Please join the Biology Department and the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “From Buffalo State through Nutrition Educator and Dietitian to Family Medicine – A Career Journey Calling the Shots: How Vocal Roles Shape Collective Decisions in Disk-winged Bats”, presented by Dr. Maria Sagot today at 3:00 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center 214. Attendees are welcome to arrive at 2:30 p.m. to enjoy coffee and cookies leading up to the seminar.

Research Seminar Abstract: Social animals often rely on communication and coordination to navigate collective challenges like foraging or finding shelter, especially in unpredictable environments. In this talk, I explore how Thyroptera tricolor (Spix’s disk-winged bat), a species that roosts in ephemeral furled leaves and forms stable social groups, uses vocal communication to coordinate group decisions during roost finding. Individuals differ consistently in vocal behavior, forming a dynamic similar to producer–scrounger systems in other animals: some bats generate social calls that others follow. We investigated how these stable vocal roles affect group efficiency and cohesion, whether non-vocal individuals rely more on social information, and how kinship and associations influence calling behavior. Through a combination of field and flight cage experiments in Costa Rica, we found that groups with a mix of vocal and non-vocal individuals locate roosts more efficiently, but a high proportion of vocal bats can lead to group fragmentation. Non-vocal individuals were more responsive to social calls, supporting the idea that behavioral diversity improves collective outcomes. However, relatedness and association strength did not predict calling rates—vocal behavior was instead best explained by individual identity, suggesting these roles are intrinsic traits rather than responses to social bonds. Together, these findings highlight the role of stable individual differences in shaping social dynamics and demonstrate how collective decision-making emerges from a balance between signalers and receivers. This work contributes to our understanding of how behavioral variation and communication systems support group living in complex ecological contexts.

Ready to grow your leadership impact? Continuing Professional Studies is proud to offer the next level of the Supervisor Training Academy, Coaching for the Modern Manager, a powerful program for emerging and current supervisors who want to lead with clarity, empathy, and confidence.

This interactive, four-session workshop builds on the foundation of The Holistic Communicator, helping you develop coaching and mentoring skills, navigate conflict, lead crucial conversations, and foster psychological safety on your team. With in-person learning and virtual coaching check-ins, you’ll gain actionable tools and support to put your learning into practice right away.

Workshop dates (Fridays, bi-weekly):
May 30 | 9 AM – 4 PM
June 13 | 9 AM – 4 PM
June 27 | 9 AM – 4 PM
July 11 | 9 AM – 1 PM

Buffalo State faculty and staff receive an exclusive 50% discount! Take the next step in your leadership journey; register by Tuesday, May 27.

Learn More & Register: Visit the Continuing Professional Studies website or email our office today!

Tickets are still available to attend Dr. Carmen Kynard’s keynote address and teaching workshop on April 18, 2025. 

The College Writing Program is proud to welcome Dr. Kynard to spend the day with the  campus community, starting with her 11:00 am talk,"'Mama Said Knock You Out': Lessons from Classrooms on the Black Radical Traditions of Refusal and Creative Escape.” Tickets are free and available to the public. RSVP to this event today! 

Event Description: In a moment when critical approaches to curriculum and instruction are under fire everywhere, creative and imaginative learning are even more important.  This presentation traces Black fugitive practices--- past and present--- marking minoritized students as the most critical makers of anti-colonial schooling.  Though institutions, administrators, policy makers, and faculty often imagine themselves as the sole inspiration for educational change and progressivism, this has never been the whole truth.  This presentation instead locates the legacies and futures of Black Radical traditions with Black and Brown youth and their allies as the truthtellers, curriculum questioners, alt-linguistic models, multimodal artists, digital activists, literacy architects, creative designers, and transnational dreamers of the education we all deserve.

Tickets are free and available to the public. RSVP for this event today! 

About Dr. Kynard: Dr. Carmen Kynard is the Lillian Radford Chair in Rhetoric and Composition and Professor of English at Texas Christian University. She interrogates race, Black feminisms, AfroDigital/Black languages and cultures, and the politics of schooling with an emphasis on composition, rhetoric, and literacies studies. Carmen has taught high school with the New York City public schools/Coalition of Essential Schools, served as a writing program administrator, and worked as a teacher educator. She has led numerous professional development projects on language, literacy, and learning and has published in Harvard Educational Review, Changing English, College Composition and Communication, College English, Computers and Composition, Reading Research Quarterly, Literacy and Composition Studies and more. Her award-winning book, Vernacular Insurrections: Race, Black Protest, and the New Century in Composition-Literacy Studies, makes Black Freedom a 21st century literacy movement. Her current projects focus on young Black women and gender-expansive folx in college, Black Feminist rhetorics, and anti-racist/anti-colonial pedagogies.

This event is brought to Buffalo State's campus by the College Writing Program and funded by the Faculty-Student Association.

April is National Donate Life Month.

Give blood and save lives at the Connect Life Blood Drive at Buffalo State University on Thursday, April 17, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Houston Gym.

All April blood and platelet donors will receive a free Buffalo Sabres t-shirt and be entered in DoorDash gift card raffles.

To make an appointment: call (716) 529-4270 or visit ConnectLifeGiveBlood.org and enter sponsor code 001047. Walk-ins are also welcome.

Visit ConnectLife.org/Register to become an organ, eye, and tissue donor.

E. H. Butler Library requests your old magazines to support students' zine-making activities on campus. We are particularly interested in magazines that are heavy on photos/imagery and light on text.

Please remove any personal address labels from the magazines before donating.

Magazines can be dropped off at the Ask Us Desk in Butler Library during business hours. Contact librarian Julie Setele with any questions.
 

The Campus Planning Office, the Friends of the Maud Gordon Holmes Arboretum and the Buffalo State Sustainability Committee invites the Buffalo State University Community to the 2025 Arbor Day & Sustainability Fair on Earth Day, April 22, 12:00-2:00 pm in the Campbell Student Union lobby.  Come see some some of the great programs the campus is moving forward on in improving sustainability and the campus urban forest. Several Campus Departments and off campus representatives will be present to show they're support of these initiatives. There will be a plants grown by the Buffalo State Biology Department to take home and other great giveaways. Come celebrate Buffalo State's recent AASHE STARS Silver accredidation and its third year being recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree Campus Higher Education institution.  This event is possible with the generosity of the Grant Allocation Committee (GAC). 

Please attend the other events scheduled for Arbor Day and Earth Day:

Thursday April 24 - 12-00-1:00 pm - Arbor Day Tree Walking Tour - west side Campbell Student Union

Friday April 25 - 11:00 - 11:30 - Arbor Day Tree Planting Ceremony - east side Bishop Hall near Cleveland Circle.

Friday April 25 - 3:00-4:00 pm - Arbor Day Speaker Nell Gardner - The History of the Trees and Gardens of the Richardson Complex - 160 Technology Bldg. 

Please contact Campus Arborist Steven Sypniewski for more information.

The Buffalo State University community is saddened by the death of Paul R. Homer, teaching professor emeritus of music, who died April 10, 2025. Mr. Homer joined the campus in 1953 and retired in 1996. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Kathryn (Szely) Homer; children, Katharine Bartelo (Joseph), Christine Homer, and Paul Homer (Melinda Carpenter); and grandchildren, Joseph and Nicholas Bartelo, Lucy and Kathryn Homer, and multiple nieces and nephews. Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 24, at Central Park United Methodist Church, 216 Beard Avenue, Buffalo. More information is available online.

The nomination period for the positions of President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer will be open from Wednesday April 23, 2025 to Wednesday May 14, 2025. Requests for a petition and nominating petitions for election to office will be available from and must be returned to Mary Codick. Nominating petitions will not be distributed until membership status and candidate eligibility have been verified. Nominating petitions must be distributed in person, and accurately completed and signed nominating petitions must be returned in person by no later than 5 p.m. on May 14, 2025 to be considered valid. Contact an election committee member with questions.

CSEA Local 640 2025 Election Committee Members

Mary Codick, Chairperson      codickme@buffalostate.edu    CHASE 222   878-6121 Days

Susan Rizzo                           rizzosl@buffalostate.edu         CHASE 246   878-6223 Days

Donna Stuber                         dgstuber@gmail.com               Th - M 7:30 to 3:30 Days

The Chemistry Department is hosting a graduate student seminar on Thursday, April 17, during Bengal Pause (12:15 pm to 1:30 pm) in SAMC 151. Our speaker will be Grace Poleto, a graduate student in the forensic science master's program. Coffee and snacks will be served.

Title: Comparisons of Terpenes in Cannabis Flowers via Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detection and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The increasing legalization of recreational cannabis across the United States has led to the establishment of cultivators, processors, and dispensaries offering a wide variety of cannabis products. In response, federal and state agencies have enacted policies and regulations mandating laboratory testing of commercial cannabis products. These tests include the quantification of specific cannabinoids, terpene profiling, and the detection of residual pesticides and heavy metals. Terpenes are volatile organic compounds found in cannabis and other plants that contribute to the plant’s aroma and play a role in its growth cycle [1]. In recent years, terpenes have gained attention for their potential to interact with cannabinoid receptors through the “entourage effect,” in which the combined action of terpenes and cannabinoids may enhance certain pharmacological effects [2]. This research project focuses on the identification and quantification of terpenes in four commercially available cannabis flower strains using gas chromatography–flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), in addition to the effects of extraction solvents and extraction time on terpene concentrations. It was observed that the major terpenes and their concentrations varied across the different strains and were affected by the choice of extraction solvent. In addition, terpene concentrations decreased over longer extraction times, presumably due to chemical degradation.

References:

Fausett, A. (2020, May 26). Analysis of Terpene and Terpenoid Content in Cannabis Sativa Using Headspace with GC/MSD.
Ferber, S. G., Namdar, D., Hen-Shoval, D., Eger, G., Koltai, H., Shoval, G., Shbiro, L., & Weller, A. (2020). The “Entourage Effect”: Terpenes Coupled with Cannabinoids for the Treatment of Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders. Current Neuropharmacology, 18(2), 87–96.

The Process Improvement Task Force is one of five teams formed by the provost to support the successful combination of the School of Education and the School of Professions. Our task force is charged with identifying processes and workflows that can be updated, streamlined, or eliminated as part of the transition to a new two-unit structure. We invite the entire campus community to share their feedback on process improvement to help shape a more efficient, inclusive organizational structure moving forward.

Please complete this brief survey to share your thoughts and recommendations by April 23. It should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Let us know what campus processes and workflows you think could use some improvement! 

If you have any questions, please contact co-chairs Leasa Mills (rochesln@buffalostate.edu) or Charles Lyons (lyonscf@buffalostate.edu).