Graduate Student Association

We are pleased to announce that the UB Student Union Ticket Office is back up and running as normal. You may begin to send in your event/ticket requests as you have done in the past.

Over the last month, UB student governments representatives have worked with the Ticket Office and the UB Information Security Office to ensure the software system that the Ticket Office uses has been properly secured and that all possible threats have been addressed.  The recent AudienceView security breach was caused by an employee with credentials who entered a malicious code into the system. This employee no longer works at AudienceView and Mandiant (a third-party remediation vendor) has confirmed that the code is no longer running.

According to the UB Information Security Office, there is little AudienceView could have done in ways of an insider threat and that a rouge employee can introduce this issue. We are happy to know that AudienceView did not have a vulnerability that was exploited or an unpatched system that was taken advantage of.  Because of this, we feel as though there is no valid technical reason not to continue to move forward with the AudienceView software at this time.

I would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding during this incident to ensure that all your personal information was safe and secure.

The URL for the full background is as follows: https://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/announcements.host.html/content/shared/www/studentlife/gateway-wide-content/announcements/current/su-ticket-office-advisory.detail.html

John Kisker
Interim Director
Student Unions
Student Life, University at Buffalo
228 Student Union  /  (716) 645-3077
https://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/student-unions.html

The University at Buffalo Graduate Student Association (GSA) stands in solidarity with transgender students and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community at UB. While we vehemently support students’ right to a freedom of speech, we strongly condemn the hateful views of Mr. Knowles and the inflammatory rhetoric he will bring to campus. All students deserve to be safe on campus, regardless of gender identity, and we question the University’s commitment to the safety of marginalized groups on campus. We are once again disappointed with the University’s decision to continually give a platform to speakers who will cause harm to members of the university community.

We call on President Tripathi and other University administrators to ban the targeted harassment and pervasively hostile environments created by giving space to speakers like Mr. Knowles (and others in the past such as Allen West and Ben Shapiro). We expect the University to help create diverse dialogue and spaces without allowing members of our community to be targeted.

We stand in solidarity with transgender students and members of the LGBTQIA+ students at the University at Buffalo, as well as any other members of historically marginalized student groups on campus. Students, faculty and staff have a right to learn and to work in an environment that is free from transphobia and other forms of bigotry.

J Coley, President
Jennifer Schechter, Vice President
Joshua Joseph, Treasurer

If you purchased tickets online from the Student Union Ticket Office between August 2022 and February 2023, your credit/debit card information may have been compromised.  Online ticket services are currently unavailable due to a third-party data breach.

 Learn more:  https://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/announcements.host.html/content/shared/www/studentlife/gateway-wide-content/announcements/current/su-ticket-office-advisory.detail.html

 Advisory: Student Union Ticket Office

 March 3, 2023

As you may know, the third-party vendor, AudienceView, used by our Student Government Associations to sell tickets through the Student Unions Ticket Office (221 Student Union) experienced a security breach last week, potentially compromising the personal information of customers, including credit card numbers and billing addresses. This breach has affected a number of other colleges and universities that use AudienceView as a vendor. It should also be noted that customers who bought tickets through the Center for the Arts have not been impacted by this breach, as originally believed.

The vendor is in the process of issuing emails to those potentially impacted; please watch your email for the subject line: Notice of Security Incident, from Campus Student Data.

While the vendor informed the university the breach was limited to those who purchased between Feb. 17 and Feb. 21, our IT Information Security Team has investigated further and believes the problem could be more widespread. Some UB students who made purchases outside that period of time have reported unauthorized transactions on their accounts.

As a precaution, we are asking all customers who made online purchases through the ticket office since the start of the academic year monitor their credit or bank statements. If you believe you have been the victim of fraud, please reach out to your financial institution immediately to report your concerns:

• Credit cards: please reach out to the credit card provider or
• Debit cards: please reach out to the bank that issued your card.

In both instances, please ALSO reach out to AudienceView to notify them directly by email at privacy.audienceview@audienceview.com.

 The vendor will be offering free credit-monitoring services for customers potentially impacted so it’s important that you report issues immediately.

In the meantime, officials with the university and student government are reaching out to representatives of AudienceView to determine their next steps for addressing the compromised data and financial loss some students have already incurred.

Out of an abundance of caution,  AudienceView has disabled ticketing services until they can determine if the security risk has been eliminated. UB is working with student governments on a temporary solution so students can continue utilizing the ticket office in support of their programs and events. Service with the vendor will not resume until the Student Governments Associations are satisfied with their remediation success.

We will keep you informed of further developments as more details become available on the following webpage:

https://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/announcements.host.html/content/shared/www/studentlife/gateway-wide-content/announcements/current/su-ticket-office-advisory.detail.html

Your student governments,

Undergraduate Student Association (SA)
Graduate Student Association (GSA)
Medical Student Polity (MSP)
American Student Dental Association (ASDA)
School of Pharmacy Student Association (SPSA)
Student Bar Association (SBA)
Graduate Management Association (GMA)

The GSA has created a short Services Survey for graduate students to complete in order to help the GSA Finance Committee and Executive Committee prioritize funding allocations and Programming offerings for the upcoming academic year.  Please submit your feedback on or before Monday, February  13^th.  Thank you.

The COAL Programming Grant application deadline has been extended to Friday, February 10th.

For context, COAL consists of the presidents of the seven UB student governments led by an elected chair who work on addressing UB-wide issues.  Recently, COAL received the interest proceeds for last year’s stock investments.  COAL now has ~$450,000 that they can award to student organizations as grants to launch new programs, expand existing programs, or produce publications.  Due to market fluctuations, past awards have been maxed at $1,000/grant or not been offered at all, so please take advantage of the current surplus.

If your student organization is interested in applying for a grant, please see the guidelines and application form.  All applications are due to GSA (via gsa-feedback@buffalo.edu) on Friday, February 10, 2023 at 11:59pm (no exceptions can be made).  Award decision notifications will be supplied by the end of February 2023 and any awarded grant money needs to be spent by May 15, 2023.

Please widely discuss this grant opportunity amongst your membership and with other organizations.  The more students that will be impacted, the more likely COAL will be to award a grant.

The GSA is currently hiring an Hourly Associate Editor to serve through the end of the current fiscal year (July 31, 2023).  The full description of the position is attached.  If you are interested in this posting, please email the required materials listed to the GSA Vice President, Jennifer Schechter, at gsa-vicepresident@buffalo.edu by Wednesday, February 1^st in order to be considered.  Applicants must be currently enrolled graduate students who have paid their mandatory student activity fee and must be able to serve for the full term of the position.

Please note that the GSA will be closing for Winter Break from Tuesday, December 13^th until Monday, January 2^nd.  Because of this, all paperwork for payments that your club wishes to be processed before this shut down will be due by Wednesday, December 7^th.  Any payment documentation submitted after this date will not be processed until after we re-open, which means that checks will not be cut until mid to late January.

GSA open through Monday, December 12^th

GSA closed Tuesday, December 13^th until Tuesday, January 3^rd

GSA closed Monday, January 2^nd for New Year’s Day observance (University Closed)

GSA on Summer Hours Tuesday, January 3^rd – Friday, January 27^th

• • Open Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 4:00pm, closed on Fridays

GSA closed Monday, January 16^th for MLK Jr. Day observance (University Closed)

Regular Business Hours resume Monday, January 30^th with the start of the Spring semester

As of November 28, 2022, GSA will begin accepting submissions from our recognized student organizations for the COAL Programming Grant.

For context, COAL consists of the presidents of the seven UB student governments led by an elected chair who work on addressing UB-wide issues.  Recently, COAL received the interest proceeds for last year’s stock investments.  COAL now has ~$450,000 that they can award to student organizations as grants to launch new programs, expand existing programs, or produce publications.  Due to market fluctuations, past awards have been maxed at $1,000/grant or not been offered at all, so please take advantage of the current surplus.

If your student organization is interested in applying for a grant, please see the guidelines and application form.  All applications are due to GSA (via gsa-feedback@buffalo.edu) on Friday, January 6, 2023 at 11:59pm (no exceptions can be made).  Award decision notifications will be supplied by the end of January 2023 and any awarded grant money needs to be spent by May 15, 2023.

Please widely discuss this grant opportunity amongst your membership and with other organizations.  The more students that will be impacted, the more likely COAL will be to award a grant.