Please join us for the discussion "Part 1: Setting Goals and Boundaries to Create a Purposeful Work-Life Balance in Times of Uncertainty" on Tuesday, March 23, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. via Zoom.

During the Part 1 discussion, you will answer the following questions: 

• What are my professional, personal, health, and spiritual goals right now? 
• What are the daily or weekly behaviors that I will practice consistently that will move me toward my goals? 
• What are my guidelines for what I "don't do" or those things I am not willing to sacrifice that are aligned with my values and goals? 

For more information or to register, please visit the Workshop Registration System. 

The Buffalo State College Rowing Club is proud to present a discussion with 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist and Buffalo native Emily Regan on Wednesday, March 24, at 8:00 p.m. via Zoom.

Ms. Regan, who walked onto the University of Michigan rowing team her freshman year, would go on to compete at the World Rowing Championships and the 2016 Olympics, winning the gold medal in both events. She will discuss her story about joining rowing later in life and how she has found success. Ms. Regan is currently training for the 2021 Summer Olympics (the 2020 games were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic).

We invite you to register for this event and pose your own questions for Emily Regan to answer.

Employees may update their personal and campus phone numbers, home addresses, and emergency contacts and view their legal name, demographics, and education information in the SUNY System Administration’s Human Resources Self-Service Module. Please take a few minutes to review and update your telephone numbers in the system, including cell, home, and office, as well as your emergency contacts.

Employees are encouraged to review their records annually to ensure that their information is accurate and up to date. Necessary changes may be completed or requested via the Self-Service Module. A user guide (PDF, 364 KB) is available to assist employees in accessing and using the Self-Service Module. Home address and legal name changes may also be requested by completing the paper form. Campus directory updates may be requested using the paper or online Directory Add/Update Form. Departments with multiple directory edits for their staff members may e-mail a list of the changes to Noelle Fisher, office assistant 1 (keyboarding), in Human Resource Management.

Please e-mail Lydia Kawaler, manager of personnel operations, with any questions.

The SUNY Center for Professional Development is pleased to announce the Microsoft 365 Applications Training Series. These trainings are meant to assist end-users of Microsoft 365 applications in understanding and using the capabilities of the tools and applications at their disposal. All SUNY faculty and staff members are welcome to attend these free training sessions, which begin Tuesday, March 23. The sessions are designed for anyone who is interested in learning about various Microsoft 365 products at a basic level. Depending on the level of interest, the CPD may add more advanced topics to the series.

The following are some of the many topics that will be covered as part of this series:

MS Teams - Chat and Meetings
MS Teams - Breakout Rooms 
MS Planner
MS Outlook and Outlook Mobile
MS OneNote
MS PowerPoint
MS Word
MS Excel
MS Forms

Please note that there is no cost for these webinars, but registration is required. The webinars will be recorded; please register for the event in order to receive a link to the recording.

For more information and to register, please visit the Microsoft 365 Applications Training Series site; the "Training Schedule" and "Registration" buttons are located in the blue bar at the top of the page.

In an effort to improve services for the diverse needs of the faculty and staff at Buffalo State College, Instructional Design and Training (IDT) is rolling out a new pilot program to schedule individual training and consultations on campus-supported platforms using Microsoft Bookings.

Initial training requests available are in Ensemble Video, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, and some aspects of Office 365.

Please visit the Innovation and Learning Collaborative Booking Page to learn more about our available services and to book your appointment. Pending the success of the pilot program, more services may be added in the future.

As we continue to lean into remote learning, please join us for the webinar "Academic Integrity Online," a panel discussion presented by the Chronicle of Higher Education, on Thursday, March 18, at 2:00 p.m. via Zoom.

When the pandemic forced colleges to shift to virtual learning, faculty faced a new issue: ensuring academic integrity online. What are colleges doing now to promote honesty and fairness among their students? This virtual forum will examine one of the key issues presented by the pandemic in higher ed today. Panelists will discuss academic integrity, examine what the data say about the actual prominence of cheating and plagiarism during the pandemic, and offer advice for institutional decision-makers.

Please register online.

As we continue to lean into remote learning, please consider “Strategies for Effective Teaching and Quality Course Design,” a four-week online Quality by Design (QbD) course presented by the SUNY Center for Professional Development that runs March 22–April 18. This course is intended for all faculty and instructional support staff at all levels of experience with an interest in effective teaching and quality course design strategies.

QbD is online, asynchronous; is applicable to face-to-face, hybrid, or online courses; and is free for CPD members and low cost for all others. Those who complete the course will be able to identify the importance of learner-centered instruction, analyze the qualities of effective course design, and integrate these concepts into their teaching and instructional design strategies.

QbD was built through a collaboration of University at Buffalo, Binghamton University, Empire State College, Open SUNY, and the CPD with funding through an IITG grant. Several campuses have worked hard to continue offering this engaging and interactive professional development opportunity for faculty.

For more information or to register, please visit the QbD website.

Please join us for the webinar "Bridging the Virtual Divide: Connecting Students to the Resources they Need," presented by Andrea Gustafson, learning and accommodations specialist in Student Accessibility Services, and Faherty Nielsen, academic adviser in Academic Success, on Tuesday, March 30, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. via Zoom. 

The pandemic has made the virtual experience the “new normal”—except it’s anything but normal. Higher education scrambled to ramp up existing virtual resources to meet the need. What we've discovered is that even with everyone’s effort to meet students “where they are,” our new digital reality was missing something essential: warmth. Students want, need, and expect to build relationships, especially with their faculty and staff supports who help them navigate an overwhelming system. Suddenly, the in-person interactions that previously made relationship-building easy were gone. But the void created by a cyberspace of boxes with talking-heads made everyone start thinking out of the box. By building relationships between offices and across campus, the Advising and Student Accessibility Services offices have cultivated a system of improved protocols, coordination, and communication, making relationship-building not only possible but also more effective for student success.

For more information and to register, please visit the Workshop Registration System. 

The Institutional Effectiveness and Planning Office, under the direction of the provost, will deploy the campuswide course evaluation project on Friday, April 16. This project will be deployed to all courses regardless of format or type. Target surveys are created by schools (and some departments) and deployed to courses according to hierarchy and subject code designations. Custom questions are created and entirely managed by departments and/or programs. These questions can be deployed to a subject code or specifically chosen courses.

Spring 2021 Schedule

• Friday, April 16 – Announcement e-mail (one week before deployment)
• Friday, April 23– Evaluations open (two weeks from final day of regular instruction)
• Friday, May 7 – Evaluations close (final day of regular instruction)
• Friday, May 21 – Reports available (Friday after final grades close)

Instructors should watch for automated course survey e-mail announcements. Information on viewing the results of your course evaluations can be found in the IT Knowledge Base article View Results - Electronic Course Evaluations.

If you are an EK admin (node admin), support documents can be found in the IT Knowledge Base under Teaching and Learning > Educational Technology. Or you may contact research analyst Tiffany Fuzak, 878-4132, for one-on-one training. If you are an instructor and have questions about this process, please speak with your department chair or call the Institutional Effectiveness and Planning Office, 878-5550. 

Take an additional 50 percent off clearance merchandise during the Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore's clearance sale March 18–26. Includes clothing, accessories, and school supplies—clearance merchandise only.

Other ongoing sales not included in the additional clearance markdowns:

• Squishables – 50 percent off the sticker price 
• Fashion PopSockets – Sale price $4.99 (Originally $9.98 to $14.98)
• Emblematic laminated folders – Sale price $.99 (Originally $2.18)
• Select emblematic hats  – Sale price $4.99 to $7.49 (Originally $24.98)