The annual Great Lakes Center Open House will be held Thursday, August 26, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the GLC Field Station Teaching Pavilion, located at the foot of Porter Avenue on the Niagara River. We will present the 2020–2021 Annual Report as well as updates on the GLES graduate program and current and future projects. Faculty, staff, and students are welcome. RSVP by email by Friday, August 13.

Degree Works will be offline for planned system maintenance from 6:00 a.m. Sunday, July 18, to 7:00 a.m. Monday, July 19.

Faculty and staff parking permit stickers for the 2021–2022 academic year are now available for purchase online through the Buffalo State College Parking website. Employees may log in to the parking permit system using their campus username and password to obtain a permit. Please register early to allow ample time for the permits to arrive in the mail.

Permits may also be purchased in person at the Parking Services counter in Moot Hall; however, to reduce congestion in the building, we encourage faculty and staff members to register for their parking permits online before the beginning of the semester. 

Questions about this process may be emailed to parkingservices@buffalostate.edu.

Blackboard will deploy its Collaborate Ultra v21.12 release on Thursday, July 8, from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. Collaborate Ultra users will experience intermittent availability during the four-hour maintenance window.

Version 21.12 will add a Gallery view dynamic adjustment component as well as other improvements.

For more information, please refer to Blackboard's Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

Training on Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is available through group sessions listed throughout the year on the Workshop Registration System or by scheduling an individual appointment through the Innovation and Learning Collaborative's Booking page.

A great way to stay connected with news from the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) is to read the latest member newsletters.

The newsletters are packed with useful information about your NYSLRS benefits. Find out about your final average earnings, what you can do in Retirement Online, how a domestic relations order can affect your benefits, and what you need to know if you’re retiring this year.

Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) newsletter (PDF, 662 KB)

Employees' Retirement System (ERS) newsletter (PDF, 621 KB)

The July-August issue of the Professional Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM) and Data Science Analytics (DSA) newsletter will help you to stay up to date with timely and relevant information in the fields of applied math and data science.

July-August newsletter topics include

• the new data science and analytics M.S. focus in genomics,
• the latest faculty pick article about materials scientists machine learning–centered research,
• our latest alumni spotlight, and
• information for the upcoming AWS Data Engineering Immersion Workshops.

Summer Session LS (late summer) will begin Monday, July 12, and end Friday, August 13. Please note that students will be able to continue drop/add activity for Summer Session LS until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, July 13. Any student who remains on a waitlist after this deadline will be dropped from the waitlist. Students can continue to add a course for Session LS directly in Banner after obtaining instructor permission from the instructor teaching the course. There is no late add fee assessed for summer only. Students are strongly encouraged to be registered by the established session drop/add deadline. Important reference materials include the Summer 2021 Deadline Calendar (PDF, 170 KB) and Late Add Process in Banner.

The Western New York Writing Project—a branch of the National Writing Project housed at Buffalo State College and led by English faculty members Katherine Macro, Maggie Herb, and Hilary Lochte—will hold its Summer Institute at the Writing Center in E. H. Butler Library from July 12 to 16. The institute—a weeklong workshop for teachers at all levels—will focus on the theme “Writing Our Way Back to the Classroom,” exploring the teaching of writing in the post-pandemic context through interactive workshops and lesson-planning sessions, as well as time for participants to do their own writing and research. Teachers from across the region, at any grade level, with any level of experience, who have an interest in and commitment to advancing writing and the teaching of writing are welcome! Interested participants should register online by Thursday, July 1. Please contact wnywriting@gmail.com with questions or for more information.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The College Senate Standing Committee Member Interest Form is now available for those interested in serving on one or more of the eight College Senate standing committees for the 2021–2022 academic year. The form will be available until Sunday, August 1.

The NYS Employee Assistance Program continues to host the very popular WellNYS Daily To-Do email. This program sends a daily email with a tip that encourages a healthful behavior. Sign up to receive the WellNYS Daily To-Do email every morning.

The WellNYS Everyday Monthly Challenge Program is another option that promotes practicing a healthful behavior for 20 days out of the month, which hopefully develops into a habit. Sign up for the WellNYS Everyday Monthly Challenge Program.

July Monthly Challenge: Connect to nature in New York State.