podcasts!

Some noob decided to make a podcast for ASG.  It’s not very good, but I think he means well, so we decided to put it online, so you can make fun of him too.

oh snap

we’re baaaaack.

What’s on the slate with ASG this quarter:

• securing funding for continuing the Saturday Chicago Shuttle (oh heck yes)
• electronic course packet program (free the masses from the oppression of the 4-string clones)
• ASG Undergraduate Research Database (find your research opportunities here)
• CTEC rankings (woah.  aggregating all our ctecs for ease of comparison?!?!  what the ridiculous?!)
• Get GPS-tracking on shuttles! (it’s time to pin down those slippery devils)
• think pep rally.  except way bigger.
• weekly press releases
• pep rallies are so cool i just had to say it twice
• caucuses for Senate (nice!  open argument, woot!)
• improvement of the Student Group Resource Center (what’s that?—-it’s the little room right next to the ASG office on the third floor of Norris with cool computers and printers)
• pep raaaalllliiieeeessss!!!
• online database of ASG documents, minutes, and other important historical stuff

oh, and a fancy new blog author.  suh-weet.  =)

Trevor Boehm, 20, has passed away

Body Identified As Missing Northwestern Student Statement by Alan K. Cubbage, Vice President, University Relations, Regarding Missing Northwestern Student November 17, 2008 The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office today (Nov. 17) notified Northwestern University that the body of a man found yesterday in Lake Michigan was that of Northwestern University student Trevor J. Boehm. Boehm, 20, a first-year student from Monument, Col., had been reported missing last Sunday (Nov. 9). On Thursday (Nov.13), his jacket, which contained Trevor’s Northwestern identification card, keys, and cell phone, was found among the rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. “Our hearts go out to Trevor’s family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” said Northwestern University President Henry S. Bienen. “The death of one of our students affects the entire Northwestern community. We join the Boehm family in mourning the loss of Trevor.” Boehm was a student in Northwestern’s School of Communication and involved in theater productions on campus. Members of the Northwestern University Counseling and Psychological Services staff have been notified and are available to students. NORTHWESTERN NEWS: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/ NOTE TO MEDIA: THE FAMILY OF TREVOR BOEHM HAS SAID THAT THEY DO NOT WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MEDIA AND ASK THAT THEIR PRIVACY BE RESPECTED. A VIGIL ON CAMPUS ON MONDAY WILL NOT BE OPEN TO THE MEDIA.

Nov. 13 Tribute to Professor Charles Moskos

EVANSTON, Ill. —- “A Tribute to Charles Moskos” will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 13 at Alice Millar Chapel to celebrate the life of the popular Northwestern University sociologist.

Colleagues, friends and family members will share their memories of Mr. Moskos, the nation’s leading sociologist with expertise on the U.S. military and one of Northwestern University’s most beloved teachers. Known throughout the world for his warmth and wit as well as his scholarship, he was popular with fellow academics, generals, policymakers, reporters and students alike. 

Mr. Moskos, professor emeritus of sociology, died at age 74 on May 31 after a long illness. He joined Northwestern in 1966, after two years at the University of Michigan, and officially retired in 2003.  But in a sense he never left Northwestern. Each year following his retirement, except for fall 2006, he came back to teach the University’s largest and most popular introduction to sociology class.

His teaching of thousands of Northwestern students in his sociology and military sociology classes was legendary. 

Until retirement, Mr. Moskos was the Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor in the department of sociology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. A Charles Moskos Visiting Professorship was established in 2006 to recognize his service to Northwestern. 

For more than 40 years, Mr. Moskos’ research took him to numerous combat units during major military deployments, and he lectured all over the world. He advised the U.S. military and governments here and abroad on the major issues facing the military. He also was a past chair and president of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, an international scholarly society for the interchange and assessment of research on the military. 

He was perhaps best known as the author of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, the controversial measure that replaced the complete ban of gays serving in the military.  

Quoted frequently by the media, he was described by the Wall Street Journal as “the most influential military sociologist.” Mr. Moskos also wrote numerous opinion pieces for major news outlets. 

He wrote or edited 19 books and monographs and 164 journal articles, review essays and book chapters. His books include “The Military — More Than Just a Job?” “Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way” and “The Postmodern Military.” 

He took great pride in his Greek-American heritage, also a subject of his scholarship. He wrote a book titled “Greek Americans: Struggle and Success” and was active in a number of Greek-American organizations. 

Mr. Moskos’ career path was inspired by his tenure in the U.S. Army, where he served for two years as an enlisted soldier. He was drafted in 1956 after receiving a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Princeton University. After his military service, he earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. 

A native Chicagoan and son of immigrants, Mr. Moskos was born in Chicago May 20, 1934, and graduated from high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Ilca; son Andrew, daughter-in-law Saskia and grandchildren Finn and Aidan, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and son Peter and daughter-in-law Zora O’Neill, of Astoria, N.Y.

ASG: Nearly 400 take Saturday shuttles in first two weeks

By Chloe Benoist

Nearly 400 students rode the free “Chicago Express” Saturday shuttle during its inaugural two weekends, an Associated Student Government official said Wednesday.

ASG External Relations Chair Samir Pendse said that 215 passengers used the new service on its opening day on Oct. 11, and 163 used it the next weekend.

Pendse called the numbers the “as good as you could have hoped,” and noted that all the seats were taken on the first shuttle he rode.

The pilot program has funding for the rest of fall quarter. Shuttles will run to downtown Chicago locations every Saturday in October and November, after which point the university will decide whether or not the it’ll be funded further. A University Services official wasn’t available for comment late this evening.

The university first approved the service in April after the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee proposed it.

City, NU hope to fix relations

Better communication between Northwestern and Evanston may help reduce recent tension.

The troubled history of town-gown relations in Evanston may be entering “a new chapter,” city officials have said.

If so, the first page in this chapter was written Thursday night when Ricardo Dumont, a consultant working with Northwestern, gave a lengthy presentation about the school’s new 50-year campus framework plan at an NU-City Committee meeting.

Evanston lawmakers said they were pleased with the plans and with NU’s desire to communicate with residents.

“I see this as a reason to hope for a new chapter, and we need one,” Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said. “A lot of what we saw (in the meeting) is pretty consistent with what the city has expressed.”

For Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st), not having to guess at NU’s intentions was enough to mark an improvement.

“I like that they have a plan,” said Wollin, whose ward includes part of NU.

The 50-year plan, a tentative guideline to map the school’s future development, includes the reshaping of the lagoon, the demolition of certain buildings on campus and the construction of several new ones.

If Thursday’s meeting was the first page in a new chapter, the school’s controversial purchase of 1945 Orrington Ave. in spring 2006 was the last page in the previous one.

The deal was criticized because the school planned the purchase in secrecy, only informing Evanston officials of its intent as the deal was finalized.

Although a city attorney analyzed the transaction and found it to be legal, several aldermen called for improved communication between the two parties.

Given this history, many Evanston officials and residents shared a sigh of relief when they learned NU does not plan to buy land in Evanston in the foreseeable future.

As a nonprofit institution, the school is exempt from paying property taxes. Any land the school buys is no longer a source of revenue for the city, which desperately needs money to pay its $140 million deficit in police and fire pension funds.
Continued…