Student Government Meets Federal Government

This past Friday I had the unique opportunity to take a trip to Washington, D.C. with several members of EDUCAUSE, a higher education organization dedicated to the "intelligent use of information technology." Representing UMBC students and the UMBC Student Government Association along with SGA President Jay Lagorio, we presented a student perspective on a very significant issue: sharing of copyrighted materials on college and university campuses. More specifically, we were advocating against Section 494(a)(2) from H.R. 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007.

Steve from EDUCAUSE connected us with some people over at Digital Freedom and I got to write a guest blog for their site. Head over there and check it out, along with the rest of the information and news they have about protecting your Digital Rights.

Stress Free Zone

I am sure everyone has heard about the Stress Free Zone by now. I went to my first Stress Free Zone today and it was absolutely awesome. There is free food, t-shirts, stress balls ( or paws should I say) and all the games in the world. I did not think it would be much fun, but a ton of people were present. Whether you go alone and just relax for a little while with food and completing a puzzle or go with a group of friends and beat them at "Guess Who", it is a great place to take a load off and forget about all the finals coming up over this next week.

Props to Heather Kopf and Jen Kent (and everyone else who has been working on it) who have been working on the Stress Free Zone for awhile now and were there when I arrived at 7:40 in the morning setting up!

Breaking Boards in FYC!

Except it was only one board at a time!

Hey everyone!

So tonight First Year Council had their last meeting of the semester, and an activity we all participated in was one you may or may not be familiar with. I know SGA students, some SEB students, and many other people have learned how to do this exercise, those of you who havn't experienced it, I really recommend trying it! OSL sponsored or conducted the activity taking us step by step through how to go about breaking the wooden boards that were laying on two spaced out cement blocks. First, we all wrote out goals or a main goal we would like to accomplish here at UMBC on one side of the wooden board. Then, on the opposite side we wrote the obstacles we will have to face upon reaching that goal. Finally, after signing a liability waiver, and getting instructions and demonstrations, each member took a turn busting in half this relatively thick piece of wood (obstacle side up-signifying that we were conquering our obstacles in a sense.) A few of the members being a little apprehensive and doubtful at first fed off of each other's courage, and one by one successfully split the boards into two, or sometimes three sections. Using the palm of your hand, the power of your leg muscles, and going with the grain of the wood this once impossible seeming task, turned out to be not that hard at all. This liberating experience definitely relieved a lot of stress, built up agression, and just provided a sense of self-accomplishment. I definitely suggest you go out and try it... maybe with the assistance or guidance of someone from OSL or someone who has experience and can help you a long.

Why Ruckus is Not a Solution

There has been some talk recently about Ruckus, a subscription-based service that has struck a deal with the UMD system to provide its content to students "free" of charge (student tuition and fees notwithstanding). Services like this one continue to be lauded as the "legal alternative to downloading", and indeed this particular incarnation has been endorsed by SGA.
However, services like this one come up short in some key areas which is why to the music enthusiast or serious downloader, they will never compare to what is available on torrent trackers.

• Music can only be played via their software, not your music player of choice and not on your operating system of choice.

• While there is considerable selection, it is nowhere near complete and nowhere near what is available on elite music trackers.

• The DRM-laden songs prevent transfer to a portable music device, like my iPod. Even if you do use software to (illegally) remove the DRM, the files are not .mp3 but .wma, a format that is not compatible with iPods.

• Even after going through all the trouble of freeing the songs, they are still in poor quality. If you decide to transcode to .mp3 to put the songs on an iPod, your quality will go down even further.

The final blow to this model is that using programs like SoundTaxi or TuneBite (programs that actually charge you to use them!) to remove the DRM from these songs is illegal. If one is going to be operating in this gray area anyway, why not just go for the best and get high quality, usable music via bittorrent and torrent trackers?

Blogwars

wow. today was interesting. i walked into the sga office and bam! there is an all out slug-fest going on online between the retriever staff editor and a bunch of other important people- interestingly their names all started with anonymous. this brings up a lot of woes that many individuals have been expressing over the course of my time at umbc. if you would like to participate or just take a peek follow the link.

Keeping up with Blogs

If you keep up with sites that continually update their content, like news websites and blogs, you might want to check out using an RSS Feed Reader. This site has a nice list of some of the more popular ones. There are also useful extensions for web browsers like Firefox - I have used the WizzRSS extension myself with great success so far. Sage is another good one that got featured a while back. Subscribing to feeds is extremely easy - once you have your reader of choice, simply drag that gigantic orange icon in on the upper right into it and you're ready to go.

Popular browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer support adding RSS feeds directly to your bookmarks toolbar, allowing you to quickly see new stories without having to install any additional software.

The benefit of using RSS as opposed to just checking websites is that it puts control back into your hands. Basically you can use a reader to very quickly check the feeds of your favorite sites and see what items are new and which you've already read. Some readers will even give you notifications when a feed changes, so if you're using the computer you can see it and know there is something new to read.

However, if all of these seems a bit complicated, David Hoffman has created a convenient website that pulls together the feeds of a number of interesting UMBC-related blogs, including this one. Simply bookmark the UMBC Blog of Blogs and check it from time to time to receive the latest headlines.

No Honking Policy

This may be of no importance yet, but it is really annoying to be woken up every night by two people outside honking because of a parking situation. Last night was the third night in a row that both my roommate and I jumped while sleeping because of someone who found it necessary to be honking their horn at 2 in the morning! New York City has a policy, there is a fine of $250 in certain areas where you cannot honk. Why should UMBC not have one? There should be a rule, after 9 p.m. no honking until 9 a.m.. That way, the residents of at least Erickson, where I live, can get a full night's rest.

Threepenny Opera

There really is something to be said for deciding to just up and do something. I've been meaning to go to a UMBC theater production since my first semester here but never actually got around to purchasing tickets and showing up.

This time, I decided to change that and reserved my tickets early for tonight's showing of the Threepenny Opera. Since I was a student, I was able to get tickets for both myself and my significant other for a grand total of $10 (slightly more than one regular priced movie ticket). Wow, was I impressed with the show. There are some very talented people here and it was clear that they had put some solid effort into making this production a success. We both seriously enjoyed ourselves and I am looking forward to attending future theater productions on campus.

This is just one of the awesome things at UMBC I have passed over in the past as a science major. I'm going to try not to make that mistake again - this sure made for a great date!

UMBC: Broadening my Intellectual Horizons

One thing that has been especially wonderful about my experience at UMBC so far has been my exposure to an environment made up of people from so many diverse backgrounds. Each person brings their own perspective and worldview placed a varied distance on the spectrum from my own. This kind of exposure has both allowed me to broaden my own view of the world and helped me to further define what I think, the end result being that I have been able to form opinions and beliefs that acknowledge concerns and ideas I never would have considered before.

UMBC often provides me with an excellent forum for "trying out" my opinions and beliefs through discussion and debate with my fellow students. I think of these largely as learning experiences for myself rather than opportunities to change another's mind, as the exercise helps me to further refine what I think as well as raises points I may have neglected to consider.

It might sound a little mushy but it's been true for me, and I strongly encourage others to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities for personal expansion UMBC's community provides.

Gender-Neutral Housing

Yesterday I sat through a presentation about gender-neutral housing in last nights RSA meeting. It is something that exists at 27 other campuses in the US but I never thought about it being an option at UMBC. However, I'm glad Residential Life is making an effort to address the 1% "transgender" population at UMBC.

Contrary to popular belief, "transgender" doesn't necessarily refer to someone who cross-dresses or has a different sexual orientation. As defined in the presentation, "transgender" is a general term applied to a variety of individual, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly.

Being that it is a pilot project, gender-neutral housing will only be offered in Walker Apartments mainly because it is privatized, which makes it easier to work with them. For now, seven spaces will be available and you must qualify with 39 credits or more. To my understanding, students will be able to apply for gender-neutral housing this spring for the 08-09 year. Although, I'm impressed with the progress Residential Life is making, it concerns me that gender-neutral housing being offered at only Walker may hinder certain students from residing there because of affordability. It doesn't give everyone a fair opportunity to receive gender-neutral housing. However, it is a pilot project and it is important to see if it will be successful, and if so then more spaces would eventually be available.

Also there aren't specifics of how people will be chosen from the various applicants and what the application will look like. So to give your input regarding the application and other ideas, the Reslife re-contracting task force will meet today at 3:30pm in the Reslife small conference room. You can also e-mail Jacqueline Wilson, Assistant Director for Residential Operations at jawilson@umbc.edu with any questions.

Something else that has nothing to do with gender-neutral housing but was discussed at the RSA meeting was an update from the food liaison. We were informed that food services is thinking about replacing the Freshens Smoothie place with a salad bar, and the Rappz place with a sushi bar and other international food options. Even though nothing is certain, I would love to see healthier food options outside the dining hall. With the food contract being revised and food services coming up with more food options, I'm eager to see better food options by next year.

Good Evening, Commons

In the past several weeks I have had several disappointing interactions with food service in the Commons. I think a potential food customer would be hard-pressed to find another place where, during the mid-to-late afternoon, a high-volume food service station routinely runs out of supplies, or a place that refuses to sell customers certain menu items as early as thirty minutes before closing time.

Overall I have been very disappointed with the service and food quality in some areas of the Commons, and unfortunately there is very little in terms of consequences if and when our contractor underperforms.

However. As has already been picked up by the folks at UMBC Underground, an RFP (Request for Proposal) has already been put out outlining UMBC's minimum expectations for a new contract. This means that every contractor who submits a proposal must do the things in the RFP, with additional things being the factors that differentiate one company from another. It's not so much about changing the name of the contractor (Sodexho provides food services for a large number of colleges and universities, some reportedly quite well); rather, it is about making our expectations for services clear and choosing a company that is committed to making those things happen throughout the duration of the commitment.

Issues surrounding food services have become very dear to me over the months - they were one of the reasons I originally decided to run for Senate. Some of the key points have already been extracted from the RFP by UU's Short. I think the requirements do a lot to address some of the key issues students have had with campus food services, but there is still room for improvement. I, along with many other students and campus administrators, would like to see a complete elimination of so-called "meal-zoning," instead allowing a student who has purchased a meal plan to use it whenever and wherever he or she pleases, regardless of the time or venue.

This is an exciting time to affect some very visible and positive change on our campus. It is my goal that by this time next year, UMBC is going to have one of the best food service offerings in the state, as rated by UMBC students.

Winter Hall Closing-December 19th at 8pm

Winter Hall Closing - December 19th at 8PM
Chesapeake, Erickson, Harbor (excluding rooms 151-156, 162-174, 225-239,
325-339), Patapsco and Susquehanna Halls will close for Winter Break.
Residents of these buildings must be out of the dorm by 8PM on Wednesday, December 19th.

Procedures to Take Before Leaving:
· Unplug all electrical appliances and extension cords from electrical wall
sockets.
· Turn off your room lights and make sure that the bathroom light and fan are
off.
· Turn off all water completely.
· Remove all trash from your room/apartment and dispose of it properly.
· Your windows should be securely locked.
· Close your blinds and/or shades.
· Clean out your refrigerator and prop the door open to avoid odor build up.
· Turn off your alarm clock and make sure that the common phone for your
room/apartment is left in the common area (not locked in someone's bedroom).
· Clean your bathroom well. Leave bathroom door open to allow for better air
circulation. (Be sure to check with your suitemates to see if it's okay to
leave the bathroom door open when you leave. If you don't want your
suitemates to have access to your room, you will need to shut and lock the
bathroom door.)
· You are not required to remove all of your belongings from your room, but it's
encouraged that you take your valuables home with you.
· Remember to pack any medications or other necessities you might need.
· Lock your door and take your key, UMBC ID and Resident ID with you.

Just a few more things . . .
Your RA will conduct a closing inspection of each room. Please save time by
following check-out procedures.
The above mentioned halls will reopen for the Spring Semester at 9:00 AM on
Sunday, January 27, 2008.
Residential Life (located in Erickson Hall) will be open on January 27th from
9AM to 4PM. Food Services will also be open on January 27th to assist in
updating meal plan cards.

Only 15 more days till Break!!! Good luck on exams everyone, and I hope you all have a great break after that~!

November Stats

Now that we've entered the month of December, I'd like to take the opportunity to brag a little bit about our growing success.

November saw a huge increase in visitors, entries, authors, and comments...

35 posts by a total of seven authors
1,867 pageloads from 1,009 unique visitors, distributed roughly 60/30 between new and returning visitors
9 feed subscribers

Thanks to everybody who has been following this blog - keep spreading the word about us and our friends over at UMBC Underground, Overheard at UMBC, and of course, the Official SGA Announcements blog.

It's a Small World After All

You know those incidents in which you meet someone and it turns out they know someone who knows someone that you know? And then you go oh my, this is such a small world we are living in... everyone knows what I am talking about, it happens all the time. Well, I thought that going to a school for college that was the exact opposite of my high school (130 girls in each grade), would allow these occurrences to happen less, yet they continue to happen to me here.
My second day in psych 100 I sit next to a guy. I ask him a question about something and we start talking. He introduces himself and then I introduce myself. It turnouts out, this guy, Lucas, is my best friend's boyfriend.
The weirdest incident though happened also in the beginning of the semester. I did not take a tour of UMBC, instead, I allowed my brother, Amir and his friend, Cyrus, to give me a tour of the school in their perspective. In order to show me the dorms, they called their friend Mike and Mike showed me his room in Erickson. I was thoroughly impressed with the room, but all three guys told me that this was the best dorm and there was no way I would get into Erickson. Here I am though, typing away in my room in Erickson, but not just any room... the same exact room Mike was living in last year. And who is the "Mike"? Well it happens to be the person that created the blog, Steelwolf.
There has been plenty of other crazy incidents here at UMBC. It is just sort of weird who the world works...whether it is the people we meet and the ways we know them or the way things turnout when you least expect them to.

Student Course Evaluations

It's that time of the semester again, where all of the professors hand out the white-and-brown quizzes and the blue sheets for you to rate their performance and provide suggestions and feedback for the future. Interestingly, even the music department is required to hand these out, which means there are a lot of "not applicable" bubbles to fill in on the first sheet.

At any rate, the results from these evaluations actually do end up somewhere, meaning that you can actually supplement your ratemyprofessor search by looking up past data for various courses and who was teaching them. The blue sheets, while they take more time to fill out, are probably a little more directly helpful to the professor. Many of them have made changes in the course in subsequent semesters based on this feedback.

Although it seems like an annoyance, I encourage you to take the the time to fill these sheets out. By providing this feedback you help many classes and professors improve.

UMBC Basketball vs. Morgan State TV Game

Hey Everyone!

This is just another reminder to go out and support the UMBC Men's Basketball team this Thursday, November 29th from 7:30 to 9:00pm at the RAC arena. The team is currently 4 and 1 and doing extremely well! Also, this is going to be a televised event that could get our school some publicity and recognition that we deserve.

Check it out!:
UMBC underground posted an article on their website about this event: http://umbcunderground.com/2007/11/26/the-dog-pound/

Basically, the goal is to start a new UMBC athletic tradition. They suggested that everyone meet early at 6pm so that we can get the seats behind Morgan State’s Bench and all sit together cheering loudly with a lot of spirit and intensity!

RSA's Town Hall Meeting

Yesterday was the RSA Town Hall meeting where representatives from ResLife, Food Services, Parking Services, OIT and police department were present. Students were able to ask their burning questions and get insight into how various departments at UMBC plan to address our concerns. Here are a couple topics that were brought up and discussed...

Parking:

-There are no future plans to relocate the satellite lot to give freshman a chance to park on campus.

- Someone proposed adding more levels to the parking garages but that would cost near $20,000-$22,000 per parking space.

- A way of making monthly payments for parking tickets if you have a lot to pay off, because unpaid tickets might may halt registering for classes.

Food Service:

- Looking into healthier food options

-Dietician available to make trips to campus

-Looking into starting new meal plan options next year. Such as...

- Unlimited dining options (you can swipe your card once and visit the dining hall as many times during the day)

- Block plan options

- Many students complained about not being able to use their meals if they knew they would have extra meals left over due to the time restrictions. However, the miss meal factor is taken into consideration when pricing the meal plans. Which means we aren't exactly expected to use every meal so they don't exactly charge us for EVERY meal.

-Planning on having a different food venue open on the weekends at the Commons every other Saturday. Next Saturday will be Sandella's.

ResLife:

- The master plan is being worked on this year and will hopefully be revealed next year.

OIT:

- Looking into getting wireless every where in residential halls.

Police:

-Try to get more blue light phones around campus

Unfortunately I had to leave early and wasn't there for the very last bit but this is what I got from it and hope it answers some of your questions.

Bicycles and School Spirit

There's been some buzz lately about the little reminder that went out about UMBC's Bicycle Policy. Apparently just a few too many students have been riding bikes around lately, prompting this memo that bicycles are to be parked only in designated pods or racks rather than chained willy-nilly to immovable objects around campus.

I'd like to echo some of the recent sentiments on UMBC Underground and ask the question - how does a memo like this affect our campus life experience? Steve and I had an interesting discussion with David Hoffman (Co-Create UMBC) this afternoon about this, so I'm sure at some point this will appear on his blog as well.

At any rate, there are really two conflicting priorities at work on our campus that can be described by thinking about grandmothers. The first grandmother's house is welcoming and inviting - there are the interesting artifacts and family pictures prominently displayed that you are careful to respect, but overall they add to the enjoyable experience you have when you visit. The second grandmother covers her sofas with plastic to ensure that they always remain pristine, but in doing so loses the comfort offered by the furniture. Her precious items are kept far from reach where they cannot be appreciated or enjoyed.

Personally, my priority is the first option - I would like to see UMBC take the plastic off the couch and allow students to feel comfortable and welcomed at their university. It's okay for the university to look and feel like students actually use it, even if that means everything isn't 100% "good as new" all the time. This objective was furthered recently with the posting of a very large banner on the side of the Commons. The game this Thursday will be an interesting experiment. I would like to see the students there excited about the game and their school's team regardless of fears about being "too rowdy." Let's show Morgan State that we are proud to be UMBC students and aren't afraid to enjoy ourselves at an athletic event. If somebody tells our students to sit down and be quiet, I want to see students stand up for themselves, if not at the game itself then in the week afterward. This is our campus, and we have the right to use it.

Welcome Back

I hope everybody had an excellent time and some delicious food over Thanksgiving break. I'm sure this means you're ready to throw yourself back into the work of the semester, right? Ha. At least we can take comfort in the fact that there are now only about two full weeks left in the semester (if you don't count finals). I keep telling myself I can make it that long, but I'm not sure if my Flex dollars will...

Thanksgiving Break!

Just a reminder:

Residents must be out of their dorms by 8pm Wednesday November 20th, 2007, and can NOT return until after 12pm on Sunday November 24th! Also, to make your exit quick and efficient double check the lists given by the RA's and remember to do all of the things listed before leaving, so your RA can approve the health and safety inspection guidelines quickly. For example unplugging everything except for fish tanks, and refrigerators, putting your residential phones in the common area and not in the individual dorm rooms (Erickson, and harbor), and also turn off lights, and sinks, and shut your blinds. Hope you all have a nice, relaxing break!

Banner!

Check out the banner on the side of The Commons!

imPROVE It!

Just another reminder about the ImProve it campaign. It is a great opportunity to get all those "Wouldn't it be awesome if UMBC..." ideas recognized and possibly implemented - not to mention that small (ONLY 5k) cash prize. Still not sure what 'ImProve It!' is? Get all the info here.

UMBC's Advertising Campaign

While driving up 95-N this past Friday, I was surprised to see a billboard advertising UMBC. As I was on the highway I was unable to stop and snap a picture, but the image featured the standard logo shown to the right along with a picture of a crowd of enthusiastic UMBC students. I'm assuming this is part of UMBC's latest advertising campaign - I certainly wasn't expecting to see that there, so maybe other potential students will see it as well.

UMBC Spirit

Some say we've lost it while others say we have never had it. Yet last weekend, it was both the womens' and mens' basketball opening nights and the spirit was more than present. As I entered the RAC 30 minutes early for the womens' game, I was like a bit worried that my excitement of bringing friends from other schools and showing off my school would be for no good reason. Yet at 7:40 p.m, after the opening routines, the game began and crowd rushed in. This being my very first game attended in the RAC, I sat closest to the team, not realizing we had a "Dawg Pound." Well that section of the stands was completely full with students wearing their yellow and black. As I looked around the crowd, I noticed that nearly all the stands were full with people wearing yellow and black. Both the dance team and the cheerleading team were present the entire night. UMBC played extremely well showing their class and sportsmanship as George Washington was more on the rough side. The game was full of excitement and surprises. It ended with a loss for UMBC by 20 points and a technical foul with numerous other fouls for George Washington.Although a loss, it was a wonderful way to start off the season for the team. Maybe we have lost it or maybe it never existed, but on November 9th, the UMBC spirit undeniably filled the RAC in support of our fellow students.

Undergraduate Research

There are a lot of things to like about UMBC, but one thing that has been quite frustrating for me this semester revolves around undergraduate research opportunities. I have been attempting since the semester began to secure some kind of research internship either on campus or at one of the surrounding medical centers, like Hopkins or UMD.

Unfortunately I seem to be running into a lot of dead ends, both on their ends and on UMBC. Like many other students, my inbox is bombarded weekly with emails from the Career Services & Shriver Center - all containing links that have little or nothing to do with my pre-professional aspirations. I am also often encouraged by other departments on campus to go to the Shriver Center (which I did last semester) for assistance setting something up.

Well, the Shriver Center looks at your resume, helps you get it online, and then tells you to apply to positions via UMBCworks. I've gone through the simple application process on that website tens of times now without receiving a single acknowledgment of my submission. Naturally I wonder what I am doing wrong - how can others profess such success when using the Shriver Center while I flounder?

My next step was to contact the person in charge of pre-professional based internships to schedule an appointment to see what was going on. Three emails over several months later, I have yet to secure an appointment or even an response.

Meanwhile, links for internships at the places I am looking into keep appearing on UMBCworks, and I continue applying to no result and much discouragement.

Prove It on Facebook

The Facebook group Sameera referenced is located here: http://umbc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13481390461 . Be sure to stop by and join if you are at all interested in participating in Prove It. It's a great way to ask questions, get assistance, and allow us to contact you with any updates.

As always, you can also check out the official site as well: umbc.edu/proveit.

Add This!

I'm really relatively new to this whole blogging thing, so I've been looking around at other places and seeing the kind of things they offer that help make their pages interesting. One thing I've seen that seems pretty handy are the links that allow you to post stories you like on Facebook, Digg, or other sites that allow users to contribute links and items.

Thanks to Add This! I've added a nice little button that appears at the end of every blog post that allows you to share the post with the social site of your choice. I know many people at UMBC use Facebook - this corresponds to the "share" feature available there. Using this button allows you to post an item on your Facebook page with a link back to the blog post and a short preview.

Of course, I'm sure all of this code will make things even harder for Erin if and when she rolls out a real template for us, but in the meantime we'll try it out and see how it works.

Share us!

Fiscal Responsibility

This year's SGA has been given an unique task - putting an unusually large General Ledger fund to work for students. This money has been given to us by students for the purpose of benefiting students, not for sitting in a university bank account where it can't even earn interest. Through projects like the Study Place and GPS system, and even more so with Prove It, we have tried to put this money back into the student community.

The way it works is that each year, the SGA budgets their income for various purposes. Whatever is unused at the end rolls into the GL, including unspent money allocated to student organizations. Because neither the SGA nor student organizations have been spending all their money for several years now, the GL has grown quite large.

As a result this years' SGA has an unprecedented ability to do things itself where other departments on campus may be falling short. While this is good in the short run for solving problems, I am concerned that not enough attention is being paid to affecting more lasting changes. The GL will not always be this large and if there comes a time when we need to tighten our fiscal belts, we need to have had progess in place. The alternative is that when the money runs low, all of our great initiatives die, and I don't think anybody wants to see that happen.

Red Card and Campus Cash!

Did you know that your Red Card can get you discounts at local businesses or that a few places will also accept your Campus Cash just like a place on campus?

I really didn't know that either until I made this nifty brochure that tells you more about the programs and lists all the places and discounts. It is amazing how many different places in the community are willing to participate in these programs. If you can't get a hard copy of the brochure or think you might loose it - you can view it here:(Side One)

(Side Two)

Click on the images to view them larger and feel free to download them and print them out!

We Need an Election Board Chair

Even though the SGA elections don't occur until later in the Spring semester (April), we are looking for somebody to head up the election board now. The job of the Election Board Chair is to encourage as many students as possible to participate in the election, ensure that all of the candidates are playing fairly, and plan various election events. He or she also gets to recruit people to serve on the Election Board and gets a stipend. If you are interested, contact David Hoffman by email ( dhoffman@umbc.edu ) or stop by his office on the second floor of the Commons in the Student Organizations space. Training for the selected EBC begins next month.

You can also read the official announcement here.

Diversity Awareness Team

The Diversity Awareness Team is a group of UMBC staff and students that meet up biweekly, raising awareness regarding diversity issues across campus.

It's mission is to support the Division of Student Affairs mission to “foster student success” by providing on-going diversity awareness and cultural competence programs and events for divisional professional, administrative, and student staff as well as the UMBC community through nationally recognized diversity awareness months and religious/ethnic days of observance.

They recently changed the pictures that are on the mezzanine in the Commons so make sure to give it a glance when you have the chance.

UMBC Scheduler Update

Thanks to the valiant efforts of UMBC's own TimK, the UMBC Scheduler is now out of "alpha stage" and ready for some serious stress-testing by the rest of us. Use this innovative program to easily schedule your classes and let either he or I know if you spot any problems.

Sorry, Senate

I missed the Senate meeting tonight, which really sucks because as Assistant Speaker I don't really get excuses. That being said, it's totally not my fault!

A bit of explanation. The Senate meetings start at 5:30, so months ago when I scheduled this particular doctor's appointment I figured I would have plenty of time to get there, have the appointment, and return. Especially when the offices are only about 20 minutes away, right?

No, it wasn't even traffic. It was the office itself. I was there early for the appointment, signed my name, waited a long time, got the pre-evaluation, waited even longer, and then began to wonder exactly how long this was going to take. When the other doctors and employees started packing up and leaving, I began to get worried. Despite the sign reading "cell phone use prohibited", I finally gave up hope of making the meeting and messaged several folks in SGA hoping that at least one of them would get it and realize where I was. I didn't get seen until a quarter after six. I was literally one of the last patients in the office.

Makes me wonder what happened earlier that day to get him so behind. And for once, I'll actually have to read the minutes for the sole purpose of figuring out what happened. Ouch.

UMBC Scheduler

That's right, the UMBC Scheduler is back by popular demand - or rather, my demands, and TimK's valiant efforts. This little program revolutionizes scheduling your classes as it allows you to visualize how your courses will fit into your day beforehand, not to mention eliminating ones that conflict and showing you which extra classes you can take.

I strongly recommend trying this out - go on over to TimK's site, Halflight Studios, and take the headache out of course registration!

Prove It Advertising

I've been running around like crazy over the past few days trying to help get everything in order for Prove It advertising. And I'm not even the one working the hardest on making all of this happening, so right now I have some serious respect for everybody else involved.

We've been putting together a schedule of advertising that will take us from the launch date through the implementation of the wining idea in April 2008. Thanks to this idea spawning in September rather than May, Brady and Elani have had to spend a lot of the past month or so in meetings with administrators to make sure we have them on board - there would be nothing worse than going through all of this effort only to have it get blocked in the final stretch.

Now that we have a cohort of people behind us, this past week has been all about getting advertising materials ready to infiltrate the campus. Unfortunately, we've had to push the launch date back from this Monday, November 5th, to next Monday, November 12th. It kind of stinks but I think the decision is for the best as it will allow us to release a whole lot of things right from the Official Kick-Off, rather than having them trickle in piecemeal over several weeks. We've also got a kick-ass logo courtesy of JT in SEB, who has worked tirelessly to put up with our demands over the past several days.

However, grassroots advertising of this initiative through online spaces and the tried-and-true method, "talking to friends", has already begun. We'll be trying to encourage that this week by dropping some low-key advertising around campus, so by the time of the official kick-off some people are already expecting something to happen. We're also going to be directing people to the website which, although it's a little blank right now, is going to have the applications, details, FAQs, etc. on it by the 12th.

Stay tuned for more information and as always, if you have questions, feel free to stop by the SGA Offices on the second floor of the commons, in the Student Organizations Space, or email me at com2@umbc.edu.

Prove What?

Happy November!

Now that we're through everybody's favorite part of October, it's time to look ahead to what's going to be happening this month.

• We established a record of 10 posts last month - I'm pretty sure we're going to top that this month.
• The Black and Gold Commission is hosting their second tailgate
• Student Organization Advocates are hosting a dinner for Student Org leaders
• The Senate puts the Idea Development Tool into practice and strives to become a more effective group
• Budget Deliberations finishing up
• Prove IT!

Wait, what was that last one? Prove what? Prove IT is an exciting new initiative sponsored by the SGA to help tap the creativity and enthusiasm of our campus community to make change at UMBC. It's a bold challenge - if you are walking around UMBC and think, "I wish this was different" we are inviting you to prove it by taking steps to turn that thought into a reality.

Here's how it works: We are going to be accepting applications from any loose association of students (i.e. you and a few friends) detailing their plan for doing something to positively impact the campus. No restrictions, just pure outside-the-box thinking. Applications can be submitted starting Monday through the end of December, so there is plenty of time to put some good effort into the idea.

However, the application process is just the beginning. The three best submissions, chosen by a committee comprised of students and administrators, will be presented to the campus community in a vote. The final winning group will receive $50,000 and backing of both the SGA and the campus administration to make their idea a reality before the end of Spring semester. That's $50,000 backing something that you and your friends dreamed up!

It doesn't stop there. As an incentive for doing all that work, the SGA is giving the winning group $5,000 to use however they wish. This is a payment of real money, folks - not a scholarship, not gift cards, but $5,000 in cash given directly to your group.

You will be seeing all kinds of advertisements for this initiative over the coming months, beginning with the official kick-off beneath the breezeway this Monday. This is the chance to prove to the rest of the campus that you have what it takes to change UMBC for the better. UMBC is packed with amazing students so I'm really looking forward to seeing all of the submissions. Start thinking, everybody.

Prove it!

An Afternoon in Annapolis

I missed Spanish class today as part of a delegation of UMBC students that went to a rally outside the joint legislation building in Annapolis. Along with students from a diverse sampling of Maryland's higher education institutions, we were there in support of the creation of a dedicated funding source for higher education.

There were eight UMBC students there, along with our president, Freeman Hrabowski and some members of his staff. I got to meet him for the first time which was pretty cool. I was worried eight people Josh was able to muster for this event would pale in comparison to the two buses of students College Park was bragging they were bringing, but as it turns out they barely filled one - ha! Josh also did a nice job dropping in the fact that we had a better voter turnout than they did in a conversation with their SGA President. Go UMBC!

Governor O'Malley and Dr. Hrabowski gave speeches along with a host of others, including some of the dignitaries that were at the governor's visit (a link to the story on my personal blog, as I realized I never put anything about that on this space). Anne got a bunch of excellent pictures so we might be seeing a few of those in the next Retriever Weekly. There are also some pictures available on the governor's website, but they can be a bit of a pain to browse as you have to go through an agreement to see the larger versions.

In between the rally and the start of the actual testimonies before the joint committee, various news crews were circulating to get material. Steve made out pretty well, scoring an interview for a College Park-based station as well as a radio spot on WBAL. Way to go Steve! There's also a picture of our group featured as part of an article in the Baltimore Sun. I know it's a lot of bragging but I'm really proud of UMBC for getting ourselves out there and trying to make a difference in our state.

All kinds of lobbyists were there to speak to the join committee so a lot of things had to be cut short to fit it all in, but I think Josh Michael did an excellent job in his testimony in the time that he had. He even got in a bit about how much students have to pay for textbooks, which makes me happy as that is an issue I had raised during the governor's visit. During the College Park SGA President's testimony the Chairman asked the students in the audience to stand, and all of us from UMBC were right smack in the middle with UMBC plastered over our shirts - once again, go UMBC!

There's something I find quite thrilling about taking a risk and putting yourself out there in the hopes of making a difference in something that is much bigger than yourself. A lot of people will tell you that you can't really change anything but it is deeper than that. It's not about one person lost in the middle of the world trying to do something all by him or herself. It's about connecting with others who share your vision, building bridges between yourself and others, and using the resources you do have at your disposal as best you can.

Another good website...

I've been following Overheard in New York for years now, so when I found out some people were trying to do the same thing for UMBC I was thrilled. Like UMBC Underground, this is another excellent effort by our fellow students to do something good for the community - they deserve our support.

Overheard at UMBC

UMBC Underground

I was just told about another awesome UMBC-related blog, UMBC Underground. I hope linking to it from here doesn't bring them "above ground" but I really liked what I saw at first glance. Hey, it's a blog, and blogs always want more readers, right?

I haven't done much exploring (but I'm sure I will later tonight) so I don't really know who's behind their operation, but it seems like it's just a bunch of concerned students trying to help out the rest of the community. That's the kind of thing that really gets me excited - we need more people like that taking action around our campus. Notice I say "taking action", because I think a whole lot of people here are interested in helping others, they just haven't taken the plunge yet. Or possibly worse, they have but yet others haven't recognized them.

Anyway, check out UMBC Underground, add their feed to your RSS reader, all that good stuff.

Homecoming!

One thing I realized people might not have checked out yet - the titles of these entries are links, so you can either click on them to read the entry on its own page, or, as I often do, be directed to something related to the post. Check it out and see what kinds of stuff we've been looking at!

Anyway, UMBC's Homecoming celebration was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to attend the bonfire, as I had a test to study for that was Friday morning (which I ended up doing rather well on, if you'll forgive me tooting my own horn a bit). I spent a good part of Friday looking forward to the free ice cream and talent show, which also impressed. I am proud to say that Daniel Roberts, maser guitarist, is a fellow graduate of my high school. This man is probably going to be the greatest musician to graduate from UMBC. If you missed him at the talent show, you can see a few of last year's videos on his YouTube page - hopefully he'll put up some videos from this year soon.

Saturday night was Jim Gaffigan, which was also a great use of $10. I took the risk and invited my mom and brother to the show and he didn't disappoint. Both of them laughed heartily throughout the show which makes me happy. Maybe now my brother will show up for the Festivus Accappellius in November.

Today began yet another busy week as I attended a meeting discussing the changing environment of UMBC's Food Services. I'm confident we'll be seeing a lot of positive efforts come out of this. We also spent a good amount of time both before and after the Senate meeting planning the advertising campaign for the upcoming Prove It! initiative. Since many of us involved don't have the time to put into designing a good logo, we put out a request to some groups replete with such "artsy folk" to see what kind of a design they can cook up. Of course, we need it by Friday, so we're throwing in $75 for the winning designer to sweeten the pot a little. This is kind of a little test of the ideas behind the Prove It! initiative itself, so I'm excited to see how it works out. The folks across the hall in SEB sure seemed excited when we told them about it, so I'm hopeful for a good response with some excellent designs to choose from.

That's it for now, but be sure we'll be keeping you updated as these things continue to develop. Believe me, before you know it you won't be able to get away from the Prove It! initiative...

The Switch to Blogspot

I've gotten asked a few times since announcing this location of the SGA-Students blog why we are here, and not at the UMBC location ( http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/sga-students ). We switched hosts mainly because it was easier for us to add authors to the site, and it will hopefully be a bit easier to skin in the future, when Erin gets some more time to work on it. Thanks especially to Jay who has helped us set all this up and got us the umbc.edu location - ideally that will be the "official" location of the blog but it will redirect here.

Who, What, Why, When, How, and Welcome!

I’m not really sure how to start out something like this. Its a new endeavor for myself and the SGA - I’ll start it out with the old stand-by questions:

Who?

I’m Erin and I’ll be writing in this blog to entertain you and inform you of things around campus that are also entertaining. The first thing I’d like to say is that I’m no English major but this isn’t about verbal eloquence or perfect grammar, though I will spell check, this is about you, UMBC, and all things related.

You’re not stuck with only me - there will be other ‘bloggers’ and I’m sure they will introduce themselves in their first post.

What?

What am I going to talk about? Anything around campus that I feel you should know about or find personally interesting.

I’m not going to advertise an event just to advertise an event. This is supposed to act as a place for people to talk about things in a casual environment.

Why?

I understand there are already many places for you to find what’s going on, but this one will be different. I know its a big promise to make but I promise to make this informative yet engaging.

The most important thing is that I hope this won’t be a chore to read.

When?

We don’t really have a set schedule for posting entries. We’ll update this as often as needed.

How?

How can you be involved? If you have any event you’d like to bring to our attention we’d love to hear about it. You can email us at SGAblog@gmail.com . Also, if you’re interested in joining our blogging team or have any questions you’d like to ask about any of the bloggers or the blog itself - feel free to send us an email.



Welcome the the SGA-Students blog!

Meetings

I have been having a load of meetings lately!

Today was my first time attending the IT Steering Committee, where I learned a lot about future plans for campus technology implementation. Interestingly, my boss's boss at AV Services was there presenting a rather lengthly bit on future strategy. Apparently we'll also be upgrading to a newer version of Blackboard this January that will hopefully solve some of the unreliability issues.

I also got a chance to meet Nancy Young, the Interim Vice President of Student Affairs (I think that's her title). She's quite passionate about what she does and the meeting was interesting. I think my (and, I daresay, the SGA's) goal for the year about building community is right in line with the kinds of things she was saying, but I'm not quite sure if I was able to get that across to her or not. Her view is that you can change the campus culture by focusing on the good things and correcting the erroneous "conventional wisdom" that often floats around, like the oh-so-popular "There's nothing to do on campus!" While I think she has a point, there is also something to be said for harnessing that negative energy and trying to redirect it to something positive, as we are trying to do with the upcoming imPROVEit campaign (provided everything goes through). That idea is saying, "You have a problem with UMBC? Fine. Let us provide you with the tools you need to do something about it."

I think we need to be encouraging each other to take a real ownership in the UMBC community. We have a very unique culture here and our university is something I think we all have a right to be proud of. In the same vein, why sit around and accept things as being okay the way they are? A college community is a dynamic thing and it should always be kept moving forward, and who better to influence that process than the students who are immersed in it?

There's going to be some interesting developments in the upcoming weeks. Hopefully we'll be seeing the new SGA Newsletter circulate both internally and externally, giving everybody a clearer picture of what exactly we are doing on a day to day basis. So much of the work involves meeting with people and information gathering, looking for the right time to inject a particular student concern. Often a lot of the larger changes are in progress but will be a long time in coming, so you are working for the students of 2009.

At the Senate meeting tonight we got a chance to talk to Dr. Baron, the Director of Academic Advising. Now there's an issue I'll bet a lot of us have something to say about! He had some interesting survey results that he had taken over the summer about how the faculty members view advising. I was surprised to see how few of them actually get recognized for what they do to advise students, when that is such an important part of having a good experience at the university. He'll be presenting a whitepaper on these findings, along with the results of a later student survey, sometime this year.

Along the lines of future improvements, my meetings began to converge when Dr. Baron started talking about the new Student Administration system that is going to be put in place, that they also happened to be discussing at IT Steering. Basically it's going to make the whole Undergraduate Progress Report (try finding that, it's buried in myUMBC) thing something actually usable. You'll be able to see exactly how you're measuring up with your GEPs (since by the time it rolls out, GFRs will have been phased out), so the whole advising experience will be a lot less, "help me make sure I take the right classes" and more, "help me prepare for graduate school or a post-graduate career". I think that's the real direction advising should be moving as well, and it will help take a lot of the frustration out of the course selection process.

For the short term, he's looking at doing things like extending the period during which you can register for classes, so there can be more time for advising and planning, and also getting people's UPRs actually updated before the last minute, so we don't have seniors realizing they've missed the boat on one class and can't graduate for another semester.

On a more personal note, I forgot to update my Oracle calendar with my latest work times for AV services, so it still has me getting off at 7 PM. So, I got scheduled for a meeting tomorrow at seven to prepare for meeting Governor O'Malley on Wednesday. That's kind of a big deal, so I'm just going to have to see if I can leave work and come back later. Hopefully they'll be cool with that!

Welcome to SGA-Students!

Hey,

If you're reading this, you've somehow found out about this little echelon of the SGA Student Body, so some form of our advertising has worked. At any rate, this is a place where a few crazy individuals get to give you an opportunity to peer inside the oh-so-secretive world of the UMBC Student Government Association. Try as we might, people still walk around campus scratching their heads, wondering what it is we do all day. Others hear the word "government" and immediately assume we are responsible for all ills both on and off campus, or that we are somehow out to "get the best" of the students.

Let me take this opportunity to dispel a few of the myths right now, and hopefully, these answers will become increasingly clear in the coming weeks and months. First off, we spend quite a bit of our time doing the same stuff you do. I think it's fair to assume that we're all here to get an education, and many times that does end up being the highest priority task in a day for us. Life is always a delicate balance, and I apologize for the times when the precarious leveling operation we attempt makes it difficult to find somebody or get a question answered.

Second, the purpose of the SGA is not to "govern" the student body so much as it is to support them. We are elected by and exist for you in all the various incarnations and responsibilities. I know it can be difficult to see at times exactly how that works to your favor, but this space is one of the many ways we are attempting to close that information gap in this and future semesters.

I encourage you to keep reading as we work out the kinks, possibly change locations, software, add contributors, tweak the look, etc. If you want to leave any feedback, feel free to email sgablog@gmail.com, or if you'd like to contact me personally, com2@umbc.edu.

Thank you for your support!

Contacting Zwybak

We at Zwybak welcome comments and submissions from our readers. Commenting on a post is a great way to provide more public feedback and receive responses both from the authors and other readers. If you wish to contact a post author personally, every post is tagged with a link to the author's Blogger profile, which has an email address where they can be contacted. For general questions or to submit a story, contact the Blog administrator, Michael SteelWolf, at com2@umbc.edu.

Zwybak?

Why Zwybak?

The short answer is that Zwybak (rhymes with Why pack?) is what you make it. Much like your UMBC experience, nobody else can define a meaning for you where one simply doesn't exist. You get the opportunity, and the challenge, of making something abstract take on a personal meaning.


The long answer is our own interpretation of what Zwybak means. Simply put, it stands for that feeling you get during an awkward moment, when everybody is waiting for somebody to take the lead and get the situation back on track. Not convinced? Try blurting out "zwybak" in the middle of a conversation, and you'll see what we mean. In SGA, we strive to both be the leaders who step up in those zwybak times and to encourage our fellow students to do the same. The Zwybak blog realizes that there is no real "line" between the students in a branch of the SGA and the students in a social group - we are all part of the community that makes UMBC what it is. By sharing our official and personal experiences with you, we hope to involve you in this dynamic and exciting process - or at the very least, prove that there is something more to SGA than a bunch of students hanging around an office.

Zwybak!

Zwybak Contributors

Any member of UMBC's Student Government Association is invited to create an account and join Zwybak. We also welcome contributions from any other member of the UMBC community. If you are interested in submitting a contributing article or are an SGA member who would like to set up their account, please contact me at com2@umbc.edu.

SGA's Contributing Branches (click for articles):

Executive: This department consists of the President, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, as elected by the undergraduate student body, as well as appointed members of the executive cabinet. Current list of Executive members.

Senate: Elected by the student body, Senators represent students on administrative committees as well as take on special projects directly related to student concerns. Current list of Senators.

Finance Board: The Finance Board consists of the Treasurer as well as Representatives elected by the student body. It is responsible for allocating funds to student organizations and enforcing SGA budgetary policy. Current list of Finance Board members.

Student Organization Advocates: Led by the Vice President for Student Organizations, Student Organization Advocates are elected by the student body and represent the specific concerns of UMBC's many student groups. They are also responsible for providing resources and assistance to student organizations. Current list of Student Organization Advocates.

Supreme Court: Appointed by the President, the Supreme Court is responsible for maintaining accountability across the other branches. Current list of Supreme Court Justices.