On Wednesday, President Steve Stoute delivered his 2025 State of the University address, reflecting on the progress, challenges, and promise of the Canisius community. He also expressed pride in the dedication of faculty and staff who continue to meet the challenges of reduced budgets with creativity, commitment, and a shared focus on student success.
For those who were unable to attend, the State of the University address can be viewed in its entirety on the MyCanisius portal.
Key highlights included:
• Campaign Progress:The Answer the Call comprehensive campaign continues to build strong momentum, driving support for student success, innovation, and mission-centered growth, while advancing financial stability of the University.
• Strategic Priorities 2025–26: The university will maintain a renewed focus on the student experience, academic excellence, partnerships and programs like The Buffalo Promise Scholarship, that strengthen the mission amid the challenges of the demographic cliff and other pressures facing higher education.
• President’s Innovation Fund Award Winners 2025-2026: A recap of the President’s Innovation Fund, which recognized six new recipients—three faculty and three staff members—whose projects bring creative ideas to life. From digital learning tools to mentorship and community engagement programs, each received a micro-grant to advance innovative campus initiatives.
• Celebration of Service: The university honored faculty and staff milestones, recognizing their years of dedication and lasting impact on the Canisius community.
The session concluded with a Q&A, where members of the campus community discussed priorities and shared perspectives on upcoming initiatives.
Interim Cybersecurity Director Matthew Gracie was recently featured on the Security Repo podcast. During the episode, Gracie discusses the architecture and real-world deployment of Security Onion, a powerful open-source enterprise security monitoring tool. He also reflects on his work as an educator, sharing how generational shifts are shaping the way students approach cybersecurity. Click here to watch the full episode.
The Division of Arts, Education and Science and the Division of Business, Communications and Health Studies are hosting a casual social gathering to recognize and celebrate the recent tenure, promotions and retirements of our colleagues:
Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor:
Sarah J. Blakely-McClure, PhD (Psychology)
Robin L. Foster, PhD, (ABEC)
Mark R. Harrington, EdD (Teacher Education)
Zach C. McGurk, PhD, (Economics & Finance)
Graham B. Stowe, PhD (English)
Promotion to Professor:
Jeff R. Lindauer, PhD (Teacher Education)
Andrew D. Stewart, PhD (Biology)
Retired:
Barbara Burns (Teacher Education)
Holly D’Angelis (Counseling and Human Services)
Girish Shambu (Management)
Ben Dunkle (Digital Media Arts)
The social gathering will take place following the event in the Library. Here are the details:
Location: Resurgence Brewing Co., 55 Chicago Street, Buffalo
Date: Friday, October 17
Time: 4 to 6 p.m.
*Appetizers will be served, individual drink tickets will be distributed
Please RSVP HERE BY OCTOBER 13 to help us plan for food and drinks—but know you’re welcome to stop by even if you don’t RSVP.
More than 30 digital displays across campus have been updated with new features to spotlight campus events and announcements.
Faculty, staff, and students can easily share their event or club information to appear on TVs throughout campus.
To maximize visibility, events created in GriffConnect are automatically shared with all students, faculty, and staff—appearing on campus digital displays and in Today@Canisius.
Submitting your event is simple and requires the use of GriffConnect, a tool now available to everyone. Follow the steps below to get started:
Note: If this is your first time logging in, you’ll be prompted to complete a quick onboarding process.
Submit Items for Digital Signage Once your department has a GriffConnect page, you can submit items for campus digital signage by filling out the submission form.
Need Help? If you have questions or need assistance, contact Jason Francey at stulife@canisius.edu.
Learn More Watch this short video to explore all the features GriffConnect offers to help your team engage students. Watch this short video to see how GriffConnect can help your team engage students and promote your events.
To feature events in Today@Canisius and on campus digital signage, your department must have a GriffConnect page. If one hasn’t been created yet, you can set it up easily.
Having a group on GriffConnect amplifies your reach across campus and unlocks valuable tools, including:
As we continue to transition to paperless advertising, physical flyers are still permitted, but the number of approved posting locations in the tunnel has decreased. Starting this year there are only 5 approved posting locations throughout the tunnels. In addition, we can also post up to 40 flyers in the residence halls. All flyers must be approved before they are displayed. Bring flyers to the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership Development (Student Center 201) for approval. Our team will take care of hanging up the flyers for you!
The Controller’s Office would like to remind the campus community of important policies related to university purchasing and Visa card usage:
University purchasing policy requires expenses of $1,000 or more to be put on a purchase order (PO) and paid through the Accounts Payable system. The only exception is for travel-related expenses such as hotels, airfare and team meals. Expenses less than $1,000 should be charged to a university Visa card when possible. If there are circumstances that require the use of a credit card for purchases above $1,000, prior approval from the Controller’s Office is required.
The purchase of gift cards with University funds is strictly prohibited. This includes purchasing them with personal funds and then requesting reimbursement from the university. Gift cards are considered taxable income by IRS regulations.
University policy prohibits linking of a university Visa card to personal 3rd party payment accounts such as Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Amazon or any other similar type account. Payments to individuals or organizations for university-related services must be made through the Accounts Payable system to ensure proper tax treatment.
If you have questions about these policies, please contact the Controller’s Office.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Submitted by: Ron Haberer, assistant vice president, Finance & Administration
