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.