On May 14 from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., I joined Vice President Tim Gordon and other members of our Buffalo State community to serve students a late-night breakfast as they made their final push to complete exams and projects. The Chartwells team was in full force as favorite breakfast items were served up by staff members to the delight of our students. I served one of my personal favorites, pancakes.
Chefs and staff from Chartwells are ready!
Kate Conway-Turner (right) and Chartwells staff serving late-night breakfast
Our chefs and the dining crew made what seemed to be endless amounts of pancakes, eggs, potatoes, French toast, sausages, pastries, and sliced fruit. As I arrived at 10:50 p.m., there were already hundreds of students awaiting the beginning of late-night breakfast.
Students lining up in advance of the late-night breakfast event
So if breakfast is for champions and truly nourishes the brain, Buffalo State students should be fortified for those final exams. The breakfast at the Bengal Kitchen featured DJ Hassan, so the evening felt like a great party.
Music and dancing with DJ Hassan
Students enjoying late-night breakfast
Thanks to our amazing director of dining, Glenn Bucello, and the chefs who prepared such delicious breakfast food. And thanks to all who came out to serve our students, wish them success on those final exams, and demonstrate their support and encouragement.
Another late but fun-filled night at Buffalo State.
The last few weeks have been filled with almost daily disasters unfolding around us. Hurricanes and earthquakes have plagued the world in almost unimaginable numbers. Some of these disasters have hit the mainland United States or immediate territories. The devastation of this hurricane season hit a record number of island nations so near to us that we have multiple levels of family ties, friends, and colleagues who are directly affected. Our hearts go out to all those who are struggling to find balance as they recover from the assaults and to those like our neighbors in Puerto Rico, who are literally still in the dark, without even the most basic utilities.
Some of the recent disasters are barely on the radar here in the United States. This summer I visited Sierra Leone, and just weeks after I returned home, this country was hit by torrential rains and mudslides, killing more than 200 people. So many people around the world are struggling as they dig out, try to rebuild, and search for missing loved ones.
And then this week, the mass shooting in Las Vegas. The pain of such horrific acts is sharp and cuts deeply into the fabric of our community. The senseless murder of over 50 individuals with hundreds more injured is hard to comprehend. We fail to see the reasons behind this event and the hundreds of other mass shootings that happen in the United States each year. These individuals have their own sad and misguided reasons for committing such acts. They somehow turn off their sense of humanity and care when they do these acts, and the one thing they have in common is that they pick up guns to act out these blood-filled dramas. In a world where guns are so accessible and even cherished, how will we stop this madness?
So I stop today to offer the support of all Bengals, here and afar, for those who were directly hit by the many natural and unnatural occurrences of the last few weeks. My heart aches for all those who are suffering. Our United Students Government has scheduled events to support those in need, our School of Education has reached out to Houston schools to provide support, and many on campus have connected to citywide efforts to support those in Puerto Rico. I am sure many Bengals are supporting those in need through other civic and community organizations, the Red Cross, or direct donations to those they know.
My hope is that our responses to these disasters will continue to demonstrate the compassion we feel for all those affected, and that all we say and do will not only assist but also respect the dignity of those trying to get back on their feet as they move forward.
I know many of you have heard me say it before, but I think it merits repeating: Buffalo State College is a very special campus.
For more than 140 years, students have entered Buffalo State with great hope and aspiration. As a public institution, we have had a long legacy of educating students from a variety of backgrounds and economic situations. Bengals today represent the broad diversity that is seen within and throughout our country. Our students come from middle class and working class families and from every ethnic and cultural background.
They range from newcomers to longtime immigrants to indigenous members of Native American communities. They represent LGBTQ communities and all levels of physical ability, as do our faculty and staff. We are diverse in all ways.
I am proud to work alongside faculty and staff members who understand and continue to refine what it means to be an urban-engaged campus. We know diversity is a strength, and we together are lending our energy in ever-changing and evolving ways to ensure that all members of our community grasp their stars of success.
The divisive rhetoric of the presidential election and the election results have unsettled many members of our community, while others have rejoiced in the results. I have heard that some faculty and staff members are concerned that changes in our elected national leadership will erode aspects of their civil liberties. With a change in national leadership, there will definitely be national policy changes.
We are hopeful that future policies of the new administration will benefit all sectors of our country and will embrace the rights of all members of our diverse communities. As we move forward, we must stay on our path and live the mission of Buffalo State College. I ask students to stay focused on the work they must do here as they complete their degrees and prepare for their next step into a career or a graduate program.
Here at Buffalo State, we will continue to teach, support, and shepherd our students to success. We will not deviate from our mission and our goals. We intrinsically and wholeheartedly celebrate and appreciate the diversity of our campus and the world around us. We are in it for the long haul.
Just a few weeks ago, we (the faculty, staff, and administration) recommitted ourselves to the success of all of our students during the Fall Forum. So as we learn what a new national leadership will bring to our country, we will not deviate from our goal to elevate all students to success, while at the same time supporting and encouraging each other’s success.
I ask us all to remember that our passion for our students and all members of Buffalo State remain intact now and as we move into the future. We embrace diversity in all its forms, we celebrate the strength that diverse individuals bring to our world, and we will challenge discrimination and prejudice in all its forms whenever and wherever we see it.
Reality Testing, Risk-Taking, and the Legalization of Guns on College Campuses
Last week, the University of Texas at Austin paused to remember the 17 lives that were lost in the tragic clock tower shooting on the UT-Austin campus on August 1, 1966. Fifty years to the day—Monday, August 1, 2016—a new “campus carry” law went into effect in Texas.
Over the past year, I have spent time with fellow college and university leaders at various professional conferences discussing the preposterous rise of state “campus carry” laws. As eight states now have such laws on the books (fortunately New York State is not one of those states), we as higher education leaders need to speak up in union to say that we will not endorse or tolerate such a Wild West mentality on our college campuses.
I understand and value our constitutional rights as citizens of this wonderful country, including the rights protected by the Second Amendment. I grew up in a small rural town in Missouri, and hunting was a cherished pastime for many. I am not saying that we as citizens should not have a right to bear arms, but I wonder how anyone could think it would make us safer to have concealed guns on a college campus.
As a college administrator, I often draw upon my background as a social psychologist and particularly my study of adolescent development. Many people think of adolescents as those in the early to mid-teenage years, but adolescent development continues into one’s early or even late 20s. So as the majority of young people join colleges at 17 or 18 years of age, they are squarely moving through adolescence.
Each year I personally greet more than 2,000 new young people on our campus. These students are bright, energetic, passionate, and sometimes impulsive. This impulsivity is related to many things, including the numerous ways that adolescents test reality. I ask readers to reach back for a moment and remember what it felt like as an 18-year-old. Now be truthful; don’t recall what you wish you had been like, but the reality. Remember? You felt invincible.
That sense of invincibility and impulsive behavior too often result in moments of poor judgment or risk taking, leading to those late-night phone calls that college presidents never want to receive.
Buffalo State, like its sister institutions, have well-developed student affairs divisions with experts who guide our young people toward appropriate behaviors and discipline those who cross boundaries.
At Buffalo State, I want our students to achieve their personal and professional best. I want them to become the next generation of civic-minded individuals who will lead our community with passion and dignity. I want them to learn to solve their disputes in a fair and thoughtful manner.
I don’t want our students to worry that a disagreement will lead to gunfire or to worry about a classmate’s concealed weapon. As we steer our college students through late adolescence to emerge as informed and responsible adults, let us continue to safeguard our campuses without resulting to such a primitive notion of “shoot him before he shoots me.”
