Monthly Archives: December 2007

From EMUSG: US Presidential Forums/Meet Gravel

Posted on December 5, 2007 by | 1 Comment

Here’s a message I received the other day from Maurizio DiGiandomenico, who is the person in charge of EMU’s Student Government communication efforts:

PRESIDENTIAL FORUM AT EMU: The Student Government Political Action Committee is hosting a presidential forum to better inform the campus community on their choices for the upcoming primary. Representatives and candidates from most of the democratic and republican campaigns will be on hand to answer questions from the community on their beliefs, their campaigns, and their vision of our country’s future. The forum will be held on Thursday, December 6, 2007 in the EMU Student Center Room 300 beginning at 7:00pm. All are welcome to attend. For more information please call the Student Government Office at (734) 487-1470 or Director of Political Action Rob Kull at rkull@emich.edu .

I also received this message from EMUSG’s Rob Kull:

On December 5th Democratic Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel will be coming on campus to speak and answer questions in a town hall style meeting. Mike Gravel is a former US Senator from Alaska and is now running for the Democratic Presidetnal nomination The event is at 7:00 in room 310 in the EMU Student Center. Theevent is sponsored by EMU Student Government and co-sponsored by College Democrats at EMU.

For more information contact Rob Kull at (734)487-1470 or email rkull@emich.edu

Sorry for the delay in posting– real life has caught up with the sitedad. But go out there and get involved, students!

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Posted in EMU Events, Student Life

More Burglaries from Locked Rooms

Posted on December 5, 2007 by | 11 Comments

Everyone probably saw the annuoncement about the latest burglary in the dorms, about which we have several news reports already:

2 EMU Students Report Dorm Break-Ins

Two Eastern Michigan University students said their dorm rooms were robbed while they slept.  The residents told police that a thief came into their locked Sellers Hall dorm rooms in the middle of the night and stole two laptop computers. … School officials said despite the latest incident, there are security guards patrolling individual dorm room floors every night.

EMU campus police said the best defense against crime is a locked door.

I wish that these burglaries were stopped in some way for good, for we have had far too many of them, especially those occurring from locked spaces. 

 I cannot imagine anything more frightening for our residents in the dorms than having no faith in the locks that are supposed to secure them in an environment so very susceptible to burglary, including one that culminated in murder.  It is one thing to fear the invasion of an office in a dark hallway at night and quite another to fear someone entering a home and riffling through personal items while sleeping.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Security and Safety, Student Life

Why aren’t students registering for winter 2008?

Posted on December 4, 2007 by | 34 Comments

The Eastern Echo had an article that came up in a meeting I was in yesterday: “Late registration strains departments.” As the opening paragraph of the article has it:

Approximately 6,300 eligible undergraduate and 1,800 graduate Eastern Michigan students have yet to enroll for the winter term, resulting in increased guesswork on the part of academic departments, said Vice President of Enrollment Management Tom Green.

That’s a lot, around a third of our students (according to my English professor math)! The article offers a variety of reasons for this late registration according to the article, but I’d be curious to hear from some students: what’s the hold-up?

If you are a student and you’re planning on registering for winter 2008 but you just haven’t done so yet, get yourself signed up toot-sweet. This quote sums up my feelings on it all accurately:

“Waiting for registration is a risky game that students play, as academic departments need to evaluate whether or not course sections will likely fill,” [VP for Enrollment Services Tom] Green said. “There may be a number of students intending to take a course but not registered for it. That is not helpful to departments who are trying to balance teaching loads with student demand.

“While the departments do a remarkable job of estimating student enrollment in courses they cannot read the minds of students, only the enrollment reports for course sections.”

So sign up before the classes you want have to be canceled!

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Posted in Academics, Faculty Life, In the media..., Student Life

Print follies again

Posted on December 4, 2007 by | 6 Comments

I just received this message from ICT (I assume most everyone else did too):

The level of printing in ICT computer labs has risen to over 6,000,000 pages per year. After reviewing our printing statistics, we have determined approximately 50% of the printing is done by about 10% of the people using the labs. Approximately 80% of the people using labs print less than 400 pages per semester.

As you plan for upcoming semester courses, please be aware that ICT will begin using a print management system for printing in ICT labs during the Winter 2008 semester. Faculty Council and Student Government have been consulted and the program has been approved by the SOC.

There’s more of this message/policy after the “Read More” part. I don’t disagree with the policy that ICT is enacting here because there is clearly a lot of waste going on. I was in the library trying to print something the other night, and there were thousands of sheets next to the printer in the recycling bin. But I wonder what research methodology the ICT people used to arrive at these figures; anybody know?

Oh, and when I tried to print something in the library with a Mac, it didn’t work. I assume the main reason was that ICT doesn’t know much about/care much about Apple.
Continue reading →

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Posted in EMU Technology

EMU’s ‘Uncle Theo,’ 84, Dies

Posted on December 3, 2007 by | Leave a comment

From the Ann Arbor News, “EMU’s ‘Uncle Theo,’ 84, Dies. I didn’t know Theophilus Hamilton, but considering the fact that he worked at EMU for 40 years and was from Ypsilanti, I’m sure many readers out there who did know Uncle Theo.

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Posted in In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

EMU plans for a new DPS facility

Posted on December 3, 2007 by | 11 Comments

At Friday’s meeting of the Security Advisory Committee, Interim Chief of DPS Robert Heighes discussed the state of current plans for new, updated offices for DPS.  As far as I know there’s been no public statement by the university about these plans, but they are of interest to many, so I report here on that discussion.   The Board of Regents has approved,  sometime earlier this year, the DPS project, but it is not yet been determined whether it will be for a new building or refurbishing space that already exists somewhere on campus. The current location, in the basement of the parking structure, is too crowded and inherently unsuitable, given its structural limitations for modern communications equipment, etc.  Costs: Maybe $2 or $3 million.

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Posted in Board of Regents, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, Security and Safety

Prof. Lizbeth Stevens made Fellow of ASHA!

Posted on December 1, 2007 by | Leave a comment

At its recent convention in Boston, EMU associate professor of special education Lizbeth Stevens was made a “Fellow” of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.  The Ann Arbor News reported last Sunday that this “designation recognizes professional or scientific achievement” and “The status of Fellow is retained for life and is one of the highest honors the association bestows.”  Professor Stevens is a past president of the Michigan Speech-Language Hearing Association, and coordinates EMU’s speech-language pathology program.EMU has for well over a half century been a national leader in special education, and our speech-language pathology program (a field in special ed)  is outstanding.  Congratulations to Professor Stevens for this well deserved professional recognition, and for the honor it brings to EMU.  The Eastern faculty, across all the colleges, is an outstanding group of teacher-scholars.Education First is embodied by the work of colleagues like Professor Stevens.  Kudos! 

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Posted in Academics, Faculty Life