It’s election season! And I’m not referring to Maryland’s presidential primary election (which is only a few weeks away). SGA elections for the 2012-2013 academic year are just around the corner, April 21-23. But while voting takes place on those days, the SGA Election Board is already in the middle of recruiting candidates to run for these positions.

Every spring, UMBC’s undergraduate students elect peers to 20 positions: 11 Senators, 5 Finance Board Representatives, a Vice President for Student Organizations, a Treasurer, an Executive Vice President, and a President. The students who will be sworn into these positions take on the responsibility of allocating your student activity fees, planning, coordinating, and facilitating campus initiatives, advising and supporting student organizations, representing your interests, and working with you to make UMBC yours.

To run for SGA office, you can start by completing a candidate application with some basic information about who you are and why you want to run. Those will be due before Spring Break, on Friday, March 16th. After Spring Break, campaigns will kick into gear. Look out for open houses, debates, candidate profiles, and other ways to learn about who’s running for office.

In the meantime, check out www.umbc.edu/studentvote! It’s got more information about SGA structure, the positions that are open, eligibility requirements, and more. The Election Board will be keeping it updated with news about information sessions, reminders about relevant deadlines, and other great resources for potential candidates.

New to the website this year is the “Tell Them To Run” tab. “Tell Them To Run” allows students to encourage each other to make a commitment to the UMBC community. Let someone know that you think they have leadership potential. Let them know you think they have great ideas. Let them know you would vote for them. And tell them they should run! Fill out the Google form, and the Election Board will make sure your message gets to them.

If you have any questions at all regarding the election process, be sure to attend the following Information Sessions, sponsored by the SGA Election Board, or contact Caitlyn Leiter-Mason, the Chair of the SGA Election Board (cait13@umbc.edu).

Candidate Information Sessions:

Tuesday, March 6, 2:30 pm, Commons 331
Monday, March 12, 12:00 pm, Commons 327

A Sophomore Computer Science major, Dan Maselko has been a tutor in the Computer Science Help Center since last fall.

Dan Maselko got hooked on computer science in high school. “When I took my first computer programming course in tenth grade,” he says, “I realized how easy and fun it was for me to get computers to solve problems.” Since then, Dan, a Sophomore, has been working towards his Computer Science degree while helping those who struggle with the subject.

Last Fall, Dan applied to be a tutor in the Computer Science Help Center. “The best thing about tutoring is getting the chance to help other students learn,” he says. “Every time someone walks out of the door of the Help Center with a better understanding of the material they had questions about, I just feel good knowing I could help them learn something.” Though Dan mainly helps students in CMSC 104, 201, and 202, the center provides help for students in most lower-level Computer Science courses including CMSC 100, 203, 313, 331, and 341, he explains.

The Computer Science Help Center—located in ITE 201-E—offers tutoring on a walk in basis. “Anyone enrolled in a Computer Science course at UMBC can be tutored by the Help Center,” says Dan, “and it’s completely free.” Dan compares the challenges of tutoring to those faced by computer scientists.

“The good challenge is trying to figure out how to make the computer science topics make sense to different people with different ways of thinking,” explains Dan. “Trying to understand so many diverse strategies is a lot like solving a problem in computer science.”

Dan has plans to continue tutoring until he pursues a Master’s degree in Computer Science. Once in graduate school, his teaching aspirations will not cease: “I do hope to eventually become a TA.” Though Dan enjoys helping others, he’s not set on a career in teaching, though he’s still considering it. “I…want to work at a job that’s exciting and requires collaboration,” he says. “Right now the thing that excites me most is cyber security.”

While Meryl Streep brought home an Oscar for her role a the steely British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a more contemporary female politician is getting kudos of her own.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is now Europe’s de facto leader. As the Chancellor of the continent’s largest economy she has been spearheading the financial recovery efforts in the teetering European Union.

With Greece, Italy, Ireland, and Spain’s facing mounting debts, Merkel has been the “Go-To” person to look for financial assistance.

And the problems she and the Eurozone are facing are serious. A meltdown in Europe would have serious consequences for the US.

Will Merkel be the next Thatcher? If so… what will her movie legacy look like a decade from now?

Some critics thought the Thatcher film was a downer. Let’s hope Merkel’s film has a happy (economic) ending.

Leviticus 25:8-13. 39-43 (NIV)

8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.

39 “‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves. 40 They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors. 42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. 43 Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.

Reflection:

Imagine living life as a slave for 49 years. All that is endured in those years - the daily burden of servitude and discrimination - changes in one moment as the trumpet sounds. The year of Jubilee is anything but life as usual. For the Israelites who had lived under the burden of captivity and debt, God made a way for freedom and restoration. Perhaps the year of Jubilee was most significant for those living as servants and slaves. For them it was a not just a time of freedom, but also a time of homecoming as they returned to their original land. It represented a new start, a clean slate, a time of new hope and dreams. In Luke 4, when Jesus declares the “year of the Lord’s favor,” Jesus is declaring that he is bringing about the Year of Jubilee to the whole world. His declaration is a sign of hope for those whose hearts are under captivity. Jesus invites us into his restoration and gives us a new start, regardless of how long we have been living under the burden of captivity.

Response:

We were once living as slaves and captives but in one moment everything changed. With Jesus’ declaration, we are reminded that our previous captivity was deeper than financial debt and physical bondage. We see that God’s heart for his people all along was to set us free and bring us home into his kingdom reign.Today, Jesus’ declaration of the year of the Lord’s favor is for everyone. Let’s pray for those in our campuses and workplaces who have yet to experience the year of Jubilee in their lives.