Buffalo State Receives Excellence and Innovation Award

Buffalo State College was recently named an Excellence and Innovation Award winner by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

This awards program, now in its fifth year, honors AASCU member institutions for excellence and innovation in several major areas of campus life and leadership. These include regional and economic development, student success and college completion, sustainability and sustainable development, teacher education, international education, and leadership development and diversity.

Buffalo State, one of nine institutions recognized, received the Leadership Development and Diversity Award for its Emerging College Leaders (ECL) program. This program enhances the leadership capacities of high-potential staff and faculty at all levels of Buffalo State. Each cohort is purposefully created to ensure diversity in age, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation as a means of improving equity, inclusion, and innovation across campus.

“Feedback from the alumni of our Emerging College Leaders program demonstrates how well it works,” said Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner. “So many of them report advancing in fulfilling positions that make the most of their skills and experience. This program is another positive way to celebrate the amazing diversity that makes up the Buffalo State campus.”

In fact, from the 2011, 2013, and 2015 cohorts, 52 percent of program alumni have advanced in rank or position after graduating from the Emerging College Leaders program.

The Excellence and Innovation Awards were presented October 28 at the opening session of the AASCU Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Other institutions that received awards include California State University, Sacramento, Grand Valley State University in Michigan, Northwest Missouri State University, Savannah State University, SUNY Oneonta, the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Memphis, and Western Carolina University. 

“These institutions demonstrate the commitment of America’s state colleges and universities to Deliver America’s Promise by championing innovation, prioritizing student success, and providing critical contributions to the economic and civic progress of their communities,” said AASCU President Mildred García. “We are privileged to honor programs that can serve as an inspiration to all of higher education.”

Winning entries needed to show evidence that the initiative had top-level administrative support, connected with an institution’s mission and strategic agenda, contributed to significant institutional improvements or programming, was grounded in research, and incorporated best practices. 

AASCU is a Washington, D.C.-based higher education association of about 400 public colleges, universities, and systems whose members share a learning- and teaching-centered culture, a historic commitment to underserved student populations and a dedication to research and creativity that advances their regions’ economic progress, and cultural development.