I am a graduate student in the Biological Sciences department here at UMBC and I’m interested in improving my science writing for broader audiences. I think science is awesome and I would love to share it with others. Are the readers of UMBC Underground interested in a weekly column dedicated to describing and discussing recent scientific discoveries and issues? I would attempt to vary the topics across the spectrum of scientific disciplines, even though biology is my strong suit. I would like to give readers a taste of the exciting scientific research being carried out in departments at UMBC, as well as around the world.

-Mike

I have just received information that current SGA president Steve Gilmore and his Vice President Toks Elegbe may be removed from office due to academic ineligibility.

According to Article 5.2 of the UMBC SGA Constitution,

In order to be eligible to seek and hold SGA offices, an individual must be a UMBC undergraduate, have at least a cumulative 2.25 GPA, maintain at least a 2.25 semester GPA while in office, and not be on academic or disciplinary probation. For the offices of President and Vice President, an individual must have at least a cumulative 2.5 GPA, 24 total credits, and 12 credits at UMBC to seek or hold office, and maintain at least a 2.5 semester GPA while in office.

Gilmore has apparently failed to meet these requirements in his fall 2008 semester. The same is true for Executive Vice President Toks Elegbe. Vice President of Student Organizations, Christine Paul, has resigned her position, whether for Academic or other reasons I do not currently know.

Article 5.4.1 of the SGA Constitution states the following:

5.4.1. –Ineligibility
Any officer who ceases to meet the eligibility requirement set forth above shall be automatically and immediately removed from office.

By this, Gilmore and Elegbe are technically no longer serving in their positions. As Christine Paul has also resigned, the office falls to current Speaker of the Senate, Gabe Rettaliata.

5.5. Presidential Succession
In the event of the President’s removal by any method outlined in this Constitution, the holder of the lowest-numbered non-vacant office on the following list shall become President: 1. Vice President; 2. Speaker of the Senate; 3. Speaker of the House of Organizations. In the event that all of the listed offices are vacant, an interim President shall be elected by a majority vote of the House of Organizations, and a special election shall be held within 30 days (excluding summer and winter semesters) to elect a new President. Any officer who becomes President pursuant to this section shall be considered to have resigned from the office he or she held before becoming President.

While some have contested that it would take an official complaint to investigate Gilmore’s eligibility for office, the above quoted section of the constitution makes it clear that at this time, Gilmore and Elegbe are barred from holding office, and Rettaliata is the current acting President of the SGA.

To those who have left office, I wish you good luck in your Spring semester.

Updates to come as I know more.

I find this intriguing and I know a lot of students here might be interested in deafness, learning sign language (ASL), or attending graduate school immersed in a signing environment. Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Hearing students are all welcome in Gallaudet’s Graduate School.

Attend their “Open Hands, Open Eyes, Open Minds … Open House” on Feb. 13, 2009. More information can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=43195274386 as well as http://aaweb.gallaudet.edu/GSPP/Graduate_School_Enrollment_Office/Admissions_Graduate/Open_House.html.

What up, everyone.  So we received this email from a student looking for some advice after a rough first semester.

Well I’m a freshman, and I wasn’t really expecting the GPA I got this past semester. I was devastated by that so I decided to ask you guys that’ve been here for a while. Have any advice for a new game plan? I really want to hit the 4.0 mark. Oh yeah, and what are the quality points for a B, can an A have more than 12 quality points?

-Adv101

Alright, I’ll give my take on this and others can chime in, too.

Although no one wants to start things off with a less than expected first semester, the good thing is you have lots of time to turn things around.  I know lots of people had a hard time getting things going their first semester or two, and really dominated their final years.  One guy I knew had a tough time at first but ended up getting all A’s his last 6 or 7 semesters!  So definitely don’t get discouraged!

I think the next thing to do is figure out what went wrong.  Was it as simple as having too many credits for your first semester?  This can happen, and if so, it should be a pretty easy fix (next semester take a class or two less, and just work your way up to more as your comfortable) but in my experiences, it’s usually a combination of new distractions, little to no reinforcement until grades come out and a very different way of getting good grades.  If this sounds familiar, read on.

One of the first few weekends at school, I remember pulling this stupid prank on a guy in my dorm at the time.  We dressed up in a stupid costume involving shoe boxes, water bottles and lots of packaging tape, then we went downstairs and woke up a guy and his girlfriend at 3 AM.  In retrospect, totally dumb (though still a good memory).  But the thing I remember is realizing, whoa, it’s 3 AM and there’s no one here to tell me what to do.  This is one of the greatest things about college, but it can be easy to let this get out of hand, too.

It takes a little while to figure out what works for you.  I knew some people going through school who could drink 5 days a week and be fine.  And, I knew some people who dedicated hours of time a night to school work just to get by.  It doesn’t matter where you fall on the spectrum.  What matters is that you figure out what works for you and you earn your degree or finish your pre-whatever program or whatever else.

When I was a Freshman and Sophomore, my tactic was to just pretend work didn’t exist until the last possible minute.  This made for a semester filled with cycles.  Some weeks I’d feel free and easy, and some weeks I’d go through hell.  Even though I was to some degree a procrastinator all the way through, I don’t recommend it.  It’s so much easier to just pace yourself throughout the semester.  You’ll more than likely dig yourself into a hole at some point, but better to do it with a few weeks or a month left of the semester than 2 months or more.

Another thing I found myself doing as I got older was really blocking out my time.  I’d block out time for classes, time for work, time for eating (something I have a habit of skipping when I feel busy or stressed), time for certain papers and reading and taking walks and seeing friends and everything.  No doubt, this doesn’t lead to the most care-free feeling lifestyle, but at least you have on paper the things you have to get done, the things you want to get done, and you have set aside tentative time to do them.  The structure was helpful.

I know I try to hit this home in almost all of my posts, but things really looked up for me when I got involved in things on campus.  I thought that I’d feel most strapped for time when I dedicated x hours to things, but it really made me focus more when I had free time.  I’ve heard this to be true for a lot of people over the years, so if you’re a Freshman and aren’t doing anything besides going to class, give this a try - you may be surprised by the results.  (Not to mention all the other reasons this will help you in the long run)

Also: Talk to your professors.  If you’re having trouble, talk about that.  If you’re doing pretty well, still talk to them.  They have interesting things to say, and believe it or not, you may have that professor again in the next couple of years.  And, beyond that, you may want a good relationship with that person once you get out of school.

Also: Just this morning I was thinking about this: I wish that I had bought more books and written in them.  When I went through school, I was definitely poor (not an unusual story, I know) and as a result didn’t always buy the books I needed.  Sometimes I’d go to the bookstore and flip through the chapters before class, or look up the material online, or borrow with someone else (this sounds good in theory, but can be a real hassle - I don’t really recommend).  Having the books you need prepares you to be successful, and contribute to class though.  The value you obtain by having these grades, internships and relationships with professors really outweighs the money you save in the end by drifting through a class.  I did this far too often and regret it looking back.  And, if it helps you learn the material, write in the book.  Again, the value you’ll have by really learning the stuff will far outweigh the difference you will get back because it’s been written in - if there is even a difference.

I hope some of these things are helpful to anyone out there struggling.  I’d be more than happy to answer questions anyone has, I encourage others to post their suggestions for succeeding in school, and remind all students that there are a lot of resources at UMBC to help anyone who needs it.  Seriously, there are.  Email me if you need help and I’ll try to point you in the right direction.  Take care everyone.

It’s already been two weeks since the last final was given, but grades have not been posted.

To veteran students at UMBC, this does not come as a surprise, as  last year fall grades to appeared on January 4th.   Of course, finals ended somewhat later last year.   However, the consistently long periods of time which this process takes seems odd.  Every other college, including ones whose exams ended after ours, already has the grades posted.

When searching through the page on the Office of the Registrar, I was unable to find the procedure for how this takes place.  However, the following indicated to me that professors probably turn in their grades to the registrar, where a centralized system proceeds to upload them to the page where students can see them.  In the undergraduate catalog, it says, “An instructor may change a grade already submitted to the registrar on written certification and approval by the department chairperson and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education.”  Their office did not pick up when I called them and no answering machine service was available.  If anyone knows definitively, please let me know!

If this is the case, it is not surprising that grades take such a ludicrously long time.  My mom teaches at another college, and they use a much more efficient system, where the professor posts their own calculated grades on the Student Information System, the school’s database that only professors have access to.  They then print out the grades and give them to the Dean for records, but no centralized service ever touches them.   They are required to have the grades posted within 48 hours of the final.   This is a far cry from the 2 weeks it has already taken.

Timely grades are necessary not only for convenience but to make good decisions about the coming semesters.  For instance, if a student were to have been borderline on failing, the late date for grade posting would make it almost impossible for them to make the necessary arrangements to enroll in a winter term class or to see an adviser.

While it could be argued that it is the student’s responsibility to find out his/her own grade in this case, in large lecture classes, the late posting date means that the professors will be receiving large volumes of emails from worried students.  An efficient timeline could also ease this burden on professors who wish to enjoy their own breaks.

What do you guys think?  Is two weeks too long or should we just be patient/try to contact the professor on our own?  Is this system of greater benefit or detriment to professors and students? Why is there such a large time discrepancy between our school and even larger ones like College Park where it would seem the volume would be more of an issue?

During the first week of January, the Career Services Center will be launching a Zoomerang Survey for all UMBC students that were registered in classes during the Fall 2008 semester.

The purpose of this survey is to collect Federal hiring data (Job Location and Development Program) for part-time jobs (both on and off campus) that were held by UMBC students during the semester.

Please participate in the survey.  Each student that completes the survey will automatically be entered in a drawing to win an Ipod Shuffle.

The University Bookstore now provides ISBN numbers for textbook selections for Winter09 and Spring09 courses.  Check out http://bookstore.umbc.edu/SelectTermDept.aspx?trm to see the new listings.  This development allows UMBC students to now have access to the unique book identifier so that they can shop for books, new and used, online and with other retail distributors.  This will have a positive impact on the affordability of higher education via textbooks as students can shop at competitive providers to the campus bookstore.

Please contact me should you have further questions (joshmichael@umbc.edu  or 410-294-8581).

-Josh Michael

Hey guys, I just want to remind you to take a moment from all the madness of finals to take care of selling your books from this semester and buying some for next semester.

Now is a great time to start thinking about books, primarily because a lot of people are not going to think about them at all over the break!  If you’re not happy with the price the bookstore is offering to buy back, you may want to explore myUMBC’s new book swap interface, as well as venues we’ve previously discussed.

It’s not too early to get your books for next semester, either!  You can talk to friends who have taken some of the same courses and see what texts are required (or check out the small list submitted by readers), email the professors (while they’re actively focused on their email from students), and check previous course webpages to see what texts have been used, and see if you can snag them for a deal now, instead of joining the mad rush in 2009!

Just be sure not to trash your books while you’re slowly going insane studying for finals.  It ruins the resell value!

From December 10-16, the SGA will be hosting a series of fun, stress-free events all through the commons! Be sure to come for arts and crafts, giveaways, and most importantly a nice break from studying

Daily Events:

PUZZLES, GAMES, & SNACKS
Stu Orgs Space (2nd floor commons)
9am-4pm
Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues

CRAFT TABLE
Main St.
11am-4pm
Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon

FOURSQUARE
Gameroom
10-4pm
Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues

BREAKFAST SNACK
Academic Row
9:30-10:30am
Thurs, Fri, Mon

LUNCH & LIVE MUSIC
Commons Sports Zone
12-1pm
Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon

LATE NIGHT STUDY SNACKS
Library Atrium
11:30PM-12:30AM
Wed, Thurs, Sun

There will also be giveaways all throughout the Commons all week! Hope to see you all there!

This is the time of year you’ve been going to see your adviser for spring registration - and maybe you’ve been wondering, what am I doing in this major? Maybe it’s time to consider a different major offered on campus: Interdisciplinary Studies!

INDS is the kind of major that you design yourself. Maybe it’s because we don’t offer your specific program here (Criminal Justice for example), or maybe you would like to utilize your pre-med courses in a major and integrate it with global health issues. You can’t design something based on courses we don’t have, like architecture. But you can come up with something really creative that fits your goals and interests.

Criteria: There’s a degree proposal that is submitted when you are between 60 and 90 credits. You can declare INDS as your major before 60 credits, but after 90, you should maybe look at something else since you’re so close to graduating. At the time you submit, you must have at least a 2.5 GPA and keep that during the rest of your time at UMBC. And you’ve got to have some kind of themed idea about your degree.

You get help on writing the degree proposal, and it becomes official when it’s submitted to and passed by the INDS faculty committee. And in addition to putting this degree proposal together, you also do a Capstone Project in your last semester before graduation. Those are the two big things that separate us from other majors.

And when it gets passed, chances are you’ll be the only person walking around campus with THAT degree. It’s so individual to fit your goals that no 2 INDS degrees are alike.

If you think you might be interested in the INDS degree, check out the website at http://www.umbc.edu/inds and if you’d like to meet with an adviser to explore your potential path in INDS, email inds_info@umbc.edu.

And if you’re an INDS major, we’d love to see your comments posted here! All feedback, positive or negative, is good for us to learn from.

– INDS