2010-2011 Exec Initiatives

Academic Affairs

• Fall Break: Looking into what sort of action would need to be taken in order to implement a break during fall semesters similar to the week-long spring break during spring semesters.
• Student Academic Network (SAN): Established an online network through myUMBC where students can talk and ask one another questions related to academics or student life. We have worked with Collier Jones and others from marketing and the Office of Undergraduate Education to facilitate this network’s success. The SAN can be accessed at: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/academicnetwork/.
• Academic Integrity: Working with the Office of Undergraduate Education to encourage all professors to distribute their syllabi online before classes start. Additionally, we are making initial strides towards including an explicit statement of instructor responsibility to be put in all syllabi. Several of our staff are also participating in an SGA-wide discussion of academic integrity, working with the Office of the Executive Vice President as well as the Department of Student Advocates and the Supreme Court.
• SCEQ Committee: We are represented, along with the Executive Vice President, on the university’s ad hoc SCEQ (the student surveys about professors at the ends of semesters) evaluation committee, which is in place to review the effectiveness of this tool and possibly develop something that will provide a better picture of the teaching effectiveness of a professor. This committee may also work with the implementation of this tool across the university.
• Add/Drop Date: Reviewed the implementation of the change in drop date from 20 days to 10 days, which began in fall 2010. It was found that of the 900+ class roster spots that were additionally dropped in fall 2010 as compared to fall 2009, more than 800 class roster spots were added within the same add date (between days 0 and 10 of the semester). Additionally, there was no change in the overall pass/fail rate and GPA of the UMBC student body. As a result, the change in drop date was successful in allowing for students to take up more classes which were dropped during the schedule adjustment period, an opportunity which would have otherwise been closed off after the add date in previous semesters.
• Undecided Council of Majors: OAA is working closely with the Office of Academic Advising and the Senate to establish a support system for the ‘Undecided’ majors at UMBC to provide students who have yet to declare or are considering changing majors with avenues to become educated in what opportunities are afforded through other majors and academic career plans.
• PE Credit: Worked with the SGA Department of Health & Wellness to make sure that PE classes are achieving their goal of promoting lasting fitness and health to UMBC undergraduates. This includes making sure instructors do not implement a sign-in/sign-out system of attendance for classes, which can discourage students from actually conducting fitness during class time. Use of end-of-the-year instructor reviews is now being implemented as well.
• Minor Advisor: Working with the Office of Academic Advising to see what options are available to students who decided to minor in a certain subject area but do not know what classes to take.
• Degree Audit and “What If” Degree Audit: Worked with project directors from the Provost’s Office and the Office of Academic and Pre-Professional Advising to review and publicize the new Degree Audit and “What If” Degree Audit tools. Students can now use the Degree Audit to see what graduation requirements they have and have yet to complete. Using the “What If” Degree Audit tool, students can see what classes and requirements are needed if they want to change majors, add majors or minors, or change degree goals.
• Academic Student Organizations: Worked together with SGA’s Office of Student Organizations Support to host the annual Din Din & Blah Blah: Dinner and Discussion for Academic Student Organizations, which was a dinner and discussion for leaders of on-campus academic student organizations to promote interaction and networking.
• Transcript Fee: Worked with the Office of the Registrar and Yvette Mozie-Ross to review the costs of obtaining a transcript through the Registrar’s Office. Costs are unable to be changed; however, the discount given to students purchasing 8 or more transcripts in bulk will soon be much easier to receive. Additionally, OAA is helping to review future moves to ordering and distributing official transcripts online via e-mail, which will likely decrease overall costs.

Community and Governmental Affairs

• Budget Lobbying: Continuing to lobby in support of Governor Martin O'Malley's proposed FY2012 Operating Budget. After successfully completing a lobbying trip to Annapolis and talking to several legislators about higher education OGCA will continue to lobby for students and make our voices heard in the state house.

• Community Relations: Working to foster continued relations with the communities adjacent to campus through focus groups, neighborhood discussions and collaborative efforts with other local agencies.
  
• Consultation and Reference: Serving as a channel for students concerned about how government action effects their education to find resources and answers by serving as consult on various bills impacting student organizations.

• Red Card Program: Expanding the Red Card Program to offer students discounts at local businesses. A full list of businesses and discounts is soon to come.

Environmental Affairs

• EcoFest (collaborating with SEA): This annual event will feature local producers and organizations offering sustainable options that mesh with our daily lives, promote local producers, and raise awareness for sustainability.
• 
  Recyclemania (working with facilities management and Sustainability Interns): Promote and raise awareness concerning waste reduction practices around campus. This is a national 10-week competition that keeps track of trash and recyclables.

• Arbor Day (working with Landscape and Stewardship committee and Facilities Management): This is an event to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. Raise awareness to the importance of trees.

• Co-Op: This is still in the exploratory stages. In the process of talking with members of UMD's co-op. This program would work with prepared foods, organic and local, with the aid of student volunteers.

• Farmers Market: Raise awareness and promote local producers. Encourage healthier eating for students and create bonds with local producers.

• Zero waste event: Hold an event that is completely zero waste. Promote sustainability in the student body. Raise awareness about the harmful effects of water bottles. Implement water refilling stations.
  

Health and Wellness

• Wellness Class: Laying the groundwork for a new type of wellness classes to be offered to students. We feel that many students, particularly freshman, are unaware of the effects that their choices have on their bodies. Students stay up late, eat junk food, and rely heavily on caffeine, without fully understanding the harm they are doing. Current health education programs on campus simply say “sleep eight hours a night” or “do not eat junk food” but do not offer viable alternatives or fully explain the effects. The new wellness classes would integrate scientific health information, relevant health advice, and include information on holistic and alternative techniques for making the most out of students’ college years. H & W strongly believes that lifelong health habits are learned now, and we should be doing more to teach UMBC students how to get healthy and stay healthy.
  Currently, we are preparing for a future meeting with administrators. Members of our staff are researching national health data, designing surveys to gauge student knowledge and interests, and looking at what types of wellness services are currently being offered at other universities. We are also working on building contacts with partners in the community to coordinate on building these courses, the most prominent of with is Tai Sophia, a local wellness institute. Staff members are also conducting cost-benefit analysis of implementing these classes, looking at things like the cost of adding the courses to the curriculum as well as the larger costs and benefits of health behaviors.
  This is a very long-term project. It is unlikely that the wellness courses will become a part of the curriculum for some time, but our work this semester will hopefully lay the groundwork for progress in future semesters.
• Wellness Event: We are working to organize a wellness-focused event on April 19^th.
• Wellness Vision: Meeting with Administrators to develop a vision for wellness on campus.

Service, Volunteerism, and Awareness

• Patterson High Prom: Fundraising for four Bhutanese refugees at Patterson High to attend their graduation and prom this spring. We are holding multiple bake sales with Pre-Med and the Bengali Club, as well as other student organizations to raise money. We are recruiting students to help us staff concessions at sports games, as well as hold a dine-in night at a local restaurant.
  
• Supporting UMBC's Invisible Children: We are helping IC advertise their events, the Tony Screening and Resolve Tour, this semester by helping design promotional material and spreading the news to the student body. We are helping IC with their bake sales and various other fundraising events, including basket-making. We are connecting IC to other student organizations as well.
  
• Homeless Awareness Event: We are currently choosing a shelter to join forces with. After choosing the site, we will help this organization by setting up a student volunteer program through The Shriver Center, fundraising, and raising awareness of homeless in Baltimore in general. The major event is planned for late April and will include a speaker from the shelter, musical guests, student performances, and an explanation of what it truly means to be homeless in Baltimore.

Student Advocates

• One-on-ones: Promote our student advocates as resources for everyone on campus to build connections, brainstorm initiatives, and receive one-on-one peer guidance with issues that may be happening in any aspect of student life.
• Advocate and Actions: Facilitate discussion and goal setting at our upcoming weekly Advocate and Action series. We will then help coordinate committees to work on these goals that involve interested community members and student advocates.

Student Organizations Support

• Student Organizations Dinners: A series of catered networking sessions where student organization leaders from various categories meet leaders of similar student organizations, campus staff and administrators that serve as resources or have relevant expertise, and members of the SGA dedicated to supporting and working with them.  It’s also an opportunity to advertise and or be exposed to opportunities for co-sponsorships and resource sharing.
• Student Organizations Network (SON): A new approach to organization outreach, members of the SOS routinely visit student organizations to see what the SGA can do, what questions student organization members may have that the SGA may be able to help with or connect students to the proper resource(s).
• Starting a Student Organization Video: A brief video highlighting the process of starting a student organization at UMBC.
• myUMBC SOS Page: An internet-based resource where student organization leaders can access documents related to the formation, registration, maintenance, financing and support of their student organizations.  Other resources like Black & Gold Awards and Finance Board have been linked in order to build a 1-stop shop for student organization questions.  It is also used as a contact tool complementing the stuorgs and osl-info listprocs.
• Student Organization Recognition: The bulk of SOS work, we receive student organization applications, and walk the applicants through the process acquiring an advisor, generating a constitution and completing registration.
• Student Organizations Policy: We are working with members of the steering committee to draft a guiding document for the Student Organizations Committee and a document of understanding between OSL and the SGA about the written changes in the governance of student organizations.
• Funding Workshop: Members of SOS developed an in-depth, interactive workshop for student organizations to practice navigating the SGA financing process.  From requesting money to spending and reimbursements, the entire process is covered from beginning to end, and is meant to be a voluntary supplement to the Treasurer Training program.  It is open to all students and can be requested by e-mail to happen during any student organization meeting or by appointment in the Student Involvement Center.  
• SGA Finance Transparency: We established Finance Board group on myUMBC that allows the Finance Board to make allocation requests and decisions public for all students to see and discuss in addition to view Finance Boar updates and initiatives.  This group is subscribed by the Student Organizations Support (SOS) myUMBC group that also subscribes to other student organization related groups and webpages.  The SOS group posts all documents and tutorials available for student organizations to start, maintain and finance a student organization.  It also centralizes communication between key Student Organization personnel resources from the Office of Student Life and Event Planning and Conference Services.
• Restricted vs. Funded Status: We are reviewing all standing constitutions to create an up-to-date list of student organizations in the “Funded Status” and “Restricted Funding Status” categories for use by the all parties involved in SGA’s financing student organizations.
• Student Organizations Info Centralization: We are researching ways that all information about student organizations can be centralized into a single source for use by SGA, OSL, EPCS, the Business Center and the student body.  This will reduce confusion, redundant data entry and information asymmetry while increasing communication and transparency between departments and organizations.
• Free Hour: This unit is researching the impact of free hour discontinuation on student organization, especially on the commuter student involvement in organized campus life.
• Sports Club Recognition and Financing: The Associate Vice-President for Student Organizations has been working with the Sports Club Council, the Sports Club Coordinator, members of the Athletics Department and SGA staff to identify current grievances with the recognition and financial support of sports clubs; and then identifying potential solutions to these problems.
• Catering: We worked with the Finance Board, UMBC’s Department of Finance & Administration and a university attorney to develop a system to allow student organizations to work with caterers and restaurants outside of the approved caterers list.

Thank you to the wonderful and amazing SGA officers who helped make this year such a success!:

SGA Senate Meeting- March 14^th

This week’s senate meeting was very productive! With much debate and discussion, various topics were brought to the attention of the Senate this week. The first topic that was discussed was the upcoming budgets for SGA, SEB, and The Retriever Weekly. After finishing a run-through of the budget, President Yasmin Karimian introduced the alterations that are to be made for the upcoming year. The next senate meeting will involve all three organizations coming together to discuss and approve the revised budgets.

Moving onto the next topic, the Senate then discussed and revised legislation for the Retriever Learning Center. For those of you who may not know, the RLC will be a new 24/7 study area in the library for UMBC students to utilize throughout the year. With SGA supporting the RLC, student feedback will be considered while making the decision as to how the RLC will be furnished once it is up and running for some time. The Senate will be voting on exactly how SGA will be supporting the RLC monetarily by the next senate meeting.

Before the meeting came to a close, the senators discussed some of their current initiatives. The UMBC application was discussed, due to one of the senator’s initiative to alter the Common Application’s supplement. Another announcement was that the Senate is currently working to keep some of the Commons dining facilities open for more hours during the week, as well as specific places holding hours during the weekend. As for last week’s outreach hour discussion, there was a significant amount of positive responses. The proposed issues with registration seem to be dwindling and opinions on advising seem to be more positive. This week’s outreach hour discussion will be questions about Stress Free Zone. For one, do you know what Stress Free Zone is? If so, what plans would you like to see in action during Stress Free Zone? Come out and speak to the senators about your recommendations for this SGA event!

SGA Senate Meeting

March 7, 2011

This week’s meeting started off with an introduction to a new member of the SGA Senate, Chatura Nagaradona. Chatura’s position as a senate member was confirmed officially at today’s meeting. Following the introduction of Chatura, the Senate members voted for an increase allocation in the Student Organizations Fund. This will allow the Finance Board to maintain their position of providing funds for multiple Student Organizations’ events.

The next topic of discussion during this meeting was the funding by SGA for the Retriever Learning Center. For those of you who are not aware of what exactly this is, the Retriever Learning Center will be a new 24/7 study area in the library for UMBC students to utilize throughout the year. The Senate is currently working towards deciding the commitment SGA will make to support the Retriever Learning Center. Following the RLC discussion, an introduction and confirmation was made for the new Director and Assistant Director of Department of Service, Voluntarism and Awareness. Yasmin and Liz are currently working on an assortment of projects through this organization. They have many ideas and plans for the remainder of the semester.

Next, the Senate discussed this past week’s outreach hour topic. The topic of this past week was the idea of the removal of free hour. After much feedback from a variety of UMBC students, there was a general consensus that students opposed the idea of eliminating free hour. Students stated that free hour was the time for their organizations to meet collectively, for them to eat their lunch, and to meet up with friends. Commuters find that free hour is beneficial to their schedule, in order to get a break while being on campus all day. The next outreach hour, members of SGA plan to discuss registration and advising with students. Do you have any ideas on how to improve advising? Do you have any specific questions concerning registration?  Come out and talk with members of SGA during outreach hours to get your answers! Stay tuned for updates from next week’s senate meeting!

December 6, 2010

PARKING

At this evening’s Senate meeting, Chief Mark Sparks (Chief of UMBC Police) and Terry Cook (Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance) came to discuss parking with the Senate. 

Some points Sparks and Cook said were:

• There are about 500 spots daily vacant (according to a study on 3 different days in October 2010 between the hours of 11-1). He said that there are usually a lot of empty spots in lots 23 and 25. 

• Goal: Have uniform and easily identifiable parking signs across campus. 

- Next year: They are going to build a new lot between lots 1 and 2. 

- They are trying to find cost-effective ways to please as many people as possible. 

Parking Map:

http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/pdf/2010Map_Parking.pdf

^These are PURELY the facts that Sparks and Cook stated, In no way, do these points reflect the ideas of the SGA or the SGA Senate. 

Did you know that the Wave ‘n ride also exists?

Check out the following site for information about it:  

   http://www.umbc.edu/transit/Wave.html

Some Other Topics

1. Everyone is working hard on their initiatives.
2. Did you know that a close to a thousand students are currently Undeclared and that this proportion is actually larger than any other proportion? One of the Senators is thinking about creating a Undecided Major Organization.
3. Next semester, hopefully if everything goes well: There will be a swipe access, 24/7 arts lab for arts majors in the Fine Arts Building. There will be a two to three week trial period. 
4. Thinking about creating a blog on myumbc where students who are interested in an initiative can post their initiative on the blog. Other students who are interested in those initiatives can tag them selves in those posts so they can work with the students on these aspects. There will also be a counselor to help these students work on their initiative(s). 

We need your input! 

1. If anyone has ideas or feedback regarding parking or any  of the other topics addressed above,  please state your comments below. 

2. Some other questions for you (please answer honestly): What do you think about and know about SGA? 

November 29, 2010

Senate had a very productive meeting today. Below are some of the topics that were discussed at the Senate meeting this evening. 

1. 

Remember that list of issues I told you the Senate will be working to improve? Well they have. Here is a gist of some of the plans discussed at this evening’s meeting:

The Senate prepared for a meeting with Cheif Sparks (The Chief Police) and Terry Cook (Associate Vice President for Administrative Services)

who will provide the Senate with updates regarding parking. They also discussed how to find out more information regarding parking and how to get more student input regarding parking.  After learning and finding out more students’ thoughts regarding parking, the Senate plans to use those issues in order to attempt to improve parking. The issue of  the lack of visitor spots was also presented by residents. 

Senate plans to get student input regarding what will keep them on campus and then use that input to make the commons more lively on weekends.

Senate plans to get more sanitary napkins in bathrooms.

Senate plans to get more furniture for the Retriever Learning Center (the 24/7 portion of the library.) After getting an estimate they will discuss the issue with Finance Board.

Is in correspondence with other organizations such as Black and Gold Council and Office of Student Life for how to increase and improve UMBCSpirit. Some ideas: a rock for organizations to express their spirit, statues with dogs, jackets, school drink, and a wall to spray paint on. 

2.

Naimoi from Student Organization Support gave an update on the works of the Student Support Organization Support Staff:

The SOS is currently:

• Working on creating  club tutorials (mini youtube videos which outlines basic steps describing to start events and clubs
• Creating constitutions for new clubs
• Are in contact with presidents of clubs to see if they need assistance
• Are planning on doing for dinners for representatives of different clubs
• Creating a Wall of Fame
• Creating a template for clubs wishing to get money
• Creating a Catering Policy

and MORE!

GOOD WORK SENATE! 

If you have any ideas, questions, concerns, or comments regarding any of the above issues or other aspects of community (ex. parking, school spirit, library furniture, school safety, sanitariness..etc.), feel free to comment below.

See you next week.

Stay tuned for more information regarding strives made to improve our campus.....

, Anisha Khandelwal

Monday, October 25, 2010

5:30 pm - 8 pm

            The meeting began with the senators discussing ideas for how to better improve the UMBC undergraduate experience. The senators created a list of 17 ideas. Each senate member then chose a flaw of UMBC they wanted to improve, pursue, and take initiative on. 8 flaws were chosen to be pursued, which include: lack of school spirit and social events, lack of liveliness of the Commons on weekends (a.k.a. “Death of the Commons”), the purell dispensers in the RAC are empty, there are not enough parking lots and the price of parking tickets is too high, meal plans should be improved, perhaps there should be rollover meal plans from week to week, inadequate security, more shuttle transportation to Baltimore/BWI, and there should be free printing in the library. Over the next few weeks, the senators will further investigate these flaws and will ponder about solutions to these flaws.

            After that, Samy Rabb, FYA of Student Organization Support Staff (SOS) told the senators about this year’s SOS. To find out more information about SOS and/or to find out EXACTLY what Sammy discussed, check out the followings sheets he handed out, attached below.

            After Samy left, one of the Senate members presented a proposal to revise the Undergraduate Academic Conduct Policy, representing Academic Conduct Committee (ACC). The Senate then discussed their views of the proposal and the proposed academic conduct policies, and came up with questions to ask the faculty advisor of the ACC when she visits the Senate next Monday.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog to find out about the conversation with the ACC advisor, what the Senate members discovered about their initial research regarding the flaws of UMBC they wish to improve, and more!

Or even better, come to a senate meeting! They are on Mondays at 5:30 pm in Commons 318.  

                Take Care,

              Anisha Khandelwal

 p.s.

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