The Scholar (or Student) ACM of UMass Lowell (sacm) is loosely
affiliated with the
Association of Computing Machinery
and
somewhat less loosely affiliated with the
Computer Science Deptartment of
UMass Lowell
The ACM exists to advance the skills of Information Techology
professionals and students world wide. (see their
website for details)
Generally, we avoid replicating the educational efforts of the
CS Department. There is a lot to be said for classroom
learning,
but the informal and un-academic exchange of technique is at least as
important and is much less developed at the CS Department.
The custom is for university based ACM chapters to refer to themselves as
"Student" chapters. We prefer the broader and deeper term
"Scholar", although we do tend to use the words interchangeably.
We wish to welcome members with demonstrated IT skills (or a desire to
acquire them). We are less concerned with formal academic credentials or
affiliations. We would not want to turn away Richard Stallman, Larry
Wall or Bill Gates.
We encourage the deep study, research and practice implied by the term scholar.
We avoid the vague, shallow, short-term exam oriented focus of a typical
student.
Finally, Professor Jim Canning has spent almost 20 years developing
the "Scholar" brand name (and building students into scholars).
We want to borrow some of this cachet.
In a few months since resuscitating this organization, we've worked toward
our goals by sponsoring speakers, debates, and Linux install fests.
11/03/2006 at 04:51PM
