From the Chair of the College Senate
The Committee Interest Form is now available on the College Senate website for those interested in serving on one or more of the eight College Senate standing committees for 2020–2021. The form will be available until Friday, July 31; forms must be submitted by Monday, August 3.

The College Senate Office will forward the names of interested parties to the committee chairs for review and consideration. Committee membership is determined solely at the discretion of committee chairs. The College Senate Office has no involvement in the formation of standing committees. Not all committees may need members.

Has the recent disruption in higher education sparked your interest in digital learning tools and how they can make life better for you and your students? Please join us for the SUNY Virtual Symposium on Adaptive Learning taking place from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. weekly for four consecutive Wednesdays from June 24 to July 15.

This virtual event explores how adaptive courseware works to apply learning science insights that support student success. Interact with SUNY faculty members sharing their experiences with what it’s really like to use adaptive courseware in the classroom. See how these tools can address day-to-day challenges that you and your students face. Register now to ensure your access to symposium sessions, event reminders, and recordings.

Effective April 1, 2020, 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, assistant manager of personnel operations, with questions.

The Community Academic Center's virtual Family Fun Zone Taste of Diversity continues this Saturday, June 20. The CAC’s Family Fun Zone is being coordinated by our Global Youth Leaders, a program that focuses on the development of leadership skills in multilingual high school students. Join us for a children's story by visiting the Taste of Diversity Facebook Page and click the "Live Tab" to access the event and to view the full virtual Taste of Diversity schedule.

This June, the CAC left its home at 214 Grant Street in anticipation of moving to 271 Grant Street this fall. Previously a public library, 271 Grant Street is home to the Grant Street Neighborhood Center run by People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo. Accessibility renovations, including the installation of an elevator, have been paused because of COVID-19 regulations. The CAC partnership with PUSH Buffalo is critical to the sustainability of the CAC as a provider of educational programming on the West Side of Buffalo. Currently, the CAC is running all educational programs remotely, including Adult Education, Buffalo Beginnings, and Global Youth Leaders.

Staff members in the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education's Learning Together Changing Lives After-School Program and Buffalo State College student tutors will celebrate the accomplishments of the K–8 students from Buffalo Public International School 45 for the school year and their newly piloted virtual after-school program today, June 17, with a virtual party, snacks, karaoke, art, and more. CEURE's LTCL After-School Program is funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant.

Please submit all Buffalo State College Foundation and subsidiary entity payment requests with applicable backup and attestation forms to Accounts Payable and Travel Services in Cleveland Hall 414 or electronically to aptravel@buffalostate.edu by Tuesday, June 30.

For further information regarding foundation payment procedures, please visit the Accounts Payable and Travel Services website or contact the office by e-mail at aptravel@buffalostate.edu or phone at 878-4117.

Faculty and staff members have a choice of wireless connections on campus: Bengal, the secure wireless network, or BengalOpen16, the public wireless network. Employees are strongly encouraged to use the secure connection (Bengal) for reasons of convenience and security.

The campus uses a third-party application, Cloudpath, to deliver the security certificate to users' mobile devices. This security certificate allows employees to use their Buffalo State credentials to connect to the Buffalo State secure wireless network (Bengal). Once users install this certificate and log in, they should remain logged in until the certificate expires. The certificate is good for one year.

The current campus certificate expires Saturday, June 20. Please update your certificate now to prepare for the eventual return to campus.

Use your mobile device to go to the Buffalo State Secure Wireless page. Make sure you log in at the top right of the page. Click “Enroll Your Device” and follow the directions. Do this for each mobile device that you use to connect to the Buffalo State secure wireless network.

Providing videos for students can be a great way to deliver informational content. Making videos engaging even when fully online is possible through creating Ensemble video quizzes. Video quizzes allow Ensemble users to embed multiple choice, multiple select, and true-false questions directly into their existing video content. A host of settings allow for a great amount to flexibility for students to navigate the quizzes, retake quizzes, get hints and explanations to the answers, and more. These quizzes can even be integrated directly into your Blackboard grade center.

For upcoming sessions dealing with video quizzes at Buffalo State, please consult the Workshop Registration System or request a session with the Instructional Design and Training team. For additional information on related topics, please visit the Preparing for Fall 2020 website.

The use of various video elements is becoming more and more popular in instruction—whether face-to-face, hybrid, or online. Buffalo State College offers many tools to help support your use of video in courses.

• Blackboard Collaborate Ultra can be used as a web-conferencing tool to communicate directly with students in an online class setting, serve as a means to conduct online office hours, or even work as a method of recording asynchronous lessons for students to access on their own schedule.
• Ensemble Video is a secure media server that makes storing and publishing your video elements to various platforms easy, including Blackboard Learn courses, websites, social media, and more.
• Ensemble Anthem is a screen-capture software that integrates directly with Ensemble Video and allows you to create your own video content from your webcam or computer screen.
• In your Blackboard courses, you can embed YouTube videos or provide web links to other videos right within your content areas.
• Students can even submit their video creations to you for alternative assessments using the Ensemble drop box.

No matter how you use video in your courses, we encourage you to look at our Best Practices for Online Video Knowledge Base article for practical tips on successfully creating and using effective video elements.

For upcoming sessions dealing with video support at Buffalo State, please consult the Workshop Registration System or request a session with the Instructional Design and Training team. For additional information on related topics, please visit the Preparing for Fall 2020 website.