The Creativity and Change Leadership Department will offer its annual conference, Creativity Expert Exchange, virtually on Thursday, March 10, and Friday, March 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. each day.

Through CEE, we celebrate the creativity community, engage in continuous learning, and explore and test new ideas. All Buffalo State College faculty and staff members are invited to attend for free. Please register on the Creativity Expert Exchange ticketing website.

Buffalo State College’s Civic and Community Engagement Office wants feedback from students to help in planning for its 2022–2023 community service and civic engagement activities.

Students are asked to complete a three-minute online survey by Friday, April 1. All participants will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a Buffalo State swag pack with $50 in gift cards.

The Buffalo State College Great Lakes Center (GLC) is pleased to announce the Huppuch Graduate Scholarship. Created to assist Great Lakes environmental science (GLES) thesis-based graduate students, the scholarship is intended to offset the cost of attendance, including tuition, fees, and books. A full description of the scholarship, including eligibility requirements and the application, can be found on the Great Lakes Center website.

The Huppuch Graduate Scholarship is named for Ruth Huppuch, ’42. As a member of the Class of 1942 50th Reunion Committee, Ms. Huppuch helped establish the Class of 1942 Scholarship Fund in honor of classmates whose education was interrupted in order to serve in World War II; the scholarship continues to support Buffalo State students today. 

In 2020, it was made known that Ms. Huppuch had established a planned gift to support both the Class of 1942 Scholarship and the Great Lakes Center. The GLC is delighted to use this gift to support its graduate students through the creation of this scholarship.

Please join Buffalo State College’s Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar “Beyond a Spirit of Altruism: Reimagining ‘Community Service’ for Full Participation” on Thursday, March 24, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. The event features Brandeis University’s Samantha de Melim, community service specialist, and Moira King, connected Ph.D. fellow with the Community Service Department. This webinar is presented by Campus Compact as part of its National Webinar Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State College community.

We will discuss the ways Brandeis University has historically defined and rewarded service and how such policies are shifting to increase the accessibility of community engagement experiences for all students. A primary objective of this webinar is to hold space for colleagues to engage in conversation about the implicit and explicit definitions of community service on their campuses and how they may prohibit or deter full participation for underrepresented students.

Through an interactive and discussion-based presentation, we will share our approach and assessment strategies for embarking on a journey to implement policies and practices that exemplify a more inclusive definition of service and spark a cultural shift on our campus. Key takeaways will include important findings, challenges, and limitations we discovered throughout this process and how you can engage in this conversation at your own institution.

Please register online for this webinar and any others in the National Webinar Series that may interest you.

Buffalo State College’s Rotaract Club is holding a Mother’s Day Succulent Sale through Monday, March 28, to benefit the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. The 4-inch succulents in hand-painted, sealed clay pots are $15 for one, $25 for two, or $35 for three. Each additional succulent costs $10.

Please place your orders online through the Succulent Sale Order Form. The plants will be available for pickup on Thursday, May 5, and Friday, May 6, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Caudell Hall. Please email the Rotaract Club with questions.

The Faculty Liberal Arts Coalition (FLAC) is seeking Buffalo State College faculty members who share

• a commitment to teaching monographs, novels, essays, articles, short stories, poetry, and other primary-source written work;
• an interest in discussing contemporary challenges and solutions to doing this on our campus;
• a belief that scholarship and creative work are the foundation of the professoriate;
• an understanding of standardization and conformity as an existential threat to thought.

If interested in joining FLAC, please contact Staci Newmahr, associate professor of sociology.

This is a reminder to academic departments and student programs that student awards listings for print in the spring Commencement program booklet are due today, March 4. The booklet will be distributed during the annual spring Commencement ceremonies and will be posted on the Commencement website on Commencement day. Please refer to the instruction on the Commencement website for submitting awards. 

Please contact Academic Affairs with questions regarding undergraduate student awards and the Graduate School with questions regarding master’s, C.A.S., and graduate certificate student awards. Thank you for recognizing the outstanding achievements of the Class of 2022.

This is a reminder to academic departments and student programs that student awards listings for print in the spring Commencement program booklet are due Friday, March 4. Please refer to the instruction on the Commencement website for submitting awards.

The booklet will be distributed during the annual spring Commencement ceremonies and will be posted on the Commencement website on Commencement day.

Please contact Academic Affairs with questions regarding undergraduate student awards and the Graduate School with questions regarding master’s, C.A.S., and graduate certificate student awards.

Thank you for recognizing the outstanding achievements of the Class of 2022.

ConnectLife, Western New York’s only organ, eye, tissue, and community blood center, is looking for individuals, clubs, and teams to help promote its blood drive scheduled for Tuesday, April 19, in the Houston Gym.

Representatives will be on campus Tuesday, April 12, between 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union lobby. Students are encouraged to stop by to get more details about the drive and learn how they can help spread the word.

Please email the Civic and Community Engagement Office or call (716) 878-3919 with questions or comments.

SUNY’s current systemwide contract with Blackboard expires December 21, 2022. Following an extensive RFP process, SUNY has selected Desire2Learn’s (D2L) Brightspace learning management system to serve as the new systemwide hub of its digital learning environment.

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.

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

Monday, March 7, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 23, noon–2:00 p.m.
Monday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

For more information and future offerings of this workshop, please email Jamie Tabone, instructional designer.