The Dean of Students Office is pleased to announce Virtual Prevention Education Week 2020 from October 19 to 27. The goal of the week is to provide all Buffalo State College students with education, awareness, and prevention services regarding responsible student decision making toward health, wellness, and safety. A variety of programs will be offered focusing on relationship, physical, mental health, community, and personal safety wellness. For a complete list of events, please visit the Dean of Students website. Each day, links to the Zoom meetings will be posted on the Dean of Students Instagram account (bsc_dean). Students may also e-mail Nina Pierino, sexual violence prevention coordinator, for Zoom access to any of the events.

The Health Ambassador Program supports the policies and practices put in place to ensure the health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff as we return to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health ambassadors will be stationed at four locations across campus Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The following locations will rotate based on feedback and traffic:

• Technology Building lobby (at the base of the stairs)
• Butler Library lobby
• Science and Mathematics Complex atrium
• Campbell Student Union
• Classroom Building lobby
• Bulger Communication Center

Example services:

• Answering questions about COVID-19 health and safety procedures
• Checking temperatures and providing personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Directing people to online resources
• Answering questions about daily symptom tracking 

Please fill out this form if you would like to volunteer as a health ambassador. This is a volunteer position; please sign up for hours throughout the fall 2020 semester. The schedule will be updated biweekly. New volunteer trainings will be held weekly on Thursdays at 2:30 p.m via Zoom videoconference.

The Health Ambassador Program is organized through the Prevention and Health Promotion Office in the Weigel Wellness Center.

Please e-mail Paula Madrigal, assistant director of prevention and health promotions, with questions.

The Teaching and Learning Center and Applied Learning are pleased to announce the webinar "Learning Community Collaboration in Remote Teaching: CWP and HIS/AAS," presented by Tristin Salter, academic coordinator in the Educational Pipeline Initiatives Office, on Wednesday, October 28, from 3:00 to 3:50 p.m.

Educators long ago recognized the need for, benefits of, and consequential success from applied learning that engages students in a learning process and environment that takes place in the classroom and provides real-world experience. Such a strategy has been paramount in developing this particular section of CWP 101, which is part of the learning community T.H.U.G. Life (The Hate U Give), centered on the theme of social justice. In this presentation, we will discuss the class’s applied learning activities that culminate with the students developing a newspaper at the end of the semester. This applied learning experience helps them improve their writing and critical thinking skills and apply what they have learned to a real-world scenario. Time for questions and sharing ideas among attendees will end the talk.

This session continues the Applied Learning Conversation Series “Remote and Hybrid Learning.” Sessions on various applied learning topics will be led by Approved Applied Learning faculty fellows throughout the academic year. Each short presentation will be followed by a discussion exploring ways we can design new activities or adapt or revise current projects.

Please register through the Workshop Registration System.

The Teaching and Learning Center and Applied Learning are pleased to announce the webinar “Applied Learning in Geology Courses in the Field: Adapting to the Online Mode,” presented by Gary Solar, chair and associate professor of earth sciences and science education, on Wednesday, October 21, from 3:00 to 3:50 p.m. via Zoom videoconference.

Work in the field is crucial to the study of geology. How can we experience this exploration while in quarantine? What does hands-on look like in a virtual world? This presentation will discuss the transition to the online mode, followed by a conversation with participants.

This session continues the Applied Learning Conversation Series “Remote and Hybrid Learning.” Sessions on various applied learning topics will be led by Approved Applied Learning faculty fellows throughout the academic year. Each short presentation will be followed by a discussion exploring ways we can design new activities or adapt or revise current projects.

Please register through the Workshop Registration System.

Check out our weekend dinner specials for Friday, October 23

Orders should be placed by 5:00 p.m. Monday, October 19, and picked up Friday, October 23, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Campbell Student Union Boost Station.

Please let your students know that spring 2021 scholarship applications are available in the Campus Application Portal for Scholarships (CAPS). Students may apply for spring 2021 scholarships until January 10.

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.

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, in Human Resource Management.

Please contact Lydia Kawaler, manager of personnel operations, with questions.

Please join us for the webinar "Setting Goals and Boundaries to Create a Purposeful Work-Life Balance in Times of Uncertainty," Part 1 of the Work from Home and Be Home without Work during Times of Uncertainty: Striking a Balance between Work Productivity and Life at Home discussion course, on Thursday, October 22, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. via Zoom videoconference. 

Before participating in this class discussion, please review the Part 1 video. To access the video, please follow the Blackboard organization self-enroll instructions. At Step 4, search for the organization “Professional Development Center.” Click on the “Professional Development Center” under “My Organizations” and select the respective module.  

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 the guidelines for what I "don't do" or those things I am not willing to sacrifice that are aligned with my values and goals? 

Please register through the Workshop Registration System. Please contact Rebecca Eggleston, staff assistant in the Professional Development Center, with questions.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) recently issued a new ethics reminder with guidance for state employees considering serving as poll workers for the upcoming election and an advisory opinion that clarifies the application of gift restrictions in the Public Officers Law to gifts made to a third party at the direction of or on behalf of a public official.

Questions regarding JCOPE regulations should be referred to the college’s ethics officer, Lydia Kawaler.

Chapter 55 of the Laws of 2020 amended New York Election Law §3-110, which allows employees who are registered to vote in New York and who do not have sufficient time to vote outside of their working hours to take up to two hours of paid leave at the beginning or end of their working schedule, as the employer may designate, to vote in any election in New York State. This includes general elections, special elections called by the governor, primary elections, and town and village elections, but not school or library elections. Additional time off for employees who are covered by the Attendance Rules should be charged to vacation, overtime compensatory time credits, or personal leave, as approved by the employer.

Employees who have four consecutive hours either between the opening of the polls and the beginning of their working shift, or between the end of their working shift and the closing of the polls, shall be deemed to have sufficient time outside their working hours to vote. Employees who have fewer than four consecutive hours may take off so much working time as will, when added to their voting time outside their working hours, enable them to vote, but not more than two hours of which shall be without loss of pay, provided that they shall be allowed time off for voting only at the beginning or end of their shift, as the employer may designate, unless otherwise mutually agreed.

Employees must provide their supervisors with at least two working days’ notice of the leave request. Whether the leave is to be taken at the beginning or end of the employee’s regularly scheduled work shift shall be determined at the employer’s discretion and based on the operating needs of the department or college. While up to two hours of leave with pay is available for every election, not every employee’s situation will require the full two hours’ allotted leave.

Proof of voter registration or proof that an employee voted is not required.

Once the leave request is approved, employees should record the non-chargeable leave on their attendance record.

Please contact Carey Seneca, interim manager of recruitment and classification, with questions.