Faculty and staff members are encouraged to congratulate our graduates by participating in the 2021 Grad Wall, online, and through social media.

Virtual Commencement ceremonies will take place tomorrow, May 15, and you can send your messages today. We invite you to share your photos, congratulatory messages, and words of encouragement with the Class of 2021 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 2021, please submit your well-wishes online and those messages will also be shared on the Grad Wall. Thank you for helping us stay connected and celebrate our graduating Bengals!

Educause is offering a free webinar, "Safely Return Students to Your Buildings," on Tuesday, May 25, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. 

The New School opened in a limited capacity in fall 2020 and needed a way to have students reserve space for non-instructional purposes in its making centers, computer labs, and equipment rental spaces. Kayla O’Daniel and Marcus Longmuir will showcase how they selected and launched LibCal Seats, a cloud-based solution, in just three weeks. Learn how this online tool allowed their team to implement—without a significant integration process—a solution with a widely distributed management approach that allowed a reopening strategy that met city and state COVID-19 guidelines.

Outcomes

• Hear how the New School implemented safe reopening policies with a multi-departmental team based on community and campus needs.
• Discover how they used Springshare’s LibCal platform to help bring students back to campus in a limited, non-instructional capacity using an authenticated reservation system.
• Learn how the New School implemented a distributed management policy and trained nontechnical staff.
• Understand how they administered and maintained robust authorization groups despite later policy changes.

Please register through the Educause website. 

The SUNY SAIL Institute invites you to turn inward and recharge during its month of mindfulness. The institute is offering four free 30-minute Zoom sessions from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. on each Monday in June. Please register using the linked titles below:

Mindful Listening: Listening to Move Our Work Forward
June 7
Kristen Blinne

Leadership Presence: Showing Up Authentically as a Leader
June 14
Glenn Pichardo

Leadership Reflections: Journaling to Learn from and about Ourselves
June 21
Carolyn Mattiske and Garry Sanders

Mindful Social Justice: Creating Equitable Campuses for All
June 28
Loretta Pyles

From the Chair of the College Senate
The final meeting of the College Senate for the spring 2021 semester will be held tomorrow, May 14, at 2:00 p.m. via the videoconferencing platform Zoom.

Zoom meeting link
Meeting ID: 876 1123 5977
Passcode: 379389

From the University Faculty Senators
The University Faculty Senate (UFS) is accepting applications for service on UFS committees for 2021–2022. The application page provides details on the service commitment, and the list of UFS standing committees and their charges can be found on the SUNY website. The application process requires submission of a two-page CV and a completed application by Thursday, May 20. Service on a UFS committee is open to all Buffalo State College faculty and staff members who are eligible to run for UFS senator seats. If you have questions about serving on a UFS committee, please contact UFS senator Heather Maldonado or Amy Rosen-Brand or the UFS office. Buffalo State has a strong tradition of UFS involvement, and we hope that involvement will continue.

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 2021–2024 term (unless otherwise noted):

At-Large College Senators

• M. Scott Goodman, Officer in Charge, School of Natural and Social Sciences (Academic)
• Gregory Wadsworth, Associate Professor, Biology (Academic)
• Kari D’Amico, Licensing Manager, Information Technology Services (General)

University Faculty Senator

• Kimberly Kline, Professor, Higher Education Administration

Alternate University Faculty Senators

• Bruce Fisher, Visiting Professor, Economics and Finance (Term: 2021–2023)
• John Draeger, Professor, Philosophy; Director, Teaching and Learning Center

Support Staff Senator

• Wynne Barron Osiadlo, Administrative Assistant 1, Communication Department

From the Chair of the Bylaws and Elections Committee
The College Senate caucus to elect the officers of the College Senate for the 2021–2022 academic year will be held tomorrow, May 14, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. via Zoom. Invitations containing the Zoom meeting link have been sent to all of those voting members allowed to attend. This includes returning, reelected, and newly elected senators for 2021–2022. 

Candidates for all officer positions—Senate chair, Senate vice chair, Senate standing committee chairs—must be senators who will be in office for the 2021–2022 academic year. Candidates should be present at the caucus to announce their candidacy. Alternatively, an email indicating your interest in serving as a committee chair may be emailed to Ramona Santa Maria, chair of the bylaws and elections committee, by 11:00 a.m. Friday, May 14. If you are interested in chairing a standing committee and you are emailing your notice, you must specify which standing committee you are interested in chairing. If there is a need to run an election for a contested chair seat, one will be held expeditiously after the caucus.

SUNY is participating in the 10th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)—a global event to elevate awareness on the importance of accessibility as it pertains to equity and inclusion for people with disabilities—on Thursday, May 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Campus administrators, faculty, and professional staff are welcome to attend one or more SUNY sessions offered throughout the day.

Topics include Ableism, Universal Design for Learning, and Digital Accessibility. This event is free to all SUNY and non-SUNY campus members and will be recorded.

Register now.

When issuing a student a non-passing grade, including an E, F, U, I, or N grade, please also report the student's last date of attendance when entering the grade online. This assists the Financial Aid Office in determining whether a student unofficially withdrew and whether the student is able to retain the aid that he or she received.

The last date of attendance is the last date the student participated in class, took an exam, handed in homework, or actively engaged in an online course. If assigning an I or N grade, the last date of attendance is the last date you met with the student to discuss progress in the course. If you have no record of the student's attending, do not enter a date. Instead, use the grade of EV, which indicates that the student never attended the course.

Questions regarding this policy or procedure should be referred to the Financial Aid Office, 878-4902. The grading guide (PDF, 162 KB) may also assist you.

Blackboard will deploy Collaborate Ultra v21.08 on Thursday, May 13, between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. This latest version will give users the ability to pin videos to the top of their viewing list.

Collaborate Ultra customers will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window. For more information, please refer to Blackboard's Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

To schedule training for Blackboard Collaborate or other campus-supported technologies, please visit the Innovation and Learning Collaborative's booking page.