Buffalo State

2000 Art Conservation Department receives $2.4 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, which includes a $2 million challenge grant. • New master of arts in applied economics program and international studies interdisciplinary minor debut. • The Undergraduate Research Office and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies are established. • Accreditations earned from the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER) and the National Council for Economic Education. • Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic reopens in a renovated 4,500-square-foot facility in Caudell Hall. • Center for China Studies is established to foster international research and learning opportunities with Chinese universities.

2001 State-of-the-art enrollment management center opens in the fully renovated and expanded Moot Hall, consolidating student admissions, registration, and financial services. The renovation project costs $5.6 million. • Professor Emeritus Hank Mann announces $1 million planned gift to benefit exceptional education. • Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education is established. • The $3.7 million, 16,000 square-foot Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore opens in a new wing of the Campbell Student Union. • New bachelor of music in music education degree is approved.

2002 Buffalo State receives a $1 million gift from 1950 alumna Eleanore Woods Beals and her husband, Vaughn Beals, for the Woods-Beals Chair in Urban and Rural Education, the college's first endowed chair. • Three new programs are offered in museum studies, including a graduate-level advanced certificate. • The fully renovated Campus House reopens as a faculty/staff club, operated by hospitality students. • Sponsored research awards total $36.6 million-fully half of the total for all State University of New York four-year colleges combined. • Reaching beyond geographic boundaries, Web-based, distance-learning curricula expand to include three graduate programs (adult education, exceptional education, and creative studies) and various undergraduate courses.

2003 A scholarship fund honoring former English Department Chair Arthur Bradford is established. • The Warren Enters Theatre in Upton Hall is completely renovated and rededicated to Professor Emeritus Warren Enters. • Emmy Award-winning alumnus Tom Fontana premieres his play The Day Jack London Got Pinched in the new facility. • Buffalo State wins its first federal allocation to support the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education (CEURE) and a a $340,337 Department of Education Grant. • The Art Conservation Department wins a $75,000 Kress Foundation Grant. • The Physics Department wins a $275,000 grant to research superconductivity and $503,000 from the National Science Foundation to research ways to improve physics teacher education. • Buffalo State earns the NCAA Academic Achievement Awards Program distinction: “Highest Student-Athlete Graduation Rates Above the Student Body Average for 1996-02.” • The Initial Elementary Education Program, in collaboration with its Professional Development School Consortium, receives a Distinguished Program Award from the New York State Association of Teacher Educators (NYSATE) and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NYACTE) in recognition of successful faculty and staff collaboration at schools where Buffalo State students obtain classroom experience.

2004 The Art Conservation Department wins three major grants to continue its prestigious program—Mellon Foundation Grant, a $995,000 award, the National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, a two-year, $221,000 award, and the Gutmann Foundation Grant, a one-year, $235,000 award. • The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has continued the accreditation of Buffalo State College at the initial teacher preparation and advanced preparation levels. • Buffalo State wins American Marketing Association Grant in support of local community service projects. The college’s new Volunteer and Service Learning Center, administered though the Career Development Center, coordinates students and provide training and orientation for service learning projects funded by Buffalo State’s $375,000 Learn and Serve America Grant.

2005 The Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall, re-opens after eight months and $1.2 million in major technological upgrades and refurbishments. • Buffalo State is awarded a $440,337 U.S. Department of Education grant to continue its Upward Bound program that grooms under served high school students for post-secondary education. • The college holds its first Armed Services Reunion. • College awards Thomas Perry and Deborah Oppenheimer, ’71, with honorary doctorates at commencement. • James Mayrose, Technology Department, wins Western New York Inventor of the Year award for the creation of glove-like device that allows physicians to measure the shape and hardness of a patient’s tissues. • Men’s basketball coach Dick Bihr retires after an illustrious 25-year career at the college.

2006 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gives the keynote address as the spring commencement ceremony. • The Burchfield Penney Art Center receives $16.5 million in funding from the Governor’s Office to support the new museum project, ground-breaking ceremony held. • Assemblyman Sam Hoyt announces funding to renovate the Campbell Student Union. • The Art Conservation Department receives $1.65 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support its comprehensive program. •  The Dick Smith Teaching Pavilion opens at the Great Lakes Center on Buffalo’s waterfront.

2007 Freshmen applications hit a 15-year high at the college. • The New York State Education Department awards a $1.7 million grant to engineering technology faculty to develop and conduct a free summer program, Engineers of the Future. • WBNY celebrates 25 years as Buffalo’s Original Alternative with New Media Weekend. • The Hospitality and Tourism Department earns reaccreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration. •  College enrolls in emergency text messaging service, NY-Alert, to inform students, faculty and staff quickly of a crisis. •  The Center for Health and Social Research (CHSR) receives a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to study the initiation and continuation of drinking and driving behavior.

2008 The college completes construction on the new $33 million Burchfield Penney Art Center. • Coyer Field receives a $1 million upgrade to an artificial playing surface, increasing safety for student-athletes and availability of field to athletic teams, campus and the community. • The Communication Department becomes the only program in the State University of New York system to earn national accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. • College welcomes 17 Chinese students displaced by massive earthquake as part of the SUNY China 150 initiative. • The Creativity Department brings together business leaders and scholars from across the globe for the second International Creativity Conference. • Tom Calderone, '86, receives honorary doctorate of humane letters at spring commencement ceremony. • New residential and retail dining centers open inside the Campbell Student Union. • Visual arts program receives accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

2009 Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)speaks at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall • Muriel A. Howard, president of Buffalo State College for the past 13 years, accepts the position of president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) • Student scholars from a wide range of academic areas present their preliminary and completed research and creative activities at the 11th annual Student Research and Creativity Celebration • Buffalo State College holds its 137th Commencement celebration on Saturday, May 16, in the Sports Arena. More than 2,500 students receive their degrees during two baccalaureate ceremonies and one master’s hooding and C.A.S. ceremony. The college awards a SUNY honorary doctor of letters to playwright Marsha Norman, keynote speaker for both undergraduate ceremonies. • The Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College is the first art museum to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). • Buffalo State College Council Vice Chair Howard A. Zemsky announces the formation of a Presidential Search Advisory Committee charged with selecting a new president to succeed Muriel A. Howard. • Buffalo State College embarks on an ambitious roster of capital projects that will result in nearly $350 million of new projects and improvements to campus by 2014. • Science in Motion, Buffalo State College’s 12th annual Foundation Scholarship Gala, raises a record $270,000 benefitting the All College Honors Program. • The Art Conservation Department is authorized a grant of $75,000 from the Trustees of The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation.