Thursday, April 8, 2010

Office of the Registrar Advisory Board Meeting

The Office of the Registrar Advisory Board meet March 24th.

Most of the meeting related to a presentation from on of the office's staff members. The presentation was a brief overview and explanation of FERPA or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA is a federal law that guarantees students privacy of their educational records. The law also guarantees that students can have access to their records at any time and, if they chose, can chose to lock or release their records to third parties. The Advisory Board was told that we were getting the presentation about FERPA because, despite its importance for every student, the law is fairly unknown on campus. This can become a problem if a student does have a need or want to hide their records. The Office of the Registrar informed the board that students who want to lock or release their records can chose to do so right of of their Student Center. It can be found under the "Personal Information" tab if you scroll down your student center, and they click on FERPA Restrictions. Also the office pointed out that under "Personal Information" you can change your current address, phone number, and other pieces of information the University would like to have for their students safety. For more information of FERPA visit registrar.wisc.edu/ferpa

The rest of our meeting we used to continue talking about our ongoing conversation about both the Student Center and the DARS program. The Office of the Registrar is currently in the process of updating and changing the Student Center and is now focusing on what things they should fix to make the Student Center easier to use. The board suggested adding a new "Help" function. The function we recommended would be both located on the main Student Center page and also when students go to enroll for classes. This would connect the student to the area of the Office of the Registrar's page that give information about what the student is having trouble with. Specifically we suggested adding "clickables" next to some of the more specific areas of the class search page that students have the most trouble with. The members of the Office of the Registrar promised to take the boards suggestions into consideration as they continue to work with program designers.

If you have questions or would like more detail on either FERPA or the new plans for the Student Center let me know!
-Becky Brauer

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Madison Central Business Improvement District (BID) Board, April 1 2010

The Madison BID Board met on April 1, 2010 and discussed the following items:
  • The Madison Downtown Plan - Board members received an updated on the Downtown Plan from City of Madison Planning Director Bill Fruhling. The plan will hopefully be adopted in Fall of this year. More information on the Downtown Plan, including public meetings regarding the Plan, can be found here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/neighborhoods/downtownPlan/whatsnew.cfm
  • The Madison Central Library - As many of you probably know, negotiations between the City of Madison and Fiore, the original developer of the new library on W. Washington have stalled and the Mayor is currently pursuing a renovation plan for the current library. The BID Board approved the following statement regarding their position on the project:
    Madison’s Central Business Improvement District (BID) represents business and
    property owners in the greater State Street and Capitol Square area. The mission of
    Madison’s Central BID is to increase the vitality and health of the District and promote
    business within it. BID programs support the economic vitality of central downtown as a
    regional destination for shopping, dining, entertainment, arts and culture. Both the
    current Central Library site and the proposed West Washington library site are within
    the BID.
    The proposed Central Library project on West Washington Ave. that included
    redevelopment of the current Library site had multiple benefits for not only the block but
    also the central downtown: a much-needed new Library; leveraging private investment
    with city dollars; adding to the downtown tax base and business activity; and more
    lighting, parking, and activity in a key area near Overture Center, State Street and the
    Capitol Square.
    The BID strongly encourages the City to further explore the West Washington Ave.
    Central Library project, and vision for the block, before abandoning it in favor of
    renovation of the current Library.
  • Peace Park - Construction has begun and should be finished in Aug/Sept.
  • Alcohol License Density Ordinance (ALDO) - The ALRC Subcommittee meeting regarding ALDO is this Thursday, April 8. The Board is interested in making several amendments to the ordinance, as well as analyzing the statistics currently used to support the ordinance.
If you have any questions, let me know. - Nicole

The Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance Committee Blog serves as a space for shared governance appointees and the UW-Madison student body to communicate on issues relating to shared governance. As part of their responsibilities as student representatives, appointees will post a report following each meeting attended.