The Anne Frank Project is excited to host the following featured presenters at AFP 2021: Believe. Inspire. Achieve., the 13th annual social justice festival at Buffalo State College. To register, please visit the AFP 2021 website.

In order of appearance:

Samantha Turner, PMP
Inclusive Leadership in Action - Presentation and Workshop
Wednesday, October 13, 9:00 a.m.
Campbell Student Union Social Hall

Samantha Turner is an appointee in the Biden-Harris administration as a senior adviser in the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID). Ms. Turner is an inclusive leader, international speaker, expert facilitator, and change maker with expertise in gender equality, diversity equity and inclusion, national security, public and foreign policy, STEM, and organizational change management. She is a West Point and Stanford University graduate with more than 14 years of leadership experience, first leading soldiers and now leading at the executive level, fostering innovation within the U.S. government, NATO, allies, and partners all over the world. She excels in leading cross-cultural teams to accomplish goals using her technical, military, and business acumen to bridge the understanding gaps within those teams to drive innovative solutions from ideation to implementation.

Naila Ansari, Marquis Burton, Omni Prism, Edreys Wajed
?Contemporary Artifacts of Black Action - Performance Art
Thursday, October 14, 12:30 p.m. (performance); 5:00 p.m. (reception)
Czurles-Nelson Gallery, Upton Hall

We are tied into a chronological braid rooted to the past. A braid, a legacy, a culture that is woven through the hands of action and artifact. This performance is a happening bringing presence to the interplay of this phenomenon. Creating a contemporary conversation of Black experience, from spontaneous moments of dance, spoken word, music, and mark making, artists will create a dialogue that spawns a tangible object, lived in the present, and recorded for posterity as a visual artifact.

?Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., University of Michigan
Believe, Inspire, and Achieve through Project-Based Learning - Presentation
Friday, October 15, Noon - Remote Session (Zoom)

Nell K. Duke is a professor of literacy, language, and culture in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Duke’s work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. She has served as co-principal investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Dr. Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, she was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. Among other roles, Dr. Duke serves as the informational text adviser for Molly of Denali.

AFP 2021 is free and open to the community. Please register online for all events. 

Please email Eve Everette, assistant director of AFP, with questions.

The Buffalo State Alumni Association and Liberty Mutual are teaming up to offer a defensive driving course on Saturday, October 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Ketchum Hall 113. 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 auto insurance (regardless of provider). To register, please call Buffalo State’s Liberty Mutual representative, Damien Lawrence, at (716) 984-9111 by 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 20, to reserve your spot. The course costs $25, and checks should be made payable to NTSI (National Transportation Safety Institute). Please note that masks are required.

Celebrate the start of the weekend by joining us every Friday in the Bengal Kitchen for $6 Fridays! Enjoy great food at a reduced price. Kick back, relax, and enjoy a delicious meal to take you into the weekend!

The Professional Development Center, along with members of the Administrative Staff Working Group (ASWG), has developed a survey to identify individuals on campus who perform similar tasks in an effort to create task-specific cohort communication groups. The goal is to share efficiency strategies and information related to the task or responsibility in order to streamline communication, increase collaboration among areas on campus, and provide support for navigating campus processes.

If you have not completed this survey yet and are responsible for any of the tasks listed below, please consider taking five minutes to complete this survey by Friday, September 24.

• Purchasing and procurement processes 
• Budget reporting and record keeping 
• Managing travel logistics 
• Website design 
• Marketing (including social media) 
• Appointment scheduling (managing calendars other than your own) 
• Providing?student support (providing advising PINs, serving as a liaison between students and faculty)
• Creating and processing human resources paperwork (new hires, returning employees) 
• Submitting?IT tickets for new employees 
• Submitting?IT tickets for issues or new equipment 
• Supporting campuswide committees 
• Supporting search committees 
• Generating meeting minutes 
• Planning events 
• Communicating new policies and procedures to unit colleagues 

If you have questions or are interested in joining or learning more about the ASWG, please email the Professional Development Center.

The campus community is invited to join us for the opening film event of the semester in the Beyond Boundaries Film and Discussion Series, Summer of Soul (2021), directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, on Thursday, September 23, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Tower Auditorium.

This powerful documentary combines performance footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and contemporary interviews with festival performers and attendees. With historic performances by musicians ranging from Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight to Nina Simone and Sly and the Family Stone, Questlove’s documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is a moving portrait of black music and a radical political and cultural moment.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion, led by Buffalo State's Chief Diversity Officer Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, featuring local musician Drea D'Nur and Buffalo State faculty members Naila Ansari, assistant professor theater, and Rick Fleming, professor of music.

Beyond Boundaries is free and open to the public. Each screening is followed by a discussion. In accordance with Buffalo State policy, masks are required regardless of vaccination status when attendees are indoors on campus.

Watch the trailer.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

The Beyond Boundaries Film and Discussion Series is curated by Ruth Goldman and Meg Knowles, associate professors of communication; and Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, chief diversity officer, at Buffalo State College. This series is made possible through a collaboration with the Buffalo State Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the Buffalo State Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.  

Need web help fast? Open a ticket! The Marketing and Communications web services team provides assistance to the campus community in the form of web development; Drupal template training; website planning, assessment, and maintenance; web content development; image and graphical support; search engine optimization; and web analytics reporting. We use TeamDynamix to manage and fulfill campus support requests, which allows us to accurately track progress and resolve items faster. We remain committed to supporting your web goals. Please contact Melissa Meehan, web administration director, with any questions or feedback about web services or support.

There are three remaining CLEP Test dates this semester—October 2, November 6, and December 11—with two testing sessions each day: one at 9:00 a.m. and one at 11:00 a.m.

CLEP can be a great way for students to pick up a missing general education or other class(es) needed for graduation. A list of CLEP equivalencies accepted by Buffalo State (PDF, 391 KB) can be found online.

Current COVID-19 directives will be in place regarding social distancing and masking; therefore, seating is limited to the first 11 paid and confirmed registrants for each of the two sessions. The cost for each test is $89 paid to CLEP at the time of registration for the test itself, and $30 (nonrefundable) payable online to the Continuing Professional Studies Office to cover the test administration costs.

Registration is open for all remaining sessions; registration closes two days before the test date.

For more information, please visit the Continuing Professional Studies website.

The family of Jean-Francois Gounard, Ph.D., former director of international student affairs, invites the campus community to join them in a Celebration of Life on Saturday, October 9, at 11:00 a.m. in the Campbell Student Union-Social Hall. A light lunch will be served following the service. If you plan to attend, please complete the required RSVP no later than Thursday, September 30. The college's COVID-19 protocols will be followed. Please direct questions to Tricia Herritt, director of international student and scholar services.

Please join us today, September 23, for a reception to celebrate the exhibit Vibrant Patterns and Prints: Cotton Endures in the 1960s and 1970s from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the third-floor hallway of the Technology Building.

Funded by a grant from Cotton Inc., the exhibit highlights fashion and textiles from the Fashion and Textile Technology Department's Historic Costume and Textile Collection. Please consider giving to our current crowdfunding campaign for the FTT Historic Costume and Textile Collection Fund to assist with artifact storage, maintenance, management, and educational initiatives.

Light refreshments will be provided at the reception. Please note that masks and social distancing will be required for all in attendance.

Take this opportunity to see the exhibit before it closes in October.

Read the News story. >

Please contact exhibition curator Arlesa Shephard, associate professor of fashion and textile technology, with questions.

The Buffalo State College Counseling Center will offer a new program to assist students in reducing harms associated with marijuana use. Cannabis Screening and Intervention for College Students (CASICS) aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to make empowered choices regarding their use.

Marijuana use among college students is the highest it has been in 35 years and is associated with negative physical, mental, emotional, relational, and academic effects. With marijuana becoming legal in New York State, there can be a lot of conflicting messages and confusion about the risks of use, and many students may find that their marijuana use is having a harmful effect on their lives.

As faculty and staff members, we are often the first to identify that a student is struggling, and we are in a unique position to support our students. If you would like more information about CASICS, how to have a conversation with a student about his or her marijuana use, or how to refer a student to the program, please contact Ashley Maracle, L.C.S.W., case manager and senior counselor in the Weigel Wellness Center.

This program is being evaluated as part of a doctoral capstone project through the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. If you’re willing and able, please complete a brief survey (about 7–10 minutes) about any information you have received about student marijuana use or CASICS.

View the informed consent.

Principal Investigator
Ashley Maracle
1300 Elmwood Ave.
Weigel Wellness Center 205
Buffalo, NY 14222

Any faculty or staff member who receives information about student marijuana use or CASICS, including the above information, is eligible to participate in the study. If you have any questions about this study, please contact Ashley Maracle, 878-4436. If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact Gina Game, IRB administrator, SUNY Buffalo State Institutional Review Board, 878-3093.