Town hall meeting will focus on student use, abuse of alcohol, drugs
The campus community is invited to a town hall meeting to discuss how the student code of conduct might better address the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The meeting is April 5 at 7 p.m. in room 171 of the Student Learning Center.

The meeting will open with remarks from UGA President Michael F. Adams; Mark Richt, head football coach; Rodney Bennett, vice president for student affairs; and Jamie Peper, president of the Student Government Association. After the opening remarks, Bennett will moderate a forum.

“We want to express concerns and hear concerns members of the campus community may have about the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, and specifically receive input and proposals regarding how this matter may be addressed in revisions to the student conduct code,” says Bennett, who will propose conduct code revisions for consideration by the Cabinet at its next meeting on April 26.

The town hall meeting is open to the general public, but only students, faculty and staff of the university may offer comments and questions.

Boyd Data Center increases its capacity
The EITS Boyd Data Center, located on the first floor of the Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center, was recently expanded to accommodate growth in research computing, hosting of departmental computing equipment and other computing equipment installations.

“The Boyd Data Center renovation was completed Feb. 3, adding 4,300 square feet to the existing 11,700 square feet,” says Mike Dennis, director of operations and infrastructure for EITS. “The data center is critical to housing and securing the university’s most sensitive data, and this expansion will enable us to better serve the university now and in the future.”

Concurrent with this expansion has been a number of upgrades to the Data Center’s fire suppression system, security systems and power supply systems. Computing equipment housed in the Boyd Data Center provides a number of campuswide services, including UGAMail, WebCT and the UGA calendar service.

The IBM mainframe, which supports OASIS (the online registration and information system for students) and a number the university’s primary business and administrative systems, also is housed in the Boyd Data Center.

Poll: Georgians split on Iraq War
The most recent Peach State Poll, a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, found that 47 percent of Georgians thought that sending American troops into Iraq was a mistake; another 47 percent say it was not a mistake.  The remaining 6 percent are undecided.

Georgians are, however, less likely to consider the decision to send troops into Iraq a mistake than are Americans as a whole, and 79 percent express a high level of confidence in the U.S. military. Georgians’ approval level of the president’s handling of his job and their views on the U.S. economy are very similar to those of other Americans. 

 The poll also finds a high level of dissatisfaction with the federal government’s response to the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

A plurality of Georgians (47 percent) characterizes the federal government’s response as poor. African Americans (59 percent) were also much more likely than Georgians generally (40 percent) to say that the federal government should pay most of the costs of rebuilding the damaged areas.