the (book) retriever update

so the book swap idea. might as well give people an update.

1. went to oit- oit digs the idea (by the way collier jones is the man for putting barry white on myumbc).

2.oit wants the bookstore directors and vp of financial ops approvals. if approvals are given it will be a go for fall 08.

3. went to get approvals- bookstore director digs the idea- alluded to the idea that the bookstore wants in, but wants a membership fee to have the function work. mike and i are not a big fan of charging people to swap books between each other. trying to avoid that. however bookstore could help us with advertisement- still want to avoid charging people. mainpoint here is that bookstore director approves. so one down one to go.

4. email conversations with vp is happening. this person is impossible to get a meeting with. meeting on 3/3/08. if this one goes through were gonna get the ok from oit and *fingers crossed* book swap will be up in fall.

illegal instate tuition- a good idea?

over the past few years there has been a great deal of debate as to whether illegal immigrants should have the same educational rights as legal residents. in the past i have been a proponent of denying these individuals such rights. personally i had felt instate tuition costs at institutions of higher education should be given to those whose parents paid into our system and therefore should have a lower cost of education.

my past month has been filled with lobbying issues and debates in preparation for the state senate meetings in the near future. josh michael (director of the cga) and i have been involved in several discussions as to what the sgas stance on certain bills will be.

this past week i overheard a debate on this very topic between david hoffman and another individual whose beliefs are in line with the aforementioned views.

a turning point in my beliefs came when david, playing devils advocate, stated,

'what about minors who moved here when they were 8 years old and had no control of what their parents did?'

'these individuals have paid into our system in other ways- sales tax, etc.'

'wouldn't it be a great ideal to aspire to- if you can work hard enough to get in- you will be able to afford it.'

i began to think- i could be that person that moved here when i was 8 years old and have had to make a choice once out of highschool- provide for myself and quite possibly a needy family or place myself waist deep in debt and deny my family another source of income.

i kinda understand the logistics of it all- USMSC and the state gov. are having a difficult time providing low tuition for md residents as is and they may not be able to support more people. with that said it would be a fantastic aspiration. if you can get in- we can make it affordable.

just some ideas to think about.

god college is making me a hippie, tree hugging, hybrid driving liberal...

Another good distraction...

If you use Meebo you already know about these online games from their latest blog post, but for everybody else I thought I would share another fun online distraction: Tower Bloxx.

The concept is simple - drop building pieces from a swinging crane on top of each other to try and build the straightest tower. The better you build, the more people will move into the building. Place completed buildings on city blocks and try to build your population. Addictive.

Leadershape

At UMBC Underground, there is a new article about Leadershape that everyone should read. I attended Leadershape when I was a freshman two years ago, and I was a co-facilitator for this past one. Both experiences were amazing, and I am a better leader and person for attending.

A lot of people are skeptical about Leadershape. Some say it's a waste of money for spending a week somewhere in the woods doing icebreakers. Others say that people who go become "elitists" and look down on those who do not attend Leadershape. I have met some great people through the Leadershape process, and I have had the chance to see them develop as campus leaders too. However, I know just as many, if not more, people who are great leaders as well without attending Leadershape.

http://umbcunderground.com/2008/02/13/leadershape-was-great-but-now-its-too-late/

Read the article and post your comments here and/or there.

myUMBC: Valentine's Edition

If you haven't today, log in to myUMBC - and make sure your speakers are on...

Sign up for "My D-Txt" Today!

Join Dining Services Text Messaging list!

This newly created feature was discussed today at the food services committee meeting. The idea is that you go online to www.umbcdining.com and click on "Events and Promos." There you will see a picture/link about signing up to get "D-Txts." Fill out the request form provided, and soon you will be receiving text messages on the special being offered by the dining hall that day. They are starting out with only one or two texts a week, and based on feedback will alter the program as necessary. So if you are someone who really looks forward to lobster night or any of the various specials, and are never certain which day it will be on then feel free to sign up for D-Txts! It's especially convenient if you have unlimited texts, otherwise its just a normal text messaging fee to receive one message.

There was a suggestion to send out one text message on sunday listing the specials for the following week just to reduce the number of texts that may be coming out, but its not finalized. The staff would like to test it out first with only a couple of texts a week, but on the day the special will be given to remind you so you don't forget, or to inform you if you were never aware in the first place.

Any comments our feedback you have on this would be greatly appreciated by the dining hall staff and I will make sure I present it to them as an option.

Sprout

From time to time we all look for some kind of gentle distraction to procrastinate doing work. This morning I found an excellent one - the flash game "Sprout." The artwork is all hand-drawn, which gives the game a kind of storybook feel. It's a relatively simple plot - you're a seed who wants to travel across the world in order to reach its home forest. You can grow into different plants like an apple tree, a dandilion, and a palm tree, each of which has different abilities to help you attain your goal.

Check it out the next time you need a few minutes' distraction.

Bold New Look, Same Great Taste!

If you've gotten this far, congratulations on finding the new location. Don't forget to update your RSS feed by dragging the giant orange RSS symbol to your Bookmarks toolbar or feed reader.

For those who have been following SGA-Students over the past week or so, you are ware that it has been heavily transformed. One of the final additions to this chaos was the change of name to something I think everybody will find a bit more interesting.

I will probably continue to play with the layout over the next few weeks as I try to wrest the Minyx template code to my will - a task that has proved rather challenging given my general ineptitude and the necessity of translating everything from Spanish. I've been counting my victories - I have some very competent friends who have generously donated their time toward helping me get this going, and it could have been written in French.

At the recent SGA Spring Retreat, we decided to open the blog space up to anybody in the SGA who was interested in posting things. While myself and the First-Year Ambassadors will continue to take responsibility for providing new content on a regular basis, I'm excited to see the new perspectives that will soon be appearing alongside ours. Additionally, we will be accepting submissions from anybody who would like to see something posted in this space. For now, you can do so by contacting me directly: com2@umbc.edu. If it turns out a lot of people want to use this I might try to get a genuine "@umbc.edu" address set up for us.

We should be fed into myUMBC at some point this coming week, so if you want to throw us a few "paws" I'm sure the authors will love you.

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions, and above enjoy the Zwybak ride.