Hiya folks! I need your help – as always. We will shortly be heading into our UMW-focused section of the course. And I am not sure what we should be reading & talking about.
I need YOUR SUGGESTIONS.
Please reply – you can comment on this post, you can add a new post, it’s all good – let’s put it in the CP bulletin board (so click that category when you post, or just comment on this one…).
When you reply, would you opine on:
-topics you find important for us to think about
-documents you think we should read (it’s ok if you don’t know this!! But if you do, holler and help us all)
I’d suggest the Strategic Plan, maybe. And I can find/post a copy of that. We could consider lots of other plans or reports or articles in the Blue & Grey Press or the Free Lance Star; or maybe you think we should think about stuff that is posted online somewhere; or we should read flyers on bulletin boards or what has been written on the rock – I DON’T KNOW. Think about it, and help steer this ship.
Best,
LM
Past protests organized by UMW students and why or why not they were successful, maybe talk abut which students or organizations have decision “power” on campus.
Since I’m an urban planning nerd, I think the Strategic Plan for UMW would be interesting to look at! Even if it is not integrated into our discussion or agenda, I would still like to take a look at it if you posted it on the blog.
-Elisa
Not exactly a document but the Mary Washington First Campaign website (giving.umw.edu/mwfirst/) is a fun place to click around and see what information is provided… but more interestingly, what is not. We get a little bit of info about where money goes but not specific dollar amounts (only goals) and nothing that I can find about who does this allocation which seems to me like a lot of power to have. I would bet every dollar that I have raised during my time as a Phonathon caller that current students aren’t even considered to have input. This information might be available somewhere else but the giving website is certainly the most accessible.
I agree with your recommendation.
I think a good topic of discussion would be transparency, communication, and conflict between the students and administration; documents could include articles on the Divest movement from last year: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/fredericksburg/after-arrests-divest-umw-group-vows-to-demonstrate/article_346a1eba-e48b-11e4-8ed8-7bfbaa323f70.html
http://www.fredericksburg.com/letter-to-divest-umw/pdf_11279b8a-e3eb-11e4-bdf7-23ff5a18aad2.html
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/03/28/students-at-mary-washington-join-nationwide-sit-in-movement-for-divestment/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz9sWnwwvjk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noNFJPMHFeM
as well as the Title IX complaint filed by Feminists United: http://www.kmblegal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Complaint-Press-Feminists-United-et-al-v.-University-of-Mary-Washington.pdf?98d3f6
Additional topics for further discussion might be student and staff frustration with the perceived commercialization of UMW, though I am not certain what readings might be relevant here.
Lastly, we might talk about tuition hikes: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/students-protest-tuition-hike-at-university-of-mary-washington/article_dbbff449-91a9-5a95-a89c-a43037eb18a5.html
http://www.umw.edu/news/2015/05/08/umw-board-of-visitors-announces-tuition-fees-for-2015-16/
How money is used at UMW?
I was interested in the topic you brought up in class about credit hours. You referenced having 1 credit classes, giving way for more classes, so that students can go in depth on their subject. This was an idea I found interesting and would like to read more about it.
I was interested in your suggestion about the credit hours being changed to 1 credit per class. I have also been interested in learning about the increase in students this semester. It seems more diverse, which is a good thing! But I was wondering what encouraged the change?
http://students.umw.edu/judicialaffairs/alcohol-policy/
I think it would be interesting to talk about our school’s alcohol policy and lack of an amnesty policy, especially since we brought up the issue of Fredericksburg police officers being especially stubborn about alcohol-related incidents in class. I know of several school’s with plans that are much more in-depth and make it so that students aren’t afraid to take their friends to the hospital when they suspect they may be suffering from alcohol poisoning; if we implemented something similar to that at UMW, we could prevent so many scary situations and save peoples’ lives.
I also think it would be interesting to study the one credit hour option you told us about in class. I’ve never heard about that so it would be interesting to hear everyone’s opinion on it!