Student Voice Association Academic Affairs Council

New MICA Building Hours

2009-08-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Students,

As you may all know now from Dusty's email, MICA will be changing its building closing hours in order to cut costs, as well as save energy. The new hours are as follows:

--> Main Building and Bunting Center

-----Monday through Friday: 7am-11pm

-----Saturday: 8am-6pm

-----Sunday: 12pm-6pm

-->Brown, Dolphin, Fox, Mt. Royal Station*, and Studio Center**

-----Monday through Friday: 7am-2pm

-----Saturday and Sunday: 8am-3am

*Rinehart School of Sculpture students can access Mt. Royal Station 24/7

** Graduate Students may access the Studio Center 24/7

Now, before everyone freaks out, please, do me a favor, and read this note that I posted on Facebook concerning the new building hours.

Click here for the link.

I appreciate everyone staying calm and thank you for taking the time to read the note in advance.

-Meghann

Last SVAAC Meeting of the Year

2009-04-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Come to the LAST SVAAC MEETING OF THE YEAR! We are having elections for next year's Academic Affairs Council cabinet. Those who are current positions will step down. They are able to run again, but we are allowing an opportunity for new faces and opinions. Should you be interesting in running or want to vote on your student government for next year, please show up! Too many people complain that they have no idea who our student government representatives are or how they got elected, well, that's on you if you don't go.

April 15th: Last Student Meeting About the MICA Budget

2009-04-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

The final MICA Budget Priorities Student Meeting will be happening Wednesday April 15th at 2pm in Main 160. At this meeting, Fred Lazarus will be giving the latest updates about the budget picture, as well as walk through several scenarios about what might end up happening. This is not a mandatory meeting for SVA but this is an OPEN MEETING for all students so please help us spread the word to get informed on MICA budget for the next year.

SVAAC Meeting Minutes 2-12-09

2009-03-23T11:21:00.001-07:00

First Spring SVA Student Council Mtg
2/12/2009

1.) Welcome

2.) Review minutes
Review past meeting minutes from November 2008

3.) Working Group Reports
Financial aid

-Group corresponded via email
-Meghann met with Diane Prengaman last semester, talked about different things in financial aid
-Financial Aid office is already doing most of the things that we suggested but, to bolster what they’re already doing, talked about creating postcards to remind students about FAFSA due date
-Aaron Talbot is designing the new FAFSA reminder post card
-Also talked about moving all the financial info to mica portal from booklet to make for easy access b studs don’t always get the booklets

Documenting Artwork
Sr advisory council every yr , started two yrs ago to decide on commencement speaker originally to give studs a bigger voice in that area , - bring 10 students from across majors (srs) .. they also championed class gifts since 2007, soliciting ideas of what class gift would be (courtyard of gateway for 07; 08 donate money toward purchasing mac minis and projectors for stud space galleries so studs can have access to 3 projectors for galleries; 09 decide a space to document artwork, so they’re going to buy the equipment and in operations to find a space)
This is part of dpt’mntl resources work, space will be dedicated and can reserve space as much as you can reserve anything else

Next two subjs touch on next mtg

4.)Committee reports
Budget & Finance Committee

Representative: Andy Mangold
--> School is affected by economy, had hit on endowment which is really big
--> Two factors: cut in state grants (i.e. Sellenger grant) and the size of the incoming freshmen class (may be lower than past years)
--> School is cutting money from non-academic areas as much as possible in order to try and encourage more students in incoming freshman class..
--> Tuition goes up about 6.5-7% every year.. but next year it’ll only go up about 3% .. also putting a lot of money into merit scholarships.. to encourage students to stay despite economy..
--> Had a meeting for money with Fred Lazarus and Doug Mann which students were invited to in order to give their feedback on what should be cut and what should be kept but only 4 students came out
--> Starting a committee for this issue since it is students’ money, give andy your email address
--> Megan: we can’t predict what students will come to mica, so we’re projecting for the worst case scenario.. looking to cut some 3.5 million dollars out of budget. But for you all, we won’t really know until summertime what those numbers are.. student head count is what, grant is what – really important that since the decisions are made in the summer, our voices need to be heard this semester. So that if we get money back, we’re able to bring back some things on table for getting cut right now. Like a very hard ethics class, need speaking up right now. This is a moment to prioritize.. bldg hrs, paper usage, etc.. what is being maximized and what can be done without – students know best..

Exhibitions Committee

Representative: Kat Buckley
-->Only had one mtg last sem; decide in fall ’10 jerold and chris will put on an exhibit about tolerance.. get some artists (Williams Rosenberg, phiip dustin) to talk about how they view tolerance with their work.. and what tolerance means in this society. They’re looking for an intern to help with these things.
-->Faculty show this year, part time faculty not allowed in.. some sort of outreach and brainstorming for why that wasn’t so successful in terms of attendance

5.)Homework + Accreditation Visit
We have hw! Reps need to meet with dpt chair bc 2nd mtg is dptmntl reports are due
Mandatory mtg on Tuesday; if have class, get meghann or megan to give your teacher something
3/10 accreditation visit, a lunch – basically coming to see if what they read in the self study is true. Wants to hear from students. Will be here on Monday + Tuesday. Lots of questions, not really sure about right answers but about our experiences.. may not take it from dpt to dpt approach (climate at mica, etc)
talk with dpt head about self study issues
megan: reaccrediting is 10 yr cycles, write giant report about college and hand off to accreditors.. two bodies that work with MICA (nasad, a national agency. And a state agency)
the strengths + weakness sheet is a quick summary about mica.
When you come to this mtg, talk about broad ideas as opposed to specific issues of dpt.
What will happen after this is that MICA will or won’t be reaccredited, and given a report to help guide MICA in next 10 years. What MICA says they’re going to do and whether they’ve done it.
Megan will send out URL for self study again; report will also be available as a hard copy in the library

6.) Announcements
Christopher Whittey speaks about the Designer In Residence.
bill stimey made generous gift to school, so chris put together a team to discuss and select someone named Cameron Sinclair to come here
Cameron was a practicing architect, youtube him – 20 min talk of tet award..
Tet award based on wish; million dollar prize.. wish – housing for the world method. So started ‘open source architecture’ .. confer with some people in subsahara Africa; people with AIDS epidemic can’t get to doctors. Issue with space. Some kind of vegetation that grows 4 ft/2 days.
4/20 lecture @ falvey with Cameron Sinclair around 7 pm

Jan Stinchcomb:
gaming concentration has been talked about (inter disciplinary)
we may hear about it in the near future
18 cred concentration offered through IL, IM, animation, DR dpt; cluster of courses to give someone intro experience in gaming field
next step to expand that of a gaming program (like masters lvl like CAP prog) at MICA
infostrucure for next step
baltimore happens to be a hub of gaming industry; east coast.. they want drawing and painting skills (the gaming industry), which MICA’s program just defaults for most students

spr mtgs
3/10 @ noon accreditation visit + lunch
3/26 @ noon dpt reports
4/16 @ noon elections

Student Cost Containment Meeting Minutes

2009-03-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Student Cost Containment Meeting Minutes
March 4, 2009

A meeting was held on Wednesday, March 4 with students to discuss MICA’s financial situation, identify potential areas for cost-savings at the College, and to share the Vice Presidents’ perspectives on potential budget cuts moving forward to get student response. These are bulleted minutes to help share highlights of the meeting; if more information is needed, please contact Dr. Dusty Porter, Dean of Students, directly at HYPERLINK "mailto:dporter@mica.edu" \o "mailto:dporter@mica.edu" dporter@mica.edu.

Another meeting will be planned for early to mid April to continue to update students about the status of the MICA budget.

The meeting began with Dr. Dusty Porter giving an overview of how MICA is being affected by the nation’s current economic climate. The big three influences are: Potential reduced enrollments in next Fall’s class (thus affecting tuition income, as MICA’s budget is tuition-dependent), reduced funding from the State of Maryland through the Sellinger Program, and increased expenditures in Financial Aid to help keep students at MICA if their family’s income situation changes due to job loss, etc.

Students Ideas for Cost Savings

Paper use on campus – double sided copies could be encouraged. Paper use in the Bunting labs is too much and paper goes right into trash instead of being used as two-sided. Is there any way paper costs could be limited by reducing the amount of paper used by student. Tom Hyatt, VP of Technology, noted that creating a technology system to track paper could be very expensive to implement ($15,000 to $20,000). Chris Bohaska, Director of Administrative Services, noted that the College used to spend $150,000 per paper annually and that has been reduced by making Departments responsible for their own paper usage. Another student recommended that the College help faculty understand how to make more effective use of technology to reduce paper copies (BlackBoard, PDF usage, etc). However, some students felt that students would have a hard time knowing how to make notes on the screen when using PDF, etc.
Electricity use on campus – students felt that too many computers stay on – how can the policy be changed so computers get turned off? Also, it seems like the lights in hallways in buildings are always on – how could these areas be controlled by an electric switch in the future? Mike Molla noted that in Bunting, offices are on automatic shut off, but the hallways stay on due to city code. Mike felt like it was most important to create a culture where MICA can succeed in cutting 10% of its energy usage over the next 3 years (which is the College’s goal).
Students filling staff jobs – there was a general sense that perhaps students could be used for some of the staff jobs, creating a “double win” for the College and for students. Another student raised a rumor that work study was being reduced, and Dusty noted that was not true, that work study funds may actually increase under the President’s and Congress’ stimulus package.
Landscaping and Lighting – students perceive that money could be cut from the landscaping and exterior lighting budgets of the College. How were the lighting plans determined? Mike Molla noted that Glen Shrum was used as a consultant when designing the lighting for both Station and Gateway and that many of the lighting systems slowly fade over the evening hours to save money and promote a conducive environment in the evening.

Vice Presidents’ Areas for Budget Cutting (Actual and Planned if Needed Based on Actual Enrollment Scenario)

Across Campus: Salary freezes, eliminating travel support
Technology: Reducing staff, delaying technology updates, reducing supplies
Academic Affairs: Eliminating special contracts, reducing leave time for faculty special projects, replacing/reducing money for guest lectures, reducing staff
Operations: Reduction in building hours, reducing staff
Student Affairs: Reducing/eliminating Colltown Shuttle, reducing expenditures in all Departments

Final Thoughts

Several students wondered if an electronic bulletin board could be created for students to share resources, similar to Craigs List (e.g., “looking for wood for a sculpture,” or “have extra canvas to share.” Similarly, students expressed interest in a “shop and swap” during the academic year.
How can students help continue to reduce trash and increase single-stream recycling?
How can Baltimore artists be more utilized in classroom/lecture visits?

Town Hall Meeting Minutes

2009-03-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

SVA Town Hall Meeting
Minutes – February 25, 2009

2:30 PM INTRODUCTIONS

Meghann:
Hello, I'm Meghan Harris, President of the Student Voice Association’s (SVA) Academic Affairs Council. On the behalf of SVA I would like to thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to our first Town Hall meeting of the year. We know how important it is raise questions, have your voices heard, and elicit change.

Christina:
Welcome, I’m Christina Cooke, Vice-President of the SVA Student Life Council.
Over the last three years of SVA we have represented the student’s voice in such committees as finance and budget, student life, exhibitions, and food service. We have actively sought out your opinions through polls and surveys. And we have helped get the bike racks, improve the shuttle system, gain recycling on campus, and improve the registration process.

Meghann:
At this time, I would like to welcome President Fred Lazarus, Vice President of Student Affairs Dusty Porter, Undergraduate Dean Jan Stinchcomb, Vice President of Operations Michael Molla, and Chris Bohaska Director of Operation Services. As administrators, they have taken the time to get to know students and value their opinions.
We will begin today’s meeting with remarks from Fred and Dusty

2:35 PM OPENING REMARKS from Fred, Dusty, Jan, Mike & Chris

2:50 PM QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM THE STUDENTS

Meghann:
In traditional Town Hall Meeting format, anyone can ask questions. If you have a question, please write questions and your email address down on the index cards given to you as you entered the room. Megan & Karol from Student Activities will be collecting the index cards and our moderators will convey your questions. Please keep in mind that questions should be broad in scope and of interest to all students. Our panelists will stay after to answer any specific questions you have or will email you if you are unable to stay. To help get things started, SVA has prepared a few questions:

Question 1: (Christina)
Students are concerned with the meal conversion policies in Café Doris. Parkhurst began enforcing these rules mid-semester with very little communication to students. Café Doris staff and students still seem to be confused about which items can be purchased as a meal and when. How can MICA work with Parkhurst to improve the communication of such policies to all students? And what can be done if students are unhappy with the variety of options presented for meal conversion?

Response (Chris):
-MICA selected Parkhurst to be our food vendor because of their service
-Regarding meal combos/meal exchange program:
-wanted the changes to take place in middle of year to allow students to chose meal plan for Spring semester
-reasoning for the plan:
Pre-packaged meals are more expensive
combos are cheaper and they meal plan expense down- (only raise 5% for next year compared to 11% at neighboring school.)
-also having designated meals combos gives choices, but provide a complete balanced meal that encourages students eat healthier
-acknowledges faults in communication:
-there wasn’t an e-mail sent out because he didn’t doesn’t know that if that was the most reliable way to tell
-there was supposed to be signage but up by Parkhurst that was not accomplished

-Plan to make it better:
-Working with Parkhurst to train staff better
-pictures of Justin, Kevin and Libby [general manager, head chef, and _____ respectively] in Myerhoff to invite students to talk to them
-there are Comment cards in Myerhoff because students feedback is wanted
-join the Student Food committee
-let me [Chris] know of any problems
Question (student):
Why couldn’t their be simply a credit system where the exchange is not measured in meals but dollars?

Response (Chris):
the meal plan is hybrid with meals and dining dollars and all you can eat in Myerhoff and not in Doris

Complete debit program at Hopkins is strange, confusing, and an unfair exchange.
-the debit program at Loyola just failed

Extra money from unused meals goes to necessary things that keep a business going such as fixing equipment and replacing old broken down equipment

Question 2: (Meghann)
The declining economy and the imminent budget cuts are on the minds of our students. How does MICA plan on balancing the budget in the upcoming year and when will the administration let students know what is being cut? Will students have an opportunity to weigh in on these difficult budget decisions, like cutting studio hours, the collegetown shuttle, and field trips? And once the cuts are made, will they ever come back into the budget?

Response(Fred):
-MICA will be affected and going through and extensive budget review on potential effects.
-Increase in demand for Financial Aid, should increase in Fall due to financial situation of current students.
-State Program provides aid to private colleges, that has been some cuts in that program
-Endowment in down because of stock market
-the potential oss enrollment might decrease overall revenues from students

-Extent of impacts not known.

Budget in draft form:
-most final decisions will not be made until next summer
-first round of final budget cut decisions will be in April
-Budget Committee; meets Next Wednesday 3:30-4:30 in Board room and is open to students to voice their opinions and concerns, and to generate ideas.
-Don’t want to make quick decisions- want to make informed decisions
Reduction of budget will inevitably have some negative implications:
Goal is to make decisions and choices that will have minimal impact.
-one thing that is being looked at is College Town Shuttle and how to make it less expensive
.

Question 3: Budget meeting e-mail only to student leaders and time of meeting overlaps class time.
Response (Dusty): Open to everyone- that’s why announced at this meeting, and sent to leaders in hopes they would inform others.
-Look at time and try and generate better time for others
-meeting next week is still the same time: Wednesday at 3:30

Question 4: What, if anything, is being done to improve the energy efficiency of the Gateway? For a “green” building, it has many issues including drafty doors and inaccurate thermostats that seem unnecessary.

Response (Mike): Most interesting energy efficient systems that is pretty advance but we’re still trying to figure it out.
Student have control over the Cold/hot setting in their room
- Weather strips are in the process of being installed throughout the building
- Having student turn off lights would help make everything more energy efficient too
Students: There are problems with heating not getting hot at all. Frustrations with lack of temperature control. Temperature is never right because temperature measurers are right next to heating pipes. Smoke alarms are also next to the stove. There are also problems getting in touch with someone to fix things in Gateway like a leak in the room causing paint to peel last semester. Peeled paint still not fixed.

Chris: smoke detectors will be moved to fix that problem
Dusty: talk to Mike Patterson about specific problems.
Fred: There could be generated a comment sheet circulating throughout building to take inventory of issues
Mike Patterson: Housing is working on survey to give to students for feedback.

Student: Problems with Mount Royal Row Houses being overlooked:
-mouse problem and only one mouse trap provided from FACMAN
-had no water for three days with no one response from anyone including Res. Life and FACMAN.
Mike: Direct question and concerns to Mike P, Scott, and Stephanie and they’ll try and help fix the problems.

Question 5: With MICA facing at least a 3.3 million dollar deficit, will the computers in the labs across campus be updated for next year?

Response(Fred):
- yes. each lab is on a different update cycle. But still plan to keep on updating things
-Idea with converting a space in Gateway into open computer lab for students to use after Bunting is closed.
Students:
Worried about Interactive media and animation not getting updates because they only use PC.
Response (Jan): set up next to be updated.

Question 6: I hear about meetings (an example being budget meetings) that are open to students. However, students are not informed about when these meetings occur. Is there a place this information can be posted (maybe bulletin board style) on the new website?

Response (Megan): information is posted on Cobalt Soup. People in SVA also get these e-mails because they’re on our list, so if you want these e-mails you are welcome to join.
New website: can log on to portal and personalized websites so you can see this information if you want.
Meghann: Other resources to find out what it going on
Blog for SVA (for both councils)
Can be found on Facebook. SVA group page [http://micasva.blogspot.com/]
Dusty: Christine Holmes is student representative to the Budget committee, if interested can contact her.
Karol: Leaders and members of SVA can also spread word for information about these meetings

Question: There are a lot of vending machine that don’t work properly. Non functional vending machines, will they be fixed? Specifically Myerhoff and Dolphin: Problem with flex card not working at all machines or being charged 7 times when I swipe once. Buttons don’t work either.
Please put swipe on vending machines in Main.
Response (Mike): Vending contractor takes care of machines. The flex card is a student accounts issue. Let me know when it happens.

Students Question : No trashcans in classrooms since single stream has been introduced. Is there any way to monitor paper waste around campus labs (ie. recycle bins with overflow of unnecessary print-outs…) Is there any way for non-single stream recycling so there so maybe paper can be re-used?

Response: Thought less trashcans in classroom and more trashcans in central located place would cause people to think about what they’re throwing away.
Have single stream allows for less bins, and bins are expensive. Also requires less decision making when throwing away a recyclable.
Questions and ideas about sustainability on campus can be directed to Trashtalk. Meets first Friday of every month at noon at Firehouse (behind Gateway).
Trashtalk president: blue paper recycling bins in Brown, maybe can have in more buildings.

Is space going to be made for growning departments like animation, and animation for Senior with independent studios
Student Question: Is space going to be made for growing departments, like illustration, for studios and specialized classrooms?

Jan: There have been labs added and there will be an academic resources and space survey to chairs of departments soon to assess what accommodation should be made.

Question: Is it possibly to send out mass e-mail on all about the change in Doris policies?
Response(Chris): yes, there are also signs up in Doris about the meal combo.

Question: Instead of spending so much money on landscaping, what about planting plants native to the region so they require less maintenance and less watering?

Response(Fred): All the plants are native and are focused on needing less about of water. Also bamboo requires little maintenance and watering.

Question: Shuttle service: effectiveness: The shuttle drivers seem to avoid the gateway and the station building. The average wait time I experience (and other students experience) is 35 minutes to an hour. Is there anything to be done about minimizing this wait time?
Students being dropped off at off campus housing are not picked up because the shuttle drivers think there is a party.
Mike: Wait time depends on demand for shuttle based on weather and time. Can talk to Scott Rufus of Operations about problems.
Shuttle service is for campus to off campus, or off campus to campus. Suggestions: take cabs, walk in big groups and avoid alleys.
Make connections with Mr. Rylie and Miss. Yvonne and other drivers to develop trust and communication so that they know you’re sincere when there is no party.
Question; What are the limits of the shuttle route, how far in Mt. Vernon does the shuttle take you?
Response (Dusty): The map of the shuttle routes can be found on MICA’s website. There is also a planned revision of Shuttle route, contact Mike Patterson or Dusty to be apart of this shuttle revision committee.
Question: Is MICA going to become a more performing arts focused school now that we have the BBox? Have there been any decisions regarding student performances, such as plays, (ex. Hair, Fall of the House of Usher) in the BBox? Will they be able to continue?

Response: This year has been exciting with the BBOX and we’re still figuring out how best to use BBOX to organize time and in a co-curricular way. Probably not a plan to have performance majors, but opportunity to open it up for installation space and for classes and organizations to use it for performance based art..
At Gateway: audio system in Café at Gateway. And stage in courtyard at Gateway that is available for performance space as well.

Question: In regards to experimental animation department: Is there any plans to designate space for stop-motion animation and senior during thesis and provide new computers for the 3D lab? What can we as students do to accomplish and gain the assets that our major needs and how can you the administration help us?
Response (Jan): we just added space for 3D animation. Encourage continual discussion on how well its working. It’s a fairly new program and its is seen as an important part of the interdisciplinary art at MICA.

Open Floor:

Question: Is there any plan of having courses on current events, not just history but classes that are specifically focused on current events as far as liberal arts classes are concerned.

Fred: Could have student activity club created discuss this interest to and start this conversation that is outside of the classroom. Also bring in those ideas to classes.
Jan: Hopes that current ideas are imbedded in curriculum, e-mail her with these ideas
Shipley: There have been courses on ideas based on current, so if there is interest a class on it might be a possibility. Also there are a number a speakers being brought on campus that deal with current ideas and events
Comment: Open life drawing sessions are really nice, could have that on other nights than Friday. And also with themes and costumes?
Response: Student Will Koffman is in charge of the club and open for new ideas. He can be reached at regular Friday night open life drawing sessions from 7-9pm.

3:50 PM CLOSING/HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH SVA

Christina:
Unfortunately, we cannot read all cards because of our limited time. If your question was not addressed, please come forward at the end of the meeting to speak with our panelists or we’ll email you a response. If these issues and others interest you, please get involved and consider joining the Student Voice Association. If you fill out the SVA Interest Form located in the back of the room, we will contact you to attend our next meeting. Thank you for coming!

Questions on Cards that did not have time to ask/answer:
Shuttle:
At last semesters meeting a staff member asked if money will be set aside in the budget to pay for seminars and professional development opportunities. The response was that because money is limited and perhaps we should share resources with other schools in the area to have more seminars. Fred, you suggested using the Collegetown shuttle. This resource is invaluable to our community. Is there any way to save it from the budget chopping block?
Is there any truth to the rumor that Collegetown shuttle services will be canceled? If so, why?

Food:
Can we have wheat-free bread options? Even the rye bread contains wheat! Oh, and cookies would be nice, too.
If a student ordered an exact meal from the Doris menu, then why was I still charged 50¢ extra from the meal (bagel egg and cheese, fruit, tea), and when I asked why, the lady said the “prices were raised.”

Raw Art Sale:
There were a lot of issues with this February's Raw Art Sale.
Placement- The blackbox, while new, is not an advantageous, high traffic space for such and event. We were told it had moved because of space, but because of the risers, there was no more space than at the Meyerhoff.
Low earnings- In past years, students have made upwards of $400. The highest this year wasn't even $300.
Treatment of the artwork submitted- The prints were casually tossed on the floor and people rummaged through them. This allows a high risk of damage to the artwork.

Town Hall Meeting

2009-02-25T10:58:00.001-08:00

Parkhurst Meeting

2009-01-23T10:51:00.000-08:00

ATTENTION ALL!

The Parkhurst meeting for the Student Voice Association Student Life Council is now going to be January 30th, from 12-1 pm in Bunting 110.

Nothing has changed except the location.

Be there or be absolutely lame.

Meeting Schedule for the SVAAC

2009-01-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Hello all and Happy Inauguration Day!!!!!

I hope everyone got to see President Obama's speech in Falvey Hall or in the BBox today, but that aside, here is the schedule for the SVAAC's meetings for this semester.

If you have any comflicts but would still like to attend, Megan Miller and I can write a note to your teacher which hopefully will make your argument to them a bit more compelling.

Thursday, Feb 12th, 12-1 pm / President's Board Room - Main Bldg / Regular Meeting
Wednesday, Feb 25th, 2:30-4pm / TOWNHALL MEETING
Tuesday, March 10th, 12-1 pm / SVAAC Meeting with Self Study Reviewers
Thursday, March 26th, 12-1 pm / President's Board Room - Main Bldg / Regular Meeting
Thursday, April 16th, 12-1 pm / President's Board Room / Regular Meeting & Elections for next school year

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mharris01@mica.edu.

AND by the way, if you are interested in being the secretary, VP, or President of the SVAAC next year, our last meeting is the election meeting. It would make sense for people who regularly attend these meetings to run for the positions, but we'd like all who are interested to come and vote.

AND AGAIN, YES! Anyone can come to our meetings! I can't spoon feed this information to you, so please, just keep checking the blog, and come if you would like to. We won't bite. I promise.

Meghann Harris

MAT Representative

SVAAC President

Parkhurst Dining Services

2008-12-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying your first week of winter break!

The reason for my post is to tell you guys that Parkhurst Dining Services will be having a representative come speak at the next SVA Student Life Council Meeting. He is not going to be talking about meal plan usage at Doris and Gateway UNLESS students ask him....

SO get your butts out to the meeting and ask! You've been sending me messages, now seek out the guy who has all of the info. The meeting will be on January 30th in the President's Board Room of Main Building from 12 to 1 pm.

Happy break to all of you!

Meghann Harris

SVAAC President

MAT Representative

Steps Taken at the last Academic Affairs Council Meeting

2008-12-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

At the very first Academic Affairs Council meeting, students were asked to fill out sheets of paper stating issues or concerns that they had for the semester and ideas for what SVA could do to help MICA work toward solving them.

Based off of these sheets, at the last SVAAC meeting of the semester, we created research groups to find out more information on Financial Aid, Departmental Resources, a space for photography artwork, and safety in terms of chemicals / hazardous waste in the classroom. I, Meghann Harris will be supervising the Financial Aid group, Meredith McFall, our VP will be surpervising the Departmental Resources group, Ellice Park, our secretary, the photography group, and Megan Miller, from student activities, the safety group.

So... here are the meeting minutes (written up by our wonderful Ellice!) for you to scan over. Check 'em out if you're interested.

Thanks!

Meghann Harris

SVAAC President

MAT Representative

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Student Voice Assoc. Acad. Council Mtg. Minutes

11-20-2008 Noon - 1 PM @ Main 160

Review and Approve Minutes

Departmental Concerns
Based off of the student concerns sheets that each representative filled out at the beginning of the semester, the SVAAC has found four areas to address in small groups:
1. Financial aid (informal resource list for students to put on MICA web site; general questions, general scholarships)
2. Health & Safety (assume has a lot to do with dolphin bldg)
3. Departmental Resources (ie studio space ie model shop ... things open to specific majors, and students at large.. possibly into MICA Red Book?)
4. Space for Documenting Artwork (figure out ideal space; work study position? compile list to pass on and look over; dan myers!)

Additional Department Reports
- DRAWING: Jennifer B.
26 enrolled at least, 10 freshman want to be majors, Friday talk with them about being drawing major at MICA
bc so few, .. micadrawingmajors.blogspot.com
forum to talk about techniques, resources, etc
field trip specifically for drawing majors to see Charles Ritchie
peer to peer critique set up on Wed fox 210 at 4 pm; advertised in cobalt soup and on posters
group of sophomores going to sr studios next week, see reviews
- Exp Anim: n/a
- Int. Media: n/a
- Vid: new representative - Eric Varella

Jan Stinchcomb and Chris Whittey speak

on student concerns:
-are working on issues (esp IL working with Whitney, in line with IL philosophy)
-one thing that stood out: ventillation issue with print making
-most of concerns are being worked on and already recognized
-student concern: new ventilation in the some of the senior studios for drawings majors is filled with dirt and charcoal and is giving students nosebleeds
-Jan Stinchcomb: was changed last year but will continue to check up on the issue

Faculty Hires
-sva informed that a very rigorous search is happened, listings advertised heavily for higher education folk and for full time hires, not so heavily for part time hires
-each dpt has their own process
-concern response: part time hires, how does this affect the students? full time : part time ratios
-reply back: bc so interdisciplinary, may be working three parts.. how much of the curric delivered by those faculty? we exceed norm standards (60:40 ft:pt) there will always be pt faculty

**meghann has heard about the shuttles and meal plan usage (at cafe doris and gateway) concerns, is on it.

**mya wondering about getting to know professors pre-semester class and their syllabi
response: faculty directory online, syllabi colelcted and posted

**announcement: would like feedback about course information
response: clarity with course titles, perhaps subtitles
response 2: would like hard, unbiased information about courses as opposed to students' feedback/opinions

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
town hall mtg 2/18/09 3pm - go! location tbd

Representatives from the Faculty version of the council:
-Jason Sloan: no particular announcements
-Mina Cheon:

-first yr as chair of student affairs committee; also on faculty executive committee
-happy with the work that's going on in sva, wants reps to encourage their friends to come out
-faculty committee grp acts as liaison between sva and faculty assembly
-there's 5 members in the f.c.
-wants to respond to syllabus idea - the kind of work she does with her students changes every semester to try to update with the times.. the course description may not be entirely accurate, because the dynamics of the class can altar things too.. but more description may be helpful, she thinks. since changes, albeit little ones, are always likely

in terms of SPRING MTGS:
town hall mtg is where fred, ray, dusty are on panel/stage asking questions and answering questions
a lot of faculty meet there,
fall: address and recognize issues
spr: students can be recognized there with their concerns, raise their issues that they might be passionate about
good forum to get information about, where we're going, where we're headed
spread the word! it's a big deal.
also with spr mtgs: without student input, it's just faculty
so look at your section of dpt self study and talk some more.
they'll ask questions on whole, and you can give feedback
glowing rec's are great but your concerns should be raised. doesn't mean that mica won't get accreditted, but it'll go into the report and taken seriously from there
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: March 10 @ NOON. BE THERE.
this is actually a MANDATORY MTG.
the accreditation team is only here monday & tuesday. megan miller will be happy to write you a note (ray as well) to your faculty member to let you out of class to be a part of this effort!

DEVELOPING 2 PROGRAMS:
1. gaming
2. community arts program
also.
this friday 1030: etsy.com, one of those folk are coming

Shuttle Services at the last Student Life Council Meeting

2008-12-14T18:31:00.001-08:00

Hey there boys and girls,

In the last SVA Student Life Council Meeting, Rufus Davis and Dave Butkiewicz came to talk about Shuttle Services and Campus Safety. A lot of students have voiced complaints about both topics, so this may be of interest to a lot of you. I am posting the meeting minutes sent to me by Karol Martinez and Ashleigh Wilkinson.

Also, just a heads up, at the first Student Life Council meeting of spring semester, a representative from Parkhurst Dining Services will be coming to speak. Before the spring semester starts, I will be posting a schedule of the meetings for both the Student Life Council and the Academic Affairs Council, so make sure you check back. I will also try to post little notes about the subject matter of each meeting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SVA Student Life Meeting Minutes

November 14, 2008

12:05 Meeting is started -

Introduction of officers, Dusty Porter, and Karol Martinez

Quick welcome and explanation of SVA Student Life

12:10 Katie McNiff from Student Activities speaks about a proposed Recreation Fee-

-Katie handed out a sheet which explained the proposed fee ($55 per semester added to tuition) that would be used to give MICA students:

a. access to UB fitness facility

b. a full-time Wellness Coordinator at MICA

c. programming from the Wellness Coordinator

d. a larger and more varied offering of instruction

e. expanded hours at the MICA fitness center

f. funds to travel to regional art schools for weekend sports tournaments

g. annual ski/ snowboarding trip

h. increased funding for sports and recreation based clubs

i. transportation to recreation related activities

-Katie mentioned that MICA’s small facilities are not serving all students as well as it could be and that this fee would be a major step in making health, wellness, and recreation a priority at MICA

12:14 Brief discussion about proposed Recreation Fee

-Most students in attendance felt the recreation fee would be a good idea commenting that it was time for MICA to catch up and give students more access to health/wellness and recreation

-There were a few students who said that they would want to know more about how the funds were being allotted before deciding what there opinion was on the matter

-Katie can be reached at HYPERLINK "mailto:kmcniff@mica.edu" kmcniff@mica.edu

12:17 Christina Holmes gave an update from the Budget Committee-

-Christina is one of the two undergrad representatives on the committee

-She reported that the first meeting was a reflection on the past year and that the next meeting would be more about the future

12:20 Guest speakers Rufus Davis and Dave Butkiewicz from Transportation and Safety

-Rufus Davis, the Manager of Contract Services and Fleet Management, introduces himself and speaks about shuttle service at MICA and the need for student feedback in improving the shuttle system

-Also talked about the need for parking at MICA and the ways in which MICA is trying to find creative solutions to the lack of parking

-New EZ pass meters added to Mount Royal in an effort to create short term parking for those visiting MICA but takes away space for commuters

-Brief discussion about whether the shuttle should run on a schedule without any consensus being reached

-Student concern about the shuttle policy of not dropping off students at known parties and how this could affect students in the area trying to get home and not to the party. This policy is no longer in effect.

-Dave Butkiewicz, the Acting director of Campus Safety, introduced himself and answered student questions including a question about the crime communication policy

-Bike safety was also talked about including the suggestion from students for either enclose bike storage or provide better lighting near bike racks.

-A student raised concern over the guest policy in academic buildings and it was decided that Dave would review the policy and see if there was a way to allow some pre-approved guests in buildings after 9pm

-A student requested first aid kits to be available at the desks in residence halls

-Dave responded to a question about how Campus Safety was giving information to students by saying that Campus Safety really needed to work on branding itself in the way many other offices at MICA has done. This would include easier accessibility to information online and possibly through pamphlets and posters.

-Rufus can be contacted at HYPERLINK "mailto:rdavis@mica.edu" rdavis@mica.edu

-Information about campus safety can be found at HYPERLINK "http://www.mica.edu/LIFE/safety/index.cfm" http://www.mica.edu/LIFE/safety/index.cfm

12:50 SVA and Club Announcements

The next SVA Student Life meeting will be held on January 30, 2009

Outdoor Club- upcoming camping trip at Gunpowder Falls

MIQA- Transgender Day of Remembrance, Anti-Proposition 8 Protest

Playwriting Club- bi-yearly performances on the 21^st and 22nd

NAEA-Craft making night

Viking Club has upcoming Super Smash Brothers Tournament

Experimental Fashion Show

Anime Club- Old-school anime night

International Education Week starting Monday Nov. 17

12:55 Meeting Adjourned

Meal Plans and Meeting Minutes

2008-11-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Just so you all know, I have contacted a few people about not being able to use meal plans for various things at Doris now unless you have a sandwich or a salad, so hopefully something is being done about that. I will keep everyone informed!

Also, the following post will contain our Student Voice Association Academic Affairs Council Meeting Minutes from the last meeting on October the 16th. This meeting was about different issues within departments. It's an interesting read and everyone should check it out!

If you see a concern of yours that is not listed in our minutes, please email me at mharris01@mica.edu for your department representative's contact info so that they can tell the department chair the next time that they meet with them.

Here goes:

RECAP SVA MTG 10-16-2008 NOON-1PM @ MAIN 160

-INTRO : Meghann Harris, President of SVA, MAT Representative

-Few announcements/Recap on the first SVA Academic meeting:

-Town Hall meeting explanation and approval of minutes

-what Cabinet of SVA does: pose questions from students on the floor for

MICA administration to answer

-ie questions about school store never being priced explicitly

-Summary of previous SVAAC meeting and approval of minutes

-Campus wide committee election: Exhitions Committee

-Kat Buckley elected student representative

-Publicizing concerns

-Sarah Barnes talked about Art Market

-Jan Stinchcomb, Dean of Undergraduate Studies talked about self study

****check out sva blog! @ micasva.blogspot.com

-Blog will list all SVA meeting minutes in the future

-Election of SVAAC Vice President and Secretary

-Explanation of each position's duty

-VP

-Oversee any SVA Academic Council subcommittee

-Cabinet mtg to discuss with Student Life and Academic Affairs to

possibly create subcommittees to solve issues for whoever is

interested

-Liaison to VP of Student Affairs

-Report issues to Student Affairs (Ashley, Christie, Taylor, and

President of SVA Student Life Council)

-Secretary

-Take minutes for regular open SVA mtgs

-VP & Secretary get together with President once a month to discuss

goals and the current status of SVA

-Election for positions:

-Meredith McFall for VP (unopposed)

-Ellice Park for Secretary (unopposed)

-SVA Department Reports

Each member of the SVA was required to meet with their department chair before the meeting to discuss issues or concerns in the department as well as talk about the self study.

Art Ed.

Reps: Rachel & Meghann

Dpt Chair: Mary Hafeli

Concerns:

-Not many concerns, no Art Ed. Document on MICA Self Study online

-Thinks of sending out mass survey of Questions prepared by reps to have ongoing

conversation with students about MAT concerns

-Chair sent a mass email sent out to raise awareness of who the MAT SVA reps

are, and that SVA exists to act as liaison between student body and administration

Recap concerns: none

Art History

Reps: Kat Buckley & Ellice Park

Dpt Chair: Kerr Houston

Concerns:

-AH students generally happy with AH department; only concern has to do with

internships but department is good at keeping AH majors up to date with

opportunities

-AH dpt thinking about having a senior thesis

-Study abroad opportunities

-Seminar class on tech for learning blackboard and the like for teachers

Recap concerns: technology lessons for faculty

Ceramics

Reps: Lauren Henriksen, Courtney Stone, Melissa Schmid

Dpt chair: David East

Concerns:

-huge junior class, growing school population

-how to help dpt grow? How to get space?

-Want dpt to grow but doesn’t have space to incorporate other students and

encourage this

-Maybe incorporate concentration

Recap concerns: Space space space!

Drawing

Rep: no rep present

Dpt chair: Rex Stevens

Experimental Animation

Rep: no rep present

ENV Design

Reps: Deunte Ford, Mya Kerner, Meredith McFall, Luisa

Dpt chair: Peter

Concerns

-Losing professors who can teach classes

-ENV students have to take other dpt’s classes to make up for certain classes

-Ie video classes for computer drafting skills classes

-Ie autocad can be learned in Continuing Ed but the class is not listed

online?!

 therefore, how to not get overlooked?!

-Misconceptions or misnomers from self study

-Ie written goal in self study is for students to explore different way sof

fabrication and different ways of design

-Yet losing fabrication tech class and architecture foundation class (2

foundational courses for learning skills) – students don’t know how to

fabricate, will fall behind

-Two classes listed in self study that aren’t really there

-Students cannot reach full potential with these issues

-Design department in flux right now, Peter looking to get support from other

branches that are listed in self study

Recap concerns: need more faculty and classes, correct self study

Fibers

Reps: Anne Carnes, Ashley Lloyd

Dpt chair: Christine Woods (new chair)

Concerns

-dpt grow very quick, school asks for more intro classes YET not enough Space

and not enough Faculty

-currently 2 technicians but need one fully working who specializes in technology

-ie smart textiles program as part of fibers program at the moment

-want: increase technology options and opportunities

-ie more digital printers

-which can’t be had without another full time technician

recap concerns: need space and faculty, one full time technician

Foundation

Reps: Tiffany Tsui, Stacey Montobello, Omer Wasim

Co-Chairs: Michelle LaPerriere, Katherine

Advisor: Richard

Concerns:

-Students not happy with apartment-roommate situation

(Referred to Residence Life Office)

-Students not aware of existence of Major Cafe

-learning disabilities, some teachers don’t honor the issues or students don’t want

to admit their ada position

recap: concerns addressed during the meeting.

Reps: Becky Slogeris, Andy Mangold, Melissa

-not met with chair yet, no updates

recap concerns: none

Rep: Alex Gracey

Chair: Whitney Sherman

Concerns

-studio space with seniors having to double up in cubicles

-80-some students in sophomore class, yet only 35 spaces available

-possible ways to give sr students space

-studios in bank bldg?

-half of IL space in fox building cut by gallery space

recap concern: Space!

Interactive Media

Rep: none present

Interdisciplinary Sculpture

Reps: Brian Mullineaux, Jamie

Dpt chair: Ladell

Concerns:

-want to make website for dpt, blog for students

-information about staffing classes

-talk with grad students to help create the website

-want to get mica alumni to come back for helping department in creating

internships, networking, etc

-students interested in facilitation of transfer credits from other colleges into MICA to emphasize interdisciplinary aspect

-chair talked about graduates who felt short in contemporary art world post-

graduation

-interest in creating contemporary art classes to be available or made mandatory in

the degree program

recap: website, networking, mica alumni back to mica, credit transfer facilitation, adding contemporary art classes to degree program

GFA

Rep: none present

Chair: Rex Stevens

LL&C

Reps: Rose, Rachael Beckman

Chair: Jennifer Wallace

Concerns:

-make LLC into its own major

-want to get together focused group of students to talk about this with

faculty

-focus on critical writing, thinking, inquiry, literarture; writing analysis,

etc .. hodgepodge of bfa and ba type of degree

-thinks making into own major will aid students in criticism or teaching

-interested in accreditation for doing this in four years

recap: make LLC into its own major

Painting

Rep: Stephanie McKee

-not present/no concerns yet

Photo

Rep: Eric Goldschmidt, Heather

Concerns:

-more funding for field trips

-Currently MICA will not fund anymore field trips for classes

-more funding for visiting artists

-had to cancel a number of talks

-students need to learn traditional AND digital means of photography

-lack of equipment

-only 8 digital cameras for all photo department available

-ones available at moment are fairly sophisticated but out of date

-students want more equipment to rent, and lenses which they may not be able to

afford

-lack of focus on digital aspect

-not enough lockers for photo department

-students having to store chemicals in their apartments- hazardous

recap: more funding for trips and visiting artists, need more equipment and space for lockers, stop cutting classes

Printmaking

Rep: Carrie (three people but one official rep)

Chair: Gayle - met with her and lots of other students

Concerns

-entilation

-better ventilation needed in building otherwise printmaking space is

hazardous entity in itself—wearing masks and gloves only goes so far

-solution: upgrades on fans and different things could be effective without

building an entirely new building - MORE fans as well

-lots of opportunities with windows that have unusable fans (too loud, can’t

hear professors)

-run through the building, can find lots of places to upgrade old

technologies, fans are ancient

-ie Intaglio room

-ie litho, two windows there

-ie windows facing street from dolphin don’t seal very well, have to

climb up to open or close them via kicking

-difficult for print majors to get into classes necessary or desired

-other dpts deal with this issue by closing off certain classes until open

registration (ie animation)

-need certain number and variety of survey classes/dedicated classes for just one particular medium in order to save room in classes for actual print majors but still

allow drawing, painting, etc... majors to take print classes

-survey classes often don’t count toward core as opposed to printmaking

collective

recap: currently hazardous ventilation and lack of efficient class registration system

Video

Rep: none present

PAULA PHILIPS ANNOUNCEMENT

-Introduction

-Been at MICA since the 1970's

-Painter with Masters in studio painting

-Developed several programs for MICA

-i.e. CAP

-Faculty Committee:

-faculty committee to address specific things around Campus

-Takes student concerns back to Faculty Assembly Committee to voice concerns

and joys, then administration and president

-5 faculty reps, who rotate to attend every SVAAC meeting

-Concern:

-SVA elections/representative selection process

-Can SVA possibly hold elections for the position of

representative in the spring semester?

recap:

introduction/raise awareness of faculty group dedicated to being a liaison between administration and student body

idea given of having few representatives per dpt to rotate persons and share heavy responsibility

idea also of electing student representatives rather than depending on chairs to appoint representative leaders

MEGAN MILLER announcement

-There is still room for applicants for the student space galleries

-4 gallery spaces this year = more opportunities to show work

-difficulty in filling up the space because they didn't have enough

applicants

-Let students know reopening application process for shows in Spring

-Campus safety & shuttles

-If interested in this topic, go to upcoming Student Life Meeting

-Rufus Davis will be talking about this with Student Life SVA

Next meeting: November 20, 2008 NOON-1 PM @ Main 160

Town Hall Meeting Minutes

2008-10-16T12:30:00.001-07:00

Didn't go to Town Hall because you're a slacker? Read the minutes!

Town Hall Meeting Notes – Fall 2008

Introductions:

Presidents and Vice President of SVA tell their names and talk about the recent changes that have been made to mica over the past year, involving recycling, smoking, and shuttle services.

Fred:

Would like to mention and let people know how helpful the town hall meetings have been. They would also like to mention how helpful it is for graduating students to get hold of them and let them know of things that they should change. Hearing from the students is the one thing that really brings about change.

Things to consider:

We don’t always have the answers

Brining things to the forum brings things to attention.

We understand that the USA is currently in a lot of economic strain. The school is looking into it, that students will and should be able to continue to afford the education here at MICA. They understand that there was a student loan crisis last semester. Their main goal is to make sure students will still be able to graduate at their intended time.

Mica is making sure that the money we have is spent as best and economically as it can be. They would like to know from the students if there is anything they should know about that could help the school save money ie: recycling, better light bulbs etc; so that we can help keep the school out of crisis together.

Quick check of the student to faculty ratio- faculty equal to students.

Ray:

Looking back at the past 60 and 70 years we have noticed that people tend to gather in time of crisis to address the crisis, the school would like to have students gather together in the time before the crisis so that it can be addressed before issues come up. Thank you for those who are able to attend the town hall meeting.

Rumors of how large the incoming freshman class is- The number of students coming in this year was a few students smaller than the last. There were 1842 last year (large senior class) and 1787 this year, so we are smaller. The school is not trying to get more students. The school is trying to level out the number of incoming students to stabilize the school. There are eleven new full time faculty to help support the number of students already at MICA.

2 conferences this fall

-Graphic Design - AIGA “Social Studies” with designers from across the country

-Harvard “Tansformations” in African American Art. Embracing Cultural Differences in African Art

Issues involving new advisors; now up to 5 full time advisors. The school feels that there are now enough advisors to address the students thoroughly. Advisors are there to help you plan your future ie: internships, courses, job ideas, and more. The school feels that more generalized advisors are better than advisors focused in individual majors. Supports interdisciplinarity. It is amazing to see people working together to make a better MICA environment. New courses and things open to all majors:

Textile lab

Climate change- the world today

Stop Copy Rewind Save- video and film

Interactive exhibits- video design

Design Practice Internship- local organizations and every day artists

Inner arts Course- Baltimore Symphony

MICA Design Coalition- Design for Communication

Interactive Spaces- Hopkins works with students on online art publications

Take advantage of your advisor and ask questions!

Dusty:

Another recap of the changes that MICA has made:

-Recycling

-The Office of Diversity and Inner Cultural Development was created and has moved to the 2^nd floor Bunting. Clyde Johnson was hired as an Associate Dean.

-Celebrating the BBOX space- MICA is happy that they now have a performance space for the students and staff. Space is used daily.

The forum goes to Q&A session:

A few questions were prepared ahead of time to get the forum moving.

1. We had talked earlier about an expressed concern for the strain of the economy on MICA, and balancing the budget. How has the Gateway impacted the current tuition?

A: The Gateway was in no way paid for with tuition money. The school raised 10 million dollars to help fund the building, and the gateway residents partially pay for the building, but no, tuition does not fund any MICA construction.

In terms of the Tuition increase though, there is a lot of pressure for us to bring the tuition down. Tuition funds the staff here at MICA, and other growing student activities, and programs. The modest increase in staff salary and the growing number of student services, is what is being reflected in the tuition, not MICA construction. 70% of MICA’s budget is salaries and benefits for staff and faculty. MICA is trying very hard to find a good model for the future as far as ways to keep the school running properly and conserving money by doing things more efficiently.

2. Concerns about wireless connections in Gateway & computer lab access in the evenings?

A: The MICA residential apartments were never meant to be WiFi, and if you are receiving WiFi it is probably from one of the WiFi active areas such as the Gatehouse, Gateway Courtyard, or the Meyerhoff Dining Hall. CONTACT _Con-3EC08E5D1 \c \s \l Campus Technology can provide you services to help you set up your own router with a password if you would like. As far as available campus locations in which you can access a computer if you do not own one, Bunting was closed last year in the evening in order to save energy, but this year there are still locations in the Fox building, 1^st floor Meyerhoff, and Brown center to accommodate students.

3. College Store: Any plans to change the layout, or put prices on more items so that students know what they are buying?

A: The pricing is on 90%+ of all the items in the store on the shelf below the item. As far as long term development, the school is looking into ways in which they can enlarge the store, because they do know that it is too small, and not the quality or scale they would like. Students could come together or make a group to help MICA think of ways to make the store more accommodate the students.

4. Commuters would like to know if there will be better parking for MICA students who do not live on campus and must drive to school. 2 hour parking is not adequate.

A: MICA knows that the station building and the parking on the street is clearly not enough for the students. However, students can apply for a special pass through the city in order to park in Area 3 if they live in Bolton Hill. The city is who the school has to go to as far as re-zoning and get more lots like the Gateway lot open. Short term solution is to change the hours to 3:30 in the Station & Bunting lots to make it easier to make it to class. Long term solution is to use more public transportation and to work toward reducing MTA bus passes – we don’t have the quantity of students yet, but we can work with other schools to get this underway.

5. Plans for the Dolphin building?

A: MICA has gone back and forth on what is next because Gail Deery (chair) wants to stay in the Dolphin Building. Been through studies, and we cannot put chair lifts on the stairs to address the handicap access. We could definitely use better ventilation and safer facilities.

6. Lighting on Mount Royal, can it be better?

A: The lights are something MICA cannot change because we don’t own the buildings. We have to go to the city to request light bulbs or new lights to be put in. MICA can request these things though and has done so with the current one that is out, and will stay on them to get it fixed.

7. Energy conservation: Turning off lights over the summer in Gateway & Studio Center?

A: For security purposes and for the contractors working over the summer on the buildings we had to have the lights on for some time. As far as over all conservation, we have made changes for more efficient heating, cooling, and ventilation, as well as new energy saving light bulbs. However the lights in the Studio Center could be zoned or put in with motion detectors, even though creating individual switches would be impossible. HVAC & light bulb replacement are our #1 priorities as they are the biggest abusers of energy.

8. Issues with advisors. Some advisors did not know or understand what was important to particular majors (n particular MAT programs and concentrations)

A: The advisors have only been there for one semester, and they are getting better and better at organizing and putting together more helpful information not only for themselves but for the students, in order to give them a clearer understanding of the curriculum and the possibilities here at MICA. Let us know where the gaps are and we’ll get them up to speed. Student commented that her advising experience was excellent.

9: Hopes for extending library hours?

A: That’s is something we had not thought of and is something we can easily resolve. The library closes at 8:30 pm currently, and we can work to extend the hours, but we tried reducing summer library hours to balance that out and students complained about that as well. If there is a need, please bring that forward.

10. The upcoming voting; is there a chance we can provide the students with transportation, if they are not filling out absentee ballots, but they vote outside of the Baltimore city limits?

A: You can go online to your county website and search for volunteers who are willing to pick up and drive those who do not own a car to the voting locations.

Baltimorecity.gov. Rock the Vote event may allow for students to connect on sharing rides.

11. There is a lot of disappointment from the students in the Interactive Media department. They feel that because of the fewer number of students they are not taken seriously when they request more courses or better facilities.

A: There has been discussion about the departments that are smaller, but because there are so few students interested in them, there is a sense that there is not much we can do to help these departments. The students work as hard as they can to make the most of the situation. It is frustrating because the lack of students equals lack of resources. As soon as students realize that they aren’t getting a higher level of course professionalism and resources, they leave the department for another department. Will take up through the SVA Academic Affairs Council.

Mention of the Self Survey:

Students will be able to go online when the survey is up and give the school VERY helpful information about the things that they would like to see change, or things that the school is doing well.

The SVA would like to thank the people who were able to attend the meetings and they hope that these kinds of forums will continue to be able to provide the students with an open talk to discuss things of issue.

Mention of the 12-1 presidents board room Academic Affairs meeting, open to all people.

More SVA information available at HYPERLINK "http://www.mica.edu/studentvoice" www.mica.edu/studentvoice

SVAAC Meeting Minutes 9-25-08

2008-10-16T07:47:00.001-07:00

Want to know what went down at the first Student Voice Association Academic Affairs Council meeting? Read this!

SVA Meeting Minutes: 9-25-08

Introductions

Meghann Harris, president leads meeting with agenda and sign-in sheets. Representatives introduce themselves as well as faculty and staff in the room. Megan Miller, Jan Stinchcomb, & Christopher Whittey all introduce themselves as advisers to SVA, and Regina DeLuise introduces herself as the Student Affairs Committee faculty representative.

Description of SVA

Meghann Harris and Megan Miller share guiding documents and flow chart of SVA structure with members and discuss briefly. Expectations of representatives are covered, meeting with chair and students within the department regularly as to serve as the communication between students and administration.

Elections for Co-Chair & Secretary

Explanation of positions; elections held at October meeting.

Campus-wide Committees

Megan Miller explains the campus-wide committees, Budget and Finance & Exhibitions. Members from SVA Academic Council serve on these committees. Andy Mangold, Graphic Design major, will continue to serve this year on Budget & Finance. Elections were held for the vacant position on Exhibitions Committee. Kat Buckley, Art History major, was selected for the position.

Goals for the Year & Publicity for SVA

Meghann Harris passed out information sheets asking representatives to list things they are most excited about and things that are of the greatest concern to them for their department. These will be compiled for the next meeting where goals will be set for the upcoming year.

Meghann also emphasized the importance of staying positive rather than having this serve as a forum for whining. SVA should be taking action steps toward improving problems, not just complaining about them. We can take up broad concerns, but recognizing that we will not likely fix the tuition problem. Instead we can spread information about Financial Aid, taking little steps toward fixing a big problem. Spreading the word about information like faculty hire sessions, publicity is the key to getting the word out about things happening on campus where we can share our voice/concerns. Request went out with sign-up for any students interested in doing marketing & publicity for SVA.

Self Study Review

Jan Stinchcomb & Chris Whittey reviewed the overall Self Study Process. Document created is 300 pages covering every facet of MICA. Two accreditation bodies will be working with us, NASAD & Middle States, and will be visiting the campus in March. They stressed the important role of SVA representative in reviewing the Self Study document for your department and providing feedback to your chair. October 30^th is the deadline for comments.

Art Market – Sarah Barnes

Sarah Barnes from Ceramics discussed the sale on December 10-13^th from 10 am – 6pm. All departments are welcome. 15% commission fee goes back to competitive scholarships. HYPERLINK "http://www.mica.edu/artmarket" www.mica.edu/artmarket

Upcoming Meetings

Thursday, October 16^th, 12 pm, Main 160

Thursday, November 20^th, 12 pm, Main 160

October Updates

2008-10-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

It's time for some updates since you haven't heard from me in a while.

Today the Student Voice Association Academic Affairs Council will be having it's second meeting in the President's Board Room of the Main Building from 12-1pm. We will be electing a Vice President and a Secretary, as well as doing departmental reports. Each representative was required to have a dialogue with their department chair, as well as look over their department's section of the MICA self study and will be reporting back to the Council any issues or concerns that they know of in their department. After that point, they should be emailing their chair again with any new concerns that may be brought up in the meeting.

Now some of you may be thinking "Self Study? What Self Study? What's that?" Only one of the biggest things going on at MICA right now! Every ten years, colleges have to apply for reaccreditation. This is done by two different groups in the US (though the names have slipped my mind). MICA's ten year date is coming up soon, thus, MICA is conducting a Self Study to look at every single little detail of MICA that is or isn't working, or could be improved. This is incredibly important to our school and an amazing opportunity for students to give their two cents since departments are looking at different elements that need to be changed. Right now, the MICA self study runs about 400 pages long. Everyone should have received an invitation just recently to go on the MICA portal and view sections of the MICA self study. It's quite extensive, but if you want to find out what your department is doing, you can go to the MICA portal, log in, go to "Collaboration" and the "Self Study." Now, there have been some glitches - i.e. a lot of students haven't been able to log in. If that is the case and you REALLY want to know what's going on with the self study, you can probably ask a faculty member or your chair to give you access to a copy of your department's section of the report.

Also, in the future, if you would like to know who represents your department, you can contact me on Facebook or via email at mharris01@mica.edu. It's really important to keep in contact with your representative to let them know of any concerns you have regarding your department, registration, financial aid, etc... They are YOUR VOICE on this council. Make it count! Jan Stinchcomb, Chris Whittey, and Megan Miller sit in on all of these meetings and are advisors to myself as well as the council. Most of the things that are said on the council are taken into account by them and they spread it to other members of the MICA community to see what can be done. Already steps have been taken to open up late hour computer labs in Brown Building because of things that were brought up in the Town Hall Meeting. What you say really does count.

OK, and last but not least, I will be posting Meeting Minutes from all of the SVA meetings - that means Student Life and Academic Affairs, so if you want to know what's going on at MICA, READ THIS BLOG! The Fall Town Hall Meeting Minutes will also be up quite soon.

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall break and I will see you at the meeting!

Meghann Harris

SVAAC President

MAT Representative

Rock the Vote!

2008-10-03T18:14:00.001-07:00

Okay, okay, okay, so you may not have been able to go to Rock The Vote tonight, BUT you should watch this video, because it's AWESOME!

Check it out.

Click here

Language Courses at MICA?

2008-07-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have come upon a new issue to research.

Lately, in my web browsing, I've noticed that a number of colleges in the area who offer art history or fine art as a major or minor recommend that the students take at least 1 to 2 years of another language. As many of you all know, we do not offer such classes at MICA.

Thus, this might be something for the Student Voice Association to look into this year.

For now, I have emailed Jan Stinchcomb and Megan Miller about the matter. Jan has forwarded to my email to Kerr Houston, the head of the Art History Department, and told me that they have considered these classes before.

I will keep you all updated with my findings!
Meghann Harris
SVAAC President

Make a Few Bucks?

2008-07-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

I just received an email from Karol Martinez and Megan Miller in Student Activities that might be of interest to whichever students are in Baltimore over the summer. Here's the post, and if you're interested, just pop a message over to the email address provided. Thanks!

"The Office of Technology Systems and Services (TSS) is conducting a focus group on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 on MICA's e-mail system. This focus group will take place at 4:00 pm in the Art Tech Center conference room and snacks and beverages will be provided. TSS is attempting to determine what policies are most effective for use of the e-mail system and wants to investigate what needs students have that may or may not currently being met by MICA's current e-mail infrastructure. This focus group is limited to a maximum of twelve students on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve your spot in the focus group, please e-mail studentaffairs@mica.edu with your name and phone number. You will receive a confirmation of your spot in the focus group upon receipt of your e-mail.

This focus group is limited to current MICA students and recent May 2008 graduates. All participants will receive a $10 gift certificate to the College store as a thank you for your time."

Meghann Harris

SVAAC President

New year and a fresh start

2008-06-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! This is Meghann, this year's current SVA president, writing the first blog post ever on the new SVA blog!!! Exciting, eh? I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break and are being sufficiently lazy.

I have a few bits of info that I would like everyone to keep in mind:

1.) Position are available for the SVAAC - both Vice President and Secretary. Please let me know if you are interested. You can contact me by email at mharris01@mica.edu. We will be holding elections for these two positions at the first fall meeting.

2.) Thanks so much to Douglas Hucker for our cool new logo!

3.) There is a new forum on facebook in the SVA group for people to post ideas/concerns for the new school year and I would love to hear from everyone! We will try to address/answer anything that is brought up. If you do not have a facebook, feel free to contact me via email, at, again, mharris01@mica.edu.

4.) If you would like to become a representative for your department, please contact your department head, or you can email me and I will give you more information.

Thanks!

Meghann Harris

SVAAC President