Buffalo State College has received a $100,000 legislative appropriation obtained by Assembly Member Richard Smith to construct an outdoor community teaching pavilion at its Great Lakes Center for Environmental Research and Education.

The funds are on top of $10,000 Smith previously obtained for the Center to study how an oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in western Lake Erie may affect the water quality of the eastern part of the lake.

"We thank Assembly Member Richard Smith for his leadership in supporting Buffalo State College's vision for the development of our waterfront campus. Thanks to him, the teaching pavilion will be the very first part of our master plan for this site to become a reality. This facility will help expand the educational capability and reputation of the Great Lakes Center. It will serve a vital role in freshwater studies in our region and throughout the world," said Muriel A. Howard, Ph.D., president of Buffalo State College.

"The external community teaching pavilion at the Great Lakes Center Waterfront Campus of Buffalo State College will work to provide those academics and professionals with a tremendous tool to continue their research in a number of areas, ranging from water quality to aquatic ecology, and help build upon existing programs and their positive results that have already been brought about, which in the long run - again - will benefit all of Western New York," said Smith.

Gordon Fraser, Ph.D., director of the Great Lakes Center, said, "We are grateful for these funds that will enable the Great Lakes Center to expand its support of graduate and undergraduate education at the college and provide a facility that can be used by the community. This classroom will put students within the environment they are studying to help motivate and challenge them as they explore the real-world setting of the Great Lakes."

The teaching pavilion, scheduled for completion next summer, will be located on the Black Rock Canal at the shoreline of the Great Lakes Center Aquatic Field Station. The one-story, 32-foot by 47-foot structure with a clerestory will feature a 32-foot by 32-foot flexible space on the west side facing the canal; the north, south and west sides will be equipped with plumbing and electrical services and portable risers that can be used for scientific demonstrations as well as community meetings. Retractable windows and walls will be installed between support piers to give the space all-weather use capabilities.

The shore-side end of the pavilion will extend onto a deck cantilevered above the water; the east end of the building will feature handicapped-accessible restroom facilities and storage space.

Buffalo State's Great Lakes Center for Environmental Research and Education is the State University of New York's only facility to offer a graduate program in Great Lakes environmental studies, as well as SUNY's only program to operate an onshore experimental laboratory on the Great Lakes. The Center links high-quality research with graduate and undergraduate education and serves as a regional resource to promote activities that enrich the cultural, social and intellectual lives of the people of Western New York.

The Great Lakes Center for Environmental Research and Education brings together more than 20 faculty from seven academic departments with particular emphasis on the specialties of watershed hydrology, water quality, environmental toxicology and chemistry, aquatic ecology, fisheries, urban ecology and environmental education.

In addition, the Center actively promotes collaborative research with other academic and research institutions in the United States and Canada, and is a member of the Great Lakes consortium. The Center also serves the Western New York and Southern Ontario region as a technical and scientific resource for addressing environmental issues, as well as for continuing education and specialized training.

The complex, state-of-the-art laboratories on the Buffalo State campus and at the field station at the head of the Niagara River on Lake Erie support a number of high-level research projects in a variety of disciplines. The Center also maintains a fleet of research vessels, including two deep-water vessels that can deploy a variety of water and biological sampling devices, electronic monitoring equipment and lake bottom imaging devices, and smaller vessels for use on inland lakes, rivers and wetlands.