Hello Student Orgs;

The time has come that you all have been waiting for…the opening of fall reservation request! As of today you can began submitting your room request for the fall semester. *Please note that we can no longer allow any of the Martial Arts organizations to practice in The Commons on Main Street and the UC Ballroom cannot be reserved for any type of practice unless it’s the week of your event and you are planning to do a dress rehearsal. I have attached a document showing you how to go online and submit your request.

I know this is the time of year when organizations are beginning to establish their new board members for the next school year and I am extending my services to help you all out in the transition of your new officers. I will be happy to meet with your new officers and go over the whole event process from room reservations, contracts and other essential things important in the event planning process. If you are interested in setting up a meeting, please email me srbooker@umbc.edu with your preferred date and time and I will put you on my calendar so that we can meet.

Things to remember:

·         Any event requiring resources (LCD, Lights, Sound, etc..) must have money confirmed in their account 10 days prior to your event and this includes Academic Spaces as well.

·         If you are planning on serving food at your event it must be through a catering company and all required documents (Vendor Contract, License, and Certificate of Liability Insurance) needs to be turned in to Ms. Shawny White 10 days prior to your event.

·         If you are planning on showing a film for your event you must provide the copyrights in order to show the movie. ( You can contact Ms. Shawny White at saddison@umbc.edu or (410)455-1129 for information about obtaining the copyrights)

·         You cannot reserve multiple days for weekly meetings we only allow you to reserve (1) one day out of the week for your meetings

·         The only request for Academic Spaces we are processing at this time are those scheduled to take place during Free Hour or on Weekends; all other Academic Space request will not be processed until after the second week of the Fall Semester.

·         Please make sure you are communicating within your organization to avoid duplicate request being submitted

·         If you would like make changes to a request already submitted please do not submit another request all you will need to do is send an email to schedule@umbc.edu with your reservation number which is the 2012-AA*** Number. (The first four digits will always be the year the request was submitted, next spring semester it will read 2013-AA***)

·         If you are hosting an event and are planning on paying someone you will need to do a contract and this process is done by submitting the performers information to www.umbc.edu/studentlife/events/contract (Anyone that performs at an event that is not affiliated with UMBC requires a contract whether you are paying them or not.)

·         If you are hosting an event and your estimated attendance is less than half of the capacity of the room then, UMBC Events reserves the rights within a  (3) three weeks’ time of your event to switch you to another location of equal size. Since we are very limited with spaces on campus we want to be sure that we maximize the full usage of all the rooms.

·         Book.Plan.Enjoy…Book your event at www.umbc.edu/r25 . Plan out the details of your event with your organization and meet with Shannon Booker (optional for small events but required for large events). Enjoy your event and make UMBC Yours!

Courtesy of http://www.sightline.org

President Obama is boldly indicating that King Coal might just relinquish the energy throne. New regulatory standards the Obama administration has proposed for carbon dioxide emissions essentially block the construction of any new coal-fired power plants.

Who could have seen this coming?

Well, not necessarily the coal being dethroned thing, but the things-actually-getting-done-during-an-election-year thing. Seriously, environmental legislation at a time like this is pretty surprising.

The possible diminishing of coal’s dominion is not much of a shock. Coal’s power has already been declining even without this recent “assault,” as some coal advocates in Congress may call it.

In light of the natural gas boom, which has driven down the price of natural gas, there has naturally been a decrease in the construction of coal-fired plants.

Though roughly half of US energy is derived from coal, King Coal’s grip on the throne is ebbing.

Should coal be toppled, there’s not much doubt that the fossil fuel lineage will continue to reside with the monarchy. Natural gas continues to rise from the rocky depths of the energy debate, and it may be the pretender to the crown.

With the goal of building a greater sense of community in the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, students in the Linehan Freshman Seminar class participated in a Digital Story Workshop over a four week period. Their stories reflect the broad concerns of young talented artists as they begin their university careers in the arts. The stories speak of family, creative passions, and the search for identity in a complicated and fractured world.