• 01Dec

  SGA Newspaper Column: Pro Temp Holly Byrd

  Uncategorized No Comments
  

  Holly Byrd - President Pro Temp

  My name is Holly Byrd, and I am the President Pro Tempore of the Student Senate. We in the SGA Legislative body are he to provide a link between the improvements that need to be made to our campus and the Student Body. We always look for new members and encourage active participation from all Students whether it’s proposing legislation, meeting with your senator, or running for office.

  This year we have passed several pieces of legislation to improve the University community. We have worked hard to extend the library hours during exams, required professors to accommodate students still working with Word 2003, and we are working on improving and researching on-campus dining experiences.

  In a constituent survey taken by the Senate, over 60% of students responding stated that they would like to see the library open 24 hours. We recently passed a resolution to extend the times of the library to be open 24 hours. The resolution calls for the first three floors to remain open around the clock from Sunday evening to Friday evening as well as the reservations desk.

  Since the University’s recent switch from Microsoft Word 2003 to Microsoft Word 2007, many professors and faculty have used this program to distribute information and syllabi to students. Many students however, have not yet made this transition. Therefore, when students are unable to open documents sent in the .docx format on their personal computers. One step that senate has made to solve this problem is a resolution calling for all teachers to send information in the old .doc format( which opens in the old and new Microsoft Word) until student are given adequate time to upgrade to the new version of word.

  We are also happy to announce the creation of a special food service committee that will conduct independent research on prices, convenience, and service of the Chartwell’s dining services on campus. These individuals will determine whether prices offered on campus are fair and competitive with off campus competitors, whether or not students are happy with the service they receive from on campus dining institutions, and whether they are happy with the current hours of operation that Chartwells offers on campus.

  We in SGA always want to hear feedback from the constituents we represent. If you have any questions or concerns or anything you would like to see changed within our university, please feel free to stop by the SGA complex in the Cone Center or send me an email personally.

• 20Nov

  Boston College Will Stop Offering New Students E-Mail Accounts

  Uncategorized No Comments

  Here is the link to a great article from Wired Campus about how Boston College has stopped giving e-mail accounts to new students. Instead they simply offer them a forwarding address that goes to their already established e-mail addresses.

  http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3473/boston-college-to-stop-offering-student-e-mail-accounts-to-freshmen-starting-next-year

• 20Nov

  Charlotte 49er Football…Done!

  49ers Sports, General Thoughts, Open Letter, Press, Uncategorized, Uploaded by Voice, Videos No Comments

  I should have had a post about this a week ago, but it’s better late than never. The Board of Trustees officially approved football (old news). But I think that Chairwoman Shaw was correct in noting that this was the beginning of a journey and not the end. We’re going to need the support of the entire Charlotte community if we’re going to raise the 45.8 million dollars that we will need, but I’m confident that we can.

  Never has there been a happier time in my life to be a Charlotte 49er.

  Tags: Charlotte, Football

• 12Nov

  SGA Newspaper Column: Let’s talk about sustainability.

  SGA Weekly Column No Comments
  

  Secretary for Sustainability: Megan Smith (Photo: Wade Bruton)

  That’s not something you hear often in daily conversation, right? But as out of place as it may seem, students and staff across this campus are engaging in a dialogue about sustainability that is growing even as you read this.

  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, environmental sustainability is—in a nutshell—humanity’s ability to meet our current needs without compromising the needs of future generations. As UNCC rapidly develops, we are facing new challenges every day as we consider the most efficient use of our resources, our impact on the natural environment, and our duty to ensure eco-equity and environmental justice in our community.

  As your Secretary for Sustainability, it’s my responsibility to help provide all students with the resources you need to practice sustainability on this campus, as well as to ensure that our institution makes sustainable decisions that benefit the student body. With that in mind, some of the projects that I am currently working on include:

  Increasing campus resources for students who choose more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. I am currently working to make our campus more accessible to pedestrians, provide a map of bike lanes and accessible routes, increase the number and quality of bike racks, and expand resources for carpooling and ridesharing.

  Extending and improving recycling in off-campus housing developments, many of which currently have no or insufficient resources for the thousands of students who live there.

  Lobbying for energy policy reform and waste management in various academic and administrative departments on campus, which will save energy and money.

  Working closely with the Charlotte Green Initiative Committee, which allocates funds from the student Green Fee toward facilities upgrades, including efficient, renewable energy projects.

  Aside from these current initiatives, my plans for the future include pursuing several initiatives with Chartwells, which will be unveiling and piloting environmentally sustainable projects throughout the year. I will also be working toward establishing a free store for students, pushing for alternative energy on campus, expanding our current environmental programs, lobbying for more academic resources, and increasing communication between the administration and the student body.

  Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any project ideas, issues, questions, or comments! I would love to help out in any way that I can.

  Stay green, Niner Nation!

  Megan Smith

  msmit389@uncc.edu

  Tags: bike, chartwells, energy, evironment, green, housing, sustainability, transportation

• 12Nov

  View from the New Union

  General Thoughts 1 Comment
  

  View of the clock tower from the new Student Union Building. (Photo: Quincy Brewington)

  Recently I had the opportunity to tour what’s been built of the new Student Union. As you can see from the picture it really takes advantage of it’s position on campus, and the many different levels of buildings to give spectacular views all over campus. Most notable where the of the SAC clock tower (above), the view toward CRI, and the view of Lynch Hall.

  I’ve always believed that the built environment has an enormous impact on the culture, work flow, and efficiency of organizations. Which is why I’m slightly concerned about the new space that SGA will be occupying. But change is good. We just need to make sure that we are prepared.

  For more information go to http://studentunion.uncc.edu/

  Tags: CRI, SAC, SGA, Union

• 11Nov

  We’re Back!

  Uncategorized 2 Comments

  So we didn’t realize that the domain was expiring and somehow a Turkish man selling bathrobes was able to wrestle control of our former domain.

  There’s been a lot going on with UNC Charlotte lately and I can’t wait to start blogging about it again.

• 18Jul

  Topping Out the New Bioinformatics Building

  Events on Campus, Uncategorized 1 Comment
  

  Topping Out the New Bioinformatics Building (Photo: Wade Bruton)

  On Thursday ( 7/17/08 ) was the topping out ceremony for the new bioinformatics building located at UNC Charlotte’s CRI campus. As one of the speakers at the event put it ‘the 20th century was about electronics, the 21st century will be about bioinformatics.’ I’m glad to see that Charlotte has the foresight to begin working on this now, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. I also think there’s a great opportunity for collaboration on bioinformatics between the College of Computing and Informatics and the College of Engineering.

  A topping out ceremony is a Scandinavian tradition where the last beam is ceremonially lifted into place with an evergreen tree sitting atop.

  Tags: bioinformatics, Charlotte, CRI, Rodgers Builders, UNC Charlotte

• 13Jun

  ITS Talks with UNCG About Gmail

  Blogroll, General Thoughts, Other Campuses No Comments

  The new CIO, Jay Dominick, keeps his own blog. The most recent entry is about their trip to UNCG to find out more about Gmail. As you know Gmail is something that SGA has been working on and something I’m personally very excited about.

  You can view Jay Dominick’s blog post at this link:

  http://cio.uncc.edu/?p=25

  Tags: CIO, Gmail, Jay Dominick, UNCG

• 06Jun

  Trustees’ Discuss Football

  49ers Sports, General Thoughts No Comments

  As I feared cost was the only consideration at the trustees’ discussion of football today. I don’t want to trivialize the importance of how much football will cost students and the university, but there’s much more to this equation that was never talked about. If we’re going to give this thing its due diligence at some point we have to discuss the intangibles of football. The things that count but can’t be counted; quality of student life, connections to alumni, connections to the community, national recognition, etc.

  I’m also worried that the chancellor’s research overshadowed the research of the Football Feasibility Committee. There’s already been a committee to look at the whole picture of football and make a recommendation. But that report seems to be nearly forgotten about.

  We still have a lot of work to do, and it’s very hard to read whether a majority of the trustees are for or against football so these next few meetings are going to make or break things.

  Decisions can’t be made based purely on emotion, but I don’t think they can be made based purely on whether it makes perfect fiscal sense, and I’m an economics major. I just hope that at some point the intangibles of football are given their fair weight.

  Tags: 49ers, Football, Trustees, UNC Charlotte, UNCC

• 04Jun

  Update: Charlotte Football

  49ers Sports, General Thoughts 2 Comments

  There seem to be a lot of rumors flying around about football at Charlotte so I wanted to clear up a few of them. As far as the time line goes, the chancellor will present his research to the trustees on Thursday (6/04/08), and we will be discussing it in further detail. The chancellor will then make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees who will make a decision probably at the September board meeting. If the BOT recommends football we will have to ask the state to waive the tuition and fee cap so that we would be able to gradually instate the approximately $300 additional fee for football. Recently a received a letter regarding football from the new president of ASG, T. Greg Doucette. He fairly well summarized the arguments against football, which shows that he’s been paying attention to the issue and done his homework. You can read his letter and my response here:

  Letter from T. Greg Doucette

  Response from Tim Ernst

  Check back soon because I’ll be sure and write a post about how the Board of Trustees meeting goes tomorrow.

  Tags: 49ers, ASG, Board of Trustees, Charlotte, Football, Greg Doucette, UNC Charlotte, UNCC

« Previous Entries