipient selection process or to submit a nomination.

Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff members are encouraged to review the college's emergency closings policy (PDF, 124 KB) and sign up for the Buff State Alert system to receive emergency notifications. If you have already signed up for Buff State Alert, please take a few moments to verify or update your contact information.

Because the weather in Western New York can vary greatly within just a few miles, there are times each winter when conditions on campus are favorable for classes to be held as scheduled, but some students, faculty, and staff members may experience difficulty traveling to campus. In those situations, students must communicate with their instructors, faculty with their students, and staff with their supervisors if they cannot travel to campus safely.

Students will not be penalized if they cannot attend face-to-face or hybrid classes in person because of severe weather but are responsible for making up any assignments, quizzes, or exams promptly, in consultation with faculty. Students are responsible for the prompt completion of any alternative assignments. If an absence situation between a student and instructor cannot be resolved, an appeal should proceed sequentially to the department chair, dean, and finally the provost.

Faculty members who are unable to travel to campus are responsible for making alternative arrangements for their students. If a faculty member must cancel class(es), affected students should be notified via Blackboard and/or direct email as soon as possible.

During inclement weather, essential-critical employees are expected to report to campus at scheduled times. Non-essential and essential-remote employees who may be able to conduct work from an alternate location must consult with their supervisors in advance on all such decisions. Non-essential and essential-remote employees who do not report to work must communicate the absence to their supervisor and charge the absence to appropriate leave accruals, even when the college cancels classes and activities.

Please join Dr. Alvin Turner and me at the annual Campus Holiday Party on Friday, December 9, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall.

RSVP by Monday, December 5.

We also invite you to join us in the giving spirit of the season by making a donation to Milligan's Food Pantry. Thank you.
 

Please join Dr. Alvin Turner and me at the annual Campus Holiday Party on Friday, December 9, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall.

RSVP by the close of business today, December 5.

We also invite you to join us in the giving spirit of the season by making a donation to Milligan's Food Pantry. Thank you.

In light of the upcoming retirement of Jill Powell, senior assistant to the vice president for finance and management, please note the following reassignment of duties within the Finance and Management division. These changes are effective immediately:

Records Access (Freedom of Information Law)
Buffalo State complies with New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which requires that all state agencies, including entities within SUNY, make certain records available to the public.

To ensure compliance, any campus employee in receipt of a Buffalo State FOIL request should forward it without delay to James Thor, associate vice president for financial operations and controller, who is Buffalo State’s new records access officer; and to the coordinator for financial operations, Carol Stadelmaier, the college’s new records access coordinator.  FOIL requests and inquiries pertaining to FOIL should be sent to foil@buffalostate.edu.

Records Management, Retention, and Disposition
James Thor, associate vice president for financial operations and controller, will serve as Buffalo State’s new records management officer (RMO). The RMO role includes issuing records holds and assisting counsel on various matters. These activities will be coordinated by Carol Stadelmaier, coordinator for financial operations.

Retention and disposition of official records of the SUNY campuses are governed by the New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. Official records must be retained and disposed of in compliance with state and SUNY schedules. For assistance with campus records retention and disposition, please contact Brenda Ronan, compliance and business manager, who will coordinate records retention and disposition.

Trademark Licensing 
Buffalo State's trademark licensing program protects and promotes the proper use of this institution's name, marks, and logos. Buffalo State closely monitors use of its name, marks, and logos to ensure that the integrity of its trademark rights is maintained in all products. For assistance with use of campus marks and logos, please contact Bonnie Heim, director of non-contract procurement, who is Buffalo State’s new trademark licensing officer.

Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the Classified Service
The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Classified Service is a SUNY system-level award that recognizes classified service employees for excellence and superior service to students and the community at large. Members of the Buffalo State community are encouraged to submit nominations for deserving colleagues. For matters relating to the 2022–2023 award, please contact Brenda Ronan, compliance and business manager.

Please join me in wishing Jill Powell all the very best in her retirement. I extend my sincerest thanks to Bonnie Heim, Brenda Ronan, Carol Stadelmaier, and James Thor for assuming these additional roles and responsibilities.

Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
Before we all enjoy our Thanksgiving holidays, where we remember all that we are individually and collectively thankful for, please consider sharing a gift of your own to “pay it forward” to support the tireless work of agencies whose very existence reminds us that our human condition is sometimes fragile. While no one wants to need help from strangers, we will all require it many times in our lives. Please consider connecting to our electronic pledging system to make your donation to the SEFA/United Way Campaign as just a small part of your “thanksgiving” this year. To make this possible, we have extended the giving deadline to December 1. Consider this your first gift of the holiday season!

Thank you.

This Saturday’s planned Fall Open House event has been canceled because of the impending winter storm this weekend. While we were excited to host a record number of students to campus, the safety of our faculty, staff, and guests is paramount.

As an alternative option for our prospective families, we have added additional weekend information sessions and virtual options through Admissions. All of our upcoming programs can be found on our Visit Us website.

Several academic departments have already planned to host virtual presentations in November and December.  If you have not yet scheduled a virtual presentation with Admissions, please plan to host one in the coming weeks. You can sign up for a presentation via the Virtual RSVP form.

Middle States Commission on Higher Education Self-Study Steering Committee co-chairs Abdi Hajikandi and Kelly Frothingham and campus MSCHE accreditation liaison officer Kim Barron are pleased to report that Buffalo State had a successful preliminary site visit November 7 and 8. After his visit to campus, our MSCHE team chair, Lamont O. Repollet, president of Kean University, indicated that Buffalo State is prepared for an on-site evaluation visit, which is scheduled for March 12–15, 2023.

The purpose of the preliminary visit was to introduce Dr. Repollet to Buffalo State, our people, and our environment so that he and the peer evaluators can begin the upcoming on-site evaluation visit efficiently and effectively. A “nearly complete draft” of the self-study report was provided to Dr. Repollet before his visit. While visiting campus, Dr. Repollet met with President Katherine Conway-Turner, the MSCHE Steering Committee, a group of students, representatives from the International Graduate Program for Educators (IGPE), the President’s Cabinet, and the College Council. Dr. Repollet also toured the campus. 

Dr. Repollet provided feedback to ensure that the self-study process and document will support a useful on-site evaluation visit, and the MSCHE Steering Committee and Writing Group are currently incorporating that feedback into a final draft report. A final draft self-study report will be available for the campus community to review and provide comment in December; the final self-study report will be submitted to MSCHE in January.

Thanks to the many faculty, staff, and students who contributed to a successful site visit.

During negotiations for the 2016–2022 Agreement between the State of New York and United University Professions (UUP), the parties agreed to develop guidelines and a methodology for a salary equity study to be conducted at each campus. The purpose of the study is to identify compression and inversion for UUP-represented employees. Salary inversion may exist when new employees are hired at salaries higher than experienced employees; compression may exist when salaries of experienced employees fail to maintain distance above salaries of new employees.

An executive-level committee made up of representatives from New York State, SUNY, and UUP developed guidelines and a methodology to analyze and identify the extent of salary compression and inversion, and the adopted guidelines and methodology have been used at Buffalo State.

In addition to the 0.5 percent that was established to provide for discretionary merit-based salary increases (awardees were notified November 2, 2022), the agreement between New York State and UUP also includes using 0.5 percent of the DSI to address identified compression and inversion. I have reviewed the results of the analysis and considered them in making decisions regarding distributing discretionary salary increases. In following the negotiated guidelines, and in an effort to be transparent, a summary of specific considerations made in the distribution of the 0.5 percent dedicated to addressing identified compression and inversion is provided (PDF, 110 KB).

Employees who will receive salary increases based on the salary compression and inversion analysis will be notified via their campus email addresses today, November 23. Increases for both the 0.5 percent discretionary merit-based awards and the 0.5 percent based on the compression analysis is anticipated to appear in paychecks dated December 21, 2022. The increases will be retroactive to July 1, 2022, for professional employees and employees with 12-month obligations, and September 1, 2022, for employees with academic-year obligations.

In accordance with SUNY guidelines, employees who receive salary compression or inversion adjustments are not disqualified from consideration for increases from the 0.5 percent discretionary merit-based pool. Conversely, receipt of a discretionary increase does not disqualify employees from eligibility for compression adjustments.

Please direct specific questions or concerns regarding the analysis completed at Buffalo State to Jamie Warnes, interim associate vice president for human resource management.

I am pleased to announce that Buffalo State’s Teacher Education Unit has been granted reaccreditation by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). This decision stemmed from a virtual campus site visit that CAEP conducted last March and the submission of a self-study report in June 2021.

Faculty members, teaching candidates, alumni, and other P–12 partners from all programs in the Teacher Education Unit were invited to participate in the virtual site visit. The sessions focused on candidate knowledge and skills, clinical partnerships, employer satisfaction, completer/alumni satisfaction, and impact on P–12 learning, as well as other areas.

The resulting accreditation speaks to the dedication of the faculty members who compose the Teacher Education Unit. Teaching across the three schools, they prepare not only future teachers but also principals, superintendents, and other school administrators. Since 1954, Buffalo State’s Teacher Education Unit has been continuously accredited through CAEP, formerly known as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

Special thanks to Shannon Budin, professor of exceptional education and assistant dean for assessment and accreditation, for orchestrating this process and to all the members of the Teacher Education Unit Assessment Committee for seeing it through to its successful completion.