I have quite a few comments about her opinions, so I am going to post my responses line by line.

Creating change in a community of 34,959 students is no easy task, but it is the job of the Student Government Association to work every day towards the ideal university setting here in Athens.

Come on, “work every day towards the ideal university setting”??? How about representing students? Isn’t that what you are elected to do?

This past semester, SGA successfully advocated on behalf of students to achieve many significant improvements in campus life.

Funny.

Sometimes we, myself in particular, get so excited a change is occurring that we forget to tell everyone what role we played in the initiative.

Ha, does any one actually believe that? SGA touts everything to make themselves look important, including the accomplishments of other people and organizations.

Here are things the Student Government Association successfully advocated for last year.

As you may have noticed, beginning this fall, the University no longer will utilize Social Security numbers in the classroom due to the security risks that distribution of this sensitive information posed to students.

Now that you fixed the little problem with Social Security numbers, why don’t you fix the big problem where people might actually have their important information stolen? This is where the problem is SGA, when you have to sign on to OASIS using your Social Security number.

The Collegiate Readership Program, first implemented last fall, continues to provide national and local newspapers to all University students on a daily basis.

Make sure you tout this one some more, Ms. Bowers, since you predecessor put this program in place and you have done nothing for the program.

In order to place student safety above punitive measures in all aspects of University life, the Responsible Action Policy was implemented in May to ensure students seek medical attention for their peers without hesitation.

Umm, excuse me, when did this happen? Why haven’t you told students? This should have been a major score for students, and yet it is buried in your list of accomplishments. And why don’t you explain this policy some more. Do underagers who call for medical attention for others get no punishment, or is it the one in need of medical attention gets no punishment? You need to explain this, and then get out and tell every person on campus, so something like this doesn’t happen again.

We have advocated successfully for increased wireless access in classrooms – which can be utilized to learn about the distribution of grades in University courses by viewing the Key, which has been compiled by SGA and posted on our Web site.

Now, you say you’ve “advocated successfully for increased wireless access in classrooms”, can you tell me which classrooms have increased wireless access? I would like to know, because otherwise I don’t believe you.

As for the issue of The Key, I know you read this last week.

In a few weeks, the University will launch Ruckus, a legal media downloading program that will be accessible to all University students, free of charge.

Damn you people. Do you not know that anyone with an EDU email address can access for free anyways? Yeah, you can. So is UGA paying for this? I would hate for them to pay for something that is free for all college students already. I know this is Rodney Bennett’s pet project, but maybe someone needs to take a broader look and see if UGA should really sign an agreement with Ruckus dealing with a service that is already free to students.

We also have launched a Web site ourselves called GeorgiaStudentOpinion.com to connect all of the colleges and universities in the state.

When issues regarding HOPE scholarship, tuition and textbook prices are raised during future legislative sessions, we will be able to respond quickly in a unified manner.

Ummm, yeah, your site doesn’t really work. It requires a password to get in. Strangely enough, the username and password combination to get into the site is sga and sga. Let me tell you a little something about web lingo. When you say you launch a website, usually that means it is available to be of use to someone. But apparently nothing SGA does is of use to anyone.

With those tasks off our list, SGA still has a busy fall ahead of us. Issues on our agenda include:

• Opening the Student Learning Center 24 hours a day – which polls show is overwhelmingly supported by students – around 80 percent for those of you who like numbers.

Thank you. Any chance you can work on getting the libraries open 24/7 as well?

• Providing art classes for non-majors so all students have an opportunity to get a well-rounded education at the University.

Has anybody actually told SGA that they would like for this to happen? Just curious if this was a personal goal.

• Improving the advising process at orientation so freshmen will have the best possible start to their academic careers.

Ha, like this will actually happen.

• Posting the faculty evaluations each student completes at the end of a course online.

Won’t ever happen.

• Drafting and passing the Commitment to Academic Excellence – an agreement between students and faculty ensuring respect in the classroom is a two-way street.

What the heck is this? “Ensuring respect is a two-way street”? Some explanation please.

• Creating an interactive calendar for all student organizations, thereby making it easier to get plugged in on campus.

Oh cool! Like, we could put all the Greek events on this one calendar, and then like, we could all go to each others’ parties. Like, totally great idea.

• Expanding the on-campus venues that accept Bulldog Bucks (especially Sanford Stadium and Parking Services) and many other projects that will benefit the academic, social and cultural welfare of students here at the University.

“Many other projects that will benefit the academic, social and cultural welfare of students”. Excuse me, I just choked on my milk.

Please let us know what you think of these initiatives, what your issues are and anything on this campus that could be tweaked in order to make your stay in Athens the best time of your life.

We can’t cancel classes on Friday or change the drinking age to 18, but please let us know if you ever need anything else.

Ya know, if this are the kinda projects that students want you to work on, shouldn’t you be so inclined? I mean, you are elected to accomplish student goals. No classes on Friday!

To learn more about the issues above and others, please visit www.uga.edu/sga or join us on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in SLC room 101.

Feel free to contact Student Government Association anytime, through e-mail at www.ugasga@uga.edu or me personally at KABowers@uga.edu or by swinging by our office in Tate 169.

Remember, we’re here working for you. Make sure to let us know how you think we are doing.

- Kathryn Bowers is the president of SGA.

It is funny, usually these articles are penned by both the President and Vice President of SGA.

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.

The 2006-2007 Key is now online!

To access grade distribution information click on the resources for students icon. This year, courses have been categorized alphabetically by the first letter of the course.

SGA’s venerable webmaster (Wonder if this took him the 6 hours he claimed?) put online 8 pdf’s that list the grade data by the 4-letter course identifier. Yes, you have to download 8 different pdf’s to see two semesters worth of grade data.

So this makes 3 places where you have to go to find The Key:

• Fall 1999 through Fall 2005 can be found at the Black Tie Party website.
• “2005 through 2006″ [SGA doesn't indicate which term] is available here.
• Now the “2006 through 2007″ data [again no indication of which term from SGA] is online here.

Thanks, SGA, for making The Key so easy to find!

I’ve heard a rumor that another group of students is attempting to put up a better version of The Key, that might actually take into account students’ needs, usability, AND have all the data (Fall 1999 through Spring 2007) in one place. The rumor indicates that this new version of The Key will be up by drop/add, in time to actually be useful.

UGA students are ready to see all of The Key in one place. This is a project SGA should have completed a long time ago, but they never stepped up to bat for us students.

We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more about The Key!

However, for all intensive purposes, The Key is dead.

After Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness Bob Boehmer crippled the online database of grade distributions in spring 2006 by removing professors’ names, there was an outcry by students to return The Key to its former self.

The Student Government Association, under then-President Jamie Peper, claimed to have struck a deal with the administration in which The Key would be returned, but under the control of SGA.

Several months later, The Key did pop up on the SGA web site, but has sat dormant now for the past year without updates.

Then, last week the former SGA webmaster Cory Watson responded to the criticism with an editorial of his own:

It takes one or two hours to get the text file to a point when it can be entered into the database. We are not allowed to post information for classes with less than 20 students in an effort to keep grades confidential, so those must be edited out. After that, the text file is uploaded to the database and it is a two to three hour ordeal to make it into a new page on The Key.

…

I am not paid hundreds of dollars per year, although I have not looked at the budget and am not aware if someone else is being paid to be the webmaster now. Mine was a one-time payment for the initial site design and setup.

It was my understanding that Cory Watson agreement with SGA was $1,000 for site design, setup, hosting, domain name, updates for a year, AND updating The Key.

So, here we are, summer 2007. And what is the status of The Key?

It is outdated, spread out over several websites, and unhelpful to students.

And what about all those campaign promises and Facebook groups about The Key? Ineffective.

As such, the editor of the Ruddle Report, Paul Ruddle, has made available an Excel file with the 1999 through 2006 Key data.

If you would like to see the older HTML version of The Key (1999 through 2005), the Black Tie Party has made it available here.