The Teacher Education Council (TEC) will meet Friday, March 8, in the Grande Conference Room, Cleveland Hall 418, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. TEC representatives will receive a meeting invitation and agenda. All TEC representatives and Teacher Education Unit members are encouraged to attend. Non-members who want to attend may contact their TEC representative for more information.

The Teacher Education Council (TEC) will meet Friday, February 9, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the Grande Conference Room, Cleveland Hall 418. TEC representatives will receive a meeting invitation and agenda. All TEC representatives and Teacher Education Unit members are encouraged to attend. Non-members who want to attend may contact their TEC representative for more information.

The United Students Government (USG) Budget Committee considers budget requests from USG-recognized student organizations only once a year. Any organization that has been officially recognized by USG for at least two full semesters is eligible to apply for a budget allocation. Unrecognized groups or those only recently recognized are not considered. Recognized organizations that don't currently receive a budget and are applying for funds in the budget process are limited to a $2,500 total budget request. Non-USG affiliated organizations and Greek Life organizations are not eligible to submit a request for funding through USG.

USG will host the 2024 spring semester Treasurer Training on Tuesday, February 6, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Application packets will be available on Bengal Connect under the USG Treasurer's page. All budget packets are due Friday, February 23. Allocations are made by the Budget Committee and approved by the USG Senate and the university. The budget is in effect from June 1, 2024, until May 31, 2025.

Failure to submit by the deadline may result in the USG-recognized student organization's not receiving a budget for the 2024-2025 academic year.

The Social Justice Book Club will read a collection of short stories titled The World Wasn't Ready for You by Justin C. Key during the spring 2024 semester.

The publisher describes the book this way: "Black Mirror meets Get Out in this gripping story collection reminiscent of the work of Octavia E. Butler, which deftly blends science fiction, horror, and fantasy to examine issues of race, class, and prejudice."

The book club meets in person every other Thursday, beginning February 8, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Bacon Hall 204. Meeting dates are February 8 and 22, March 7 and 21, and April 4 and 18. There will be an opportunity to meet the author, Justin C. Key, during our final book club meeting of the semester on April 18.

The book club is free and open to all Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff members. Thanks to generous funding from E. H. Butler Library, the Muriel A. Howard Honors Program, and Student Leadership and Engagement, print copies of the text will be provided to all registered participants, while supplies last.

Anyone interested in joining the book club should fill out the interest form.

More information is available on the Social Justice Book Club website.

Questions can be directed to Julie Setele, senior assistant librarian.

Buffalo State's higher education and student affairs administration (formerly student personnel administration) program (HESAA/SPA) will host a family reunion for all graduates of the program on Saturday, February 3, at Flying Bison Brewery at 6:00 p.m. If you are an alumnus of the program, please consider joining us for this long-overdue reunion event!

Tickets are $20 per person and include food and one drink ticket. Please register online by Wednesday, January 31.

Questions about the reunion can be directed to Amy Wilson, associate professor and department chair.

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is excited to celebrate accessibility awareness and support on campus. Accessibility of content is important for all students. It promotes usability and engagement in courses and classes, which in turn support the growth of our students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds or are first-generation college students. The Buffalo State community has proudly welcomed our diverse population of students.

To acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our faculty, SAS would like to recognize and award three faculty members per semester fall 2023 and spring 2024 the registration fees for the 2024 Conference on Instructional Technology, hosted by the University at Buffalo, May 21-24.

Please complete the Faculty Nomination for Excellence in Accessibility of Course Content form to nominate a peer faculty member (full or part time) who you know went the extra mile to engage and enhance their fall 2023 courses with accessibility in mind. The guidelines are stated in the form.

The deadline for fall 2023 nominations is Wednesday, February 28.

The State of New York/United University Professions Joint Labor-Management Committees have announced that $56,656 has been allocated to SUNY Buffalo State for Individual Development Awards for the new program period of July 2, 2023, through July 1, 2024.

This award program is intended to assist employees in the UUP bargaining unit in developing their full professional potential and preparing for advancement by funding professional development activities. Information on eligibility requirements, types of projects or activities funded, funding priorities, and expenditure limitations along with the application and instructions are available on the Human Resource Management website.

The maximum amount that can be awarded for each employee under this program is $2,000. Employees may be funded for up to two projects or activities, not to exceed a total of $2,000. The funded activity must take place between July 2, 2023, and July 1, 2024. 

Applications for this award period must be received at uupida@buffalostate.edu no later than March 29, 2024.

Individual Development Awards committee members are Lisa Marie Anselmi and Jude Jayatilleke representing UUP, and Erika Grande and Charles Lyons representing management. If you have any questions regarding the awards, please contact Erika Grande in Human Resource Management.

Make the Burchfield Penney Art Center your second home! Join the center on the third Thursday of the month for exhibition tours, gallery activities, and hands-on experiences.

ART at the Center is a free program for Buffalo State students held at the Burchfield Penney Art Center from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Registration is not required.

February 15
I Like You; I Like You Not, Gallery Game: Art in Craft Media exhibition

March 21
Viewing Light: Total Solar Eclipse & Astral Visions exhibition

 April 18
Sketchbook Practice: John Wood: The System Is Alive exhibition

For further information, please contact Kathy Shiroki, outreach and adult programming educator.

J-Term and spring 2024 courses are now available for instructors in Brightspace. Each semester, the campus student information system (Banner) will update Brightspace with courses and student enrollments. Knowledge Base articles and tickets to request services such as course merges can be found in the IT portal:

• Merged and Cross-Listed Rosters in Brightspace
• Request Course Merge
• Copy Course
• Make Course Active for Students
• Pinning Courses in Brightspace

Spring 2024 Technology Updates
For information on new updates to Brightspace, YuJa Video, Microsoft Teams Meetings, and Turnitin, please refer to the Spring 2024 Educational Tech Updates article in the Daily Bulletin. 

Have Other Questions or Need Assistance?
Please direct any questions about Brightspace functionality to SUNY Online.

If you need on-campus assistance from Instructional Design and Distance Learning, please submit a ticket through the IT portal or make an online appointment through the Instructional Design and Distance Learning Bookings page.

As we begin the spring 2024 semester, the staff members in Instructional Design and Distance Learning (IDDL) would like to let you know about some updates to the technologies we support at Buffalo State.

Brightspace
D2L and SUNY are also continually updating the features of Brightspace, which now include options for copying announcements to other courses and copying assignments to other courses, as well as several other improvements. More information on Buffalo State Brightspace updates can be found in the D2L Brightspace Updates article.

YuJa Video
Several new features have recently been added to our YuJa Enterprise Video platform, including a new "YuJa Video" mobile app, which allows you to access your account and add video files from a mobile device (available for Apple and Android), new features in the Video Editor, and the ability to award partial points in Select Multiple questions in a Video Quiz. More information can be found on YuJa's Enterprise Video Platform Updates page.

Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Meetings continues to become more streamlined and add new features, including Share options for PowerPoint Live, which keeps live links in your slides active for all viewers, and Collaborate Live, which allows you to share a file that everyone can work on together in Word or Excel. For more information on the latest updates to any Microsoft 365 apps, see Microsoft's What's New page.

TurnItIn
Buffalo State has renewed its contract with Turnitin for 2024 but did not add Turnitin's AI detection tool. The decision was made in the best interests of our students and faculty by constituents from Academic Affairs and the College Senate who reviewed the tool and expressed concerns about how the product exactly works and the reliability of the results. Turnitin resources are available to support academic integrity in the age of AI. For more information on TurnItIn updates, please see the Release Notes page.

For assistance or with questions about any of these technologies, please feel free to make an online appointment through our IDDL Bookings page or check the Educational Technology section of our IT portal Knowledge Base.