Things to include

I'd like to open discussion on what we want to see in this newsletter. -Omar

Are writing up or down? In any case, speaking of big CoC events, something like what is happening tomorrow (the fall festival) is perfect. Not only does it help the students know what is going on, but it helps the organizations planning it get advertising and word out to the student body.

Speaking of big events, the CoC SAB is having a big lanparty on december 2nd, the weekend before dead week. That would be great to include on something like this.

   Of course. A calendar of CoC/student events is a must! (We're writing down, by the way) -Omar

Matt Gwaltney wrote in an e-mail:

Any big CoC events

News that might have an impact on we Undergrad CoC folks (since I think the upper crust already such things in such letters)

Depending on the frequency of publication, a little corner dedicated to meetings of various CoC organizations

   An upcoming events section, perhaps? Clearly, there would be a monthly or weekly calendar, but was there
 something more to that that I am missing? -Omar

Jeffrey Starker wrote in an e-mail:

How about a How-To section. I mean most Freshman students and I think some other classmen students don't know about the special things they can do in the CoC. For instances, some students don't know that they have a CoC account. I didn't know until Josh showed me that you can print from your laptop to a printer through the wireless network. Some CoC students don't know that they are eligable for free Software from Microsoft, etc. There is a lot of things that the CoC provides but not many students know about it. That could be an idea about another section.

   Like maybe a "did you know?" section? I like that idea. Obviously, we'd have to have more than one factoid
 per issue, but it could be a cool idea. -Omar

Megan Elmore writes right here right now:

I like the ideas above, so I guess I just wanted to... offer elaborations?

For big CoC events, I think we should not only announce them before they happen but also write a bit of a follow-up in the issue after the event takes place. Then, if someone missed something they wanted to attend (or stumbles upon such an article and realizes "hey, that's cool, I'd go to something like that in the future") they can figure out what the event was all about.

Building on that, maybe we could have a section inviting students and faculty to let us know of anything they want undergraduates to hear about - research, presentations, club events, opportunities for free pizza, things like that.

    Sort of a public forum type thing, where faculty could announce something they feel is relevant to the CoC 
 community? I like that idea.  -Omar

From Jeff's idea: maybe we could have a questions section where readers could submit questions about the CoC or CS in general (perhaps on a website?) and we could feature our answers to their questions in later issues (or on a website so they get their questions answered sooner?) if we think they're applicable to the whole undergraduate population. The website parentheses I suppose belong in format but I think it'd be kind of cool to have this way to interact with our readership.

    A FAQ, maybe? I dunno. It seems like it could get filled quite quickly. But it might be interesting.
 What do you envision asking a CoC newsletter?  -Omar

Alright, good ideas so far.
During the leadership conference, you guys came up with a few more. For example, what do you all think of a "Spotlight" section? Each issue, the "Spotlight" section would introduce a professor or a student or some particularly outstanding research and give a little background about him/it.

I personally like the idea of an editorial/opinion section, where the editors of the newsletter, or perhaps even general students, could submit technically relevant essays – that is to say, essays about technical topics, not about classes/professors/tech etc. – about a topic of their choosing (e.g. RSA is a good/bad realization of public key cryptography). We could perhaps have two of these an issue.

 I like the idea of the opinion page, but I don't think it should be just related to academic and tech news. I think the opinion page
 should also have some opinions of what the students think about the CoC. For instance, there could be an article about "I think that
 there needs this to change in the CoC and here is why..." type articles along with opinions about technologies. - Jeff Starker

Also, (though this is really a static thing, not a dynamic, will-be-changed-every-issue thing), I'd like there to be a listing of and a short blurb about all the CoC student organizations, how to get in touch with them, and how to participate in their planning activites. Maybe a list of their officers or something as well. What do you all think? -Omar

The spotlight idea has a certain appeal to me. Not to say the others don't sound good too, that one I just like the most. We could gather opinions from CoC students about what may be 'spotlight worthy'. -Matt Gwaltney

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Format last edited on 2 November 2005 at 4:32 pm by lawn-199-77-215-60.lawn.gatech.edu