This new version of The Key is quite amazing, and really easy to use. It has data for classes from 1999 through 2007, including info for new plus/minus graded classes.

Here is the press release regarding the new site:

NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2007

Contact: Paul Ruddle
229-444-4327
contact AT ugakey . com
http://ugakey.com/contact.html

UGAKey.com, a website containing grades for most University of Georgia courses since 1999, is now online.

UGAKey.com contains grade distributions, listed by professor, for undergraduate courses taught at UGA from Fall 1999 to Spring 2007, not including summer sessions, labs, or sections with fewer than ten students. The website also includes plus/minus data for courses taught beginning in Fall 2006.

The website was developed by UGA students Chris Lindsey, Noah Mink and Paul Ruddle.

Developer Chris Lindsey says, “The Key has been scattered across cyberspace for over a year. It is hard to believe that other organizations on campus, especially the Student Government Association, have yet to make it easy for students to find this grade data online in a single location. Now UGAKey.com is available for all students to use and will stay available in perpetuity.”

Developer Noah Mink has always wanted to make sure The Key was available to students and previously worked through the Black Tie Party to do so. Noah says, “People like to say, ’somebody should do something.’ I got tired of this mindset, so I’m glad we were able to get this done.”

The website also includes a history of The Key since 1995.

Future plans for the website include adding a course evaluation system and including course syllabi.

UGAKey.com is not affiliated with the University of Georgia or University System of Georgia. The developers urge students to take multiple factors into consideration when planning a course of study at UGA.

It is truly sad to see Paul go, but he accomplished a lot while he posted at RR. Good luck with your new job, Paul.

In the mean time, check out UGA News for the latest news at UGA.

To compare, of the 17 other members on the Committee (all professors), only one was absent without a substitute.

The minutes are available here (pdf).

After further review and a hearing on the complaint filed by Paul Ruddle, the Elections Committee of the Student Government Association in a majority decision decided that the Proposed Constitution of the Student Government Association did not meet the requirements of 10% for ratification. Therefore, the decision stands that the proposed constitution has failed and will not take effect.

For the backstory, see here.

As surprising as this is, maybe this is a positive step forward for the new SGA administration. By having some sort of accountability, some in SGA (read: not President Peper or VP Suber) have shown they want to make SGA a stronger, more student-friendly organization.

But, I think we should all be disappointed in the representation of a few. Outgoing SGA President Peper and VP Suber tried to cover up this matter, deceive students, and were extremely upset that their opinions weren’t final. If they had had their way, the students’ opinions would have been foregone, in the name of what is best for students.

PS – You heard it first at Hatin’ SGA.

Having received 2 emails in the past 2 days telling me I needed to change my MyID password, I decided to change it tonight. In case you are an over-achiever and already changed your password, here is the email:

Dear ———-,

The password for your MyID “————” will expire in 3 days.

To ensure that you can continue to log into UGA services that require a
MyID for access, you must go to http://myid.uga.edu and click “Change Your
Password” to change your current password.

Please do not respond to this email as it is an automated reminder only.

If you experience problems please call the EITS Helpdesk at 706.542.3106

Sincerely,

Enterprise Information Technology Services

[note, one email said "will expire in 5 days," while this one said "will expire in 3 days."]

I went to the website to go ahead and get this over with. I thought this would just take a second (I only added a “special character” to the end of my already secure password). Wrong.

You have to invent 2 ’security’ questions and answer them, and then answer 3 stock ’security’ questions. Might I add that one of the ’suggested’ security questions was “What is your favorite day of the week?” Also, EITS, if you read this, the answers to the 5 security questions should not need to be case sensitive- there are 5 questions.
And a question for anyone out there reading this, could your two invented security questions be answered by looking at your Facebook profile? Mine could (at first), and I bet some people’s will, so why have these 2 questions at all?

After coming up with my security questions and answering the other 3 (it took me a while to remember my first teacher’s name), I then had to create my “secure” password. I accidentally messed up the script on the password approval page for a minute because I was testing out how “secure” the password really had to be.

Then I was greeted with this message:

Your password is being updated. This process may take several minutes, please be patient.

And then this warning…

Your password has been updated. It will take up to 15 minutes for this to take effect.

Ha! What nonsense. And all this so later some spyware can steal my Social Security number.

Public service announcement from Hatin’ SGA: change your MyID password by February 1 here.

Open Mic with Mike is going to be next Friday at 3:30pm. That’s right, on a Friday afternoon.

If you wanted to actually get students to attend and have them actually “spend an hour or two with the Prez”, you probably wouldn’t plan your event for a Friday afternoon.

Another oddity: Open Mic with Mike is a Facebook event, but it is not yet on the UGA Master Calendar (see for yourself). In case you are wondering, Matt Winston, Mike Adams’ personal assistant, set up the event on Facebook.

[youtube]xFrv_jUHIpE[/youtube]
My favorite quotes from the report:

“Any time you’re in an election, you don’t know ’til the end. There’s still a lot of suspense, suspense.” Prez-Elect Katy Bowers

“We want the organization to continue. We can’t make progress unless the organization exists.” VP-elect Ali Gibbons

*Update*

A story on Fox 5 ran at about 5:20pm.  Hatin’ SGA was on the screen for quite a while.

Josh Weiss took pictures and recorded interviews and some debate from the Demosthenian-hosted Great SGA Debate on Thursday night, and put together this excellent slideshow. My favorite picture:

On the left, SGA’s current VP Matt Suber seems to be watching quite intently, and seated on his left is SGA’s graduate advisor.