Union policy for late night socials needs your input
At the beginning of the semester, the Stamp Student Union announced a moratorium on any new “late-night socials” in response to repeated safety concerns. Late-night socials are defined as large-scale events in either the Colony or Grand ballrooms lasting past midnight.
In an effort to address these safety concerns, the Union Advisory Board (a committee of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni) has composed a new socials policy for the Student Union. It is our hope that this policy will allow socials to continue in the Student Union in a safer, less chaotic manner for all parties involved.
Before composing the document, the board held several town hall and roundtable meetings in an attempt to gather student, student group and community input on the socials policy. Now that we have a tangible document, we’d like to receive one more round of input before we bring the recommendation to the Student Union administration.
You can find the full socials policy online at www.union.umd.edu/uab or by e-mailng questions and comments to the board at tadpole@umd.edu. Take a moment to check it out. We will be holding an open forum on the policy Thursday, May 1 from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Jimenez Room of the Student Union to solicit comments. We hope to hear from you!
Tad GreenleafChairUnion Advisory Board
Improvements need proactive attitudes
I read with interest the April 29 letter to the editor from Christopher Amerasinghe titled, “Cupcake excess.” Unfortunately, I found the author’s viewpoint to be somewhat naive and unnecessarily negative. To describe the creative display of cupcakes put together by Dining Services as simply an act of excess and not as the point of pride it was intended to be demonstrates an unfortunately limited viewpoint.
When I was a student leader at the university in the early 1990s, there were also challenges facing the campus community. Some of these issues were the same as those faced today, such as campus parking and chronic difficulties in working collaboratively with the city. Others, like the lack of students wanting to live on the campus (and the subsequent multi-year closure of several dorms) were quite different, and in some ways more problematic than today’s challenge of meeting the high student demand for on-campus housing.
The point here is, just because the campus wasn’t “perfect” during the time I was an undergraduate student, it in no way diminished my pride in being a Terp. To say, as this commentator has, that an imperfect campus is equivalent to “a university that [fails] to provide a unique experience” is simple exaggeration. If anything, these challenges did lead to a unique experience, at least for me, in that they inspired me to serve as a student leader in hopes of helping to effectively address these concerns.
Just because something I care about is facing challenges and is not absolutely perfect does not cause me to reject it. Rather, it inspires me to be a part of the solution. I would hope others have this same positive and constructive perspective. It is that spirit which should bring current university students and alumni together as Terps to help support – and continuously improve – the university community, rather than turn their backs on it.
Jeffrey SmithClass of 1995
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