The announcement is in - five finalists have been selected from the twenty-two submitted Prove It proposals. Congratulations to everybody who submitted a proposal! If you were not among the finalists, your group should be receiving feedback from the selection committee as soon as we can get everything compiled. It is my hope that at least some of the groups will be able to make a few key modifications and perhaps continue to work with the contacts they developed to make their ideas happen even outside of Prove It.
At any rate, brief summaries of the five finalists are below, kindly provided by Elizabeth Silberholz of The Retriever Weekly.
- Revamping the UMBC Pond: Improve the Library Pond's sanitary and maintenance system, landscape the area around the pond, and add a deck area.
- Student Creative Center: Establish a Student Creative Center where students could have 24/7 access to art supplies and tools.
- Transforming the "Study Place": Add dining and lounge options to the Study Place.
- Ropes and Challenge Course: Add a ropes and challenge course on campus to encourage team-building and leadership training.
- Green Space: Create a green space near the Fine Arts building
14 comments:
the idea to clean the pond is by far the best idea that will have the most positive impact on campus. that pond is an eyesore, a blight on our campus, and something has to be done about it, either through Prove It or otherwise.
the ability to access workspace and art supplies 24/7 would be very helpful, but will not benefit the most amount of students (those who are not art majors).
also, we do not need a cheesy ropes course like gettysburg college, or another sodexho monopolized dining option disguised as a study area. by cleaning and building around the pond, it can be the "greenspace".
i applaud the group who designed this plan, well done!
I do not think it is fair to judge the projects before you have seen the actual proposals. What has been published so far is very minimal information. Perhaps you will change your mind once you see the others.
A challenge course would be EPIC.
The lake thing? Needs to become a skate park. Or something.
Hi, I'm chairman of the Student Creative Center proposal. I'd just like to clarify that the SCC contains more than just art supplies; the tools refers to things like saws, hammers, drills, and other tools useful for more engineering-type projects. We're really trying to make it so everyone can find something to do with it.
I don't like any of these ideas, I see them all as a waste of time and money. How did they pick these as the final five?? There must have been something a little better! I don't want to be mean but these ideas don't help anyone, I don't think people have time to color or building a lamp for their mom in the "Creative Center". If they build a deck on the pond the first little kid or dumb ass drunk kid that falls in the pond will cause uproar. I don't need anymore Sodexo food entering my system. I'm not going to eat at the study place because everyone knows that after you eat Sodexo's food you have to rush to the bathroom 20 minutes later. Not beneficial to studying in my mind. A "green space"? Is this suppose to be some kind of recycling thing? I mean it's kinda worthless considering I see the trash people throwing away all the plastics with the normal trash anyways. No one is going to recycle because it's a lost cause anyway! Finally the worst of them ALL!! A Ropes and Challenge Course!! Is this a joke? Who thought of this lame idea. It's the stupidest thing I have ever heard, no one is going to "team-build" in the middle of February or in August. This University has such a lack of involvement that the wood they use to build this course would rot before anyone notices it. I know I'm ranting but I feel like the school is wasting money that could go to something useful like a TV station, re-vamp the radio station, free books and supplies for low income students, new desks and chairs or better pay for professors(who make near nothing). Anyways back to my paper feel free to reply to what I have said but you know deep down that all of this is true!
Hello, I am one of the members for the Study Place proposal. I understand that many people are concerned about having more Sodehxo food on campus. Our idea is work with Dining Services to bring nationals brands to UMBC. Most likely we will bring in Starbucks and Chick-fil-A. More details to come...
I have to agree with the person that say that he/she doesn't see anything that is truly interesting in the project. Isn't the pond suppose to be a natural habitat thing, or wildlife preservation thing? if you start cleaning it you are disturbing that wildlife the very purpose for what is was made. also if you start cleaning now you have to keep on doing it or it will just go back to what it is now. Concerning the student creative center, all i have to say is that students do not even go to parties organized by SEB or events, i don't think they will be that much into creation of stuff. For the study place, isn't it suppose to be a study place, i mean a place where you seek quiet to study? if you are that hungry then there is the common or even at the entrance of the library. I don't like the idea of studying and suddenly hearing crunching noises next to me. The rope and challenge course, really will only benefit the sport team, and i consider it a waste of money because it will be cool for something like homecoming or quadmania but not forever. For the green space, a question why only next to the fine art building when behind the dining hall is deprived of grass and is an eyesore to every parents that come to drop of their kids? even the Erickson field can be rearranged, it definitely need more grass.
It's really easy to knock on these ideas (which I happen to think are all brilliant), but did any of you anonymous posters submit a proposal yourself? Yeah, didn't think so.
Ummm So Wow. Not much to say there. These ideas are really the top five? I have to agree with the other anonymous guy and say that perhaps we should make that a practice round and try something else! OR Here's a thought, since everybody on this damn campus thinks involvement is so pathetic, then why in the world are we going to create ONE more thing that NOBODY is going to take part in! It will indeed be a waste of 50,000 fricken dollars!!! And in response to whoever suggested we who have these feelings submit our own proposals....why the hell would we do that when there are SOOOOO many other groups and organizations that constantly ask for funds to do very worthwhile activities but then get rejected, because SGA is going to throw it all away to the person with the most MTVU savvy, hip-college-type, identity-expressing retarded idea?!?! It's a JOKE!! Start looking towards boosting the organizations that REALLY NEED THOSE FUNDS, who work hard alllll semester to get where they are going and to really boost involvement. IF SGA continues to be so mismanaged with hundreds of fun quirky ideas that spread out our funds too thin, this campus will never change. So here's a tip SGA, start actually granting clubs the funding they need and perhaps we WILL see a different campus, one where people know that if they work hard enough the school will back them up financially just as they are supposed to do! Please!
This last one drove me nuts. You're saying "no one at UMBC cares about anything, we're boring, stop trying." How are we supposed to involve people if we never try? You're like those people who go home on weekends because there is nothing to do. There is nothing to do BECAUSE EVERYONE GOES HOME ON WEEKENDS (Note: I find plenty to do on weekends but that is besides the point). If you don't like something, man up and change it.
Also as far as I'm aware, SGA had more than $50,000 left over last year from clubs who didn't use their money, so your "spend money on clubs that need it" argument is worthless, even before you consider the clubs who spend thousands of dollars on one big party.
UMBC is as good as we make it; it will never be any better than we allow it to be. This defeatist "everything is pointless" attitude goes nowhere.
Wow. Such negativity, I'm really taken aback. Personally, I think that each and every one of these proposals can help build a stronger UMBC. I sense a great deal of bitterness and am going to try my hardest to make a positive reply, although it frustrates me greatly how easy it is for some people to tear down the ideas and labors of others. I know a great deal of thought and research went into all of these proposals and I commend those who submitted them. Thank you for being passionate about UMBC and working hard to make it a better place.
In response to the comment about student organization funding, I was curious as to some specific examples you might have of "organizations that constantly ask for funds to do very worthwhile activities but then get rejected". In my experience, the Finance Board has been very accountable to its student organizations, doing their best to fund as much as they can while being fair to all groups. Even when my budget was the one being cut, I understand the reasons that everything can't be funded. Here are some specifics, student organizations are allocated approximately $150,000. This is in addition to the funds that go to the Retriever and SEB (which can co-sponsor your event and provide recourses that otherwise you would have had to pay for). At this point in the year not all of this money has been allocated to student organizations, but there is no doubt in my mind that by the end of the semester there will be a few hundred dollars left in this pot, if any at all. Now here's the crazy thing: after organizations have reported all of their spending at the end of the fiscal year, tens of thousands of dollars will come back to the SGA that student orgs have not spent. How crazy is that!? Organizations beg and plead with the SGA, put effort into well thought out plans for worthwhile activities, get funding from the SGA, and then DON'T SPEND IT!
Now, your argument might be, who cares, groups still deserve more funding. And I would agree with you, our organizations do fantastic things and are really the heart of UMBC. However, what I disagree with is your cavalier attitude towards all of the imPROVE it proposals. Since you seem passionate about student orgs, let me give you an example of a student organization who put a lot of time and effort into an imPROVE it proposal. I'm sure a similar story could be told about each and every one of these final proposals, but the idea that I am most familiar with is the Student Creative Center.
A few years ago the Kinetic Sculpture Club was created. Their organization's purpose is to create human powered works of art which are then raced through land and water for immense amounts of glory. They are a smaller, younger organization, which has all of the problems of a typical student organization: recruitment, turnover of leadership, space, money, etcetera. But they are a passionate organization, passionate about bringing together students of different disciplines, connecting the arts and the sciences, passionate about reaching out to the UMBC community. Their biggest problem is not money, believe it or not, but space. Some of these sculptures can become larger than cars, where can this club store all of their equipment and tools and such? They began to build at a members house, but they had to drive about an hour to get there, it started impacting their recruitment. Do you think they could convince the SGA to give them $20,000 so they could create a space, just for themselves, on campus? Personally, I think bringing that to the SGA would have been irresponsible and so did they, so they looked for other solutions to their problem. When imPROVE it was announced it was more than a perfect fit, they dared to imagine a resource that was not only what their organization needed, but so much more.
Think of all the organizations that could use space to do creative things and worthwhile activities, I immediately think of ArtCOM and Kinetic Sculpture, but why stop there? Musical Theater Club and TheaterCOM could use the space for set construction and creating props, and how about Artists for Social Change!? And that's only a handful of the "art" groups, add to that all of the engineering clubs and societies, only MiniBaja really has a space of its own to work on projects, and I've heard that even that is inadequate. How about other clubs, clubs that aren't traditionally "creative" orgs, let's take Students for Environmental Awareness, for example. They could use this resource for building bat boxes, creating biodiesel, recycling their own paper, making giant paper mache lightbulbs or globes or whatever they need to advance their missions. How about the Ancient Studies club? Remember how they put on that fantastic version of "The Frogs"? Any organization can become creative and find a reason to build and develop and sometimes you need a much larger space or access to some equipment that you would have otherwise. That's what the Student Creative Center intends to do for ALL organizations. To me, that's what this imPROVE it project is all about, creating resources that will support a much larger community. Not just increasing a dozen student organization budgets a couple thousand dollars.
I haven't even mentioned the fact that this Center would bring students that aren't affiliated with organizations out to relieve stress or participate in something creative outside of their major area. It would be a great place to meet organizations that you might never have heard of, get connected with other people who's interests might be completely different from you, and become a stronger member of the community. I feel strongly that ALL of these proposals do that. I feel honored that the SGA has come to the UMBC community and said, we want to spend $50,000 on a resource, what do you want to do? They could have very easily picked something themselves to spend $50,000 on and just did it, really without most students even knowing about it, until it was done. So thank you SGA for putting this together. I'm excited to see where it goes. And if you're still reading, thank you as well, I thought about this a lot and I had a lot to say (obviously), and I appreciate you reading my comments.
If you're still upset with the imPROVE it project or angry with the SGA's funding of student groups (and that's your prerogative) then my advice to you would be to get involved. Run for SGA, check out David Hoffman's blog for a link to the application. Or if you don't want to run, just show up in the SGA office and voice your opinion, be a part of the process. I did, even though I wasn't sure that I would fit in, or enjoy it at all, but I did and I met some incredible people and had some amazing experiences and am really glad I got involved. If you'd like to contact me personally, I'd love to hear from you. My name is Ross Dixon and you can email me at dr1@umbc.edu. Thanks again for reading my thoughts.
Ross is my hero.
Ditto. :) Beautifully... typed.
I don't feel anyone should be so quick to judge until they actually read the proposals or watch the videos next week anyway, especially when they only have one sentence descriptions to go by.
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