Fall commencement parking

From today's Parking Services listserv.

The University of Georgia will hold graduation ceremonies on Friday, December 19th. To accommodate our guests for morning and afternoon graduation activities around Stegeman Coliseum, parking for the South Deck (S11), Carlton St Deck (S15) and lots S10 and S12 will be reserved for graduates, participants, and their guests.

Permit holders and non-commencement visitors should be aware that parking in these areas will be reduced by commencement requirements, and they may not be able to find sufficient spaces in these areas (S10, S11, S12, and S15) all day on December 19th to support the commencement. Permit holders and visitors in these reserved areas are asked to park in decks NO6, W09,
E04, E05, and W05. In addition, surface lots, particularly W11, W06, W10, E06, and E07, will be open for parking (please see map link). Free parking, for UGA permit holders, will also be offered in the Tate Center Deck.

A map for both parking and bus transportation routes can be viewed at http://www.parking.uga.edu/maps/graduation.pdf

Please do not park on sidewalks, fire lanes, loading docks, landscaped areas, or on streets except in designated parking areas. Improperly parked cars may be towed at the owner's expense.

Parking availability in all lots, but particularly on South Campus, will be impacted. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., bus service will be available from the West and East lots, with the RED route running every 10 minutes and the SILVER route running every 7 minutes. Parking Services recognizes that your support for the commencement may cause you inconvenience. We appreciate your
patience and understanding and will "bend over backwards" to address your special concerns and meet your unique needs.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact us.

**********************
Parking Services
Joe Frank Harris Commons
80 Carlton Street
Athens, GA 30602
(706) 542-7275 (p)
(706) 542-6301 (f)
www.parking.uga.edu

Good luck!

Good luck to everyone on their final exams this semester, and best wishes from the department to those of you who are graduating this semester.

UGA à Paris Informational Meeting

There will be a meeting for students interested in participating in the 2009 UGA à Paris program on November 12, from 5pm to 6:30pm in Rm 213 of the SLC. We will show a video about the program made by some students who participated a few summers ago and answer questions students may have. We will also have pizza! If you are interested in attending, it would be helpful if you could let Dr. Herod (aherod@uga.edu) know so that we know how many pizzas to order!

Election Night Event

The Law School Democrats will be holding an Election Night Event at the Georgia Theater on November 4 at 8pm to watch election results as they come in on the theater's big screen television. The event is open to everyone in the Athens community 18 years of age and older. For more information, email Jarrod Jenkins, president of the Law School Democrats, at artisj@uga.edu.

Fall behind

A reminder that clocks fall behind this coming weekend. Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, November 2. Don't be "that guy/girl" who shows up an hour early for their first class.

Congratulations

Congratulations to two of our graduate students, who placed in this year's ISA-South Graduate Student Paper Competition:

Mwita Chacha won Second Runner-up for his paper, "Why Belgium? Regional Attachment and Support for the European Union."

Annie Kryzanek won First Runner-up for her paper, "Bridging New Democracies: The Dynamics of Trust and Participation in African Countries."

Both students received a plaque, cash awards, and a one year membership to ISA and ISA-South.

UGA Travel, Study, and Work Abroad Fair

The 24th annual UGA Travel, Study and Work Abroad Fair will be held on Wednesday, October 15 and Thursday, October 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Student Learning Center Rotunda (4th floor). This year 80 UGA and external study abroad programs will be available to provide study abroad information for the UGA community. For more information, visit www.uga.edu/oie.

Mid-term reminder

Just reminder to everyone that while the midpoint of fall semester is Thursday, October 9, the midpoint withdrawal deadline is Thursday, October 23. With the new withdrawal policies in place, you'll now typically receive a WP (withdraw passing) instead of a W, though it is within the discretion of an instructor to issue a WF (withdraw failing) for drops made prior to the deadline if they feel it is warranted.

Also remember the new university policy on withdrawals; starting this semester you are allowed a maximum of 4 course drops during your undergraduate academic career at UGA. There are exceptions to this policy which include military, medical, and hardship withdrawals.

SPIA at Oxford

For anyone who's interested in the SPIA at Oxford program, please know that the deadline for applications is Friday, October 3. For more information, see their website.

We're on Facebook, too

Not to be outdone by SPIA or the Political Science department, we now have a presence on Facebook as well. If you're a current student, an alum, or just a friend of the department, you're invited to join our group. You can find it here.

New policies starting Fall 2008

There are some new university policies taking effect starting Fall 2008 that students need to be aware of. Of particular note is item number 4 and the number of course withdrawals a student can make. To clarify matters, any courses dropped prior to fall 2008 do not count against that total.

1) The Drop/Add period has changed slightly – for all courses, there is now an extra day for adding courses only. The Drop/Add dates for undergraduate and graduate level courses are below.

For registration of an undergraduate level course (courses numbered 0097-5999), the Drop/Add dates are:
Drop/Add Begins: Monday, August 18, 2008 at 7:00am
Drop Deadline: Thursday, August 21, 2008 at midnight
Add Deadline: Friday, August 22, 2008 at midnight

For registration of a graduate level course (courses numbered 6000-9999), the Drop/Add dates are:

Drop/Add Begins: Monday, August 18, 2008 at 7:00am
Drop Deadline: Monday, August 25, 2008 at midnight
Add Deadline: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at midnight

2) The Withdrawal Deadline is now two weeks after the semester midpoint. The Withdrawal Deadline for Fall 2008 is Thursday, October 23, 2008.

3) The grading system for withdrawals has changed. The W (Withdrawal) has been changed to a WP(Withdrawal Passing).

4) For undergraduate students, there is now a limit of four (4) career withdrawals at UGA before all subsequent withdrawals receive an automatic grade of WF (Withdraw Failing). The count will begin Fall 2008 regardless of when a student matriculated and of any withdrawals in previous terms. All withdrawals are included in the count except: Hardship Withdrawals, Withdrawals from Audited Courses, and Military Withdrawals.

Presentation

Dr. Loch Johnson is featured in a video of his April 2007 presentation at BYU's David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies entitled, "Spies in the Movies: Hollywood's Take on Lese Majeste." The entire video is approximately 43 minutes long.

Faced

SPIA has created a group on Facebook for its alumni. If you're a recent graduate or will soon be graduating, sign up to stay in touch with the School and current news & upcoming events. The link to the group is here. If the link doesn't work, log in to Facebook and search for 'SPIA Alumni' under the groups section.

Faculty news

Regents Professor Loch K. Johnson was recently named this year’s ‘Most Outstanding Professor’ by the Dean William Tate Society. A student-operated organization, the Dean William Tate Society recognizes 24 outstanding freshmen each year and one outstanding professor, who are then invited to be members of the Society. Student members of the organization dedicate themselves to academic, extracurricular, and personal excellence. Faculty members inducted into the group are asked to serve as resources to students.

Op-ed

International Affairs student Maggie Mills says “Candidates owe solid answers on Iraq” in an op-ed for the Athens Banner-Herald.

Getzen Lecture

Lee H. Hamilton, the co-chair of the Iraq Study Group and former vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission, will highlight the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs’ annual Getzen Lecture on Government Accountability on Wednesday, April 9, at 2 p.m. in the Chapel.

Hamilton is currently president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Beginning in 1965, he served as a U.S. Congressman from Indiana for 34 years. During his tenure, he served as the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, the Joint Economic Committee and the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress.

Phishing alert

There is an email making the rounds on campus bearing the subject line, "Confirm your email account." It's meant to look like it came from UGA, including a link to webmail.uga.edu, but it's not. The actual addy for UGA's webmail is ugamail.uga.edu. This message is a phishing scam. Just delete the message and know that your UGA email account will be just fine.

Bipartisan Advice to the Next Administration

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Dean Rusk Center for International Law, the University of Georgia School of Law joins the Southern Center for International Studies in presenting the 16th Report of the Secretaries of State. Join Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell in a unique forum moderated by newscaster Terence Smith of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." The March 27th conference will be videotaped for later television broadcast. For more information, click here.

North Korea Forum

The Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS) will be hosting a forum on North Korea, April 20-27, 2008. The Forum will be a five-day intensive immersion consisting of both seminar-type classes and panel discussion fora. The program will be directed by expert scholars with firsthand knowledge of the DPRK, drawn from around the world. All facets of the DPRK will be covered in-depth, including its politics, culture, social structure, domestic and foreign policy, history, and economics. For more information, click here.

Meigs Award for Excellence in Teaching

Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Allen on being named a recipient of the 2008 Josiah Meigs Award Distinguished Teaching Professorship. This campus-wide award recognizes excellent in instruction at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The award is named after Josiah Meigs, president of the university from 1801 to 1810.

In the news

Dr. Howard Wiarda is quoted in an article in the February 19, 2008 Athens Banner-Herald regarding Fidel Castro resigning from office in Cuba. Read the article here.

In the news

Dr. Mia Bloom is mentioned in a February 10, 2008 opinion piece in the L.A. Times about suicide bombers. Click here to read the article.

In the news

Dr. Mia Bloom is featured in the winter 2008 edition of UGA's Research Magazine on her research on terrorism. Quote the maven, "Nevermore."