Graduate Student Association

A Message from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Dear Students:

After the harsh and ugly rhetoric of the campaign, many of you are concerned about what might happen next.

Let me be clear: This is the State of New York, not a state of fear. We will not tolerate hate or racism.

We have been and always will be a place where people of many backgrounds have come to seek freedom and opportunity. Almost all who live here can trace their roots to someplace else.

We cherish our diversity. We find strength in our differences. Whether you are gay or straight, Muslim or Christian or Jewish or Buddhist, rich or poor, black or white or Latino or Asian, man or woman, cisgender or transgender, we respect all people in the State of New York.

The Statue of Liberty is a proud symbol of American values, and she stands in our harbor. We feel a special responsibility to make her offer of refuge and hope a reality every day.

As long as you are here, you are New Yorkers. You are members of our community, and we will stand up for you.

The State of New York has strict laws against hate crimes and discrimination and we fully and firmly enforce them. It is illegal in this state to target, harass or discriminate against a person because of his or her race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. We are a tolerant people, and cannot and will not let our freedoms be undermined.

New York State has a toll-free hotline where people can report incidents of bias and discrimination. Our responsibility is to protect all who are here, whether native-born or immigrant, whether documented or not. The hotline strengthens our efforts. Contacting us will not affect your immigration status.

New Yorkers who have experienced bias or discrimination should call the toll-free hotline at (888) 392-3644 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday.

If you want to report a crime or fear for your safety, call 911 immediately.

New Yorkers feel a particular affection for young immigrants. For centuries, our state has thrived on the energy and ambition of the young people seeking to build their lives here. Your intelligence, your creativity, your idealism enriches us all. You are welcome here.
Sincerely,

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Student Assembly President Marc J. Cohen and the collective Student Government Presidents across SUNY speak out on hate speech at Geneseo, New Paltz, and Elsewhere

 For Immediate Release: November 15, 2016

Contact: Nicholas Simons, Nicholas.Simons@sunysa.org

“The collective students of the State University of New York will not stand for acts of hatred and discrimination on our campuses or in our communities. We will not cower in the face of bigotry, discrimination, or prejudice. We will move forward united in the spirit of equality and meet such adversity head-on. Those committing these heinous crimes should know that you will be found, prosecuted, and brought to justice. We call on law enforcement to continue their investigations into these acts, and we call on students to be active bystanders. To everyone feeling discouraged by the recent messages of intolerance, know this: you are not alone. We as the elected leaders of the State University of New York’s 600,000 students across our 64 campuses will not be silenced, we will not be intimidated, and we will not back down. We will keep fighting for diversity, we will keep fighting for equality, and we will keep moving forward. We’ve got your back.”

SUNY Student Assembly Charts Progressive Path at Record-Breaking Conference

Immediate Release: Nov. 16, 2016
Contact: Tyler McNeil, Tyler.McNeil@sunysa.org

ALBANY — Over 350 student leaders gathered in the state capital to chart out a new path forward for higher education in New York State.

This event, the largest Student Assembly conference on record, was focused on strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion in the system, along with advocating for a comprehensive legislative agenda which passed with an overwhelming majority.

“I am feeling an immense amount of hope and pride following the conclusion of our Fall Conference,” Student Assembly Vice President Bridget Doyle said. “We passed progressive initiatives, participated in the SUNY’s Got Your Back campaign which allowed us to fill 10,000 bags for interpersonal violence survivors, and engaged in critical conversations.”

“It is so important that we stand together in solidarity as one comprehensive system of public higher education, and I believe this conference helped us unify more than ever before,” she said.

The voting delegation of the Student Assembly passed the most comprehensive legislative agenda in recent history. The resolution was first approved by the executive committee over a month ago at SUNY Old Westbury.

The agenda touches upon issues such as rational state reinvestment, textbook affordability, support for campus child-care centers, mental health resources, food security, disability access and sustainability measures across the SUNY system.

“We walked into this Fall Conference hoping to inspire students,” said Marc J. Cohen, Student Assembly president and SUNY trustee. “As tends to happen, however, they inspired us.”

“We passed the largest and most comprehensive legislative agenda in the history of our organization,” Cohen said. “And most importantly we came together and vowed to act as a system of student governments to create lasting and meaningful change in higher education.”

During the conference, student leaders passed several resolutions including support for same-day voter registration and a SUNY-wide day off on Election Day.

Among new platforms, student delegates called for stronger student input in campus affairs by calling for greater student representation in presidential search committees and shared governance. Students called for the legalization of marijuana in the state in the spirit that 30% of all revenue be reinvested into the State University of New York.

Beyond the business meeting, student leaders helped advocate for change throughout the two-day event.

Working with SUNY’s Got Your Back, student leaders helped support victims of domestic and sexual violence with 10,000 comfort bags.

Fighting against sexual violence, the Student Assembly also inched closer to getting every SGA leader across the system to take the It’s On Us pledge.

The Graduate School is currently looking for volunteers to serve on the UB Advisory Board for CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, https://www.buffalo.edu/ubcirtl.html), which serves UB to prepare future STEM faculty and contribute to a network of education professionals dedicated to advancing excellence and innovation in STEM teaching. This is a great opportunity for anybody in STEM-identified fields who is interested in higher education and wants to get actively involved in policy issues at UB. If you would like to be nominated as a graduate student representative, please email gsa-president@buffalo.edu by November 18th.

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

The UB Votes Committee is looking for staff members (and student employees) to help drive students to the polls on Tuesday, November 8th. We will run loops to Sweet Home High School in Campus Living vans starting at 11AM on Election Day.

If you are interested in driving a shift, please complete a copy of our Doodle Poll to let us know what times work best for you. http://doodle.com/poll/6xv4eguzzn64kguv

Feel free to pass this poll along to others who you think may want to help.

If you can help in other ways, please reach out to Ben DeAngelis at bjdeange@buffalo.edu.

Thanks!

-Ben

Ben DeAngelis
Graduate Assistant, Housing Operations
Campus Living – University at Buffalo
106 Red Jacket Quadrangle
Buffalo, NY 14261-0052
Tel: (716) 645-2171 Fax: (716) 645-3968
Web: www.buffalo.edu/campusliving
Twitter: @UBCampusLiving

With the help of the SBI Programming Grant GSA is looking into the possibility of opening a Statistics Lab that would provide assistance with statistical data analysis to all graduate students. It is planned as a consulting (not a teaching) service helping students to move forward with projects that require statistical methods.

To make the case, we need evidence that a lot of people will benefit from the service. If you believe it is relevant to you, or might become relevant, please fill out the survey below. The grant applications will be discussed this Wednesday, October 26th, so we would appreciate if you could complete it before then. Apologies for the short notice. The survey should take no more than 2 minutes.

https://goo.gl/forms/lSkWisnHxyP2MLEJ2

To the UB student community,

At the University at Buffalo, there is nothing more important than the safety and well-being of our students.  As part of our commitment to maintaining a safe campus, the University has developed programming, policies, resources, and collaborative efforts to reduce the perpetration of sexual assault and to ensure that we address sexual assault reports in a fair, supportive, prompt and effective manner.  We know, however, that more can always be done.  I am asking for your help in assessing the UB campus climate in order to understand the extent to which students experience sexual assault at UB, and the effectiveness of our prevention and response efforts.

The University at Buffalo is one of five SUNY campuses that has been chosen to pilot the SUNY Sexual Violence Prevention (SVP) Campus Climate Survey this fall.  This survey is intended to gather information about the rate of incidents of sexual violence and knowledge of policies and resources available on campus.   The questionnaire takes about 20 minutes to complete.  Your participation is voluntary and you may choose to skip questions or stop responding at any point.

Your responses will be extremely helpful to our sexual assault prevention efforts.  Aggregate data from the survey will be available on UB’s websites, and we will use the results of the survey to identify areas where additional training, education, resources and assistance is needed.  We are committed to ensuring a safe, healthy, and nondiscriminatory environment for our students.

Your responses will also be strictly confidential and will be reported only in terms of groups of students rather than as individuals.  Because the survey seeks information to determine the extent to which sexual assault is underreported, some of the questions will ask about sexual and other personal information.  Some individuals might experience emotional discomfort while responding to this survey, and to assist in this regard, we have provided information about campus resources should you wish to talk to someone further.

UB Counseling Services:  (716) 645-2720

Wellness Education Services:  (716) 645-2837

Thank you for your honest feedback and responses. Your participation will help make our campus community a better place to live, work, and learn.

 To access the survey please click here. If the survey does not open automatically, please copy and paste the following link to your internet browser’s address bar:

http://studentvoice.com/p/?uuid=904917c2aa4141c1ad79fdca40577dc4

Sincerely,

Sharon Nolan-Weiss

Title IX Coordinator

Teach for India is part of the Teach for All movement and seeks to find students who are in their post-undergraduate years and are willing to serve as a Fellow for two years in a classroom in India. A large part of their work involves working to help students receive a quality education in a classroom in India. These Fellows do not have to have a strong teaching background. In fact a lot of people come from other backgrounds and interests such as engineering.

For more information, please visit http://apply.teachforindia.org/

The deadlines to apply are October 25th, December 13th, and February 7th. If you interested in this opportunity and would like to set up a personal meeting, or if you need help with your application, please contact Antara Majumdar: antarama@buffalo.edu or Avni Singhal avni.singhal@teachforindia.org.