The Undergraduate Research Office is accepting applications during October for its fall 2020 funding programs in support of student research, scholarly, and creative activities. Student applications for the Small Grants Program, which provides up to $400 in assistance to undergraduates (up to $600 for two or more students working on a single project), are due by Wednesday, October 14. Faculty applications for Early Undergraduate Research Opportunity (EURO) $500 Micro-Project awards will be accepted through Monday, October 26. Applications to support student participation in virtual conferences and events are accepted throughout the academic year. Please consult the 2020–2021 UR flier (PDF, 2 MB) or visit the UR Programs web page for further details.

CORRECTION APPENDED

The Teaching and Learning Center and Applied Learning are pleased to announce the webinar “Undergraduate Research in the COVID Era,” presented by Carolyn Guzski, interim director of undergraduate research, on Wednesday, October 14, from 3:00 to 3:50 p.m. via Zoom videoconference.

Research, scholarly, and creative activities play a vital role in applied learning goals, but mentoring student participation in hybrid and all-digital environments can be challenging. The Undergraduate Research Office at Buffalo State continues to provide growth opportunities for all disciplines through student project funding, faculty development and research assistance, and its annual Student Research and Creativity Celebration. This presentation explores strategies for designing new projects and adapting current activities to prevailing COIVID guidelines. Time for questions and sharing ideas among attendees will end the talk.

This is the first session in the continuation of 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.

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Correction: October 12, 2020
The original version of this announcement, published October 12, listed the incorrect time for this event. The message above has been amended.

This is a friendly reminder that phishing is still alive and trending worldwide. Last week one of our own administrators was spoofed. The spoofer used the administrator’s identity to phish others on campus. You may be surprised to know that this happens often. It’s not the user’s fault. It’s fairly easy for someone to create a fake e-mail account using parts of someone’s name, and then use it to phish others. It's a popular method.

Below are the basic rules to follow when reading and responding to e-mail:

• Always stop and think before you respond.
• Look at the actual e-mail address of the sender and see if it is really a Buffalo State address.
• While the skills of criminals are improving, look for misspellings and poor grammar.
• Never click on a link in an e-mail unless you are sure it is legitimate. You can check by hovering your cursor over the link (without clicking) to see the actual URL.

When you spot a phishing scam in your e-mail, please report it by forwarding it to the IT Help Desk.

E-mail: ITHelpDesk@buffalostate.edu

Service ticket: Report Suspicious E-mail

Knowledge Base articles:
How Can I Tell If an E-mail I Receive Is Legitimate, or Part of a Phishing Scam?
Safe Computing Best Practices

?Please join us for "Buffalo’s Blue Economy 101: The Business, Health, and Laws of Our Waters," a free virtual conference on local economic opportunities provided by sustainable water resources and the ecological approaches for reaching these goals, on Saturday, October 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Over the past decade, the Buffalo waterfront has changed from desolate, poorly managed land to a desired destination. This can be attributed in part to the ecological and biological efforts by environmental organizations to improve water quality and the surrounding habitats. As water quality improves and people are returning to the waterfront for recreation and entertainment, there has been a shift in the economy from heavy industry to tourism. These sustainable practices lead to healthy waters and improved economic opportunities for our region, contributing to an emerging blue economy in Buffalo, New York. 

The conference will further present the policies and laws that protect our waterways, and how these are enforced—or at times, difficult to enforce—and inform how citizens can effect a healthful, water-based course of action. Presentations by representatives from the New York State Assembly, Great Lakes Center, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, Visit Buffalo Niagara, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and more!

Buffalo’s Blue Economy 101 is intended for educators, business owners, ecologists, stakeholders, and citizens interested in the resurgence of Buffalo’s waterways. Attendees must register on the conference website to receive a link to the conference. For more information, please contact Cecilia Pershyn, education coordinator for the Blue Economy Program at at Riverside Academy.

CLEP testing will resume on campus on Saturday, October 17, with two sessions scheduled for that morning. 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.

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 now open and will close Wednesday, October 14.

Please visit the Continuing Professional Studies website for more information and additional testing dates.

The SUNY Online Support Services Help Desk is available to answer instructors' and students' questions about Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate. Contact SUNY Online by phone, web, or e-mail:

• Phone: (844) 673-6786
• Submit a Ticket: https://online.suny.edu/help/
• E-mail: sunyonlinehelp@suny.edu

The SUNY Online Support Services Help Desk is open as follows (Eastern Standard Time):

Monday–Friday 7:00 a.m.–midnight
Saturday 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

In addition, SUNY Online has Knowledge Base articles to support the most frequently asked questions. This information is located on the Blackboard Learn home page. Please share this information with your students and encourage them to use SUNY Online if they need support for Blackboard Learn or Blackboard Collaborate.

Please join the Equity and Campus Diversity Office for the next film in the Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse screening and discussion series, Always in Season, a debut feature documentary by Jacqueline Olive (2019), on Thursday, October 15, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. via Zoom videoconference.

Registration is required. A panel discussion via Zoom will follow the film.

Always in Season follows the tragedy of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy, who was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, in 2014. His mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.

Watch the trailer.

Beyond Boundaries screenings are free and open to the public. This Beyond Boundaries screening was curated by Crystal Rodriguez, Buffalo State College chief diversity officer, and Ruth Goldman and Meg Knowles, both associate professors of communication, and is sponsored by Buffalo State’s Equity and Campus Diversity Office, Communication Department, Anne Frank Project, and Burchfield Penney Art Center. For more information, please e-mail the Equity and Campus Diversity Office.

Please join the Civic and Community Engagement Office for the webinar "Increasing International Connections for Knowledge Mobilization" on Thursday, October 15, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. This event is presented by Campus Compact as part of its National Webinar Series and is free to members of the Buffalo State College community. Speakers are Beth Tryon, María Jesús Pinazo Delgado, Florence Piron, and Norbert Stieinhaus.

Community engagement professionals from the University of Wisconsin–Madison will facilitate a session with EU practitioners to increase cross-country connections for knowledge exchange. With so much output around engagement within our own borders, it can be difficult to know where to access new knowledge coming out globally, and there is much to share between countries about different ways to organize community-based research in all its forms (CBR, CBPR, PAR). In our experience, graduate students and new faculty members have said they want to learn more about different models to create equitable research and class projects.

The International Living Knowledge Network of “Science Shops” has a 40-year history using principles of knowledge co-creation in a “brokerage” type fashion. Forging positive links with researchers in the EU and beyond would also yield mutually beneficial exchanges of information and resources in both directions, helping increase the reach of CBR and innovation projects globally. While current U.S. political polarization creates heavy headwinds for science and research, many U.S. individuals and institutions are working hard to encourage knowledge co-production, including some robust activities in CBR and Citizen Science we can share and compare.

Please register online for this webinar and for as many other presentations in the National Webinar Series as you would like.

Check out our Oktoberfest carry-out dinner specials.

E-mail your order by 3:00 p.m. Monday, October 12, and pick it up Friday, October 16, between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

The Undergraduate Research Office continues to accept applications to support student participation in virtual disciplinary conferences, professional meetings, exhibitions, and performing arts events under the guidance of a faculty mentor during the 2020–2021 academic year. Funding is currently restricted to non-travel expenses. Students must be the first author or presenter and submit an accepted abstract or artist statement for the event. Award recipients are required to present their work at the 23rd annual Student Research and Creativity Conference, scheduled for April 30 and May 1, 2021. The program application deadline is open, with notifications completed within two weeks of proposal receipt. Please see the Undergraduate Research website for additional details and the online application portal.