From the Chair of the Bylaws and Elections Committee
The College Senate extends its congratulations to the following individuals who have been elected to serve for the 2022–2025 term (unless otherwise noted):

School of Arts and Sciences
Jason Grinnell, Chair and Associate Professor, Philosophy (Humanities) (2)
Andrew Nicholls, Chair and Professor, History and Social Studies Education (Social Sciences) (1)
Jill Norvilitis, Professor, Psychology (Natural Sciences) (1)
Jennifer Toohey, Associate Professor, Theater (Arts) (1)

School of Education
Peter Loehr, Associate Professor, Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership (1)
Raquel Schmidt, Chair and Associate Professor, Exceptional Education (1)

School of the Professions
Jikai Du, Associate Professor, Engineering Technology (2)
James Golden, Assistant Professor, Social Work (1)

Professional Staff Caucus 
Karen Edmond, Field Education Coordinator, Social Work (2) 2022–2024
Kristen Mruk, Associate Director, Student Leadership and Engagement (1)
Christopher Weber, Instructional Media Technician, Information Technology Services (1)

(1) = first term; (2) = second term

From the Chair of the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee
The College Senate caucus to elect the officers of the College Senate for the 2022–2023 academic year will be held Friday, May 13, from noon to 12:45 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center 215 (Newman Lecture Hall). Only continuing or newly elected senators, academics, and professionals are invited to attend.

Several Senate positions will be open for 2022–2023. Terms begin Monday, August 29.

• College Senate Chair
• College Senate Vice Chair
• College Senate Standing Committee Chairs:
  » Academic Plan Committee
  » Budget and Staff Allocations Committee
  » Bylaws and Elections Committee
  » Curriculum Committee
  » Faculty and Staff Welfare Committee
  » Instruction and Research Committee
  » Standards for Students Committee
• College Senate Standing Committee Vice Chair:
  » Student Welfare Committee (committee chair is a student senator elected at the first fall 2022 Senate meeting)

All are invited to join next academic year's Intercollegiate Moot Court team! Freshmen and sophomores are strongly encouraged to join.

Moot Court is a wonderful introduction to legal thinking and a legal career, but it's more than that. It is a fun, interactive way to build your confidence as a speaker, learn how to work as a team on a complex problem, and grow in your ability to persuade others. Plus it is lots of fun!

If you have an interest in joining Buffalo State's Moot Court team, please email Peter Yacobucci, associate professor of political science and public administration.

Moot Court simulates appellate argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. The team will begin at the very start of the fall 2022 semester to prepare for competition in at least one pre-regional tournament before competing in the American Moot Court Association's official Midwest Regional Tournament in November 2022. This year's case involves whether surveillance by an overhead drone violates a person's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches, and whether a sentence of life in prison without parole in the first 50 years for a non-homicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Co-coaches William Altreuter, local attorney and partner at Altreuter Berlin, and Dr. Yacobucci will guide all members of the team in preparing their arguments and building their skills at logical reasoning, legal analysis, and oral persuasion.

Please email Dr. Yacobucci to let him know you are interested!

Ensemble Video was acquired by Panopto in April 2021. SUNY ITEC is currently in conversation with Panopto about a seamless transition to the new platform. Before the transition, Ensemble users should delete or archive any content (videos, quizzes, etc.) that is no longer in use to reduce the number of videos that need to be migrated and maximize cost savings on storage use within Panopto. It is anticipated that any content remaining in Ensemble will be automatically moved to the new service.

In preparation, it is recommended that Ensemble users should do the following by Thursday, June 30:  

• Clean up files in your Ensemble Media Libraries that are no longer needed.
• Register for an Ensemble Video Account Clean-Up Workshop, if needed.
• Schedule an appointment with Instructional Design and Distance Learning (Ensemble Video Question category) if you have further questions.
• Monitor campus communications about future workshop opportunities on the new media server through the Daily Bulletin and direct emails.

SUNY has selected Desire2Learn’s (D2L) Brightspace learning management system to replace Blackboard as the new systemwide hub of its digital learning environment. The SUNY contract with Blackboard expires December 21, 2022.

Here’s your opportunity to obtain early access to a Brightspace sandbox and work with an Instructional Design and Distance Learning team member to explore the new platform.

The Brightspace sandbox is an initial Brightspace environment that can be used to explore the core functionality that will be available in the new learning management system. The purpose of the sandbox is to explore Brightspace from a faculty and student perspective. This is a temporary environment that will look different from the final production environment. For example, the Brightspace sandbox will not have additional third-party or extended functional tools that will be available in production. Both in-person and virtual workshops via Microsoft Teams will be offered.

Brightspace Playground Workshops
Please register for a Brightspace Playground Workshop using the links below or through the Workshop Registration System.

The following workshops will be held in person in Butler Library:

Wednesday, May 18, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., Butler Library 314
Monday, May 23, 1:00–1:50 p.m., Butler Library 314
(CANCELED: Wednesday, May 25, 10:00–10:50 a.m., Butler Library 318)
Wednesday, May 25, 11:00–11:50 a.m., Butler Library 318
Thursday, May 26, 1:00–1:50 p.m., Butler Library 314
Thursday, May 26, 2:00–2:50 p.m., Butler Library 314

The following workshop will be held via Microsoft Teams:

Tuesday, May 24, Noon–12:50 p.m.

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Preparing a Blackboard Course for Migration to Brightspace
There are several steps you can take now to prepare your Blackboard courses for the upcoming migration to Brightspace. The workshop Preparing a Blackboard Course for Migration to Brightspace will outline several common actions and considerations you can take to clean up your Blackboard courses. If you intend to work on cleaning up your Blackboard course during this session, please request a Blackboard development course before attending this workshop. Once you have a Blackboard development course, you may also copy course content into your development course.

The following workshops will be held in Butler Library 314:

Monday, May 23, 11:00–11:50 a.m.
Tuesday, May 24, 1:00–1:50 p.m.
Thursday, May 26, 9:00–9:50 a.m.

The following workshop will be held via Microsoft Teams:

Wednesday, May 25, Noon–12:50 p.m.

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For more information or future offerings, please email Jamie Tabone, instructional designer.

Blackboard will deploy its Collaborate Ultra v22.08 release on Thursday, May 12, between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. Collaborate Ultra customers will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window.

For more information on the update, please see Blackboard's Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra.

As a reminder, Blackboard Collaborate will be unavailable for use after the spring 2022 semester, as June 30 is the official end-of-contract date. Please see the Sunsetting Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Knowledge Base article for resources regarding this change.

Please be mindful of the importance of communicating our availability over the following upcoming holidays:

Memorial Day, Monday, May 30: This is an official state holiday, and all offices are closed.

Juneteenth, Sunday, June 19: This is an official state holiday. Under the attendance rules, when a holiday falls on a Sunday, it is observed on the following Monday. Juneteenth 2022 will be observed on Monday, June 20, and all offices are closed.

Independence Day, Monday, July 4: This is an official state holiday, and all offices are closed.

Please post notices in advance in your offices (if applicable) and on your website, use out-of-office automatic email replies, and change voice mail recordings so that students and other employees are aware that the office is not available. These messages should provide information on whom to contact in case an issue requires immediate attention.

For more information on holidays, please visit the Human Resource Management website.

Please contact Carey Seneca, interim manager of human resources, (716) 878-4822, with questions.

Buffalo State College will celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating Class of 2022 with Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 21. We invite Bengals far and wide to congratulate our graduates on the online 2022 Grad Wall and through social media.

Whether you are a faculty or staff member, a family member of a graduate, a classmate, an alumnus, or a graduate yourself, we invite you to share your photos, congratulatory messages, and words of encouragement with our graduates by using the hashtag #BuffStateGrads on Instagram and Twitter.

All submissions will be organized and collected through the Grad Wall. If you don’t have a social media account and would like to offer a supportive message to the Class of 2022, please submit your message through this BuffStateGrads link.

Please help us acknowledge the hardworking, determined Class of 2022 and submit a message to the Grad Wall to celebrate our amazing #BuffStateGrads!

From the Co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Shared Governance Committee of the College Senate
The Ad Hoc Shared Governance Committee will be holding virtual group sessions at the end of the spring semester and early in the fall semester to discuss perceptions of shared governance at Buffalo State College.

The first focus group is for faculty members only and will be held on Wednesday, May 25, at 1:30 p.m.

The second focus group is for staff members only and will be held on Thursday, May 26, at 1:30 p.m.

The link to both events is the same. There is no need to sign up for the session, simply join the Zoom space.

The session will be recorded only to gather the needed data. Once the information is obtained, the recording will be deleted. We will use a virtual bulletin board modality to obtain the information.

Committee Co-chairs
Lisa Berglund
Amy Rosen-Brand

From the Co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Shared Governance Committee of the College Senate
Buffalo State administrators, faculty, and staff members are invited to complete a short Qualtrics survey about their observations and experiences with shared governance on campus. 

At Buffalo State, shared governance is the process by which the administration, faculty, staff, and students contribute to decision-making related to the college’s policies and procedures. Shared governance provides a clearly articulated and transparent structure that outlines roles, responsibilities, and accountability for decision-making by each constituency. Through shared governance, all members of the college community work to advance the college’s mission, vision, and priorities regarding both internal operations and the external face of the college. The shared governance culture at Buffalo State is committed to open dialog about difficult topics and to upholding the values of trust, collaboration, communication, transparency, inclusiveness, honesty, and integrity in all aspects of its decision-making (Buffalo State Ad Hoc Senate Committee on Shared Governance, 2021).

Buffalo State College has a governance structure consistent with the role and goals of shared governance in higher education and in line with the structure at other SUNY comprehensive colleges. Further, as recently as 2011, shared governance at the college was recognized for its excellence. Further history of shared governance at Buffalo State may be found on the College Senate website.

The survey will open at 9:00 a.m. Friday, May 13, and close at 5:00 p.m. Monday, May 23.

Committee Co-chairs
Lisa Berglund
Amy Rosen-Brand