It's Time to VOTE!

The polls for this year's SGA elections are opening at 12:00 AM, and will run until 11:59 PM on Wednesday. There are a number of contested races for positions that have a lot of influence over how your student fees are spent and how policies are made at UMBC.

Information about all candidates is listed on the SGA website. Direct links to their official profiles are below.

President:

• Yasmin Karimian with running mate Jennifer Kent
  

Treasurer:

• Nikunj Divecha
• James McCauley
• Stefan Victor

Vice President for Student Organizations:

• Brian Frazee
• Paula McCusker

Finance Board:

• Emily Han
  
• Sekinah Hassan
  
• Tehmeena Hassan
  
• Nicholas Keller
  
• Adenike Orogade
  
• Christine Paul
  
• Lena Dewald

Senate:

• Juan Callazos
  
• Justin Donlan
  
• Surena Ebrahimi
• Mark Gradoni
  
• Stavros Halkias
  
• Sunaina Khandelwal
  
• Justin Lane
  
• Phuoc (Toby) Le
  
• Timothy Mantegna
  
• Matthew McNey
  
• Josh Michael
  
• Tae Oh
  
• Josh Paiva
  
• Michael Rakoski
  
• Simmi Singh
  
• Rahilla Tarfa
  
• Gavin Way

Additionally, a number of candidates have participated in interviews and debates. A full video of the debates has been made available here, while the WMBC radio interview can be downloaded here. Ongoing coverage of the election has been provided by The Retriever Weekly.

Also on the ballot is Referendum A, a proposal supported by SGA that is explained here.


Be sure to take a short amount of time over the next few days to log in to Blackboard and cast your vote!

Victory: Library hours extended May 4th – May 19th

So the administration definitely listens. A week ago, Dr. Elliot Hirschman chose to present to the president and other members of the President Council, a pilot program (that extends the library hours by 2 hours one the week before final exam) to keep the library open for longer hours at least a week before the exams. He gave SGA senators who have been working towards this goal a chance to speak to the council and present our case. We did so and they were impressed. The President’s council decided to fund the extra $1500 cost of opening the library for later hours from May 4^th – May 19^th. They want to look at this two week test period and other statistics on library usage to decide whether or not to extend the library hours in the future.

So this two week period will be a test run. We as students need to show them that

1. We’re thankful that they paid attention to our needs.

2. We actually do need these longer hours, not only during the exam week but otherwise as well.

So, we need to make sure that every UMBC student is aware that the library will be open for longer hours during those two weeks. We need to use the space and show that we need the space.

Here are the exact dates and hours of services:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	May 4th 8am – 2am	May 5th 8am – 2am	May 6th 8am – 2am	May 7th 8am – 2am	May 8th 8am – 10pm	May 9th 10am –10pm
May 10th Noon – 2am	May 11th 8am – 2am	May 12th 8am – 2am	May 13th 8am – 2am	May 14th EXAM DAY 8am – 2am	May 15th EXAM DAY 8am – 10pm	May 16th 10am– 10pm
May 17th Noon – 2am	May 18th EXAM DAY 8am – 2am	May 19th EXAM DAY 8am – 2am	May 20th EXAM DAY 8am – 9pm	May 21st 8am – 5pm

The atrium is still open 24/7

Hours of service desks

Library Media

Monday-Thursday 8:30am – 11pm

Friday 8:30am – 6pm

Saturday 11am – 6pm

Sunday Noon – 11pm

Reference/Information

Monday – Thursday 9am – 9pm

Friday - 9am – 6pm

Saturday Noon – 6pm

Sunday Noon – 8pm

Gallery

M,Tu,W,F Noon – 4pm

Th Noon – 8pm

Serials

Monday – Thursday 8am – 10:30pm

Friday 8am – 6pm

Saturday 10am – 6pm

Sunday Noon–10:30pm

Slide Library – in room 216 in Fine Arts Building

Monday – Friday 9pm – 4pm

Special Collections

Monday – Friday 1pm – 4pm

Thursday, May 14^th 1pm – 8pm

Adult Film Debate Roundup

As many students know, UMBC has found itself in the ongoing issue over screening adult films on University System of Maryland schools. Here are a few places to get informed about the debate:

• Baltimore Sun summary


• Washington Post editorial


• Commentary and discussion on UMBC


• My personal thoughts


• Paula McCusker, contact person

Remember That Survey?

The National Survey of Student Engagement? Freshmen and Seniors are being invited to participate in this survey to help UMBC's administration make changes to improve the school.

If you're one of the people selected, take the five minutes to go and fill out the survey. In addition to helping benefit the school, if you complete it before May 1st, you'll be entered to win one of four $100 Amazon gift cards.

Transcript Fee: The Saga Continues

Quite a number of things have taken place since the Senate meeting last month where the transcript fee was discussed with Mrs. Yvette Mozie-Ross and Dr. Steve Robinson. A large number of students were in attendance, but for those who were not (or those interested in reviewing the discussion), the official minutes have been posted here.

The plan post-meeting has been for the SGA President to send a letter to President Hrabowski, a move that has been delayed by the recent shifts in SGA's leadership.

Last week, SGA President Gabe Rettaliata sent an official letter to President Hrabowski concerning this fee. At this point, it's been about 2 business days since the letter has been received and we are currently awaiting a response.

Relevant contact information is as follows:

Yvette Mozie-Ross: mozie@umbc.edu
Dr. Steve Robinson: robinsos@umbc.edu
SGA President Gabe Rettaliata: gabriel2@umbc.edu
SGA Speaker of the Senate Rahilla Tarfa: rat1@umbc.edu
Myself: michael.c@umbc.edu

Click here to see all Zwybak posts on this issue.

NSSE: Let Your Voice be Heard!

UMBC students, get ready to have a say about the quality of campus life and the kinds of changes you’d like to see! Some freshmen and seniors have an opportunity to provide feedback in a forum that is taken very seriously by campus leaders. Freshmen and seniors are being invited at random by e-mail to participate in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) between now and the end of May. The NSSE is a yearly survey administered by UMBC and other private and public institutions across the U.S. UMBC’s Office of Institutional Research explains that NSSE

“gauges the extent to which colleges are providing experiences associated with a quality undergraduate education and the extent to which students are engaging in those educationally meaningful activities.”

Campus leaders have used the results with other information to make changes to curriculum, programs, and resources. In response to initial results, senior administration at UMBC implemented a number of initiatives designed to increase student engagement and success. Some examples include: first-year seminars, Introduction to an Honors University seminars, living learning communities, the new student book experience, and the faculty mentor program.

If you are one of the lucky invitees, please take the opportunity to tell UMBC’s leaders about your experiences. Students who complete the survey by May 1, 2009, will be eligible for one of four $100 Amazon.com gift certificates.

Public Transcript Fee Discussion

Tonight, the SGA Senate hosted an open discussion with Yvette Mozie-Ross (Vice Provost for Enrollment Management) and Dr. Steve Robinson (Registrar) about the $8 per transcript fee that students are being charged. This is a discussion that has been going on with administrators and SGA members for some time, but tonight involved both SGA members and about forty other concerned students.

I was very excited to see so many students take the time out of their evening to attend this meeting. Their commentary was both insightful and respectful, and those present demonstrated a willingness to work towards some kind of a compromise that would help alleviate the current burden on the student body. At this time, the sentiment of compromise was not reflected in the responses by Mozie-Ross and Robinson.

Because Credentials, Inc. charges only $2 for their transcript processing, many questions were raised by students about where the additional $6 was going. While no budgetary figures were presented by Mozie-Ross and Robinson, one area where money was described as going toward was the development of digital transcripts in a secure .pdf format, that would expire after a certain amount of time.

The minutes from this meeting will be posted as usual on SGA's announcements blog. I'm interested in hearing any further reactions to the meeting from students who had to leave early or were unable to attend.

Finally, it was stated by Mozie-Ross that when the transcript fee was still in the planning stages, she and Robinson consulted with then-SGA president, Jay Lagorio, along with the president of the Graduate Student Association. She said that a $10 fee was proposed to Jay, and after objections were voiced a "compromise" of $8 per transcript was reached.

I took the liberty of contacting Jay myself, and he said he was initially approached about a low per transcript fee that would be under $5. He raised objections to something that high, but agreed that $1-2 would be reasonable to pay for better transcript services (incidentially, $2/transcript is what Credentials charges). Jay also supported the development of a secure .pdf transcript format because that way, graduating students could get a single transcript and use it again and again, since there is no envelope to unseal and a digital signature would verify that the document had not been altered. Clearly, a .pdf with an "expiration date" runs contrary to this idea.

Hopefully this information will resolve any confusion in the minds of students about the role of last year's SGA administration in this process. Contact information for people involved is as follows:

Jay Lagorio: lagorio1@umbc.edu
Yvette Mozie-Ross: mozie@umbc.edu
Dr. Steve Robinson: robinsos@umbc.edu
Gabe Rettaliata (current Speaker of the SGA Senate): gabriel2@umbc.edu
Myself: michael.c@umbc.edu

Walter Snowheim Update

From Zwybak!

Several of Zwybak's loyal readers sent in pictures of UMBC's Walter Sondheim having fun in the snow - including the awesome students who did it. Jordan, Mariah, Ian, and Ian's pals are welcome to come by the SGA office this week and collect your rewards.

I've added the pictures to the Zwybak gallery, so they should be showing up in "recent pictures" soon. Or, just click the link to go there now.

Walter Snowheim

It looks like one of UMBC's patrons, Walter Sondheim, had some fun in the snow last night. He's been decked out in a crazy new outfit. If anybody reads this before the snow melts and sends me a picture I can put up here ( silversteelwolf@gmail.com ), come up to the SGA office in the Commons and I'll give you a prize.

Disclaimer: the prize is a five-pronged massager. That's two more prongs than your typical massager!

Victory (Tastes Like Chicken)

Despite some of the rough patches we've had with the food services transition, I admit I felt pretty darn good walking into the UC a few minutes ago and seeing the newly opened Chick-fil-a. After signing up for a 10-meal plan, I walked through the Commons to kill time while I waited for the "system to come back" so they could actually activate my meal plan - and saw the new pizza place with delicious-looking food.

I think we continue to make progress on food services, although we are still shackled to the archaic idea of meal zoning. Please continue to make both SGA and Food Services aware of ongoing issues, and remember that Chartwell's can be contacted directly via their feedback form.

Attention: UMBC Downtown Line Riders

As many students who use the Downtown Line to get into Baltimore already know, the service has experienced some upheaval over the past semester. In the past, the line has been operated as a partnership between UMBC and UMB, with a large percentage of the ridership being UMB personnel traveling to and from the 195 park and ride.

This fall, UMB opted to discontinue financial support for the line. Thanks to the combined efforts of UMBC undergraduate and graduate students, the line continues to operate (albeit on a reduced schedule).

A problem that has existed before this trouble started is the limited number of seats on the buses. Rather than allow riders to stand, presumably for safety reasons, the buses frequently leave passengers behind. When combined with the new limited schedule, these abandoned riders must wait at least a full hour for the next bus.

From my perspective, I feel that since UMBC has opted to abosrb the cost of maintaining this service, UMBC undergraduate and graduate students should be given priority when passengers are being seated. We are charged transit fees every semester to pay for this transit line, so it seems especially unfair for us to be left behind.

I'm interested to hear your comments about this issue, especially if you use this or any of the other UMBC Transit bus lines. I've also sent this post directly to UMBC Transit; they can be reached at transit@umbc.edu.

Meal Zoning - An Antiquated Model

Every UMBC student with a meal plan has encountered "meal zoning." That's the little system that prevents you from using your meal at lunchtime if you had breakfast too late. Why does this policy exist? Is there any real reason for it? Why, if a student buys, say, a ten-meal plan, can't they choose when to use them?

The answer to this question is clouded by myths, two of which I would like to address here.

Myth #1: Meal plans are priced assuming that students will not use all of their purchased meals, and the meal zones are designed to facilitate missed meals.

Fact: This is not the case. Meal plans are priced according to how many meals could potentially be used. When you buy a ten meal plan, you are paying for ten meals whether you use them or not.


Myth #2: Meal zoning is specified in the food services contract, and therefore cannot be eliminated.

Fact: The food services contract specifies a list of "minimum requirements" that the contractor must meet. At the very least they must provide meals during the kinds of zoning rules UMBC has always had. There is nothing to say that these rules could not be superseded by a superior system.


I see no reason for UMBC to cling to an outmoded system that most other schools have long since abandoned. Some progress has been made with the so-called "unlimited" meal plan, but why not go all the way and allow students to use meals whenever and wherever is most convenient?

I propose that students be able to use their meals at any time of the day, dining hall or Commons, restricted only by the number of meals they are allotted each week. A student with a ten meal plan could use five meals on Monday, one meal each on Tuesday, Wednesday,and Thursday, and two on Friday.

The infrastructure is already in place; all that would have to be done is to lift the frustrating time restrictions. There is really no strong reason not to - it's time UMBC's food services moved into the modern era.

Post if You Were at Neuroscience

It would have made a lot more sense to do something like this before Neuroscience 2008, but I didn't think of it then. Anyway, leave a comment if you presented or attended this year's Society for Neuroscience conference in D.C. I ran into several UMBC people while I was there on Monday and I'm curious to see how many others were there as well.

Green Space Update

SGA Office of Student Initiatives Staff Member and former SGA Vice President Elani Odeyale has provided an update on Green Space, the winning Prove It proposal.

What's new?

Since early August, Green Space Team Chair, Michelle Eisemann, SGA's Tabassum Majid and Elani have been meeting with Facilities Management. The proposal's Project Managers have invested incomparable talent and a great deal of time into realizing the Green Space vision. Earlier this month, the design was finalized according to construction and timeline requirements and the incorporation of green materials.

What's next?

Over the winter, the construction documents will go through the procurement process, and construction is scheduled for early March, given proper weather conditions. As noted in the proposal, the Green Space Team would like the unveiling ceremony to be a tribute to community collaboration, inviting the campus to participate in planting greenery.

Nobody Knows What's Going On?

Advertising is a critical factor of getting students to come to events and generally just participate in campus life activities. UMBC already provides a number of systems for advertisement, including myUMBC spotlights, the Commons iNet, various bulletin boards around campus. Some things cost money, while others are provided free as services.

In practice, the various aspects of UMBC's advertising system are controlled by numerous departments and even third party companies. The televisions in the Commons are part of the iNet system and controlled by Commonvision. Also under their jurisdiction is the LED sign on the side of the UC. Both of these services can be utilized free of charge by submitting ads via their website, umbc.edu/uc/commonvision. They can also put up banners in various locations around the Commons, like Main Street, and posters on their bulletin boards.

The digital sign in the Engineering building is part of the spotlight system. A spotlight ad can be placed free of charge through myUMBC, and will appear both on this sign and on the home page of UMBC. Remember that it's a good idea to have some kind of image prepared to submit along with your advertisement.

Some free ad space is available in the Retriever Weekly, courtesy of SGA. This space can be used by working with SGA's Department of Communications (contact person: Nikki Ward). Other ad space can be purchased by contacting TRW's advertising manager, Zak Bratcher (phone: 410-455-1261, email: TRW's contact form). Large-scale ads can be placed on the Starlight Media pavillions (outside the UC and between the library and the commons) for a fee.

With so many different places to go, is it at all surprising that things aren't advertised to a greater extent? Would it not be better to have a syngle system where students could submit an ad, select where they want it to be displayed, and pay any applicable fees? At the very least, the inclusion of third party space like Starlight Media creates barriars to effective communication with the student body. While those pavillions are very visible, purchasing the space is prohibatively expensive for most groups. Using them also requires the action of a party that clearly has no vested interested in our campus, as evidenced by their dismal updating and maintainence schedule.

The institution of UMBC should take back spaces like that from third parties and consolidate more confusing places like iNet with something simple, like myUMBC. By making advertising space more accessable and ensuring that the people managing it actually care about helping students get their messages out, UMBC can start a positive cycle where potential activities are both easier to advertise and easier to discover.

Name the Living Mascot

Go to the athletics website right away and vote to name our new, living Chesapeake Bay Retriever mascot. Save the poor fellow from being stuck with the name "Champ."

Vote (preferably for "Grit") here.

Campus Oddities: Engineering Building

I never really used the 24-hour computer lab in Engineering until recently, when my home computer was having some serious issues. As a result, I've been encountering the Handicapped Door of Doom on the ground floor. For some reason, both doors are extremely difficult to open by hand - something that gets me every time. I confidently stride toward the door and pull, expecting it to open like a normal door, only to have it budge about 1/4 of the way.

Anybody else have that experience, or other campus idiosyncrasies you'd like to share?

UMBC: Its Own Worst Enemy, Part 4

I thought I'd hold off on a few of these for a while, lest all 25 subscribers think that this space has become exclusively negative.

Everybody in student life, especially those of us in SGA, want UMBC students to take "ownership" of the campus. We'd love for everybody to have the kind of experiences that David Hoffman frequently describes. Unfortunately it seems that not all parts of the campus support that goal - in some cases even actively suppressing student demonstrations of campus ownership.

One such event happens nearly every year. A few brave artistic students decide to create chalk paintings around a residence hall - their home at UMBC. The next morning, as students are busy taking pictures and wondering about the mysterious artists, an email arrives from a Community Director. The gist of the message is always the same: "Lovely art, but remember that in your community living guide, chalking is prohibited."

Is that the message we should be sending at UMBC? "Lovely expression of campus ownership, but unfortunately we don't allow that here." How can we spend valuable resources begging students to get involved with UMBC, only to turn around and trample them when they do?

UMBC has taken a very proactive approach to campus policy, an approach that says, "we will use policy to prevent problems from occurring." I think we could stand to have a more reactive policy, one that says, "we will use policy to eliminate problems if they do occur." Chalking hateful messages around a resident hall would certainly be a problem - but isn't somebody's chalk art a positive community message? Is it really fair to students to destroy the positive just because there is the possibility of negative?

I would love to see students decorate True Grit before a game, or put a festive Santa hat on Walter Sondheim for the holidays. I also wonder how fast such a demonstration of campus ownership would be removed...

Time Waster: Pandemic 2

I've recently been hooked on another great time-wasting flash game: Pandemic 2. You play as an infectious agent (virus, bacteria, or parasite) and your goal is to infect the world, ultimately eliminating mankind from the face of the earth. At your disposal are resistances, methods of infection, and a colorful palette of symptoms.

I've worked out a decent winning strategy using a parasite in realistic mode, but I'm working on another shot so I can hit the world with parasitic necrosis.

Major points to anybody who can get "Retriever Fever" on the highscore list. If you can do it come by the SGA office and I'll get you a small prize (no cars or cash, sorry).

Digital Signage

I'm not sure exactly how long it's been there, but I recently noticed the new digital sign on the ground floor of the engineering building. I've often thought it would be neat to have an iNet-like system for all of campus, not just the Commons. This looks like a pilot implementation of that idea - exciting!

From what I can tell, the ads are coming from the myUMBC spotlights, so it would seem that if you've placed an ad on Spotlight it will appear on the digital sign as well.