Internal applications are being accepted for the position of associate dean of the School of Education (SOE). This is an internal job posting open to employees of SUNY Buffalo State who are currently paid from any state-appropriated-funds payroll.

This Management/Confidential position reports to and works closely with the dean of the School of Education, SOE departments, the Urban Teacher Center, and the Teacher Certification Office. This position serves a key role in curriculum, assessment, and other areas determined by the dean, and represents the SOE at various functions and meetings. The incumbent will maintain working relationships with faculty in the Teacher Education Unit across the college and serve as an ex officio member of the Teacher Education Council.

Required Qualifications
Doctorate in education, teacher education, or related area; tenured associate or full professor status; the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with all constituencies, including all college teacher education units, stakeholders within the community, professional organizations, and education associates.

Letters of application and supporting materials will be reviewed for evidence of specific leadership accomplishments and required skills. All applicants must submit (1) a letter of application that clearly addresses the required qualifications, (2) a current CV, and (3) the names of three current professional references Dean Wendy Paterson. Applications are due Friday, March 17.

From the Chair of the Bylaws and Elections Committee
Two at-large Senate positions will become vacant on August 31, 2023. At-Large senators represent the entirety of the college. All full-time academic and professional staff members are eligible to seek these at-large senator positions provided they meet other eligibility requirements (see below).

One UFS-University Faculty Senate seat and one alternate UFS-University Faculty Senate seat will also become vacant on August 31, 2023. All full-time academic and professional staff members are also eligible to seek these seats.

A call for nominations and information about candidates’ statements can be found on the Buffalo State Senate website. The call for nominations begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 24, and continues through 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 28. Elections for these positions will run from 12:01 a.m. Monday, May 1, until 11:59 p.m. Friday, May 5.

Senate elections conducted by the schools of Arts and Sciences, Education, and the Professions, as well as the Professional Staff Caucus (PSC), should be concluded before April 28.

Eligibility: Current Buffalo State Senate members who are completing two consecutive terms in their respective positions are not eligible for reelection. For additional information on eligibility requirements, please consult the Bylaws of the College Faculty, available on the Senate website.

Campaigning: The Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee strongly discourages using Buffalo State email services for campaigning. Please limit campaigning to the candidate statement posted on the Senate website (available to the university community on Monday, May 1).

Individuals running for a senator position in another election may not also run for at-large senator positions while the other election is being conducted. If the other election concludes during the period when nominations for at-large senators are still being accepted, eligible individuals may self-nominate for either position.

If you are interested in being a candidate, please email Kristen Mruk, special assistant to the provost and senate. We look forward to your participation in the vital process of campus governance.

From the Chair of the Buffalo State Senate
The next meeting of the Buffalo State Senate will be held Friday, March 10, at 3:00 p.m. in Newman Lecture Hall, Bulger Communication Center 215. Kimberly Kline, professor of higher education administration, serves as chair of the Senate for the 2022–2023 academic year. Please contact Dr. Kline with questions.

We encourage everyone to visit the Senate website to catch up on Senate news, find podcasts and minutes of past meetings, review reports and resolutions, and more.

This is a reminder to academic departments and student programs that student award listings for print in the spring Commencement program booklet are due today, March 10. The booklet will be distributed during the annual spring Commencement ceremonies and posted on the Commencement website on Commencement day. Please refer to the instruction on the Commencement website for submitting awards. 

Please contact Kimberly Jackson, deputy director of commencement operations, with questions. Thank you for recognizing the outstanding achievements of the Class of 2023.

Faculty members are invited and encouraged to designate courses they are teaching next semester (fall 2023) that have zero textbook cost (ZTC). ZTC courses do not require students to purchase textbooks or other learning materials; instead they use open educational resources (OER), library resources, faculty-created resources, and other materials that are freely accessible to students. Gathering this data will enable us to meet SUNY reporting requirements.

Designating your course as ZTC will help make the costs of higher education more transparent to students and will increase equitable access to the materials students need to succeed.

Please take a moment to answer this brief survey (two to four minutes). You will be asked to provide the fall 2023 CRNs for your ZTC courses. ZTC courses will be designated in Banner so that they are easily identifiable by students during registration. CRNs can be retrieved from department administrators.

If you have questions, please contact Chris Hulsman, faculty librarian, or attend the workshop "Alternative Learning Materials Initiative and Zero Textbook Cost" on Tuesday, March 28, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Butler Library 318.

For more information, please download the Alternative Learning Materials Initiative (ALMI) 2023 Progress Report (PDF, 3 MB).

Friday, March 10, is the deadline for departments and programs to submit their graduating student awards for the annual listing in the Commencement program. Lists may be submitted according to the instructions provided on the Commencement website.

Notices were emailed to individual departments during the past few weeks. Please contact Kimberly Jackson, deputy director of commencement operations, with questions regarding the awards lists or if you need an extension.

Thank you very much for your time in recognizing our outstanding students. The graduating class and their families really appreciate it.

Would you like to have Buffalo State IT move 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 IT migrate your course.

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.

The Teaching and Learning Center will host a SUNY event on universal design for learning (UDL) on Friday, April 7, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. This event is free to Buffalo State University faculty and staff members.

This one-day workshop provides an in-depth introduction to the universal design for learning framework. Participants will learn why the UDL framework is important, how to apply its principles and guidelines to their own courses, and best practices for interacting with students with disabilities. Participants of this workshop will leave with the skills and resources to apply what they learn about UDL to design a new lesson or student experience, or to revise an existing lesson or experience. For more information about the day, please view the agenda (PDF, 206 KB).

Please register through the event registration site.

Buffalo State University will retire student network drives (“Z: drives”) on Friday, May 26. This includes the “web” folder contained within the Z: drive, which some students use to host websites. Students will no longer be able to access files saved to their Z: drive after this date. To avoid losing important information, please encourage students to copy their important files to OneDrive before the semester ends. A step-by-step guide that you can share with students is available in the Buffalo State IT Knowledge Base.

Students in need of assistance with this process can email the Help Desk or open a Technology Help ticket.

As part of National Stress Awareness Month in April, the Professional Development Center will offer a loving-kindness meditation workshop, facilitated by Berg Miller, on Monday, April 3, from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. via Teams. 

Loving-kindness meditation (sometimes called “metta” meditation) is a great way to cultivate one's capacity for responding to others from a place of calm. It involves mentally sending goodwill and warmth toward a series of people that you choose. Join us for a meditation to help ground yourself so that you might be more present in your interactions for the rest of the day.

Please register through the Workshop Registration System.