UCS News Archives for 2008-2009 - for the lastest news click here
April 22, 2009
Congratulations to everybody who participated in the Spring UCS/UFB Elections. The final results are posted below:
| Clay Wertheimer '10 | UCS President |
| Diane Mokoro '11 | UCS Vice-President |
| Robert Taj Moore '11 | Academic and Administrative Affairs Chair |
| Andrew Bergmanson '11 | Admissions and Student Services Chair |
| Ben Farber '12 | Campus Life Chair |
| Brady Wyrtzen '11 | Student Activities Chair |
| Jose Vasconez '10 | UFB Chair |
| Juan Vasconez '10 | UFB Vice-Chair |
April 15, 2009
At today's BUCC (Brown University Community Council) meeting, Chancellor Thomas Tisch '76 announced that members of the corporation will be introducing a proposal to create Young Alumni positions on the Brown Corporation. This decision is the result of a UCS proposal that was submitted to the corporation last year.
April 8, 2009
Andrea Mathews '11 and Alex Rosenberg '11 were appointed to the Honorary Degrees Advisory Committee. Congratulations!
March 18, 2009
Mike Pickett, VP for Computing and Information Services, John Spadaro, Director of Techincal Architecture & Outreach, and Donald Tom, Director of IT Support spoke at this week's general body meeting. They discussed the future of e-mail at Brown, and presented a number of options including Live@EDU, and gMail for Brown students. CIS will be conducting a pilot program with a new e-mail system; if you are interested in participating in the pilot, please e-mail UCS@Brown.edu
March 16, 2009
UCS is on twitter! This will serve as an additional way for us to communicate with the student body. Follow us to receive exciting updates and give us your input! Find us here: twitter.com/BrownUCS
March 9, 2009
The newest edition of the UCS Monthly has been sent out! Check out the archives for the newest updates from UCS, and past announcements.
March 4, 2009
President Simmons and Vice President for Campus Life, Margaret Klawunn, hosted an open forum at tonight's UCS meeting. President Simmons provided a brief update on Brown's economic status and then took questions from members of UCS and the community. Topics raised included representation on University committees, student employment opportunities and support for Development Studies. For more information please see our minutes.
Tonight the general body appointed Arthur Matuszewski '12 to the University Resources Committee for a two-year term. For more information on University Appointments please click here.
February 18, 2009
Vice President for Finance and Administration, Beppie Huidekoper, presented an update on the state of Brown's financial affairs. She also announced that the University will be going forward with renovations to Faunce, building the Creative Arts Center, and more. Click here for BDH coverage. For more information please read our minutes.
UCS passed the Combus Day resolution asking the adminstration to end its observance of Columbus day.
February 11, 2009
UCS passed the Morning Mail resolution and introduced a resolution regarding the recognition of the Columbus Day holiday. We will vote on the Columbus Day resolution next week.
February 4, 2009
Tonight UCS members introduced a resolution asking the administration to rescind its newest submission policy for Morning Mail. UCS is scheduled to vote at next week's meeting, please provide us with feedback in the meantime at UCS@Brown.edu
The newest edition of the UCS Monthly was released today. Check it out for information on upcoming UCS projects!
January 29, 2009
The Faculty Executive Committee issued a formal response to UCS's resolution to discontinue the technological enforcement of prerequisites on Banner. Unfortunately, the FEC is not supportive of reducing the restrictions on Banner. The Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee will hold a public meeting to discuss the implications of this decision and the next steps UCS will take. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 3 at 6:30pm in the UCS Office, Faunce 228.
Thank you to all who participated in the elections for UFB representative. Congratulations to Benjamin Schrank '11 and Tyler Rosenbaum '11, who were elected UFB representative and UCS-UFB liaison, respectively. BDH coverage of the elections here.
January 27, 2009
The Faculty Executive Committee met with members of UCS to discuss our resolution regarding the technological enforcement of prerequisites on Banner. Members presented the resolution and took questions from the faculty; UCS expects to receive a response later in the week.
UCS members met with Marisa Quinn, Vice-President of Public Affairs and University Relations, to discuss the recent change in Morning Mail policy. UCS shares the community's concern that the policy change will negatively impact student life at Brown. We are working with the administration to create a solution quickly.
December 5, 2008
UCS released the next issue of the The UCS Monthly. This issue covers the our recent meetings with the Brown Corporation and President Simmons, as well as the Banner Prerequisite resolution, and UCS updates.
There is also an opening on a University Committee - the Parking Violation Appeals Board If you are interested in joining this committee please e-mail Appointments Chair, Phileda Tennant.
December 3, 2008
Two members of the Brown Corporation, Elizabeth Chace '59 and Joan Sorensen '72, attended tonight's UCS meeting. They were joined by Secretary of the University, Al Dalhberg and Vice President for Campus Life, Margaret Klawunn. UCS and members of the community discussed the creation of Young Alumni positions on the corporation, University governance, endowing the student activities fund and other topics. Thank you to everybody who attended.
November 19, 2008
UCS passed a resolution tonight disapproving the technological enforcement of prerequisites on Banner. We will be bringing this resolution to the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) after Thanksgiving Break.
November 13, 2008
Thank you to everybody who took the UCS Fall Poll -- over 1000 students participated! This information will help us further our annual agenda. The poll results are online and available to the public.
November 11, 2008
UCS hosted its first Town Hall Meeting of the semester this evening in Mochamp Lounge. Be on the look out for future Town Hall Meetings at different locations on campus.
November 6, 2008
The UCS/BCA Fall Poll is on myCourses now! This is an opportunity for UCS to better represent the undergraduates. And it's an opportunity for you to win Spring Weekend tickets -- all poll participants will be entered in a drawing.
UCS released the next issue of the The UCS Monthly. This issue covers recent UCS resolutions, the Annual Agenda, and our progress creating Young Alumni positions on the Corporation. There is also an opening on a University Committee - the Subcommittee on Athletics and Physical Education. If you are interested in joining this committee please e-mail Appointments Chair, Phileda Tennant.
November 5, 2008
At tonight's general body meeting UCS introduced a resolution condemning the enforcement of prerequisites on Banner. We will be voting on this resolution next week, November 12th. If you have any questions, comments, concerns or examples of Banner impacting your undergraduate experience please e-mail us.
October 29, 2008
UCS approved the Annual Agenda -- a set of goals and projects for the year. As we progress, we'll be providing progress report on the website and via e-mail. Please take a look and let us know if you have any suggestions -- UCS@Brown.edu.
UCS passed a resolution asking the University Resources Committee (URC) to increase the Student Activities Fee by $7. This small increase is intended to account for inflation, rising costs, and the addition of new category three groups. UCS will present this resolution to Provost Kertzer and the URC in November.
October 28, 2008 - UCS in the News!
UCS Representatives attended the URC open forum on Monday, October 27. Representatives attended to learn more about Brown's funding priorities during the economic downturn and hear concerns from other groups and departments on campus. Representatives also spoke on two UCS resolutions -- supporting real, just and sustainable food at Brown and increasing the student activities fee. Check out BDH coverage of the forum.
October 23, 2008
UCS presented a proposal to the Undergraduate Finance Board (UFB) to subsidize advertising space for student groups in the Brown Daily Herald (BDH). The BDH ran a successful pilot program for the last three weeks, but is unable to continue offering this service free of charge. Given the lack of a centralized space for students to find out about campus events, UCS felt that this was an important service that should be continued. Unfortunately, UFB denied our request for funding. While we are disappointed with this decision, we will continue to explore ways to give student groups better campus wide coverage in the future. If advertising space in the BDH is something that you, or your student group would like, please e-mail your UFB representative. If you have additional thoughts on how UCS can help facilitate communications across campus please e-mail us at UCS@brown.edu
October 22, 2008
This evening UCS introduced a resolution asking the University Resources Committee (URC) to increase the Student Activities Fee. This marginal increase is intended to raise the SA fee to keep it steady with inflation. By supporting this resolution, UCS is demonstrating our continued support for student groups. UCS will be voting on the resolution next week -- if you have any questions or concerns please e-mail us at UCS@Brown.edu. Last year UCS passed a similar resolution and successfully lobbied the URC to increase the SA fee.
October 15, 2008
UCS passed the Real Food Resolution!
October 9, 2008
UCS is advocating for the creation of a Young Alumni position on Brown's Corporation. We strongly believe that Brown University and the Corporation will benefit by having a recent graduate contribute to the Corporation's deliberations. We hope to provide an update on this after the Corporation meeting in mid-October. Read BDH coverage here.
October 8, 2008
Members from the Real Food Challenge presented a resolution urging Brown University to become a more active participant in building a just and sustainable food system. UCS will be voting on the resolution at next week's meeting (October 15th). Please take a look at the resolution. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please e-mail us at UCS@brown.edu!
Thank you to everybody who ran for the UFB At-Large Position! Congratulations to Jose Vasconez '10, who was elected to the position. Details from the election can be found in this week's minutes.
October 6, 2008
UCS and the Dean of the College cosponsored an open forum, Liberal Studies in a New Century. For those that attended, it was an opportunity to discuss the report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. The forum was covered by the BDH. Please continue to share you comments and suggestions for how Brown should improve its undergraduate experience. We want to hear your concerns.
October 1, 2008
The Undergraduate Finance Board withdrew its amendments at the UCS meeting on September 24. Click here for BDH coverage of the meeting. Produced below is a formal statement that UFB sent to UCS following the meeting. This statement was read at the October 1 UCS meeting.
In the last couple of weeks, our foray into the grey area of UCS/UFB politics has diverted our attention from our main purpose: to fund and aid student groups in their quest to get funding. I still need to do a lot of work to start the Fundraising series; Stefan [Smith, UFB Vice Chair] and I need to figure out our policies toward Months/Weeks. We both still have to train our latest members.
With that said, we jointly decided to withdraw the amendments for now, pending further discussion later on in the semester. We believe that it is best if UCS publicizes the At-Large Representative spots and fills the position. We would still like to hear discussion on the UCS/UFB process of negotiating the contracts, but the others frankly don't quite matter right now.
Lily Tran
Chair, Undergraduate Finance Board
September 30, 2008
Introducing The UCS Monthly. A regular e-mail newsletter for the undergraduate community. You can read archives of The UCS Monthly here. UCS sent a letter to the Brown Daily Herald announcing The UCS Monthly. The letter is produced below:
On Monday evening, the Undergraduate Council of Students sent out the first issue of the UCS Monthly, an e-mail which aims to be a monthly collection of useful announcements and updates for the undergraduate community.
In the past, the random and frequent UCS e-mails haven't been particularly popular. We're hoping to change this by making them more concise and relevant - and if you still find them annoying, at least they'll appear less frequently! We're excited to be establishing a publication that provides regular updates to the student body. This is part of our effort to increase our accountability and transparency to the student body. In addition to The UCS Monthly, we are also maintaining and enhancing the UCS Web site, and exploring taking out ad space in The Herald.
UCS meets every Wednesday at 7:30 PM in Petteruti Lounge, Faunce House. As always, our meetings are open to the public and we encourage you to come and share your thoughts. And we would love to hear how you would like to hear from UCS. We want to keep you informed and need your suggestions.
Clay Wertheimer
Communications Chair
Undergraduate Council of Students
Sept. 30
Septebmer 17, 2008
UCS held it's first meeting on Wednesday, September 17th. Highlights included elections for officer positions and introductions of UFB amendments.
Congratulations to everybody who ran for an officer position! A full account of the election results is included in this week's minutes. In summary:
| Alyssa Blood | Campus Life Chair |
| Debra Kao | Admissions and Student Services Chair |
| Sarah Rutherford | Secretary |
| Phileda Tennant | Appointments Chair |
| Sammy McGowan | Alumni Liaison |
| Erinn Phelan | Corporation Liaison |
| Jonah Fay | UCS-UFB Liaison |
| Harris Li | Ivy Council Head Delegate |
| Ryan Lester | Ivy Council Policy Chair |
April 2008
The UCS Assessment Task Force has released its report. The report details a number of issues surrounding UCS and possible solutions. Please feel free to offer your suggestions on the report and raise any questions or concerns.
Report of the UCS Assessment Task Force
February 2008
UCS has issued recommendations to Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh and the Campus Center Planning Committee containing suggestions about what should be included in the new facility. Please feel free to let us know your opinions on the recommendations and any further suggestions regarding the building.
UCS Recommendations on the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center
January 2008
UCS has issued recommendations to President Simmons and senior administrators about possible imporvements for the Plan for Academic Enrichment (PAE). Please feel free to let use know your opinions on the plan and our recommendations.
UCS Recommendations on the Plan for Academic Enrichment (PAE)