UMBC SGA

Hello loyal readers,

In an effort to consolidate resources, we have moved our blog to our new myUMBC group page.  Please continue to check us out there.  Thanks for reading!

In partnership with SGA’s Department of Environmental Affairs, UMBC is looking for four Sustainability Interns for the 2010-11 school year.  The positions are paid and require an approximate 15 hours a week.

Click the picture above to be taken to the application, or contact Nathan Rehr (nathanr2@umbc.edu) for more information.  Take this opportunity to make a last change at UMBC!

Last night’s SGA Finance Board meeting was definitely one for the records. It was interesting to say the least.

To begin the night, the nominations for “Best Finance Board Representative” were made and will be presented at SGA Awards Ceremony on May 6 at 7:00pm. Following that, Friday during free hour is the SGA Inauguration for everyone to meet their newly elected SGA officers! More information about that will coming soon!

The Finance Board handled their selves extremely well in dealing with issues that had yet to rise throughout the semester before. For example, using personal knowledge on certain proposals in order to make the best decision. However, the battle with the Food Policy in regards to organizations basing events solely off of food came about yet again. Keep in mind that the newly proposed Food Policy is still on a trial implementation and is still under construction when making these decisions. The Finance Board is trying their best to accommodate organizations with their requests yet at the same time trying to have the UMBC community benefit from such factors. Is there really any educational or overall campus benefit for events solely based on food? This is your money being used, through the fees you paid, to fund these various organizations’ events. So let us know where you would like to see your money being used! Voice your opinions and suggestions! You can do so on Tuesdays at 5:30pm in Commons 318.

Last night’s Senate meeting began with going over the revisions in the Bylaws that dealt with SGA’s Judicial Restructuring; these revisions will be finalized next meeting before the Black and Gold awards.

The Senator’s then discussed the topic of Monday’s Commons hours: the 2010 Student Election. Overall the elections went well (2^nd largest voter turnout with 2,368 votes) but there were still areas for improvement. Some students thought that there was more a sense of pressure to vote rather than to understand the candidates and what they stood for/ planned to do. In addition there wasn’t much advertising until right before the voting time period, lack of coverage in the Retriever Weekly, and no debates between the candidates to address major issues. 

How was your experience with the election? What did you think went well and what things do you think needed improvement?

Also, next week common hours will be addressing questions about financial aid next year with the tuition increase. And be sure to stop by for the Smoking Policy Forum which will be on Friday 4/30 anytime between 10am-2pm in the Sports Zone!

Hey everyone!

This past Tuesday at the Finance board meeting, much was discussed and proposed for the future of the SGA.

To begin the meeting, the Finance Board approved the budgets for The Student Events Board, The Weekly Retriever, as well as the Student Government Association. Congratulations guys :)

Later in the meeting, there was a discussion of the budget for the Student Government Association in regards to certain details that were added and tweaked a bit. New computers/ laptops for the office are a possibilities to aid in certain events and processes for the future. For example, they could easily be used for treasurer training, next elections (advertisement and making the ability to vote portable), and the secretaries of the offices could use them as well.

Also, there is a strong possibility of a new T-Shirt fund being introduced to the student organization population. Not all of the details have been worked out but there was much discussion for a certain amount of monies to be allocated to the student organizations to provide T-Shirts to the student organizations to help promote their organization and to show their pride in their organization.

Much is still being discussed for the future of the SGA so be on the lookout for BIG things to come for the future!

Also, congratulations to the new elects! Can’t wait to see what you’re made of this coming fall!!!

…the winners of the 2010 SGA Election are…

President & Executive Vice President: Yasmin Karimian   & Richard Blissett

Vice President for Student Organizations: William Joyner

Treasurer: Kaylesh Ramu

Senate: Toby Le, Gift Jayakar, Vikran Bambawale, Dylan Cook, Damani Lewis, Benjamin Smith, Jasmine Batchelor, Matthew McNey, Chidiebele Agha, Sumit Bose, and Alex Gaines

Finance Board: Jessica Ji, Rosy Chirayath, Sekinah Hassan, Morgan Russo, and Tehmeena Hassan

Referendums A, B, C, and D were all passed.

For complete election results, check out Co-Create UMBC. 

In recent weeks, a post to UMBCUnderground has received unparalleled amounts of attention through myUMBC.  The conversation caught the eye of SGA’s Office of Academic Affairs.  Realizing the implications of the situation, OAA has begun to take the appropriate steps to address it. 

For those who are not aware the issue stemmed from the use of Turnitin.com by a professor, as well as her methods of judging academic integrity.  Two main questions have been raised:

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As many of you are already aware Midnight Monday evening marked the end of the 427th Session of the Maryland General Assembly. Out of a year marked by recession and budget cuts there is cause for optimism as we look back on the legislative season. As it stands today the budget passed clears the way for the Board of Regents to maintain the quality education students deserve with only a modest 3 percent in-state undergraduate tuition increase. In addition, all proposed funds for the next step of the Performing Arts and Humanities Building have been passed and work is set to be under way on the project. I wish to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped protect funds for UMBC and Higher Education in Maryland through efforts such as the letter drive, lobbying in Annapolis and educating students on the issues of the year. This was a student victory in the end.

SGA would like to congratulate all of the ProveIt! finalists and thank them for their hard work and dedication to improving UMBC. Even though there is only one ProveIt! winner, we are committed to providing every submitted proposal with as many resources and contacts as possible to make sure that it happens!

2009-2010 ProveIt! Results

WINNER: Biodiesel Production Facility — 25.8% of the vote
Community Garden — 19.3% of the vote
Outdoor Basketball Court — 17.1% of the vote
Outdoor Fitness Center — 15.1% of the vote
Revamping Fine Arts 306 — 12.2% of the vote
Undergraduate Research Experience — 10.4% of the vote

Check out the ProveIt! website to find out about all the ideas.

Hey Everyone!

The SGA Finance Board is still hard at work in achieving a more consistent ruling of funding for food.  Here’s an update on a possible Food Policy that the Finance is looking to implement for the future of such decisions.

The newly proposed Food Policy by SGA Treasurer James McCauley, states that the Finance Board:

• Will make cuts to all other non-food expenses (where a food expense is anything to be consumed or whose sole purpose is for use in consuming food) and based on the percentage agreed at the beginning of the year, the maximum amount of food will be set.
• Cuts will only be made off of the food due to attendance considerations.
• Value judgments will be decided by the percentage established in the beginning of the year.

In regards to the affects of this proposed new policy, the possible pros and cons are as follows:

Pros:

• Consistency
• Gives incentive organizations to add value to their events that are non-food related to receive food, therefore it shifts the focus of the event into a more meaningful light
• Equity between organizations
• The percentages of the allowance of food will scale parallel to the size of the event

Cons:

• Events that request advertising for solely food based events will still get some funding
• Students may try to get around the new policy by increasing requests for other aspects of funding to compensate for the lack of funding for food
• Students may only NEED a certain amount for food but may in turn have the ability to request a larger amount of unnecessary food

Please keep in mind that this is simply a proposal so nothing is intact or set in stone.  The Finance Board still has much to discuss and critique in regards to the proposal but here is a step towards the new policy.

Have any questions, suggestions, or critiques to the new proposal? Simply stop by the SGA Finance Board Meeting on Tuesdays at 5:30pm and bring forth your ideas!