[1748] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
[Mit-talk] Online Voting for UAP/VP Closes Tonight at Midnight -
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew Lukmann)
Tue Mar 14 16:33:36 2006
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:23:58 -0500
From: Andrew Lukmann <lukymann@mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
Cc: timeforchange@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
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Hey fellow undergrads!
I wanted to take the time to remind you that online balloting for UA
Presidential and Class Council elections ends tonight just before
midnight.**
Vote at vote.mit.edu <https://vote.mit.edu>.
If you haven't yet lodged your ballot, I also invite you to give serious
thought to voting for voting for me and Ruth Miller for UAP/VP. I have
the administrative skills, experience, and coalition of strong
supporters within the UA to reorganize it into an efficient,
goal-oriented body capable of both proactively and reactively advocating
for the student interest on your behalf. Ruth has a valuable perspective
as a long time critic of UA operations and has a number of great ideas
to make the UA work better and more efficiently.
*
I have a strong record of fighting for the rights of living groups to
express their own identity.* I have labored on behalf of rush for the
past three years as a rush worker for my dorm, as a member of DormCon
Exec and now as President of Simmons Hall. I sat on the SLOPE committee
which sets the schedule for Orientation and fought tooth and nail for
the most time possible for the frosh to explore residences and for us to
attract the residents that will best fit in our communities. Being happy
and comfortable where you live is one of the most important elements of
having fun at college and I would fight to make sure that the
administration understands how important it is to maintain and foster
(or sometimes just leave alone) the communities that make MIT unique.
*I advocate for student autonomy. *The job of the UA is to make sure
that the students have a strong voice in Institute affairs and to ensure
that we have the independence we deserve. This concepts can be addressed
broadly, from ensuring that overly restrictive academic regulations
don't prohibit us from taking the classes we want to take to fighting in
support of someone's right to express their national pride by hanging a
flag inside their dorm room window. When it boils down to it, I will
always support student rights. Even though the President's job is to
communicate with the administration, the President's duty is to support
his or her peers and to make sure that their voice is heard clearly and
broadly.
*I have a strong set of clearly defined goals to accomplish - *and I
will keep myself accountable for executing them. I have served as both a
member of DormCon Exec, UA Senate Speaker and Simmons Hall President. I
know all of the people necessary both inside and outside of the
administration to make every single element of my platform happen
including a serious discussion about the status of MIT cable and a
reduction of the costs inherent in undergraduate life, starting with
cheaper textbooks. I am not interested in becoming UA President to
advocate for any particular group or subset of the undergraduate
population, but rather I take it as my duty to fight for what I think is
in the best interest of all undergrads.
Ruth and I stand for Efficiency & Advocacy. We believe in reducing
unnecessary effort and expenditure in parts of the UA that don't
directly improve student life and instead focusing our efforts on better
funding the many undergraduate student groups and better anticipating
and addressing issues that will affect students on and off campus. I
have attached our platform below and encourage you to vote if you
haven't yet at: vote.mit.edu <https://vote.mit.edu>
Please encourage your friends to vote too!
Andrew Lukmann
Candidate for UA President
**Paper balloting is available tomorrow in Lobby 10 until 5pm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Lukmann and Ruth Miller
for UA P/VP: Efficiency & Advocacy
Too often, candidate teams fail to balance the ability to enact
meaningful change with the spirit of reform. Over the years, Andrew
Lukmann has been a dormitory President and Senator, and is now Speaker
of the Senate. In his tenure, Andrew has managed numerous committees and
developed a rapport with numerous upper-level MIT administrators. Ruth
Miller has been writing on UA and MIT policy for years as Opinion Editor
of The Tech. Her long, close watch on the UA allows her to distinguish
between efficient policy and what is essentially added bureaucracy.
Combining the best of the "insider" and "outsider" elements -- Andrew
and Ruth know what it will take to make the UA more effective for the
undergraduates of MIT; rather than spouting vague goals and tired
buzzwords, they know:
a) What needs to be done in the UA, and
b) How to do it.
The two biggest challenges facing the UA are its cumbersome size and
weak Institute committee nominations process. Andrew and Ruth's campaign
can be summed up in four words: smaller, more efficient government.
The tasks ahead of us in the next year can be categorized into two
groups: Efficiency and Advocacy.
_EFFICIENCY_
SMALLER UA BUDGET
Promises of fiscal responsibility, from candidates running for UA
P/VP... shocking, I know, but it's true! As the Senate Speaker this past
year, Andrew oversaw a greater than 40% reduction of the budget proposed
by the executive by working line-item by line-item with committee
members to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending. That translated
into more than $10,000 extra dollars for undergraduate student groups.
FinBoard had more money to distribute to groups this term than any time
in recent memory and was actually able to make meaningful investments in
new and successful student activities.
CREATIVE NEW WAYS TO FINANCE STUDENT GROUPS
Currently the UA depends solely on income from the Student Life Fee to
fund itself and undergraduate student groups. This source, though
beneficial, is limited. The Association receives approximately $180,000
per year to fund student groups. To increase this amount, we would be
required to raise the student life fee. By comparison, the ASSU,
Stanford University's student government, leverages University support,
corporate assistance and student-driven entrepreneurship to provide in
excess of $1 million to student activities. Andrew and Ruth are very
interested in these alternative options and would work to explore their
feasibility at MIT.
COMPLETE REVALUATION OF UA COMMITTEES
One of the primary ways in which the UA advocates for undergrads is
through the hard work and dedication of its many active committee
members. In order to ensure that their effort is not wasted, Andrew and
Ruth want to orchestrate a top-down reevaluation of the various
executive committees and judge which are superfluous or incongruous with
the major goals of the UA. All committees will also receive clearer
direction and increased support from both of us.
INCREASED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EXEC & SENATE
Time and effort is wasted in an acrimonious relationship between the UA
Cabinet and the Senate. Andrew and Ruth would do a better job getting
Senate and Cabinet to work together, making life easier for everybody.
This may sound like another sound byte, but again, Andrew and Ruth have
a plan. Throughout his time in the UA, Andrew has worked closely with
the Senate, and would continue that tradition while serving in the
Executive. Ruth, a new comer to the UA, doesn't have any long ties or
baggage with either part of the UA, and could start working fresh with
both.
COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF THE NOMINATIONS PROCESS
One of the most important powers that the Undergraduate Association
possesses is the ability to nominate undergraduates to Faculty,
Institute and Staff committees to represent the student body. The
current antiquated system does a completely inadequate job ascertaining
what the particular committees are looking for in a candidate and in
ensuring communication between nominees and the UA with regards to
important new changes in policy that will affect all undergrads. Andrew
and Ruth will restructure the nomination process to ensure that the
voice undergraduates already have is always used.
_ADVOCACY_
MIT CABLE
Let's face it: MIT Cable sucks. When Continental Cablevision went
bankrupt three years ago, MIT campus was left without ESPN, Comedy
Central, or anything else beyond the ubiquitous MIT Cable. No longer
content to miss the baseball season unfolding just across the river,
Next House dedicated its own house budget to getting satellite
television. Now stalled indefinitely, the project encountered a myriad
of unforeseen costs, exposed prohibitive architectural defects in the
building itself, and revealed the stalled negotiation process between
MIT and cable and satellite providers.
This negotiation needs to begin again. Andrew and Ruth will work with
the MIT administration to convince them that the current MIT Cable
service is not a viable long-term solution. Once the cable system is
upgraded, and all the dorms are given access to better channels
(including ESPN), the UA will reimburse Next House for their trouble
that brought this matter to the public spotlight.
ASHDOWN
The announcement that Ashdown will soon be revamped to hold
undergraduates came as a surprise to most of MIT, because of a lack of
student involvement. Andrew has already worked with Dean Benedict and
Chancellor Clay to make sure a similar lapse of cooperation doesn't
happen again, but much work needs to be done before further planning can
commence.
Andrew and Ruth will work to make sure that undergraduates get a say in
what goes into the next undergraduate dorm. Should Ashdown have a
mandatory dining plan? A night café? What alterations and upgrades will
be made to the existing community spaces? What will become of the
Thirsty Ear Pub space? Will Ashdown be used to house East Campus or
Burton Conner residents during dormitory renovations? The sub-division
(floor, suite, entry, etc.) of a living group determines how the
residents interact, and thus, the culture of that living group. Ruth is
an urban planning major, she can tell you all about this, but what sort
of culture does the administration want Ashdown to have?
TEXTBOOKS
Textbooks are a common problem for all MIT undergraduates. They're
expensive, but we all know ways to circumvent that. Andrew and Ruth have
a few other ideas to keep the prices of textbooks down.
Advanced Notification -- Work with the MIT administration to add a line
to the course registration form for professors: "required texts." Then,
by adding this information to the subject listing and schedule posted
online by the Registrar, students can find out what books to buy, and
have time to hunt around much longer in advance.
UA-Run Bulk Textbook Purchasing -- Two years ago the UA researched the
option of establishing a textbook ordering and bulk purchasing process
during the summer to save undergraduates money and worry. A similar
system was discovered to be operating successfully at the University of
Illinois, but the system was abandoned. Andrew and Ruth will create the
system and expand it to include IAP ordering, thus serving students for
the entire academic year.
Encouraging Transition to Stellar -- Course readers are also a
cumbersome burden for many. As the Stellar website is gaining strength,
many classes are posting their course readers online and saving students
the entire cost of the reader. Andrew and Ruth will encourage this
process and see it expanded.
ADVOCATE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF NEW STUDENT GROUP AND ACTIVITY SPACE
In the past 10 years, MIT has embarked upon an unprecedented
construction campaign, erecting in excess of $1 billion worth of new
buildings. While those funds have gone towards new research labs, new
lecture halls and dining facilities, not a single dollar of that
campaign has gone to improving or constructing new space for the rapidly
growing ranks of undergraduate and graduate student groups. Andrew and
Ruth will be vocal advocates for increased investment in old spaces for
student groups (Walker Memorial & the Student Center) and the
construction of new ones.
EXEMPT FSILG-AFFILIATED DORM RESIDENTS FROM MEAL PLAN
Many fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups have meal
plans for their on- and off-campus members. Many dorms have mandatory
dining plans for their residents, as well. Is it really fair for an
FSILG-affiliated resident living in a dorm to have to pay for both of
these plans? MIT should be encouraging these people to embrace and
become members of both of their living groups -- not trying to suck more
money out of them. Freshmen, in particular, are heavily affected by this
overlap because they don't have the option of moving out of their dorm.
Andrew and Ruth will work with Campus Dining and Bon Appetit to exempt
affiliated dorm residents from the dormitory meal plans.
ENCOURAGE LATE NIGHT DINING OPERATIONS ON CAMPUS
One of the reasons why the beaver was selected as the mascot of MIT was
its "nocturnal habits" similar to our own. This was true back in the
1914, and the same is true today. So why are there so few dining options
at night? The Night Café is a successful late night dining option at
Simmons, and this similar options need to be expanded to the Student
Center, Pritchett, Baker, McCormick, and Next.
GIVE ORIENTATION BACK TO REX
Almost all undergraduates come to MIT for the same reason -- academics.
But during the first week of freshmen year, that's the last thing on our
minds as we try to decide on a place to live. Transferring later to
another dorm is difficult, and it's best to get it right the first time.
So why is the dormitory exploration portion of Orientation getting
shorter? Andrew and Ruth will work to prevent an even shorter REX
(Residence Exploration) period and work to reverse the tide.
EXPEDITE LOWERING OF SELF-HELP
It is a stated goal of MIT's administration to lower the self-help
portion of MIT undergraduates from $5,500 to $2,500 over an undetermined
length of time. This directly reduces the amount of money that students
receiving financial assistance are paying. Andrew and Ruth, ardent fans
of financial aid, will encourage this process and work to quicken its pace.
CREATE A COURSE EVALUATION HUB ON THE NEW UA WEBSITE
The UA began distributing course evaluations in the 1960's, but hasn't
yet refined the process of returning the results to the undergraduate
body [currently they're hidden in the course listing site on the top of
each course page as "Evaluation (Certificates Required)"]. The course
evaluations need to be restructured and relocated to a well-constructed,
well-publicized student run platform.
The current course evaluation process needs to be revamped, as well.
What does a 5.5/7.0 really say about a class? The new course evaluation
hub will include a wiki to allow student input on specifics of their
classes. Did the professor receiving a 5.5 for being sleep-inducing or
just unclear? Did the class receive a 6.7 for being exciting or for
being easy? The current evaluation doesn't give students the opportunity
to pass this useful information on to their peers.
IMPLEMENT SCEP RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING SYSTEM
Last year, the Student Committee on Educational Policy (SCEP) produced a
list of recommendations to improve the undergraduate advising system.
Undergraduates helped create these recommendations (including
integrating advising into the tenure and promotion process, improving
advisor training across all departments and implementing a new advisor
evaluation system, among others), and it is the UA's responsibility to
ensure that they are enacted. Andrew and Ruth will work to make sure the
UA does its job.
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Hey fellow undergrads!<br>
<br>
I wanted to take the time to remind you that online balloting for UA
Presidential and Class Council elections ends tonight just before
midnight.**<br>
Vote at <a href="https://vote.mit.edu">vote.mit.edu</a>.<br>
<br>
If you haven't yet lodged your ballot, I also invite you to give
serious
thought to voting for voting for me and Ruth Miller for UAP/VP. I have
the administrative skills, experience, and coalition of strong
supporters within the UA to reorganize it into an efficient,
goal-oriented body capable of both proactively and reactively
advocating for the student interest on your behalf. Ruth has a valuable
perspective as a long time critic of UA operations and has a number of
great ideas to make the UA work better and more efficiently.<br>
<b><br>
I have a strong record of fighting for the rights of living groups to
express their own identity.</b> I have labored on behalf of rush for
the past three years as a rush worker for my dorm, as a member of
DormCon Exec and now as President of Simmons Hall. I sat on the SLOPE
committee which sets the schedule for Orientation and fought tooth and
nail for the most time possible for the frosh to explore residences and
for us to attract the residents that will best fit in our communities.
Being happy and comfortable where you live is one of the most important
elements of having fun at college and I would fight to make sure that
the administration understands how important it is to maintain and
foster (or sometimes just leave alone) the communities that make MIT
unique.<br>
<br>
<b>I advocate for student autonomy. </b>The job of the UA is to make
sure that the students have a strong voice in Institute affairs and to
ensure that we have the independence we deserve. This concepts can be
addressed broadly, from ensuring that overly restrictive academic
regulations don't prohibit us from taking the classes we want to take
to fighting in support of someone's right to express their national
pride by hanging a flag inside their dorm room window. When it boils
down to it, I will always support student rights. Even though the
President's job is to communicate with the administration, the
President's duty is to support his or her peers and to make sure that
their voice is heard clearly and broadly.
<br>
<br>
<b>I have a strong set of clearly defined goals to accomplish - </b>and
I will keep myself accountable for executing them. I have served as
both a member of DormCon Exec, UA Senate Speaker and Simmons Hall
President. I know all of the people necessary both inside and outside
of the administration to make every single element of my platform
happen including a serious discussion about the status of MIT cable and
a reduction of the costs inherent in undergraduate life, starting with
cheaper textbooks. I am not interested in becoming UA President to
advocate for any particular group or subset of the undergraduate
population, but rather I take it as my duty to fight for what I think
is in the best interest of all undergrads.<br>
<br>
Ruth and I stand for Efficiency & Advocacy. We believe in reducing
unnecessary effort and expenditure in parts of the UA that don't
directly improve student life and instead focusing our efforts on
better funding the many undergraduate student groups and better
anticipating and addressing issues that will affect students on and off
campus. I have attached our platform below and encourage you to vote if
you haven't yet at: <a href="https://vote.mit.edu">vote.mit.edu</a><br>
<br>
Please encourage your friends to vote too!<br>
<br>
Andrew Lukmann<br>
Candidate for UA President<br>
<br>
**Paper balloting is available tomorrow in Lobby 10 until 5pm<br>
<br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
Andrew Lukmann and Ruth Miller
<br>
for UA P/VP: Efficiency & Advocacy <br>
<br>
Too often, candidate teams fail to balance the ability to enact
meaningful change with the spirit of reform. Over the years, Andrew
Lukmann has been a dormitory President and Senator, and is now Speaker
of the Senate. In his tenure, Andrew has managed numerous committees
and developed a rapport with numerous upper-level MIT administrators.
Ruth Miller has been writing on UA and MIT policy for years as Opinion
Editor of The Tech. Her long, close watch on the UA allows her to
distinguish between efficient policy and what is essentially added
bureaucracy.
<br>
Combining the best of the "insider" and "outsider" elements -- Andrew
and Ruth know what it will take to make the UA more effective for the
undergraduates of MIT; rather than spouting vague goals and tired
buzzwords, they know:
<br>
<br>
a) What needs to be done in the UA, and
<br>
b) How to do it.
<br>
<br>
The two biggest challenges facing the UA are its cumbersome size and
weak Institute committee nominations process. Andrew and Ruth's
campaign can be summed up in four words: smaller, more efficient
government.
<br>
<br>
The tasks ahead of us in the next year can be categorized into two
groups: Efficiency and Advocacy.
<br>
<br>
<span class="moz-txt-underscore"><u><span class="moz-txt-tag">E</span>FFICIENCY</u><span
class="moz-txt-tag"></span></span><br>
<br>
SMALLER UA BUDGET
<br>
Promises of fiscal responsibility, from candidates running for UA
P/VP... shocking, I know, but it's true! As the Senate Speaker this
past year, Andrew oversaw a greater than 40% reduction of the budget
proposed by the executive by working line-item by line-item with
committee members to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending. That
translated into more than $10,000 extra dollars for undergraduate
student groups. FinBoard had more money to distribute to groups this
term than any time in recent memory and was actually able to make
meaningful investments in new and successful student activities.
<br>
<br>
CREATIVE NEW WAYS TO FINANCE STUDENT GROUPS
<br>
Currently the UA depends solely on income from the Student Life Fee to
fund itself and undergraduate student groups. This source, though
beneficial, is limited. The Association receives approximately $180,000
per year to fund student groups. To increase this amount, we would be
required to raise the student life fee. By comparison, the ASSU,
Stanford University's student government, leverages University support,
corporate assistance and student-driven entrepreneurship to provide in
excess of $1 million to student activities. Andrew and Ruth are very
interested in these alternative options and would work to explore their
feasibility at MIT.
<br>
<br>
COMPLETE REVALUATION OF UA COMMITTEES
<br>
One of the primary ways in which the UA advocates for undergrads is
through the hard work and dedication of its many active committee
members. In order to ensure that their effort is not wasted, Andrew and
Ruth want to orchestrate a top-down reevaluation of the various
executive committees and judge which are superfluous or incongruous
with the major goals of the UA. All committees will also receive
clearer direction and increased support from both of us.
<br>
<br>
INCREASED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EXEC & SENATE
<br>
Time and effort is wasted in an acrimonious relationship between the UA
Cabinet and the Senate. Andrew and Ruth would do a better job getting
Senate and Cabinet to work together, making life easier for everybody.
This may sound like another sound byte, but again, Andrew and Ruth have
a plan. Throughout his time in the UA, Andrew has worked closely with
the Senate, and would continue that tradition while serving in the
Executive. Ruth, a new comer to the UA, doesn't have any long ties or
baggage with either part of the UA, and could start working fresh with
both.
<br>
<br>
COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF THE NOMINATIONS PROCESS
<br>
One of the most important powers that the Undergraduate Association
possesses is the ability to nominate undergraduates to Faculty,
Institute and Staff committees to represent the student body. The
current antiquated system does a completely inadequate job ascertaining
what the particular committees are looking for in a candidate and in
ensuring communication between nominees and the UA with regards to
important new changes in policy that will affect all undergrads. Andrew
and Ruth will restructure the nomination process to ensure that the
voice undergraduates already have is always used.
<br>
<br>
<span class="moz-txt-underscore"><span class="moz-txt-tag"></span><u>ADVOCACY</u><span
class="moz-txt-tag"></span></span><br>
<br>
MIT CABLE
<br>
Let's face it: MIT Cable sucks. When Continental Cablevision went
bankrupt three years ago, MIT campus was left without ESPN, Comedy
Central, or anything else beyond the ubiquitous MIT Cable. No longer
content to miss the baseball season unfolding just across the river,
Next House dedicated its own house budget to getting satellite
television. Now stalled indefinitely, the project encountered a myriad
of unforeseen costs, exposed prohibitive architectural defects in the
building itself, and revealed the stalled negotiation process between
MIT and cable and satellite providers.
<br>
This negotiation needs to begin again. Andrew and Ruth will work with
the MIT administration to convince them that the current MIT Cable
service is not a viable long-term solution. Once the cable system is
upgraded, and all the dorms are given access to better channels
(including ESPN), the UA will reimburse Next House for their trouble
that brought this matter to the public spotlight.
<br>
<br>
ASHDOWN
<br>
The announcement that Ashdown will soon be revamped to hold
undergraduates came as a surprise to most of MIT, because of a lack of
student involvement. Andrew has already worked with Dean Benedict and
Chancellor Clay to make sure a similar lapse of cooperation doesn't
happen again, but much work needs to be done before further planning
can commence.
<br>
Andrew and Ruth will work to make sure that undergraduates get a say in
what goes into the next undergraduate dorm. Should Ashdown have a
mandatory dining plan? A night café? What alterations and upgrades will
be made to the existing community spaces? What will become of the
Thirsty Ear Pub space? Will Ashdown be used to house East Campus or
Burton Conner residents during dormitory renovations? The sub-division
(floor, suite, entry, etc.) of a living group determines how the
residents interact, and thus, the culture of that living group. Ruth is
an urban planning major, she can tell you all about this, but what sort
of culture does the administration want Ashdown to have?
<br>
<br>
TEXTBOOKS
<br>
Textbooks are a common problem for all MIT undergraduates. They're
expensive, but we all know ways to circumvent that. Andrew and Ruth
have a few other ideas to keep the prices of textbooks down.
<br>
Advanced Notification -- Work with the MIT administration to add a line
to the course registration form for professors: "required texts." Then,
by adding this information to the subject listing and schedule posted
online by the Registrar, students can find out what books to buy, and
have time to hunt around much longer in advance.
<br>
UA-Run Bulk Textbook Purchasing -- Two years ago the UA researched the
option of establishing a textbook ordering and bulk purchasing process
during the summer to save undergraduates money and worry. A similar
system was discovered to be operating successfully at the University of
Illinois, but the system was abandoned. Andrew and Ruth will create the
system and expand it to include IAP ordering, thus serving students for
the entire academic year.
<br>
Encouraging Transition to Stellar -- Course readers are also a
cumbersome burden for many. As the Stellar website is gaining strength,
many classes are posting their course readers online and saving
students the entire cost of the reader. Andrew and Ruth will encourage
this process and see it expanded.
<br>
<br>
ADVOCATE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF NEW STUDENT GROUP AND ACTIVITY SPACE
<br>
In the past 10 years, MIT has embarked upon an unprecedented
construction campaign, erecting in excess of $1 billion worth of new
buildings. While those funds have gone towards new research labs, new
lecture halls and dining facilities, not a single dollar of that
campaign has gone to improving or constructing new space for the
rapidly growing ranks of undergraduate and graduate student groups.
Andrew and Ruth will be vocal advocates for increased investment in old
spaces for student groups (Walker Memorial & the Student Center)
and the construction of new ones.
<br>
<br>
EXEMPT FSILG-AFFILIATED DORM RESIDENTS FROM MEAL PLAN
<br>
Many fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups have meal
plans for their on- and off-campus members. Many dorms have mandatory
dining plans for their residents, as well. Is it really fair for an
FSILG-affiliated resident living in a dorm to have to pay for both of
these plans? MIT should be encouraging these people to embrace and
become members of both of their living groups -- not trying to suck
more money out of them. Freshmen, in particular, are heavily affected
by this overlap because they don't have the option of moving out of
their dorm. Andrew and Ruth will work with Campus Dining and Bon
Appetit to exempt affiliated dorm residents from the dormitory meal
plans.
<br>
<br>
ENCOURAGE LATE NIGHT DINING OPERATIONS ON CAMPUS
<br>
One of the reasons why the beaver was selected as the mascot of MIT was
its "nocturnal habits" similar to our own. This was true back in the
1914, and the same is true today. So why are there so few dining
options at night? The Night Café is a successful late night dining
option at Simmons, and this similar options need to be expanded to the
Student Center, Pritchett, Baker, McCormick, and Next.
<br>
<br>
GIVE ORIENTATION BACK TO REX
<br>
Almost all undergraduates come to MIT for the same reason -- academics.
But during the first week of freshmen year, that's the last thing on
our minds as we try to decide on a place to live. Transferring later to
another dorm is difficult, and it's best to get it right the first
time. So why is the dormitory exploration portion of Orientation
getting shorter? Andrew and Ruth will work to prevent an even shorter
REX (Residence Exploration) period and work to reverse the tide.
<br>
<br>
EXPEDITE LOWERING OF SELF-HELP
<br>
It is a stated goal of MIT's administration to lower the self-help
portion of MIT undergraduates from $5,500 to $2,500 over an
undetermined length of time. This directly reduces the amount of money
that students receiving financial assistance are paying. Andrew and
Ruth, ardent fans of financial aid, will encourage this process and
work to quicken its pace.
<br>
<br>
CREATE A COURSE EVALUATION HUB ON THE NEW UA WEBSITE
<br>
The UA began distributing course evaluations in the 1960's, but hasn't
yet refined the process of returning the results to the undergraduate
body [currently they're hidden in the course listing site on the top of
each course page as "Evaluation (Certificates Required)"]. The course
evaluations need to be restructured and relocated to a
well-constructed, well-publicized student run platform.
<br>
The current course evaluation process needs to be revamped, as well.
What does a 5.5/7.0 really say about a class? The new course evaluation
hub will include a wiki to allow student input on specifics of their
classes. Did the professor receiving a 5.5 for being sleep-inducing or
just unclear? Did the class receive a 6.7 for being exciting or for
being easy? The current evaluation doesn't give students the
opportunity to pass this useful information on to their peers.
<br>
<br>
IMPLEMENT SCEP RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING SYSTEM
<br>
Last year, the Student Committee on Educational Policy (SCEP) produced
a list of recommendations to improve the undergraduate advising system.
Undergraduates helped create these recommendations (including
integrating advising into the tenure and promotion process, improving
advisor training across all departments and implementing a new advisor
evaluation system, among others), and it is the UA's responsibility to
ensure that they are enacted. Andrew and Ruth will work to make sure
the UA does its job.
<br>
<br>
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