IT Upload Speed Project

The IT Subcommittee is working on getting the upload speeds on campus increased, mainly in residence halls. We want to get a general sense of the speeds people are getting in their residence halls now so we're asking for people to take just one moment and run a simple test online by doing the following:

1. Go to www.speakeasy.net/speedtest
2. Under "Choose Server", click "New York City"
3. Wait for the test to run (about a minute)
4. Email the upload speed displayed at the end, along with the time you took the test, and what residence hall you were in to nuspeedtest@gmail.com

Foam Hand Soap

Most, if not all, residence halls show now have new foam hand soap dispensers installed in them. However, some students have brought up the concern that in halls with large common bathrooms, the number of soap dispensers has been reduced. If this is the case in your residence hall, send us a note at RSA@neu.edu.

NRHH "Season of Giving" Food Drive 2008

The Housing Services Committee has been so kind to help out NRHH in their efforts to raise more than 600 lbs (last year's total) of canned food during this holiday season. Boxes will be placed in every Residence Hall and many departments/ offices on campus starting this weekend. Student groups are also encouraged to bring boxes and collect food at their meetings. The person who donates the most canned food wins a round-trip ticket on JetBlue Airlines! Anyone who donates food is also entered in a raffle to win a round trip ticket to anywhere JetBlue jets! The Residence Hall or office that donates the most food wins a pizza or ice cream social of their choice. To be eligible for the airline tickets, every can you donate must be labeled with your name (first and last) and your residence hall/office name. For any questions email berds.c@neu.edu or nrhh@neu.edu. Give and Win to help your residence hall community!

Many thanks to Kathryn Hansis who designed the attractive ad!

Compost Catastrophe to be Corrected

If you have noticed that the yellow compost bins have been missing from the dining hall, first of all, thank you. Don’t worry your ecological self about the situation! As soon as this was brought to the attention of the Housing Services Committee, steps were taken to notify the dining hall managers. They are working on getting more yellow bins so that they are always available. To those dear readers who need a quick reminder, napkins, cups and all food products can be recycled. To clarify, the sign does say to not compost napkins or cups but these are compostable. Dining Services just wants to ensure that the bin looks less like a trash. The only materials in the dining hall that cannot be composted are the plastic from the chip bags, saltine wrappers, plastic covers from the to-go cups and the actual silverware, bowls and plates. We are currently looking for people to stand by the compost bins to educate students about this information. Email megmccormick18@gmail.com if you are interested. Please encourage your friends and fellow dining companions to compost!

Legislation Passes!

With a vote count of 65-0-0, the General Council passed SC FA-08-2 last night to support Gender Neutral Housing! You can read a bit more in the Huntington News. You can read the legislation here.

NU Alert Test

In case you have not yet heard, the NU Alert system will be fully tested Wednesday at 1:00 PM. For more information, visit this page.

Heating Issues

With cooler weather around Boston these days, heat is keeping us warm in the residence halls -- but for some students, it's just too warm! If your heat, in an electronically controlled building (eg. Davenport A, West Campus C, West Campus G) won't go down to 68-degrees, put a work order into Facilities.

In residence halls without electronically controlled heat, if the temperature is too warm, you can adjust it or ask Facilities to do so by entering a work order or calling (617) 373-2754.

E-Mail Slowness

Lately many students have been experiencing very slow e-mail delivery. In fact, sometimes students are seeing e-mail take three days or more to arrive. In the Resident Student Association, this has been an issue as some of our constituents e-mails aren't coming through timely. Just today I received e-mail that was sent on Friday afternoon, and yesterday e-mail from Thursday was coming in. The problem seems to stem from an issue between the Northeastern University mail server and Google's mail servers for Gmail. The number of students that are using Gmail or simply have their @neu.edu e-mail forwarded to Gmail has been causing an issue. Here's the story from Information Services:

Google has changed there rules in regards to the amount of mail being sent to them from external systems. We are working with Google to identify changes that can be made to remove any restrictions on mail. This is causing delays.

In the meantime, a workaround may be to halt forwarding to Gmail and simply check your myNEU e-mail more frequently.

Gender Neutral Housing Legislation Passes Senate; Will Go to General Council

The Student Senate today passed a piece of joint legislation [pdf] supporting the creation of a Gender Neutral Housing program at Northeastern University. The legislation passed with a vote of 35 in favor, 3 against, and some abstaining. On Wednesday, in 335 Shillman Hall at 7:30 PM, the General Council of the Resident Student Association will hear, and hopefully, in accordance with the recommendation of the Housing Services Committee, pass, the legislation allowing it to be sent onto the administration along with the proposal [pdf] for Gender Neutral Housing.

RSA Cinema Survey Closed

After over a week in the wild, the RSA Cinema survey has been closed off. We had over 2,000 responses. That means, if you took the survey and provided an e-mail address, you have around a 0.1% chance of winning one of the $25 Visa Gift Cards!