GSEU Bargaining Contract Petition

Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants represented by the Graduate Student Employees Union are currently bargaining to replace their collective agreement that expired a year and a half ago. They are asking for community support on their petition calling on SUNY and NY state to stop refusing to bargain in good faith over key provisions like health and safety, discrimination protections, international student support, and much more. Please support union grad workers by signing the petition and sharing with your colleagues:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/gseu-fair-contract-now/

GSA Conference Funding Survey

Tell us about your experiences with conference funding! Grad students: GSA’s Services Committee is conducting a report to evaluate our conference funding program. If you want to help us continually improve our services, please fill out the following survey by Friday, November 8th: https://forms.gle/A7goFXz1yPcRtUab6

If you’d like to share your perspective in an in-depth way, we are also conducting a focus group! If you are interested in participating in this group later in November, apply to join here: https://forms.gle/Nfma45HCeHWFtsbW8 We will serve free refreshments.

MyUB Focus Groups: Give your opinions and help improve digital resources for UB students

UB wants to hear your opinions and ideas about how to enhance students’ experience with the university’s digital resources, focusing on the MyUB platform, in particular.  Next week we will be conducting focus groups for graduate and professional students to gather your insights, which will directly contribute to future updates to the MyUB platform and help us improve how the university supports students in navigating life inside and outside of the classroom.

Details about the focus groups are below…

  • Monday, September 23, 2-3 p.m. (Conducted by Zoom for In-Person Graduate Students)
  • Tuesday, September 24, 10-11 a.m. (Conducted by Zoom for Online Graduate Students)
  • Tuesday, September 24, 2-3 p.m. (Conducted by Zoom for Professional Students: MD, JD, DDS, PharmD)

To sign up for a focus group, please click here: https://ubgse.formstack.com/forms/myub_focus_group

2024-2025 COAL Programming Grant

Each year COAL releases an application for a programming grant that is a joint collaboration between COAL and Faculty Student Association (FSA) that allows any recognized student government club to apply for a programming grant to create a new program, expand a current program or produce a publication. This is an opportunity for clubs to create a large-scale program that impacts a huge portion of the student body, and it can be a great way to express your club’s creativity. Funding is up to $5,000 for a program or publication.

An important note, if you submit a grant and receive funding, you cannot change what items you proposed that you needed and you also cannot ask for a higher amount if the amount you requested and got approved for does not satisfy the amount for which the program would have cost, so be very mindful in what items you mention.

Reminder: Applications are due on September 27th by 11:59pm so please begin speaking to your E-boards on possible event ideas and ensure that you give yourselves enough time to find product costs and make meetings with your student government president and treasurer to discuss your ideas because they will give the final go-ahead and signature prior to submissions and the overall COAL vote in October.

Please see the COAL Programming Grant guidelines that further establish the rules and information that needs to be provided by submitting clubs/organizations and the Programming Grant Presentation.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the GSA President (gsa-president@buffalo.edu)

**COAL Grant submissions must be submitted to this form link: https://forms.office.com/r/bVLDPdhjaL**

NCFDD Institutional Membership

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to inform you about UB’s continued institutional membership with the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). The NCFDD is a nationally recognized, independent organization that provides online career development and mentoring resources for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. For more information, see UB’s NCFDD webpage.

The NCFDD provides a variety of virtual programs and resources including:

  • Weekly Monday Motivator        
  • Monthly Core Curriculum Webinars
  • Monthly Guest Expert Webinars
  • Access to Multi-Week Courses
  • Access to Dissertation Success Curriculum for graduate students
  • Private Discussion Forum for peer-mentoring, problem-solving, & moderated writing challenges
  • Monthly accountability buddy matches
  • Access to 14-Day Writing Challenges
  • Access to the Member Library that includes past webinar materials, referrals, and readings.

To claim your free Institutional Membership, complete the following steps:

  1. Go to http://www.facultydiversity.org/join
  2. Choose University at Buffalo from the drop-down menu.
  3. Select “Activate my Membership”.
  4. Complete the registration form using your institutional email address (@buffalo.edu).
  5. Go to your UB email to find a confirmation/welcome email. Click “Activate Account” in the email.

If you have questions about the membership, please contact the Office of Inclusive Excellence (vpix@buffalo.edu). If you have any technical questions, please email NCFDD at Membership@FacultyDiversity.org.