The minutes for the April 8th SGFC meeting are posted here.

The Working Group on Neighborhood Quality of Life invites you to two open forums on retail and amenities in Hyde Park. These forums will be held next week:

Tuesday, April 8, at 12pm
Ida Noyes Cloister Club (first floor of Ida Noyes Hall)
Free lunch will be served

Thursday, April 10, at 6pm
Stuart Lounge (lower level of Stuart Hall)
Free dinner will be served

The Working Group on Neighborhood Quality of Life has been charged by the Vice President and Dean of Students in the University, Kimberly Goff-Crews, and the Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer, Nimalan Chinniah, to evaluate student perceptions of neighborhood amenities and retail; recommend the best way to support a stronger community and quality of life through neighborhood improvements; advise the University on a series of short and long-term neighborhood retail and amenities improvement efforts; and encourage active student participation in community planning efforts.

These forums are an opportunity for you to share your perspective and interests with the Working Group, and to help the University in its short and long-term planning efforts.

We hope you will join us at one of these forums, and look forward to hearing your perspective there.

Best regards,

Tex Dozier, 3^rd Year in the College, Co-Chair of the Working Group

Bill Michel, Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Associate Dean of the College, Co-Chair of the Working Group

Susan Campbell, Associate Vice President of Community and Government Affairs, Co-Chair of the Working Group

The minutes for the April 1st SGFC meeting are posted here.

It’s that time of year again!

If your RSO intends to apply for Annual Allocations funding please send a representative to one of the following mandatory info sessions. If you do not attend one of these information sessions, you cannot apply for Annual Allocations funding.

Tuesday, April 8, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, April 9, 6:00 pm
Thursday, April 10, 6:00 pm
Saturday, April 12, 2:00 pm

All information sessions will take place in Harper 130.

RSOs must meet with their adviser between Monday, April 14th and Thursday, April 24th. Email them to schedule a meeting. This is mandatory. Don’t know your adviser? See the FAQ.

Budget Workshops will be held at the following times, these are not mandatory (click to register). All Budget Workshops will take place in Bartlett Lounge.

Monday, April 21st from 5-8 PM for Religious or Academic RSOs
Tuesday, April 22nd from 5-8 PM for Social, Fine Arts or Community Service RSOs
Wednesday, April 23rd from 5-8 PM for Cultural or Graduate RSOs - This sign up is now closed. If you would like to get a time slot, please email kproctor@uchicago.edu with times you can attend during that period and we will try to accommodate you as best as possible.
Thursday, April 24th from 6-9 PM for Political or Publication RSOs

RSOs should attend their designated day but if you are not able to, please contact kproctor@uchicago.edu. For more on Budget Workshops (which used to be known as hearings, see this blog post).

All budgets are due on Sunday, April 27th at Midnight (That means no later than 23:59:59 on 4/27/08)

Annual Allocation Frequently Asked Questions.

SGFC Guidelines

Annual Allocations Website

SG Funding Page

For more information on Annual Allocations please speak with your RSO advisor or contact Kati Proctor at kproctor@uchicago.edu.

CORSO Meeting
March 11th, 2008
Minutes

Attending: Adama Wiltshire, Sharlene Holly, Matt Kennedy, Kathryn Benesh, Christian Brockman, Jay Kim, Tal Kopan

I. RC Party Discussion
1. Need to get free stuff to give away - t-shirts, cups, pens, etc
-get it organized & ordered over spring break; forms in to ORCSA next week
-should try to get more useful freebies - bottle-opener keychains?
-need to give out t-shirts beforehand as advertising
2. Emailing RSOs - few responses yet
-list of performers for the event - cultural RSOs, acapella groups, etc
3. Other activities
-caricatures (FOTA?)
4. Other items to address
-list of businesses, organizations willing to fund/work with RSOs
-try for at least 20 names
-Dakota has some information already, needs help organizing
-volunteers to help set up before the event
5. Publicity
-print flyers in Reynolds Club - large, letter-size, quarter-sheets
-table tents, chalking, emails, Facebook ads
6. Budget: $3000
-what name to apply for funding under?
-$1500 on Chipotle
-maybe it would be better to have a variety spread
-would need to advertise clearly the presence of decent food
-sampling from local restaurants, food companies
7. Scheduling / facilities
-could only get Hutch at 8pm, need more time for set-up
-Friday night might be better - or other spaces?
-facilities concerns about root beer kegs

II. Beats and Pieces
1. Purpose is outreach to children on the South Side
-creating a step team, holding steel drum classes
-brings the community together, gives kids something positive to do
2. Focus is on art, but we will be bringing our skills to the community
-short term plan is to get workshops, classes started
3. Questions
-Do you have connections to an outside service organization?
-yes: partnerships with schools, March of the Dimes, others
-Where are you going to have the museum?
-would like to eventually have a dedicated space; for now talking to UCSC about using their facilities
-Where are you thinking of getting funds from?
-grants, Uncommon Fund, donations
-Note: you could talk to FOTA, DuSable, Woodlawn Initiative
4. Discussion
-sounds like a great idea, maybe a little too ambitious/broad in scope?
-we shouldn’t punish them for aiming high, there aren’t any other complaints
5. Motion to approve: (4-0,0) PASSED

While this isn’t headline-worthy, its certainly blog-worthy.

Starting March 24, students enrolled in Ph.D. or J.S.D. programs will no longer be limited to three renewals of their library materials.  When the Library conducted a user survey last spring, we received several comments indicating that our three renewal policy was not serving dissertation writers well.

The issue came before the Library Student Resource Group (http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/about/studadv/) last quarter, and the students on this group endorsed changing the policy for those writing dissertations.  On January 24, the Board of the University Library approved changing our policy to allow unlimited renewals by students in Ph.D. or J.S.D. programs but reaffirmed the three renewal limit for other students.

In other words, this change only affects students with a Registrar registration status of “3″.

So congrats Ph.D. and J.S.D students.  Got a problem with this or incredibly thankful?  Use the comments.

-Scott

Minutes from the March 11th SGFC meeting are posted here.

Minutes from the March 4th CORSO meeting are now available.

The March 4th SGFC minutes are posted here.

The February 26th SGFC minutes are posted here.