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MAN ON THE STREET: Facebook Royalty Hear ye, hear ye Her Royal Highness Queen Elisabeth 11, the Queen q f England, is on Fhcebook. Though she will not friend you or like your posts, the 82-year-old monarch’s move has already spawned multiple fan pages —with names such as “The Queen of England has a fb. LMAO That is so Awesome XDD” —and her page updates frequently with photos and the news of the royal family. Detractors claim the page will merely invite rude comments and endless criti Cl 1 '* MEETING: No plan for degrees ► From Page 1 “A lot of the faculty that are already involved employ undergraduate research as sistants,” Scott said. “So it’s something that we cer tainly believe in and will push for.” However, Scott also emphasized there is no proposed degree program for the institute at this point. “It’s an institute, so there is a possibility in the future for a degree pro gram, but it's not on the books.” Scott said. “It’s not in the plans right now.” The committee also approved an institute pro posal from the College of Education. The Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Education and Human Development would encourage interdis ciplinary research and funding opportunities. “The College of Education felt that we needed this institute to provide outreach for our faculty and other colleges,” said Noel Gregg, associate dean for research in the College of Education. The committee also approved a proposal to change the name of the Department of Speech Communication to the Department of Teachers recognized with thanks By JESSICA WALKER Fos The Red & Black Sometimes a “thank you” is all it takes. The University’s Thank A Teacher pro gram strives to bridge the gap between students and teachers by allowing stu dents to personally thank their teachers. The program was started by Nelson Hilton, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University, after hear ing about similar programs at other col leges. “It’s all part of addressing the culture,” Hilton said. “We’re trying to get a little more appreciation for teaching.” Students who want to participate can visit thankateacher.uga.edu, where they can type a message to be sent to their teacher. The student can chose to remain anonymous, though about 75 percent of students Identity themselves, according to Hilton. At the end of each semester, the com ments are printed on a certificate and mailed to the teachers along with a letter congratulating them on their success. CHRISTELUE LORIN 1 sophomore International affairs major from Kennesaw *l'm kind of indifferent about it . A iot of public figures have a Facebook page. She can do what she wants’ KATIE FRENCH senior agribusiness major from Grayson *1 think everybody essentially has a Facebook now. It’s a good way to keep updat ed with her life. It’s a good way for people to stay connected with her life so she’s not like this untouchable public fig ure.’ NADIA AIMED sophomore romance languages major from Atlanta ‘I didn't know people that old were on Facebook.” DINA ZOUU4 i Tm R*n a Black ▲ Jeff Dorfman is the chair of the Executive Committee. On Thursday, members approved two institutes and a department name change. Communication Studies. The approved action items are pending approval from the University Council. The Executive Committee of the University Council will meet again Feb. 3 at 3:30 p.m. in the Administration Building. The members will vote cism, but a Buckingham Palace spokes woman said the main goal of the page is to help the Queen’s subjects connect with their ruler. More than 200,000 users have visited the page since its launch. The Red 6 Black asked University students about their opinions on the Queen’s new cyber presence how do you feel about the Queen being on Facebook? Julia Carpenter - 0 0 on a proposal brought forth by the Student Government Association. The amended final exam schedule policy would allow students to reschedule an exam if they have three exams within a 24-hour period not Just exams that fall on the same calen dar day. The initiative started In 2008, but pro fessors didn’t start receiving responses until the spring of 2009. Since then, they have received 415 responses, Hilton said. Students are able to give comments to their teachers through student evalua tions, but this program Is more personal. "It Is trying to address the culture and convey to some people the idea that there is some interest In caring and apprecia tion," Hilton said. R. Baxter Miller, an English professor, has been teaching at the University for 18 years, and though he has not heard of the program, he said he likes the idea. “One kind of reward, If you’re my kind of professor, is the reward for scholarly production, but there is no greater reward than knowing you have influenced and impacted real lives,” Miller said. The program hopes to gain more rec ognition around campus and Incite more students to participate "I would say it’s perking along and that’s what we’ve hoped for and what we'll certainly try to continue," Hilton said. NEWS CAROLINE DANIEL senior broadcast news major from Eibsrton *1 feel like with the way technology is growing, you're going to expect some change. The Queen of England is a public figure. It’s a pretty smart move probably. Itll help her reach out. The public wit! feel more included in her life. If she set up a Twitter I don't know if people will follow her, but most people like following celebrities and politicians.’ FRANCIS LAREYA sophomore management major from Ghana *1 don't think shell be the one updating her status. It’s definitely a PR move.’ LACY GAINEY junior math education major from CartorsvMe "She's just a regular per son. If anything, I think it would be a good way to connect with the youth.’ High ranking grants entry By JULIA CARPENTER The Red & Black Rumors circulate cam pus all the time. You score free tuition if a campus bus slams into you on the comer of Baldwin Street and Sanford Drive. If your roommate dies, you ace all your final exams. Which are true and which are false? One rumor that vale dictorians and salutatori ans from Georgia high schools are guaranteed acceptance to the University is actually true, according to Patrick Winter, senior associate director of University Admissions. Most students simply don’t know their class rank could put that acceptance letter in the mail. “This is on our website, so it’s not like it’s secret,” Winter said. “It’s not a rumor—it’s actually some thing we’ve implemented. Now, there’s some caveats with this, and this would be the thing that I would actually want to validate.” Winter said that the “guaranteed acceptance” policy only applies to high school students who meet all the Board of Regents core competency require ments, apply to the University by the admis sions deadline and gradu ate from a SACS accred ited high school. The policy was put into place as a safeguard to ensure that high school valedictorians and saluta torians are admitted to the University in case they somehow slip through the cracks during the admis sions process. “Very rarely would it be we get to the very end and there would be a student we had denied because of perceived deficiencies, and then we have to say, ‘Oh, wow, this student is valedictorian, we have to admit them,’” Winter said. “That almost never hap pens. So the student’s No. 1 in their class and they apply early action, for example. They could be certainly strong enough at that point that they get admitted solely on the strength of their academ ics.” Thomas Bailey, a junior linguistics and Japanese major from Woodstock, graduated at the top of his class at Sequoyah High School, but he doesn’t remember any automatic admission to the University. “I remember hearing that rumor, but I don’t remember,” he said. “They may have sent something. I don’t remember any materials specifically tell ing me I was automatical ly accepted to UGA, but my credentials were Make the most r* V ot your4| gj Spring semester and leave the cooking to us! Join the ■** UGA Meal Plan 73 NATIONAL AWARDS Sign up online at: \ www.uqa.edu/foodserviice k For more information call @m The Red a Black Friday, November 19, aoio strong enough that I could have gotten in without it, so I don’t really know if that happened or not." Bailey said he remem bers one letter from Berry College in Rome alerting him to his automatic acceptance if he applied to the college Immediately. “Berry sent me some thing like free acceptance, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with me being valedictorian,” he said. “You know, colleg es sent me information packets and stuff that were like, ’Come here!”’ Mir Inaamullah, a senior math and economics mqjor from Powder Springs, graduated from McEachem High School as valedicto rian of his class of 770 stu dents. He said several Institutions offered him free acceptance, but he received no such offer from the University. “I can’t remember exactly which schools, but I definitely did," Inaamullah said. “I think Southern Polytechnic State did. It was usually a letter; and yeah, in most cases I had uga^HSß] Online i 1 ”" de advisorfigeofQiacentet.uga edu J fr\ Ihc University of Georgia P / Mi. < .-■ f~ < CLASSES THAT FIT i"dpndnt n<> twntng YOUR SCHEDULE 1197 South Lumpkin Street • Athens. Georgia 30602-3603 Aurum 9 * ART The Look She Wants... In Platinum or White Gold 125 EAST CLAYTON STREET ATHENS. CA 30601 706.546.8826 not applied.” Winter said the University does not send out free acceptance letters to high school valedictori ans and salutatorlans in fact, most beneficiaries of the policy would probably never know that their class rank guaranteed them their University accep tance letter. Winter also said that most high school valedic torians and salutatorlans are already great candi dates for admission to the University. They typically don’t need the guaranteed acceptance. Inaamullah seconded that valedictorians and salutatorlans usually are accepted because of strong academics and extracur ricular involvement regard less of their high school class ranking. “You do this a lot in econ when you talk about markets and such,” he said. “It’s a pre-selected market. It’s a high level of correlation, but it’s really you're looking at two of the same thing, not two different things.” 3