by browkaa | Nov 14, 2025 | Staff
As part of Canisius’ partnership with Barnes & Noble College (BNC), the university is introducing a new course material model called Canisius Complete. This program simplifies how students access their course materials, reduces costs and ensures they have everything they need before the first day of class. Canisius Complete will launch in the spring 2026 semester.
What does this mean for faculty?
Faculty will continue to have full flexibility in selecting the materials that best fit their courses, from any publisher and in any format. There are no restrictions. The only requirement is that course material selections are submitted to the bookstore by the adoption deadline, which is November 30, 2025.
What does this mean for students?
Students will no longer have to shop for their course materials a la carte. Instead, they will receive all required materials through the Canisius Complete program. Physical books can be picked up at the bookstore. Digital materials will be delivered directly to their Desire 2 Learn (D2L) account. The cost of materials will be billed directly to the student account.
To make the rollout of Canisius Complete a success, please submit your course material selections by November 30, 2025.
By ensuring students have all their required course materials from day one, they can start the semester prepared, ready to learn and set up to succeed.
Submitted by: University Communications
by Emeri Krawczyk | Nov 14, 2025 | Staff
Canisius alumnus Mike Buczkowski ’86 was inducted into the 35th annual Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Buffalo Convention Center.
A South Buffalo native and former captain of the Canisius hockey team, Buczkowski has built an extraordinary career in professional baseball, serving more than three decades with the Buffalo Bisons and becoming the longest-tenured general manager in the club’s history.
Now President of Rich Baseball Operations, he oversees the Bisons as well as the Northwest Arkansas Naturals and the West Virginia Black Bears, and played a pivotal role in bringing Major League Baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays to Buffalo during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors also includes two members of the Canisius community: John Maddock, board president and retired senior associate athletic director at Canisius University, and Dr. Bridget Niland, board secretary and vice president for academic affairs at Canisius University.
Submitted by University Communications
by Yvonne Widenor | Nov 14, 2025 | Staff
This fall, a Reacting to the Past activity was woven into FAH109A History of Architecture. After attending the Reacting to the Past Summer Institute at Barnard College with Dr. Jonathan Lawrence and Tyler Kron, Piatek (made possible through the generous President Innovation Fund awarded to Dr. Lawrence in the 2024-25 academic year), Professor Yvonne Widenor assigned the “Building the Italian Renaissance: Brunelleschi’s Dome and the Florence Cathedral” game to her students.
For this activity, three factions of Florentine architects, stonecutters, sculptors, carpenters, masons, goldsmiths, and humanists prepared proposals for a dome that would cover a 143-foot six-inch opening in the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral (aka the Duomo).
Each faction was led by a goldsmith or painter, and their proposals were judged by members of the l’Opera del Duomo who had overseen the construction and repairs on the Duomo and intermediates – members of the Florentine guilds who all had a stake in the project’s completion. After debating the merits of each proposal, a unanimous vote awarded the project to the Brunelleschi faction.
The students did a marvelous amount of work and demonstrated the dynamic learning environment created by these games, and Professor Widenor looks forward to including this and other games in her classes.
Pictured are the students from the Three Factions: (L-R: D’Arringo, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti)
by Emeri Krawczyk | Nov 14, 2025 | Staff
by Emeri Krawczyk | Nov 14, 2025 | Staff
Final exams are fast approaching!
Here are some important dates:
- Reading Day this year is December 5
- Final exams starting December 8
- Grades are due December 17
It may also be useful to review these features of D2L Quizzes and Dropboxes.
D2L Quizzes provides a robust tool to grade quizzes easier and quicker. Some features can help prevent cheating to a degree, like basic question randomization and advanced question randomization. If you want to use questions from a previous exam or quiz, the Question Library lets you copy questions to the mid-term. Additionally, for faster grading, you can connect the Quiz to the gradebook. You can also have your students sign an Academic Integrity Pledge before continuing to the Final Exam. To help students study for the final exam, customize the Quiz Result display to show students what questions they got and see where they need to brush up on their studying.
Please note that if you allow automatic grading of your exam, D2L will not automatically grade Written Responses. Those need to be graded manually. Inform your students that the grade they have immediately after completing the exam is not reflective of their overall grade. We can add a Rubric to Written Responses for easier and faster grading. If you want to see all of the tutorials on the D2L Quiz tool that COLI has compiled, check the Online Quizzes and Exams in the Quizzes Tool Section.
D2L Dropboxes are a great way to receive student work in various formats but more notably PDFs, Microsoft Office files, JPGs or PNGs. You can also restrict the types of files the dropbox will accept. Attach the dropbox to the grade book or use a D2L Rubric and attach it to the dropbox for faster grading.
For more information on D2L Dropboxes, check out the Collecting Assignments in Dropboxes Section. For tutorials on D2L Rubrics, check out the Using Rubrics Section. If you would prefer, you can also sign up for COLI workshops or sign up for a Consultation with one of COLI’s staff members.
COLI has compiled other resources on the various tool sets in D2L. Check the D2L Self-paced Training for Faculty and Staff Wiki page.
Need plagiarism and AI Content Detection? Try out Copyleaks! Copyleaks can now be added to a D2L Dropbox or be used as a standalone activity. If needed, Copyleaks also has the Teacher Scan Tool, which allows faculty to quickly scan individual files. For more tutorials, check out the Copyleaks Wiki Page.
