BCRC

Weird week

November 5, 2008 by limako

It's been a weird week. I learned that some of my haiku were accepted for publication in the December issue of Taj Mahal Review. I also published an article in Esperanto at Libera Folio. I'm part of a group putting in an NSF proposal. But on Monday, I spent almost the whole day in an OSHA mandated 10-hour Construction Training program. It was 10 hours long. But once I receive my surferticket, I'll be legally able to go work in buildings while they're still under construction. We're probably going to need to work in the new Integrated Science Building to get it ready for classes while it's still under construction. Very weird.

I'm hopeful for the election in a week's time. It would be horribly depressing to imagine anything other than a landslide victory for Obama. It's been so encouraging to imagine a country that was not ruled by predators using the country to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Think happy thoughts...

UMass Rapprochement

September 29, 2007 by limako

Since the spring, the relations between the UMass Amherst faculty, president, and board of trustees has been strained. When the trustees announced plans to have a retreat with the goal of generating action steps, there was some concern raised. Today we held a general meeting of the faculty with a set of resolutions in place to express our lack of confidence. But the trustees decided to have an open meeting, rather than meeting in a secret retreat and so we backed away from the resolutions. One trustee, James Karram, attended the meeting and spoke briefly. I'm encouraged by the positive steps and I hope we are beginning to move away from the series of confrontations that have driven faculty governance relations since the spring.

I was involved in drafting a resolution for the meeting related to the governor's Readiness Project -- this is a commission that has been drawn up to study education in the state. One subcommittee is supposed to study public higher education. Pat Crosson, a highly respected former-provost, is on the committee, but no current faculty, staff, students. We drafted a separate resolution to encourage the commission to hold open forums at the UMass campuses. I drafted the following resolution (with help from many others) to try to provide some guidance to the new readiness project subcommittee:

The Faculty and Librarians of the University of Massachusetts Amherst appreciate the Governor

Programming club

January 29, 2006 by limako

For the past two years, I've been mentoring a group of Charlie's friends that are interested in computer stuff. We set up Muppyville and have continued to interact about programming. A few months ago, a mother of one of them asked me if I was aware of any opportunities for learning computer programming. I had been thinking about starting a computer programming club, but hadn't quite willing to commit myself. But I decided it was time. So I checked with the department, to make sure it was OK to bring kids into the BCRC and got the parent of another child (who I was sure would be interested) to come with me (mainly so I wouldn't be alone with the whole bunch of kids). Today was our first meeting.