Presidential Roundup- December 5, 2010

• New Student Orientation on Wednesday, December 8th- Come meet UPP students joining us in January at 8pm at Jak’s Tap this Wednesday. They will just have finished their orientation and will surely like to meet their future classmates. Look for the group of cool people hanging out by the bar talking about planned unit developments.
• Meeting with CUPPA Dean Pagano Friday, December 10th at noon, CUPPAH rm 110- Join your fellow students from Public Administration and the undergraduate program for an open forum with Dean Pagano. On the agenda are questions regarding university reorganization and the tuition differential, but please bring your other questions as well.
• American Planning Association- Young Planners Group Meeting on Monday, December 6 at 6:30pm at 134 N. LaSalle St. #1100 (Houseal Lavigne)- Hear from Leslie Kirchler of Environmental Resources Management and Todd Vanodilok of Teska and Associaties about “What to do and NOT do as a planner new to the field.” RSVP at www.uppsa.org.
• Process Over Outcomes: Blog Your Masters Project- UPPSA gets a lot of questions about how students formulate their masters projects, organize themselves to get the work done and stay sane while working on their masters projects. If you would like to blog about your masters project experience contact us at uppsainfo@gmail.com and let us know what your particular take is and whether you would like your own thread or would like to contribute to more of a discussion.
• Mayoral Candidate Forum, December 14th- The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs is convening a forum of candidates for the first open mayoral race in Chicago since 1989. Join us at the UIC Forum Tuesday, December 14th from 6:30-8pm. To reserve a seat visit www.jcua.org/townhall
• Mentorship Program Comments and Feedback- If you are currently participating in either the APA-IL or CUPPA Alumni mentorship program, we would like to know what you think about your experiences in the program! Let us know what is working well, what is not, and any recommendations or other comments you may have. Please visit http://www.uppsa.org/contact-uppsa.html and leave your feedback using the appropriate form. Your comments are important and will help to improve the future of both programs, so please share your thoughts!
• UPP Accreditation Student Participation- In the coming months the Urban Planning and Policy department will undergo its self-study as part of the work to be accredited. Be on the lookout for opportunities to provide the department your feedback and help with the study. In partnership with the department, UPPSA will help disseminate surveys, host focus groups and help analyze how the department tracks outcomes. For more information about accreditation take a look at http://www.planningaccreditationboard.org.
• Book Exchange- As this semester is ending, a new one is going to begin shortly. Don’t forget to sell your books for some extra holiday cash, or rent them out, if you are attached to them. UPPSA book exchange in online! Go to http://www.uppsa.org/forum.html to post your books.
• Masters Project Forum- Based on a past 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.