Please join us for the talk “Sustainability: For What and Whom?” presented by Vida Vanchan, professor of geography and planning, and Susan A. McCartney, director of the Small Business Development Center, on Friday, March 24, from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. in Rockwell Hall 301. This presentation is part of the weeklong Southeast Asia Week celebration at Buffalo State University, March 20–24. Please register online.

Sustainability has become a common buzz word in social and developmental policies and practices; however, its meaning and impact vary depending on the contextual applications. This panel assesses the meaning of sustainability, its variability as well as applications. Different dimensions of sustainability are identified to raise awareness and jolt discussion and debate surrounding sustainability as well as to promote long-term sustainability for all involved.

Southeast Asia Week sponsors and partners: the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, Small Business Development Center, Geography and Planning Department, Political Science and Public Administration Department, and History and Social Studies Education Department as well as the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.

Please join us to discover the countries and issues surrounding food securities in Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, presented by students in Dr. Vanchan's GEG 360: Geography of Asia course, on Thursday, March 23, from 10:50 to 12:05 p.m. in Technology Building 358. This presentation is part of the weeklong Southeast Asia Week celebration at Buffalo State University, March 20–24.

Southeast Asia Week sponsors and partners: the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, Small Business Development Center, Geography and Planning Department, Political Science and Public Administration Department, and History and Social Studies Education Department as well as the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.

Please join us for the talk “America’s Role in East Asia: Three Lens,” presented by Adamu Shauku, assistant professor of political science and public administration at Buffalo State, on Wednesday, March 22, from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. in Rockwell Hall 301 as part of Southeast Asia Week at Buffalo State University, March 20–24. Please register online. The presentation will also be available virtually. Registration provides access to the Zoom link.

The re-emergence of China as a major economic and military actor has led to shifting loyalties and strategic priorities among her neighbors. If U.S. policymakers hope to promote cooperation, channel competition, and limit conflict in the region, they must carefully understand and adapt to the new strategic environment. In this talk, Dr. Shauku examines the U.S. role in East Asia through three theoretical lenses: realism, constructivism, and liberal-institutionalism.

Southeast Asia Week sponsors and partners: the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, Small Business Development Center, Geography and Planning Department, Political Science and Public Administration Department, and History and Social Studies Education Department as well as the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.

Please join us for the talk “The Middle East and Southeast Asia,” presented by York Norman, professor of history and social studies education at Buffalo State, on Tuesday, March 21, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Technology Building 160 as part of Southeast Asia Week at Buffalo State University, March 20–24. Please register online. The presentation will also be available virtually. Registration provides access to the Zoom link.

Dr. Norman’s talk will examine the political, socioeconomic, and cultural ties between the Middle East and Southeast Asia, focusing on political Islam, authoritarianism, human rights issues, and trade from the end of the Cold War until today.  

Southeast Asia Week sponsors and partners: the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, Small Business Development Center, Geography and Planning Department, Political Science and Public Administration Department, and History and Social Studies Education Department as well as the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.

The Midterm Student Progress Survey (second survey this semester) will be deployed via the Bengal Success Portal on Friday, March 24, and will close on Monday, April 3, at 11:00 p.m.

Raising kudos, flags, and referrals is the first step in alerting other campus members of the status of students, enabling professional staff members to follow up with students and close the loop of communication with faculty members; however, before raising any flag, please make every attempt to communicate and resolve an issue with a student. If your attempt is unsuccessful, please proceed with raising flags in the Bengal Success Portal so the appropriate staff member can provide support.

It is expected that all faculty members (full time and adjunct) will raise kudos, flags, or referrals for each course survey, acknowledging where students stand in their respective courses so that support staff can proactively reach out and respond to student needs and concerns. If no kudos, flags, or referrals are raised for your course(s), please simply open your course survey and click the submit button to mark your course survey(s) complete.

A video on how to complete the Student Progress Survey for courses is available online. Please email Bob Hudson, coordinator of advisement student systems and senior academic adviser, with questions about completing course surveys or raising kudos, flags and referrals.

Thank you all for caring about the success of our students. It is essential that we continue to work collaboratively as a campus community, making every effort to increase students’ academic achievement, persistence, retention, and graduation rates.

The Buffalo State community is saddened by the death of Paul L. Thoms, ’63, assistant professor emeritus of exceptional education, who died March 2, 2023. Mr. Thoms joined the campus in 1965 and retired in 1998, after which he continued teaching as an adjunct faculty member until 2006. Services will be private. More information is available online.

Whether you imported your course from Blackboard or created your gradebook in Brightspace, you may have questions on the gradebook for your course.

In-person training sessions are being offered by Instructional Design and Distance Learning (IDDL). You can register for Brightspace Fundamentals Series Workshop 5 - Gradebook in the Workshop Registration System. This workshop is suitable for instructors teaching in any modality: face-to-face, hybrid, or online.

If you need immediate support, please contact the SUNY Online Help Desk.

Upcoming dates for the Brightspace Fundamentals Series Workshop 5 - Gradebook:

Thursday, March 30, 11:00–11:45 a.m.

Have other questions or need assistance?

• The Buffalo State IT Knowledge Base has many articles to assist with Brightspace. Use the search bar at the top to find information on other topics.
• 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.
• Check for upcoming Brightspace workshops on campus in the Workshop Registration System.

Would you like to have help moving your courses from Blackboard to Brightspace? Faculty members can request migration of one section of each course they have taught using Blackboard Learn. For example, if you teach the same course in different semesters, please select one section to be migrated. You must complete one form for each course migration request.

Please use this Course Migration into Brightspace Request Form to have your course migrated for you.

Faculty members will have access to Blackboard through Monday, April 10.

Have other questions or need assistance?

• The Buffalo State IT Knowledge Base has many articles to assist with Brightspace. Use the search bar at the top to find information on other topics.
• 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.
• Check for upcoming Brightspace workshops on campus in the Workshop Registration System.

Now that you are using Brightspace for your course, are there things that you need to clean up?

• Has your content been moved into Brightspace but you need to reorganize it?
• Are there extra files in your course you don't need anymore?
• Is your Gradebook “out of control” with extra grade items and columns you don't need?
• Do you have video files you need to move to the media server?

In this in-person, hands-on workshop, we will go over these questions and have time during the session to assist you with moving and organizing your content to clean up your course.

This workshop is suitable for instructors currently teaching in Brightspace in any modality—face-to-face, hybrid, or online—but is not intended to replace the Brightspace Fundamentals Workshop series.

Workshops will be held in Butler Library 314. Please register through the Workshop Registration System.

• Wednesday, March 22 - 10:00–11:00 a.m.
• Friday, March 24 - Noon–1:00 p.m.
• Monday, March 27 - Noon–1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, March 29 - 11:00 a.m.–Noon

Immediately following these workshops will be one-hour open labs, where you are welcome to stay to continue working on your spring cleaning in Brightspace.

The Alumni Engagement Office and Liberty Mutual are teaming up to offer a defensive driving course on Saturday, April 22, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the LoRusso Alumni and Visitor Center. All members of the campus community—alumni, students, faculty, and staff—are invited to register for the course and earn up to 10 percent off their auto insurance (regardless of provider). The cost to attend is $25.

Please contact Buffalo State’s representative, Damien Lawrence, at (716) 984-9111 to register for the course and reserve your spot.