Safety

Color-coded safety map

• A color-coded student perspective safety map is a great way to indicate which areas on campus result in the most danger (ie: red = extreme danger between the hours of 10pm – 2am).

• E-mail and text message alerts about crime on campus are not enough to keep students aware of potential danger that affects them personally.

• The map will be updated every academic year and posted in all resident halls on campus, shuttle UM buses and will be distributed at orientation in handouts.

Transparency

Meetings posted on YouTube.com

• Students no longer have to attend SGA meetings to find out what is going on, they will be recorded and posted on youtube.com.

• This will increase accountability and knowledge of student issues and transparency on how the legislation process works

Monthly SGA newspaper

• a monthly SGA newsletter will be produced to let students know what is going on with SGA

• the newsletter will be distributed to all student groups, residential halls and Greek organizations in order to reach the student population.

• Features will include:
  • Legislator of the month
  • Presidential update on the status of the success of the initiatives

New Website programs

• To evaluate student opinion

• Student polls on SGA programs to help determine what direction the student body feels SGA should take in advocating for their issues

Addition of a fiscal note to SGA legislative bills

Transportation

Shuttle Buses

• Advocating re-routing and a student evaluation board/forum on what works and what students need from the SGA

• Improvement on bus times and frequency of bus routes

Bike Routes

• New SGA initiative to promote safety and environmental sustainability on campus

• Advocate for campus-wide bike lanes

Accountability

• Current carpooling program has weak promotion and no statistics available to student leaders on its efficiency and its actual benefit to students

Purple Line

• SGA will continue to support this important project and investment for the future

• Is important to the matter of sustainability

• Can expand internship and job opportunities in the Bethesda and Washington, D.C. areas

Academic Affairs

Mentor program

• Campus-wide mentorship program pairing juniors and seniors with freshman and sophomores in their major in order to combat the disconnect between students at such a large university

• Resources will be provided to develop the mentor relationship

• The program will allow students in the same major to share advice and experiences, thus helping campus-wide academic improvement

Textbooks

• Many combined methods will be needed in order to combat the rising costs of textbooks including:
  • Lobbying in Annapolis
  • A direct advocacy effort towards publishers and combating special interest with increased student interest because we are the consumers!

• Increase the use of digital and free classroom materials to lower the cost of quality education
  • Supplement or replace textbooks such as Course Reserves and open-source textbooks

Faculty-related improvements

• Lobbying the University for proper funding allocation to BSOS and other under-funded colleges

• Campus professor standing- ensuring quality instructors through post-tenure review
  • Major focus on student input

• Improve CONNECTions between faculty and students by working to improve faculty-student dinners and creating events focused on departments

Other CONNECTions

• Alumni-student CONNECTion improvements through college-specific job fairs and job outlook fairs by department

• CONNECT students with other students by continuing the First Look Fair and increasing attendance to increase number of students involved on campus

Advocacy for Students Issues

Lobbying in Annapolis

• Tuition, textbooks, affordable housing

• New ways of getting students involved in the lobbying and advocacy process.

• New and innovative lobbying efforts:
  • cookie or cake shaped textbook competition
    • SGA will give $100 dollars to any student groups FRS account to whoever gets the most members out to Annapolis lobbying efforts.

Lobbying right here on Campus

• Getting the SGA and students across campus to bring a new method of advocating for campus issues by mobilizing students to lobby DOTS, the Administration, and College Park City Council for our issues.

• Getting the student voice to become a bigger presence on campus issues by using grassroots lobbying methods and tactics.
  • Annapolis is not the only area where the student voice is needed.
  • The pressure will be put on administrators from the SGA through the presence of students with lobbying for their issues on campus.

• SGA-sponsored awareness of University of Maryland contract bids to make sure students are aware and involved in the bid conversations through media promotion

Bringing Students Together

· Revitalizing Terp-Palooza

o an all day concert event at Richie Coliseum

o bands and acts across the D.C. metropolitan area will come to the University on a Saturday in the Fall semester

o to promote environmental sustainability and world peace!

o Money will be raised to give to nonprofit organizations in the D.C. metropolitan that help in these two areas.

§ This will continue the campus relationship with Washington D.C. and open up relationships with other organizations in the area.

Student Groups & Building a Relationship with SGA

Funding

· We all know that the purse strings nationwide are getting tighter.

o This calls for the SGA to provide different funding ideas for Student Groups and cheaper ways to provide programming.

· Preliminary budget program

o The key focus of next year’s agenda

o Provides all student groups that request SGA funding with an opportunity to submit a “mock budget”.

§ Mock budgets will be reviewed and returned with comments as a way of providing groups with an opportunity to fix their mistakes and re-submit requests for primary and secondary funding.

§ This is not a guarantee that groups will receive 100% of their funding requests since there is a limited budget and a large number of student groups, instead it serves as a way for group funding not to be slashed due to errors in the submission process.

§ This will provide students that are responsible for their groups budget the opportunity to understand how the process works.

· Strict adherence to a non-flexible budget schedule to ensure all student groups have a fair chance to represent their needs.

SGA liaisons

· Currently the SGA requires every group to have an SGA liason in order to be recognized as a student group

· The Director of Student Groups will take these mandatory positions and conduct a meeting every semester

o Will provide resources and build a relationship with between the director and the liaisons

· The role of the liason will go further than ever before and serve as an expert in each student group’s issues to further campus input

· Partnering liaisons with legislators

o SGA will become better versed with campus issues and improve on legislation that student groups want to see such as:

§ co-sponsoring events

§ taking stands on different issues

Presidential Student Advisory Board (PSAB)- This is be a board developed to represent the multiple and diverse viewpoints of the student body. A student representative will be appointment to the board for many communities across campus to serve as a liaison to the SGA. This board will meet once a month to discuss student concerns and will be in place to call upon during times of emergency.

Keeping CONNECTed to Students

Personal Appointment Opportunities

· no longer do the students have to come to the office…the office will come to the students!

· Appointments to see the Student Body President can be made via email or phone and she will go to meet any student at whatever location is best for them.

Campus wide suggestion boxes

• feedback from the student body is extremely important in running the campus better and reflecting the needs of the students.

• SGA needs the student perspective and feedback to better serve the campus community.

• This also gives students the opportunity to be anonymous if they wish to make sure the SGA is connected to all the opinions of the campus.

Housing Resources

Pick a- Home: a pledge to get the improve the current landlord rating system to be available to students. The face lift to Pick a-Home will mirror the frequently used website of pick-a prof in having student rate the areas off and on campus in which they have lived. This will give student pricing, the opinion of current student on safety of the area, how the shuttles run and more. Pick a-Home will be a great web resource for student here at UMD to turn to when selecting a place to live.