Campus News

The Intramural Sports Program here at UMASS Lowell allows over 1,000 different students to compete against in each other in a variety of sports. Each sport, which includes basketball, wiffleball, kickball, floor hockey, badminton, ice hockey, racquetball, and nine ball, has a five-week season, followed by championships in which teams try to best one another for the top spot. Congratulations to all the Spring Champions! Division A Basketball: Alaskan Firedragons, Division B Basketball: Romance Explosion, Wiffleball: Balls Deep, Kickball: F.C. Fox Hall, Division A Floor Hockey: The Beers, Division B Floor Hockey: Silver Snakes, Ice Hockey: LTD! If you want to see how to join up the Intramural Sports Programs, contact Justin Lawler at intramural@uml.edu.

Michael Darish, an electrical engineering senior delivered his capstone project to little 5-year-old Anna in March. Darish flew over to Italy to introduce her to the device that would hopefully change her life. Darish created a device that would allow the little girl, who is paralyzed from the next down, to click and drag a cursor on her computer, using only her voice. Darish is just one of the 60 or so assistive technology projects that senior electrical engineering students complete each semester as a graduation requirement. The projects help physically or mentally challenged people improve their quality of life, and can range from a simple toy to a complicated wheel chair depending on the commitment and skill of the student.

The UML Center for Women and Work (CWW) celebrated its ninth annual meeting with “Who Cares? The People, Policies and Politics of Carework” to address issues on eldercare with specific concerns for the careworkers. The panel comprised eminent speakers including State Rep. Alice Wolf; Rebecca Gutman, SEIU 1199; Marian Weisenfeld, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization; Mignon Duffy, CWW associate; and guest speaker Lisa Dodson, a research professor at Boston College. Dodson does field research about the lives of low-income careworkers in the expanding care labor force. The panel discussed the needs of the elderly, their needs for a community, and the needs of careworkers in general. Campus Chaplain Imogene Stulken ended the session with a call-and-response reading. After each statement of need, Stulken asked, “Who cares?” The audience shouted together, “We Care!”