Vincent Tinto, distinguished university professor and Higher Education Department chair at Syracuse University, will address the Buffalo State College community at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1, in the Performing Arts Center on the campus at 1300 Elmwood Ave. His talk, "Learning Communities: Reconstructing Student Learning," is free and open to the public.

An expert on learning communities and student retention, Tinto earned his Ph.D. in education and sociology from the University of Chicago. He has conducted research and written extensively on higher education, particularly on student retention and the impact of learning communities on student growth and attainment. His work on student leaving has become the benchmark by which research on student attrition is measured, and his research has dramatically influenced higher education's view of how institutions affect their students' decision to leave.

Tinto serves as chair of the advisory board of the New York State Policy Committee on Higher Education, a member of the advisory board of the Lumina Foundation for education and the research advisory board of the National Pathways to College Network. His current research focuses on how learning communities affect the academic achievements of college students who require academic assistance.