Please join us for Professional Development Center workshop opportunities during the fall 2021 semester. 

Tips and Support for Families Returning to School and Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Tuesday, October 19, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m.
Presented by Beth Tripi, LSCW-R, lecturer, Social Work Department

Restoration and Resolve: Guided Yoga Nidra Meditation 
Friday, October 22, from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Facilitated by Melissa Meehan, web administration director, Marketing and Communications
 
Beginner Yoga
Monday, October 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Facilitated by Susan Kincaid, certified yoga therapist
 
Trivia at Campus House
Tuesday, October 26, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Hosted by Andy Binder, director of operations, Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall
 
Guided Meditation Session
Thursday, October 28, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.
Facilitated by Raquel Schmidt, chair and associate professor, Exceptional Education
 
Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium Tour
Friday, November 5, from noon to 1:00 p.m.
Facilitated by Kevin Williams, director, Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium

Solutions for Managing Stress During a Crisis (Part 1)
Tuesday, November 9, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. 
Presented by Linda Carignan-Everts, EAP representative

Guided Meditation Session
Friday, November 12, from noon to 12:30 p.m.
Facilitated by Raquel Schmidt, chair and associate professor, Exceptional Education
 
Restoration and Resolve: Guided Yoga Nidra Meditation
Friday, November 19, from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Facilitated by Melissa Meehan, web administration director, Marketing and Communications
 
Loving-Kindness Meditation
Wednesday, December 1, from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m.
Facilitated by Berg Miller, assistant professor, Social Work
 
Solutions to Managing Stress: Be Here Now (Part 2)
Thursday, December 2, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.
Facilitated by Linda Carignan-Everts, EAP representative
 
Restoration and Resolve: Guided Yoga Nidra
Wednesday, December 8, from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Facilitated by Melissa Meehan, web administration director, Marketing and Communications
 
Guided Meditation Session
Tuesday, December 14, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.
Facilitated by Raquel Schmidt, chair and associate professor, Exceptional Education

Please join Jason Knight, associate professor of geography and planning, in welcoming India Walton, founding executive director of the Fruit Belt Community Land Trust, to campus on Thursday, October 21, during Bengal Pause (12:15 to 1:30 p.m.) in Classroom Building C122.

The Fruit Belt Community Land Trust is a community-developed nonprofit organization created to address affordable housing, displacement, and the impacts of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus on the historic African American neighborhood. Ms. Walton will discuss her role as a citizen planner and organizer and the importance of residents directly engaging in the planning and reinvestment decisions affecting their neighborhoods. This presentation is sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association (FSA) and the Geography and Planning Department.

This presentation will not be about her political campaign. Questions will be taken only related to her work with the Fruit Belt Community Land Trust.

The Remote Desktop gateway servers, used by faculty and staff members to access their campus PCs remotely from home, will be upgraded Monday, October 18. The upgrade will start at 5:00 a.m. and will take approximately two hours to complete. During this time, users will not be able to access their campus PCs remotely.

The New York State Department of Health and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission are warning New Yorkers and others about a phishing text message asking individuals to confirm a vaccine appointment. The fraudulent text message impersonates the NYS Department of Health and links to a false site asking the recipient to divulge personal information.

The NYS Department of Motor Vehicles has also warned New Yorkers about a text message phishing scam asking individuals to verify driver license numbers and to validate COVID-19 status.

The FTC warns individuals

• to exercise caution with all communication they receive—especially when it appears to be from a trusted source;
• to continue to look for poor spelling and grammar, threats, and suspicious URLs;
• not to click on a link from an unsolicited message or unverified source; always verify the source before clicking;
• not to send personal information via text;
• to remember to be careful about what they post online and in social media.

Please join Stephen Vermette, professor of geography and planning, and Mary Perrelli, GIS lab supervisor, to try your hand at basic environmental water quality testing—including dissolved oxygen, pH, e-coli, turbidity, dissolved and suspended solids, and nitrate and phosphate—on Tuesday, October 19, during Bengal Pause (12:15 to 1:30 p.m.). We will meet in Classroom Building A205, where we will ready ‘Bengal Lake’ for testing. This event is open to all students, faculty, and staff.

Additional Applied Geography Bengal Pause activities will take place throughout the fall 2021 semester. Each activity is a low-stress, relaxed affair designed to provide you with a unique hands-on experience. Consider these sessions an antidote to Zoom! Updated informational posters can be found in the Classroom Building, Science and Mathematics Complex, and Campbell Student Union. More information is available under the “Applied Geography Bengal Pause” link on the left side of the Geography and Planning Department website under News and Events.

These activities are brought to you by the Buffalo State Grant Allocation Committee and the Geography and Planning Department.

What is Africana studies? What can I do with a degree in this discipline? Please join several special guests who will reflect on the role Africana studies has played in their work and lives on Wednesday, October 20, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center 215. Guests include the chief diversity officer of M&T Bank, the convening founder of the Charter School of Inquiry, the first student to major in Africana studies at Buffalo State College, an Africana studies faculty member, and a representative of the President’s Council on Equity and Campus Diversity.

The Black perspectives of Africana studies may be the new critical language of our times, yet few people understand these perspectives and therefore cannot confidently discuss or apply them for the sake of creating a future where justice is elemental to every sector of society. Let’s come together to support our guests and work toward that future. Light refreshments will be provided. This is an event of the Anti-Racist Initiatives Subcommittee of the President’s Council on Equity and Campus Diversity; it is a part of Buffalo State’s 150th Anniversary celebration; and it is supported by the Africana Studies Interdisciplinary Unit.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Radical Imagination in Action: Re-visioning and Co-creating Community Engagement," featuring Jocelyn Gomez, Julia van der Ryn, and Emily Wu from the Dominican University of California, on Thursday, November 4, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. This event is presented by Campus Compact as part of its National Webinar Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State College community.

Thanks to long-term partnerships that have continued to evolve, Dominican’s service-learning program was able to work intensively with partners during the pandemic to support their programming and to co-develop new programs to address ongoing equity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic. Most crucially, the pivots and collaborations were grounded in a mutual aid and critical consciousness approach—that acknowledges both trauma and strengths of collectivist cultures and communities. Innovative programming included Leyendo Juntos—a virtual reading pod for K–grade 3 students at a Latino immigrant–serving school—and the Digital Literacy and Bilingual Support program with their cohort of heritage Spanish-speaking Dominican students that now collaborates with multiple partners. They also created and collaborated on modules and presentations for students and the broader campus community, such as the modules based on cultural humility principles (Tarvelon & Murray-Garcia, 1998). They will share their effective applications of appreciative inquiry, cultural humility principles and framing, and asset-based critical community engagement during this webinar.

Please register online for this webinar and any others in the National Webinar Series as you would like.

The campus community is invited to attend the annual Faculty and Staff Recognition Ceremony today, October 14, at 12:15 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. Please join us as we honor recipients of President's Awards and SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence, recognize faculty and staff for significant awards and major grants, and welcome new employees to campus.

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar “Toward Rational Synthesis of Catalysts for Low Temperature Emissions Control,” presented by Eleni A. Kyriakidou, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University at Buffalo, on Thursday, October 14, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 170.

Abstract
Vehicle aftertreatment systems, including diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) and three-way catalysts (TWCs), have been successful in reducing diesel/gasoline vehicle emissions (CO, NOx, and hydrocarbons) in the past decades. However, with the continued improvements in engine efficiency (lower emission temperatures) and more stringent emission regulations, future aftertreatment systems require an improved activity at low emission temperatures and durability in a prolonged lifetime. Rational catalyst design is essential to tackle those challenges. Metal oxide supports such as ZrO2 and CeO2 are widely used in the automotive industry to promote catalytic activity. However, both ZrO2 and CeO2 suffer from severe deactivation due to their grain growth at elevated temperatures. Herein, ZrO2 is incorporated on SiO2and CeO2spheres forming a ZrO2 layer with varying thickness and CeO2 nanocrystals aredeposited onto penta-site rich Al2O3 nanosheets. Novel structured DOCs, TWCs catalysts,bimetallic PdPt/SiO2@Zr, Pt/CeO2@ZrO2, and Pt/CeO2-Al2O3 nanosheet catalysts are developed and their catalytic performance (low-temperature activity and hydrothermal stability) compared to state-of-the-art catalysts is explored. The impact of the catalyst support/active metal compositions, local catalyst structure designs, aging conditions on low-temperature oxidation activity and hydrothermal stability will be discussed.

Please join the Student Political Society (SPS) in a discussion of the upcoming Supreme Court term today, October 13, at 8:00 p.m. (sharp!) in Bulger Communication Center 214.

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rewrite a number long-lasting precedents that will impact the civil liberties each of us enjoys and the vitality of the democracy under which we live. The term will be previewed by Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate and contributing editor at Newsweek, and Richard L. Hasen, chancellor's professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

Please email Peter Yacobucci, associate professor of political science and public administration, with questions.

Please arrive a few minutes early!