November 7th UPPSA Presidential Roundup

Hello,
Now that you are refreshed from an extra hour of sleep (be sure you changed your clocks back to standard time) take a gander at this week’s UPPSA announcements.
• UPPSA Board Leadership: American Planning Association First Year Representative- The UPPSA board is excited to announce that the new First Year Representative to the APA-IL is Meredith Klekotka. Meredith will serve an 18 month term beginning in January, during which time she will represent UIC Planning students as a voting member of APA-IL’s executive board. Her responsibilities also include publicizing APA events and initiatives at CUPPAH. She was chosen from a strong pool of candidates and will work with Sara Amaral, current APA-IL representative until her term expires in May. Thank you Meredith for taking on this responsibility and thank you to all the great candidates who took the time and energy to apply for this position.
• GA/TOD- The next UPPSA General Assembly/Transit Oriented Dining will be Friday, November 12th starting at 6pm. The meeting will take place at the TOD location in the Pilsen neighborhood- Nuevo Leon 1515 W. 18th St. Chicago, IL 60608 (312) 421-1517 www.nuevoleonrestaurant.com
Directions from UIC: Cycling/Driving -- Take Van Buren west for about 3/4 mile until Ashland Ave. Take a left onto Ashland Ave. and go south for 2 miles until 18th St. Then make a left and go east for 1 block.
CTA -- Walk west on Van Buren for about 3/4 mile until Ashland Ave. Take the Ashland bus (#9) south until the 18th St. stop. Then take a left and walk 1 block east on 18th St.
To RSVP for the social event, please go to www.uppsa.org before Wednesday, November 10th so we can get a rough headcount to make our reservation. Please let me know if you have any other questions. We hope to see you there!
• CUPPAH Gridiron Challenge- On Saturday, November 20th at 1:30 pm the combined athletic abilities of UPPSA, SUPA (undergrads), PASA (Public Administration) and CUPPS (Phd’s) students will create an unbelievably awesome flag football game. Email UPPSAinfo@gmail.com if you are interested in playing, cheering on or coaching for the game. The game(s) will take place at Harrison Field (just across the expressway from CUPPAH). We are asking all participants to bring a canned good or non-perishable item to be donated to a local food pantry.
• UPP Next: Informational Interviews as a Networking Tool- Learn about networking and informational interviews and also practice conducting them at this UPP Next event! Find out how to develop a plan for informational interviewing that will help you learn more about what interests you in planning, identify how your interests fit into a possible career path, and begin to build your own professional network.
Marva Boyd, the Acting Chief of Staff at the Illinois Department of Transportation, will be presenting on this important career development tool. Participants will have the opportunity to put what they learn into action during the session--you'll leave prepared to use what you've learned to expand your networks well before you need a job! Join us Friday, November 12th @ 12 PM in the Great Cities conference room, 4th floor of CUPPA Hall.
• Masters Project Forum- Based on this past Friday's UPP Next event during which UPP faculty and former students presented on the MUPP masters project, we thought it would be a good idea to begin an on-going discussion board for students to put their ideas out into the MUPP community, learn about resources and find people for collaboration. One of the ideas that came up was the disconnect between completing a solely individual masters project and then working in careers that will almost never involve purely individual work. Us this thread as a forum for collaboration. Feel free to post 1) your idea for a masters project 2) requests for information, sources or people to connect with 3) provide feedback to others and 4) begin the process of pursuing a collaborative masters project. To view it go to http://www.uppsa.org/forum.html
• Academic or Assistantship Advocacy- Any MUPPs with concerns about department-wide academic issues are encouraged to contact UPPSA at UPPSAinfo@gmail.com with your feedback about the program. The Board of UPPSA meets regularly with the UPP department and the Dean of CUPPA. Let us be your advocate. Also, for those students with assistantships, UPPSA President Bob Fuller is also the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) steward for CUPPAH. If you feel you have been treated unfairly in your assistantship (Teaching, Graduate or Research) feel free to contact him at rfulle5@uic.edu to get connected with the GEO’s grievance resources.
• If you have important news for fellow MUPPs and you would like it included in the President’s Weekly Roundup and/or on the UPPSA website email UPPSAinfo@gmail.com by 2 p.m. each Sunday.
Have a great week,
Bob Fuller
President- UPPSA