Although UMBC has clearly been established as a home for STEM majors, many of the humanities and social science departments still have enough room to grow, attract more members and positively impact the campus body. One such relatively unknown program is the Management of Aging Services program.

The MAgS program is a perfect example of a young and surely growing subculture at UMBC. The program currently lists about 30 students majoring and 30 students minoring, which is notable due to the overwhelming STEM presence, the unique nature of the MAgS program and the fact that the program is only 12 years old.

One positive aspect of MAgS is that its class structure seems to attract students of all different backgrounds and interests. This was especially key in attracting MAgS minors.

Amy Huber, sophomore MAgS major, psychology minor and president of the MAgS council of majors, described the diverse nature of MAgS students and professors.”The class topics fall under policy, health, wellness, management, business, technology, entrepreneurship and critical issues in aging services.  We have professors who work in healthcare, government, business and the like. The field as a whole has a need for business leaders, nurses, doctors, physical therapists, social workers, financial counselors, policy makers, innovators in technology, dietitians, psychologists architects…you name it!”

Along with appealing to different backgrounds of students, the MAgS program has become more and more active on and off campus.

The MAgS program participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, headed by the Alzheimer’s Association to raise funds for support, care and research of the disease.

This semester, they have held multiple events on campus. Huber said, “We held an event called Wii Bowl with the Old, where MAgS students spent the afternoon Wii Bowling with some older adults in the Commons. Later in the semester, we are inviting CC Andrews, a graduate of the MAgS graduate program and President of Quantum Age Collaborative (which is a consulting company for healthcare and aging organizations), to come and speak on campus.”

Events like Wii Bowling with the Old may seem a bit insignificant and trivial, but they serve a higher purpose in the MAgS program.

Alison Larsen, double major in biology and psychology, MAgS minor and vice president of the MAgS council of majors, spoke about the importance of these events. “Events such as Wii Bowl with the Old are important to the MAgS community because they create different inter-generational relationships that can last a lifetime, and help make different connections with individuals that would have never happened without the events.”

Huber and Larsen both agree that the MAgS program has a bright future ahead, and that the UMBC community should be more aware of its existence and impact.

“People should care about MAgS because everyone is going to get old eventually and everyone ages differently. MAgS is a one of a kind program where the classes are small right off the bat and most of the professors are, or were at one point, in the field so that have great work experience that they are eager to share with the students, ” said Larsen.

Huber explained the importance of MAgS in regards our generation of students and how we react to other now aging generations. “[MAgS] is a growing field that will have a large need in the future. The Baby Boomer population is getting older and the United States is going to need people to manage what will happen as all of these people age. Issues will arise with care giving, social security etc. Most people either are or eventually will become caregivers for older relatives, which makes it important to have some knowledge about older adults.”

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Over the past few years, our Student Government Association has been degraded by waves of corrupt presidents and troubled elections. This year, the Jankoski-Amsini presidency has punctuated the ineffectiveness of an SGA with lackluster leadership, specifically the glaring issues associated with the election board confirmation process.

After violating numerous election rules during his campaign and narrowly escaping impeachment with the help of professional legal council, Jankoski finished his term as president by delaying the nomination of an election board chair and accomplishing little, if any, of the platform on which his campaign was run.

The nomination, and delayed confirmation of, this year’s election board chair is an example of the shortfalls within our SGA. The chair must be nominated by the current president and then confirmed by the senate and finance board. What does not make sense, though, is a president who was found guilty of numerous campaign violations being the sole entity responsible for bringing forward the person whose job it will be to uphold election rules. This year, the senate was almost forced to confirm a candidate whom they were unsure of because of how late he was nominated.

As this year’s election looms, concerns of harassment and electronic voting rule violations have been circulating once again. In the past, there have been instances of students being followed back to their dorms, having campaigners take their phones to submit votes and a slew of other types of voter harassment. Unfortunately, violations are difficult to substantiate and as a result dismissed by the election board. Evan Leiter-Mason, last year’s election board chair, said that “in the past the volume of violations and the speed at which they came in made it difficult to make them all public,” and that “the majority were not actionable because of a lack of evidence.”

This year’s chair, Robert Caverly, has released a new set of election rules. Within rule 10, the board states “harassing voters in the interest of collecting more votes is not only immoral but illegal … Not only will the candidate be automatically disqualified for violations of this nature, but they will also be subject to the legal repercussions of their actions.”

A zero tolerance policy on harassment is both excellent and necessary. However, rule seven leaves the harassment policy in a grey area: “Candidates or campaign representatives may approach students to encourage them to walk over to the a device [sic] to cast a vote in the election.”

Allowing candidates or campaign representatives to approach students and “encourage” them to walk over to devices at which they may cast a vote opens students to the possibility of harassment – we’ve seen loose interpretations of election rules before – and directly contradicts rule 10.

Caverly has also instituted a three-strike system for campaign violations: “There will be an absolute maximum of three total violations a campaign can receive. If a candidate receives a total of three violations – regardless of their severity – they will be disqualified from the election immediately upon the third violation being voted on by the election board … If the election board judges a campaign violation as serious enough they can vote to ban a candidate from the election immediately regardless of the number of current violations.”

However, this rule gives the board discretion in judging the severity of violations. The problem with discretion in this presidential race arose when the election chair himself was nominated by a president to whom rules mean little and a lack of oversight has been beneficial. If new election rules are to be instituted, they must be clearly worded with little room for interpretation by the campaigns.

The idea of bringing back polling stations and eliminating electronic voting this year is currently being considered. Polling stations would mean that the chance for election fraud and rule violations is greatly decreased. The argument has been made that stations mean less voter turnout. Frankly, we would rather see a lesser turnout if that means less harassment and an increase in the validity of the election. Perhaps it would be best to take this year as a learning experience, temporarily eliminate electronic voting, and get back to the core values of democracy on which the SGA should be operating.

Going forward, outreach on the part of the chair is key. The student body needs to be informed of the election rules, what constitutes harassment and what their rights are when it comes to voting. It is the chair’s responsibility to disseminate that information by whatever means necessary. A good start would be posting in academic buildings, residence halls and The Commons, as well as online outlets such as myUMBC and social media. Campaign representatives should even be required to give out information regarding election rules while campaigning.

While outreach on the part of the election board could be improved, and polling stations can be implemented, these are not permanent fixes to the camps of individuals in any campaign that find it appropriate to bend and break rules in the hope of slipping through regulatory cracks. Our elections have been inherently strained by corruption for years, and fixing that means being proactive in fighting those who cheat through more stringent sanctions and an appointing process for the election board chair that keeps them out of the political game.

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Filmmaker and publisher Ram Devineni came to campus Wednesday to showcase his new project where art, activism and technology intersect to create his innovative comic book “Priya’s Shakti.” Room 132 in the PAHB was packed with students sitting in the aisles and standing in the back of the room to hear about the innovative project.

Devineni’s comic, which is free to download across the world, was created to change the conversation surrounding rape in India. He was inspired to begin the project when he filmed the 2012 protests in Delhi following a horrific gang rape on a bus. Devineni felt that the conversation surrounding rape needed to be changed.

“No good girl walks home alone at night,” said one anonymous Indian man that Devineni filmed and animated as part of a documentary project about the Delhi rape. “The blame is 50/50.”

Devineni wanted sought to change public conversations about rape beginning with teenagers and felt a comic book was a great way to reach the demographic. Devineni showed a slideshow with images from his comic book and footage he had taken of interviews and other art projects he worked on to introduce his project.

“Priya’s Shakti” is about a rape survivor, Priya, who is shunned by her family but finds inner strength with help from Hindu gods and a tiger she meets. Devineni drew from empowered, female comic books heroes like Ms. Marvel to create Priya.

What made Devineni’s idea unique is the use of “augmented reality.” He worked with tech company Blippar to create a unique virtual experience. Each page of the comic book can be scanned with a mobile device and display new artwork and animation relating to the comic.

The marriage of art and technology resonated with the 500,000 people who have downloaded “Priya’s Shakti.” Devineni showed videos of his advertising campaign in India, where street artists painted images from the comic book in public spaces that could be scanned with a mobile device in the same way the comics can.

In spite of Devineni’s inspiring ideas and creative use of technology, his audience offered mixed reactions to his presentation. One student nodded off, and others whispered to each other while he spoke.

The presentation was low-tech, using only a slideshow and very short Quicktime video clips. Devineni devoted a large amount of time to talking about his corporate partners and the logistical process of launching the comic book.

Although some of the audience lost interest, many found the project to be inspiring. Lorena Martinez, a sophomore graphic design major, came to see Devineni because it was required for her class and was moved by the project.

“It was jaw dropping,” Martinez said, snacking on fruit offered after the event. “I think that augmented reality is going to be huge.”

Martinez felt that using a multimedia comic book was a great way to get kids involved in social issues.

“Visual effects are better than just reading about it of hearing somebody talk.”

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What we consume at UMBC is often a mystery: True Grit’s provides healthy greens, but students don’t know where those eats are sourced from. UMBC’s student run food policy consultation group, Just Food UMBC, has been working to promote a more sustainable food system at UMBC. Since its start in Spring 2014, the group has hit many road blocks in trying to meet their vision.

Founded in Fall 2014 by now-graduated student Kelsey Donnellan, Just Food UMBC was originally Real Food UMBC. The group was tied to an organization called the Real Food Challenge, but has since changed its name and distanced itself from the larger group.

“[The Real Food Challenge] is a national organization with this thing called the real food commitment and it’s a document that … binds the university into doing 20 percent real food by 2020 and that’s pretty much our same goal,” said Maura Smith, director of Just Food UMBC. “It’s the idea of shifting dining services’ purchasing power towards real food which we define as local, organic, humane and fair.”

The national average for real food as defined by the Real Food Challenge at universities in the US is three to seven percent, and despite efforts to grow UMBC’s percentage Just Food UMBC has not received this information. In order to find out how much of UMBC’s food is defined as real food, Just Food UMBC would have to receive invoices that document where all food on campus comes from.

“[The invoices are] where we encountered our roadblocks. These invoices are like stacks high, like a five inch stack of just documents of all the foods that the dining service orders. Since we’ve contracted out our dining, directors don’t really know where the food comes from … we want to know regularly where it comes from,” Smith said.

Just Food UMBC became active in Spring 2015 and originally planned to receive the invoices. However, in March 2015, an unspecified corporate member of Chartwells shut down their operation. Despite the multiple efforts of Smith to get in contact with Chartwells, they are still unsure who is blocking their efforts.

“Chartwells is probably one of the least transparent dining organizations,” Smith explained, “I even emailed their corporate asking to see an organizational chart for my area and they don’t answer.”

As the third best location for Chartwells, UMBC is known as a center of excellence or pilot location. Therefore UMBC sets a precedent for company-wide changes.

Due to this, Just Food UMBC had to cut ties with Real Food Challenge and focus on finding out how much incentive there was on campus to further their cause. Without the invoices, they spent the Spring 2015 semester researching dining services.

Just Food UMBC’s ultimate goal is to have a stake in the new Dining Services contract in 2018 when it expires. They hope to push more local food that meets at least two out of three the real food standards, move variety in food choices as well as information about where all the food comes from at UMBC.

When the contract is up, the request for proposal for a new one will go out in January 2018 and go through the Maryland General Assembly as well as the Board of Regents in a scoping process where dining companies will make bids to serve the campus.

“I definitely want to keep Chartwells,” Smith said, “I just want transparency.”

“‘Just Food [UMBC] gives students the opportunity to promote sustainable food options on campus while improving the health and well-being of our students, our environment and our economy. That’s no small task,” said Nancy McAllister, adjunct professor of environmental science at UMBC.

This semester, Just Food UMBC has been working with SGA to create a resolution to further their initiatives. Come the Fall 2016 semester, Smith hopes to push for the invoice audit once again with more success.

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