Losing the lottery: Room selection 2008

By Aubrey Ramsdell

This spring marked the second year of UMass Dartmouth’s online housing selection process. This year, the entire affair was online, including the contracts. The system itself was in good order, thankfully not being plagued with the crashes and downtime that marked a tough launch last spring. The process, however, was met with mixed feelings.

The Office of Housing and Residential Life accepted deposits from more people than they could accommodate. Victor Culatta, the Director, said that this problem was normal. “Most colleges don’t have enough housing space to accommodate every student who wants to go there,” he said.

Culatta continued, “Nothing is set just yet. People drop housing before filling out contracts, and spaces usually clear over the summer.”

Unfortunately, when the residence halls filled up on the afternoon of Thursday, May 1, “over four hundred students” were left without a room. Culatta stated that the students would be added to a wait list, “which is still being compiled.” He said that OHRL will be in communication with students over the summer, starting June 1 to try to get them housing on campus.

When asked about why there was such an overflow, Culatta said, “We received an unexpected amount of deposits this year from residents and commuters. It’s wonderful that so many people want to live on campus. It says good things about the school.”

Students who went through the room selection process had a lot to say about it.

“They handled it really badly,” said Julianne Henry, a freshman who will be living in Pine Dale next year. “Two of my friends don’t have a place to live next year.”

“Housing is so messed up,” said Dylan Cashman, a sophomore who’s in Cedar Dell West next fall. “Every [apartment] was taken within two days of sign up. I think I’m just going to live in the bell tower and make things easier,” he added with a touch of humor.

A group of students attended the Residence Hall Congress meeting on Thursday, May 1, where they presented a list of concerns.

Complaints regarding this year’s housing selection have ranged from calls for blood to the simple lament of not being able to live near their friends next year. Some students have said they were just glad that they got a room at all. Others blame OHRL for allowing commuters to participate in room selection at the same time that residents did. Many upper classmen blamed freshmen and sophomores for taking up the apartments, and a good deal of suggestions for next year have revolved around that concern.

Not everyone blamed Housing, though. Kerri Wilbur, a sophomore who managed to get an apartment in the Woodlands said, “It’s not Housing’s fault. It’s the school’s fault for taking in too many freshmen for the last few years. They should have known that they didn’t have the space for people and that this would happen. It’s stupid.”

Wilbur raised a valid concern. According to members of the administration, the size of the freshman class is now “capped,” meaning that they don’t intend to keep raising the limit.

There is a room selection process committee that welcomes student members who are interested in sharing their ideas. The committee also hears from the RHC. Culatta encouraged students to look into both groups and to speak out about their opinions.

Some students weren’t content with merely making suggestions. A few of those interviewed said that they’d like to see new people in charge of room selection, even going so far as to say that they’d like to see Vic Culatta fired.

Asked about rumors regarding the state of his contract, Culatta denied any claims that his contract was not being renewed. He did affirm that he is looking for a new job, but he stated that his decision was not influenced by the housing shortage.

“I’m looking for a career advancement. People in student affairs are constantly moving and changing locations — like the new Vice Chancellor, Dr. Kim. She’s been coast to coast,” he said. “I like this university. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t, but I’m looking for something else,” he added with a smile.

UMD Commencement undergoes major changes

By Stephanie Luz

Students can expect to see many changes and big announcements for UMass Dartmouth’s 2008 Commencement. In a total of two days approximately 1,550 Graduate, Undergraduate and Doctoral students will cross the stage to receive their hard-earned degrees. Highly acclaimed journalist and senior correspondent for The News Hour, Ray Suarez has been announced as the speaker at the separate undergraduate commencement ceremony.

In the past, commencement has been a one-day ceremony, but that has changed this year. Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack, Assistant to the Chancellor for Public Affairs John Hoey and Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Dr. David Milstone created two separate ceremonies this year: a Graduate and Doctoral student commencement on Saturday, May 24 and an Undergraduate student ceremony the next day, Sunday, May 25.

Hopes are that these ceremonies will be more appropriate for the students receiving degrees and less time-consuming for the students and their families. “It cuts down the time drastically so that people will stay the whole time,” commented Milstone.

Chi-Hang “Andy” Fung, a dual major in Digital Media and Photography, will take part in this year’s undergraduate ceremony. “Last year, it was so packed because everyone was together, but this year it should be better because less students have to sit and wait,” he said.

Dr.Onesky Aupont, who is a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, will deliver the Graduate Commencement Address. Milstone explained that masters and doctoral students were not a focus in the past commencement ceremonies, “They were almost the forgotten group, but now we made it special for them.”

Yong Zhang, who received a degree in engineering and physics from UMass Dartmouth and is now the chief operating officer of Salary.com, will also speak at the Graduate Commencement along with Graduate Student Jennifer Ling Datchuk, who is a Master of Fine Arts candidate.

At the Undergraduate Ceremony, students will be seated by college and receive their diplomas on the Vietnam Veterans’ Peace Memorial Amphitheater stage. In previous years, students were seated in the amphitheater and then directed to other locations to receive diplomas within their college.

This year, everyone will cross one stage in two simultaneous lines of students. Modeling the commencement ceremony at UMass Boston, Milstone said that having two lines of students crossing the stage will cut time of the ceremony down from an estimated three hours to about one hour and fifteen minutes. “It’s not competing, it’s complimentary,” stated Milstone.

Student Trustee Tamara Endich will speak at the undergraduate ceremony. She noted, “I think it’s a great change having attended previous Commencement ceremonies because when students separated into their colleges, it got chaotic. I feel that now it will run smoothly and with the split of the Grads and Undergrads, the amphitheater won’t be as packed.”

“Commencement 2008 at UMass Dartmouth is going to feature a diverse array of people who have had and continue to have an enormous impact on the lives of others,” said Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack. She added, “This will be a celebration of the power of education and innovation to strengthen our Commonwealth, nation, and world; and a challenge to the Class of 2008 to set a new and even higher standard of global engagement.”

This year’s Honorary Degree recipients are representative of Chancellor MacCormack’s vision and will join Suarez on stage during undergraduate commencement. Recipients include Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife Joan Jacobs, Southcoast Hospitals Group CEO Ronald Goodspeed, and retired UMass Dartmouth Dean of Students Donald Howard who has served the university for forty-two years and has “been like a mentor to hundreds of students” said Hoey.

There will be an Honorary Degree recipient’s dinner on Saturday, May 24, the evening of graduate commencement. This was planned so graduate and doctoral students may attend.

At the undergraduate commencement, there will be screen projections set up in the Library Browsing area and Commuter Café located in the McClean Campus Center. There will also be streaming video of the ceremony posted on the university website. Following the commencement, there will be receptions for each college where students and families can speak with professors and other faculty.

For additional information, refer to the Commencement website: http://www.umassd.edu/commencement/ or refer to the Commencement Hot Line number: 508-910-6971.

UMass Dartmouth introduces MyAlert

By Katie Bresnahan

UMass Dartmouth is the most recent of 29 Massachusetts universities and colleges to adopt the MyAlert system, which notifies students, faculty and staff of major campus emergencies via text messages or voice mail on their cell phones.

The purpose of the MyAlert system is to “let people know that there is an emergency [on campus], to let them know what kind of emergency it is and to let them know what to do and let them know where to go for more accurate, up-to-date information,” explained University Spokesperson John Hoey.

Hoey explained, “Text messaging is the number one option [to warn of emergencies],” because e-mail is too slow. Plus, not all students check their UMD e-mail accounts every day. He said that messages sent through this new emergency system will be very brief.

Carolyn Hamel, Director of IT Development at UMass Dartmouth said that many of these text messages will direct students, faculty and staff to their UMD e-mail account or the university website where they will be able to find more information about the nature of the emergency message.

“It’s alive,” said Hoey of MyAlert’s status at UMD, “but we’re still testing it.” He mentioned that while off-campus this Monday he received a test text message on his cell phone from the system.

So far, Hoey said that there has not been much feedback on the new emergency alert system. This is mainly because the university has not needed to use MyAlert for an actual emergency and not that many people are signed up right now. But, he said what he has heard so far has been positive.

Hoey reported, “Within [the first] couple days we already had about 1000 students, faculty and staff signed up. It was terrific to see such a rapid response!”

UMD elected to use MyAlert not only because of the company’s work with the rest of the UMass system and Massachusetts State and Community Colleges, but also for “their experience in the field and the capacity of the system,” said Hoey.

“The students, faculty and staff have to sign up [to use MyAlert],” said Hamel. She said they can do so at the UMD website. “We’d like to get as many people [signed up] as we can,” she added.

Hoey said, “Right now we are asking them to sign up.” However, he added, requiring all members of the campus community to use the system is up for discussion.

As for people who do not own cell phones, Hoey said that they can provide MyAlert with another phone number and receive voice mails.

He also stated that if a group of students, faculty and staff are somewhere on campus together “as long as someone in the area is signed up the others there will be notified.”

Hoey reminds that MyAlert is only a small part of a larger communication system. Parts of the larger system include e-mail and the university website. He says that all of these pieces must work in order to keep the campus community well informed.

According to Hoey, the next campus innovation in public safety will be a campus-wide siren system. He said, “When you hear that signal you will know there is an emergency.” He is hopeful that this system will be operational by September.