UGA News

UGA sent an email out to all students, faculty, and staff about “railroad safety”.  That is in quotes because the email is more a warning that if you mess around on the railroads, you will be arrested and prosecuted.  Yep, “safety”.  In fact, this is the subject line of the email: “railroad safety on campus” (yeah, no caps either).

Here is the email:

March 27, 2008

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

I want to inform you about some recent discussions with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Great Walton Railroad.

They have expressed concern and displeasure over students and staff that have been parking on their property, crossing the railroad in areas other than approved crossing sites and climbing on the railcars and trestles.

Please stay off of the railroad as it is private property. Only cross where there is a sidewalk or street that intersects with the railroad.

The University of Georgia Police Department has created an informational section on our website (www.police.uga.edu/railroad) to assist you with safety information regarding railroads.

Please understand that the discussions have resulted in the railroads’ desire to prosecute individuals for criminal trespass if they are found to be on their private property.

I wish to make each and every person aware of these discussions and the railroad’s request so that no one will be arrested.

Please remember the railroad is private property and can be a dangerous area.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Williamson
Chief of Police

Did you see anything about railroad “safety” there?

Also, Adrian over at Athens World had his own take on the email:

If the railroad is going to start making legal threats, how about we threaten legal action them for their failure to cut back trees to allow clear vision at the Carlton Street crossing?

Official UGA announcement from Georgia’s IT department (known as EITS) warns of phishing emails asking for your UGA password:

TO: UGA Faculty, Staff and Students

FROM: EITS

RE: Fraudulent Email (Phishing Scam) Reminder

Once again we have had incidents of phishing scams being received in campus e-mail inboxes. Unfortunately, some members of the University community have responded to these by providing the requested passwords. This is to notify the University community that emails received on campus requesting that you send your password via return email are fraudulent. Do not respond to these emails.

Please be aware that you will never be asked to send your password in an email from official UGA communications. Indeed, you should never send your password through email to anyone under any circumstances.

*UPDATE*

Sources have uncovered the actual phishing email. Here it is:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: UGA SUPPORT TEAM
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Subject: Confirm Your Email Account!
To: undisclosed-recipients

Dear UGA Subscriber

This mail is to inform all our {UGA} users that we will be upgrading our
website in a couple of days from now. As a Subscriber you are required to
send us your Email account details to enable us know if you are still
making use of your mail box. Be informed that we will be deleting all mail
account that is not functioning to enable us create more space for new
user. You are to send your mail account details which are as follows:

*User name:
*Password:
*Date of birth:

Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated
from our database.

You can also confirm your email address by logging into your UGA account
at http://webmail.uga.edu/

Thank you for Using UGA.EDU!
FROM THE UGA SUPPORT TEAM

So, if you happen to see any email that looks like this, DON’T FOLLOW THE LINKS OR EMAIL THEM. Ever. Also, if you see anything that looks like a scam coming from a UGA account or claiming to be from UGA, forward the email to abuse@uga.edu.

Just an FYI, we’ve setup a Twitter account to promulgate posts to this website and also to allow postings in case of a campus emergency. The account can be found here (http://twitter.com/uganews).

This emergency part needs an explanation. The weekend before last, there were tornadoes across North Georgia and around campus. The number of visitors to UGA News skyrocketed around the time that UGA sent out emergency alerts on their new system. So many, in fact, that the site crashed.

We’ve implemented new measures to make sure the site doesn’t crash again (*hopefully*), but you never know when something major will happen on campus and cause the world to focus on UGA (remember several weeks ago at Auburn or UNC?).

So just in case this site happens to ever be down, or if you have a Twitter account, follow uganews and you will always be up to date.

The following email by UGA President Michael Adams about the recent sexual harassment allegations was sent out to all students, faculty, and staff this afternoon.

March 21, 2008

TO: UGA Faculty, Staff and Students

FROM: Michael F. Adams, President

RE: Update on Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment (NDAH) Policy

As discussion has continued on campus in the past weeks regarding incidents of alleged sexual harassment, I join many of you in being very disturbed by the details of a number of these incidents, both words and deeds. We all will defend free speech and academic freedom but must recognize that some speech, especially as it relates to sexual harassment, is illegal. Some other language, while not illegal, is unquestionably improper, unseemly and unwise. The University takes matters of discrimination and harassment seriously and will not tolerate violations of the NDAH policy, whether those be instances of sexual harassment–as have prompted this campus-wide conversation–or any other form of behavior prohibited by the policy.

The Office of Legal Affairs has been charged with stewarding this process since the NDAH policy was formalized by University Council in 1998. I am grateful to those in Legal Affairs for their service in what are often difficult, complex investigations and have confidence in their judgment. After careful consideration, I believe a renewed attention to this subject is in order at several levels of this institution.

To that end, I am taking the following steps:

• Investigation and enforcement of the policy will be moved from the Office of Legal Affairs to the Equal Opportunity Office (EOO), effective October 1, 2008. Because of the liability the university bears in such cases, such matters need to be the responsibility of someone who is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and is appropriately trained. Until October 1st, such matters will continue to be managed by Ms. Beth Bailey in the Office of Legal Affairs.
• Before the end of the calendar year, every person in the senior administration as well as deans, associate deans, and department heads, will undergo NDAH training. As cases move through the NDAH investigative process, the appropriate vice president will now be involved to bring the full weight of the administration to bear on the investigation and the outcome of such cases.
• The University will appoint and train three ombudspersons to serve as contacts for students, faculty, and staff, to whom initial reports of alleged NDAH violations or questions regarding other concerns may be brought confidentially: an ombudsperson for students in the Division of Student Affairs; an ombudsperson for faculty in Academic Affairs; and an ombudsperson for staff in Human Resources. These individuals will help guide people through the sometimes confusing process of resolving conflicts or reporting violations at this large, complex research institution. The scope of work of these individuals, who will be trained in University, University System, state, and federal policies and procedures, will be to provide informal and confidential assistance to persons with issues or concerns, advising members of the community about where to turn and what procedures to follow should they wish to advance a complaint. The names, duties, and contact information for the ombudspersons will be posted online and discussed at appropriate information sessions during the course of the year with faculty, students, and staff.
• The University administration will work with University Council to update and revise the NDAH policy to reflect the above changes and to consider additional revisions as recommended.
• Education and communication about the NDAH policy will be improved for faculty, staff, students, and administrators, both in electronic and written form. Everyone on this campus needs to know what the policy covers and how to report alleged violations to the appropriate office. The policy will be made more readily accessible on the UGA website, and general education on the NDAH policy will be the responsibility of the EOO office in coordination with the University ombudspersons. A report on general education of the campus in this area will be provided annually to the Office of the President.
• Additional training will be provided to our current counseling staff to help them respond to incidents regarding discrimination or harassment.
• As an immediate resource for students, faculty, and staff, a compendium of available services for women will be placed on the University’s website to ensure that resources on issues pertaining to women are readily accessible, whether related to health, counseling, support, harassment, or other needs. Such an electronic resource will meet a number of the current needs for information sharing that have been brought to my attention. The call for a designated and staffed space for a women’s center to provide informational resources and support comes at a time when we have some significant budgetary challenges. I am committed to the well-being of the University community, and while I am not opposed to a women’s center being established on campus, additional financial resources for such a center will need to be considered in light of equally pressing needs in the areas of child care, psychological services, public safety, energy management and water conservation, and the primary and urgent need to maintain and improve competitive faculty salaries.

Per University policy, I cannot be personally involved in reviewing alleged violations of the NDAH policy as they proceed through the investigative process, as the Office of the President is the last line of appeal on campus in this and in other matters; my involvement or comment in initial investigations would undermine due process.

My own commitment to non-discrimination and anti-harassment is firm: as I said to University Council on February 7th, this community will not tolerate sexual harassment. Basic respect for one another is a thousand-year-old tenet of university communities. We will not condone illegal or inappropriate behavior which violates the NDAH policy and which damages the spirit of trust and collegiality which we all value.

I would ask the University community to join me in an effort to enhance equal and fair treatment of one another. Myriad interactions on this campus each day are managed appropriately and with full regard to a sense of campus community, but one inappropriate action is one too many. Mistreatment of one another, physically or verbally, should not and will not be tolerated.

Email from UGA:

TO: UGA Faculty, Staff and Students

RE: Child Care Consultant’s Report

The University of Georgia in fall 2007 commissioned a comprehensive child care needs assessment study to better understand the needs of its faculty, staff and students for child care services. WFD Consulting has delivered the report, which was designed to provide information on the availability of child care in the area, the level of demand for child care, the related costs, space requirements for any services to be provided by the university, and alternative models with the financial implications of each. The study design included a survey, a series of focus groups and a community supply analysis.

The consultants estimate that there would be demand for some 200 slots from faculty and staff and another 40 from students for a child-care facility charging $165 per week, which is somewhat above the local weekly average price for child care services. Such a center would require 1.3 acres of land and a 12,000-square-foot building that could accommodate 150 children at any given time (some of the total served would be part-timers). In the pro formas, the study estimates construction and soft costs would approximate $3.6 million, with annual expenses of $1.4 million and debt service of up to $240,000 on an initial capitalization of $3 million. Operating such a center would range from break even to a loss of $167,000 per year. Demand would be greater, the report projects, if a lower price-point was selected.

The consultants provide a variety of models, including a university-owned and operated center, a non-profit agency model leased to the university, or an independent vendor operating the center.

University senior vice presidents Arnett Mace and Tim Burgess, who have led discussions and study of child care needs to date, will use the study to guide further discussions with interested groups, including potential child care clients and child care providers. The goal will be to determine which of the models would provide the best services and is most feasible for implementation by the university.

The entire consultant’s report is available online at:

http://www.uga.edu/ChildCareReport.pdf