The Board of Regents will meet in a special session on Thursday, April 23 at 11am at Towson University to vote on tuition and mandatory fee rates for the 2009-2010 academic year. The Board will consider a tuition freeze for in-state, undergraduate students. Out-of-state tuition increases for undergraduate students does not exceed 4%, and for graduate students does not exceed 7%. The Governor is set to hold a press conference to announce the Board’s decision immediately after. If the Board chooses to approve the tuition freeze, in-state, undergraduate students will not have seen an increase in tuition in five years.

The Chancellor has recommended, specifically, the tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates. The Governor in his original proposed budget set aside $16 million to fund the lost revenue from the tuition freeze. The legislature cut $5.9 from the base budget and a one-time fund balance cut of $9 million. Additionally, the $16 million now is funded through the federal stimulus dollars, which will run dry after two years.

I support the proposed tuition freeze, because I believe that the provided budget serves the system well in maintaining quality and expanding access for in-state undergraduates. While the subsequent cuts from the legislature will be felt, Maryland sits better than all other states during this diffucult time.

Members of the USM Student Council echoed its previous concerns of an “unfunded” tuition freeze, of which this is partially unfunded. Members explained that they were concerned that politics was taking control of tuition. Further, they expressed that policy leaders must engage in long-term planning to prevent major tuition increases in out years. They explained that tuition predictability was just as important as affordability. The USMSC has asked to address the Board of Regents at the meeting.

Even with the lost tuition revenues from the in-state, undergraduate tuition freeze, the operating budget fares better in the USM than any other place in the United States. Despite the proposed budget cuts, USM saw an increase in state support.

What are your thoughts on a tuition freeze?

The unofficial class scheduler that many students have enjoyed in the past is up on www.bookscrooge.com for the fall 2009 semester. It is a great help in helping students plan out their schedule. In addition, a box to enter your email is up on the scheduler page. The site owner told me that if you decide to provide your email, you will be notified when the books for the fall 09 semester can be purchased. Bookscrooge gives students the ISBN for their books and helps them compare prices with online retailers saving them money.

The facebook group is here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55572695970

Funding for USM institutions is at risk! The House Appropriations Committee voted to decrease funding by $20.3 million last week. Take 2 minutes to let your elected representatives know how important it is to support higher education (if you are an out-of-state student, feel free to use your campus address).

Just letting everyone know, my father currently runs a couple of auto businesses maybe 5 miles from UMBC.  Since i started going to UMBC in Fall ‘08, I have been trying to convince my father to start giving UMBC students a discount.  It took a little bit of time but it was a success.  Now, if you bring your UMBC ID to one of his businesses, he will give a 15% discount.

If you have any questions for me, just email me at aa12@umbc.edu

Here’s some contact information if you have any questions for him:

Montgomery Firestone Service Center

410-796-3070

Base Auto Body and Collision

410-796-6704

Miles Towing

410-796-4656

Just off route 1 @

6205 South Hanover Rd

Elkridge, MD 21075

- Aaron Estrogano

The Board of Regents passed the “Policy on textbook Affordability Measures” at yesterday’s full Board meeting at Towson University. The effort stems from the Textbook Affordability Summit held on November 24th by the USM. The policy includes a number of provisions, that when coupled with the federal law addressing textbooks, will significantly decrease the cost for students.

The policy ensures that:

• students recieve ISBN numbers and other information regarding textbook selections well in advance of the beginning of the semester to ensure that students can shop competitively outside the bookstore
• deadlines for book finalization are set prior to the conclusion of classes in order to maximize the book buy-back process
• best practices for faculty regarding new editions of textbooks and bundling
• faculty can allow students to purchase older editions of an assigned book of the content is of relevant educational content
• bookstores stock both unbundled and bundled versions of materials
• students have the opportunity to review the use of course materials through final course evaluations
• faculty are educated of the policy each semester.

While legislation has been proposed by state legislators to address the problem, I question how provisions in this bill could negatively impact students. The bill generally reiterates, in a number of places, positive provisions included in the federal textbook bill and the USM policy. Yet, additional costs will likely rise for students as additional red-tape and regulation is inserted in the textbook adoption process, in the form of increased cost of books at the campus bookstore. Additionally, limitations and unnecessary burdens on faculty could limit and frustrate the work and academic freedom of faculty.

The Sun covered the Policy and also wrote an editorial in support of the action.

Just a tip, SGA will be discussing the transcript fee with a representative from the registrars office at their next meeting (Monday, February 2nd at 5:30pm.) The meetings are open meaning anyone can join them. It will be held in Commons 318. The SGA would like to see as many students there as possible.

If you didnt know, there is now an $8 fee PER transcript you wish to have officially mailed. Previous to last semester this was free. In addition, most other universities in our class charge less than $8. If you or any of your friends have issues with the new fee I would encourage you to attend the meeting and bring up their issues. Could get quite expensive if you are applying to a bunch of grad schools.

Edit: (Short on 1/30/09 at 11:05 am)

The Walls writes in our comments section

Word on the street is that Yvette Rosie-Moss (she’s the boss of Steve Robinson, the registrar and guy in charge of making students pay $8 per transcript) actually believes that students WANT to pay $8 per transcript. I think we should all go there and show her how wrong she is about that.

We are reasonably confident that this tip regarding Yvette Mosie-Ross’s is accurate and have a few sources confirming this.

If you don’t like this transcript fee or even if you just want to understand the justification for it, please attend this meeting.  Such a thing exists as strength in numbers.  While I doubt that this fee will be eliminated, perhaps it can be reduced.  It is worth showing one’s displeasure with something like this because, institutionally, we need to have stronger discussions before such decisions are made.

To the administration’s credit (that is Ms. Mosie-Ross) I commend their attendence to such meetings and open discourse with the student public fosters better relations and understanding.

Check out www.bookscrooge.com.

This is a site where you can input your class numbers and you will be provided with the titles of the book you need for those classes, the ISBN numbers, and a price comparison between the bookstores new and used price as well as amazon’s prices. (New features are being added each semester.)

The site was created and run by a UMBC student in the ‘09 winter semester. It has since been updated for the spring semester ‘09 and should be updated fairly quickly when the Summer and Fall semesters roll around.

List of future features:
-Half.com and ABEbooks.com prices for each book
-Ability to search by course number i.e. “BIOL100″
-More appealing and simple to use site design
-Input your email for updates when your professor has announced the book being used.
-as well as other features he is unable to announce right now (Not really sure I know what that means, but I might be glad I don’t.)

The creator is open to suggestions on what features you would like to see on the site. It took him the better part of winter break to get up and running so it would be nice if it saw some use.

Join the Facebook group for updates. A message will be sent out each semester when the new list is available.

I’m assuming everyone saw the email about the budget cuts. I was actually a bit surprised at how small the budget cut was, percentage-wise. Whattaya think? Did you care enough to read it?

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!