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 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 benefiting 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.

2010 Anthony Mullen, 2009 National Teacher of the Year, speaks at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. • Tribute for the late three-sport All-American Randy Smith held during men’s basketball game against Cortland on February 19. • Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff respond to Haiti relief efforts with a series of fundraisers and drives. Over $5,000 is eventually raised. • SUNY Board of Trustees appoints Aaron M. Podolefsky as the new president of Buffalo State College, effective July 1, 2010. •  The 13th annual Bengal 5K Run and Fun Walk is held on Saturday, March 20. • The Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College hosts a major retrospective of work by American artist Charles E. Burchfield, Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield. • The 13th annual Foundation Scholarship Gala is celebrated on April 24, 2010, at the Connecticut Street Armory. A record $275,000 is raised. • The State University of New York Board of Trustees has approves the appointments of Susan M. Leist, professor of English, to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, and David A. Carson, chair and professor of history and social studies education, to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Service Professor. • Buffalo State confers degrees on more than 1,800 undergraduate and 750 graduate students during its 138th Commencement celebration, Saturday, May 15, in the Sports Arena. • Marking what would have been Anne Frank's 81st birthday, the Anne Frank Project Garden is unveiled at Buffalo State on Saturday, June 12. • Aaron Podolefsky becomes the eighth president of Buffalo State College on July 1, 2010; “Celebrate, Serve, Imagine: The Promise of Buffalo State College,” President Podolefsky's inauguration ceremony, is held on October 29 and is attended by more than 800 guests including former Buffalo State presidents Muriel Howard and Bruce Johnstone, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, area leaders, students, faculty, and staff.

2011 Buffalo State commemorates the life of Dr. Horace “Hank” Mann, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of exceptional education, with a celebration program and reception. • During his State of the College address, President Aaron Podolefsky declares the 2011-2012 academic year to be the Year of the Arts at Buffalo State. • The Anne Frank Project earns a special Community Leader Award from the National Federation for Just Communities (NFJC) of Western New York. • The Art Conservation program is awarded a $388,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Physics Department receives a $750,000 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). • The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awards a $250,000 grant to the Art Conservation Department. • Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, ’83, hosts the Buffalo State men's basketball team at City Hall to celebrate the Bengals SUNYAC Championship and run to the "Sweet 16" in the NCAA Tournament. • The 2011 Award for Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement is awarded to the Buffalo State Professional Development School (PDS) Consortium by the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS). • The University Police Department is awarded a New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee grant for educational programs, traffic safety observational activities, and increased enforcement (May-September 2011).  • The 13th annual Student Research and Creativity Celebration takes place April 28–30. • Buffalo State confers degrees on more than 1,900 undergraduate and 650 graduate students during its 139th Commencement celebration, Saturday, May 14, in the Sports Arena.  •  The Robert A. and Dorothy Stender Sweet Physics Scholarship Fund is established with a $1.7 million bequest by the Sweet family. It is the largest gift specifically designated for scholarships in the university's history.  • Kaitlyn Beachner, a graduate student in the Student Personnel Administration Department is elected president of the SUNY Student Assembly.  • Buffalo State’s 14th annual Foundation Scholarship Gala raised more than $275,000, making the gala the single most successful fundraiser in the institution’s history. • The master of public administration (M.P.A.) in public and nonprofit management—is launched. • Ground is broken on the new, $38 Million Technology Building. • The Chronicle of Higher Education again selects Buffalo State as one of 2011's "Great Colleges to Work For."