Emily Karol is a student at the University of Georgia where she serves as Co-chair of the Go Green Alliance and interns in the UGA Office of Sustainability.  Emily attended the AASHE 2010 conference in Colorado last week and over the course of the conference she live-blogged about the event and presentations she attended. There are over a dozen great blog posts from Emily on her blog (http://emkarol.wordpress.com/). This is a great way of seeing the conference through a student's eyes. I encourage you to check out her posts, many of which include nice photos. All of Emily's AASHE 2010 posts have been tagged and are available here.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE AND JOIN. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

there is no doubt that the chill thread is indeed the most prolific and powerful force on myumbc. despite the unfortunate turn of events regarding the battle between wmbc and oit, we ask you to join our online internet community programmed by this guy. i did this for you.

JOIN US TODAY

you will be safe there. while browsing, feel free to enjoy some of our tunes below, and don't miss "the cup cake clan" preforming live at the battle of the bands this November.

Robot love: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/fzpf

so tight in the night: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/jegc

shootin: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/hpfg

everyone you love will eventually die.

Contact:
Dinah Winnick
Communications Manager: Social Sciences
(410) 455-8117
dwinnick@umbc.edu
twitter.com/UMBCSocSci

As we approach the November election, Maryland residents are turning to media to learn about the candidates’ perspectives on key public issues. UMBC researchers are available to provide insight into the election and a range of related topics, such as the voting process, campaigns, lobbying, the state budget, and gauging public opinion.

Donald F. Norris, professor and chair of the Department of Public Policy and director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), is a specialist in urban politics, public management and e-government. Local, regional and national news media regularly contact him to provide commentary and analysis on Maryland government and politics; he has contributed to USA Today, The Washington Post, AP, local NBC and CBS news and MSNBC.com.

Thomas F. Schaller, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, is an expert on the American presidency, US Congress, interest groups and lobbying, and campaigns and elections. He is the author of the acclaimed "Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South" and is a political columnist for The Baltimore Sun. He has written commentaries on federal and state electoral issues for The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, American Prospect, Politico, Salon, The New Republic and others, and has appeared on ABC News, The Colbert Report, MSNBC, NPR, PBS and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

Laura Hussey, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, can speak to public opinion on policy issues, US public policy on social welfare and moral/cultural issues, and the roles and functioning of government agencies.

Nicholas F. Miller, professor in the Department of Political Science and NSF-funded scholar, specializes in understanding voting processes as forms of collective decision-making. He has published research on logrolling, majority voting, power, social choice, information pooling, agenda control and spatial-voting models. His current research focuses on the properties of the US Electoral College as a vote-counting mechanism.

Roy T. Meyers, professor in the Department of Political Science and former Congressional Budget Office analyst, focuses on the reform of state and federal budgetary processes, priority-setting, attempts to limit earmarks and the roles of elected officials (such as the governor’s power). He recently produced the report “Budget Questions for the Maryland Election and Beyond” and wrote for The Baltimore Sun on how Maryland can avoid cuts by educating the public about vital services.

The following article is a guest blog post from Cecil Scheib, Director of Energy and Sustainability at New York University.

As I travel home by train from the wonderful AASHE 2010 conference in Denver, I write this with my laptop on my lap aboard the eastbound California Zephyr, eventually to meet the Lake Shore Limited bound for New York City. It's the second half of a round trip I made from the East Coast to Colorado for the 3-day conference.

My total trip will have me spend about as much time on the train as at my destination - which may explain why, for most people, airline travel is the only reasonable way to expect attendees to arrive at a national conference in any numbers. And in a country that has no problem funding airports and superhighways, the sad state of support for a national rail system means I shy away from recommending Amtrak to friends. While unpleasant trips have been rare in my 15+ years of cross-country rail travel, one does encounter the occasional stopped-up toilet, rude conductor, or unpleasant seatmate, and I guess I've never wanted to feel responsible for the encouragement that puts someone I know in that position.

Despite all this, and while I personally enjoy flying, I love the train. I relish the stress-free connections on both ends - no airport shuttles, security lines, or arriving hours early at the airport. All it took was a simple subway trip in NYC and an easy walk from my Denver hotel, arriving at the station about 15 minutes before departure. I look forward to watching the scenery flow by with my favorite book in hand or podcast in ear, and arriving rested and relaxed, with my body already adapted to the time change, instead of jetlagged and dried out from pressurized cabin air. I make the most of my brief time during the lunch stopover in Chicago, taking in a meal at a favorite restaurant by Union Station and a walk along the Chicago River before reboarding.

This trip, thanks to the gracious understanding and support of New York University, I counted the full day I spent on the train in each direction as a work day. With the help of a laptop and a Verizon USB stick, I wrote proposals, answered emails, drafted contracts and presentations, reviewed building plans, and did data analysis the whole way. In fact, I think I got more accomplished on the train, free from distractions, than I often do in the hectic office environment.

It turns out Amtrak is an affordable way to travel. With discounts available for students, AAA card holders, NARP members (a one-year membership pays itself back after one trip!), and even through university purchasing portals (I got a free upgrade to sleeper class on the return trip thanks to our friendly sales rep at the NYU vendor fair), train fare prices track airlines pretty closely – I paid the same amount, to within a few dollars either way, of my colleagues who flew. Frequent rider miles mean regular free travel for those of us who use the rails on repeated basis.

I know I’m not the only person from the conference traveling home on this train, and it could be a good way to extend the networking opportunity. Maybe AASHE could ask people how they are arriving at conferences and help share this type of information to allow easier meetups for those who desire it. In fact, perhaps AASHE should encourage low-carbon rail travel for next year’s conference! After all, we got a drink ticket this year for showing up for a 7am session -- why shouldn’t we get one for reducing our travel emissions 90% on the way to a sustainability conference? And since most of the population of US and Canada lives within a one-day train ride of Pittsburgh, maybe it’s time to change the conventional wisdom that air travel is the only way to get farther than a car ride away from home. If anyone can change that kind of thinking, it just might be the folks who go to AASHE conferences.
 

After a bit of a break, I'm pleased to announce the upcoming release of a new feature for myUMBC: Group Notifications.

One thing we've heard from group members is that once they join a group, they have to repeatedly go back to the group page to see what's new.  To make life easier, whenever new content is posted to a group, myUMBC will send a short email to all group members with a link to the new post. In addition to an email, when you log in to myUMBC, you will see a summary of new posts in the Activity dashboard in the upper-right of myUMBC next to your name.

Notification Settings

There will also be new page under your personal settings that will allow you to configure when and from whom you receive notifications:

• You will have to option of when to receive email notifications: immediately (the default), daily, or never. Even if you choose "never" you will still see the notifications in the Activity dashboard.
• You will be able to choose which groups you want to receive notifications from.  If you uncheck a group, you will receive no emails or entries in your Activity dashboard.

We hope this will make it easier for people to remain engaged with their groups, while providing an easy way to prevent yourself from being overrun with email.

We expect to enable group notifications some time this weekend.

We look forward to your feedback.

Collier

Science, Engineering, Math, and Computer Science students check out the paid summer research fellowship at NIST. If you are considering applying to this program, sign up now for more information by e-mailing mcglynn@umbc.edu. Ten UMBC students were research fellows at NIST last summer. Students in all years as well as graduating seniors may apply to this summer research program.