community. You are a member of a community. It is your responsibility to care for the communal organism--its parts and whole. Extend your best towards the people working beside and around you. Forgive improprieties you perceive. Reject grudges and gossip. Talk things through, face to face. Don't complain. Seek solutions. Participate in the character of the place. If you are unhappy with something or someone, create a productive and progressive mechanism for moving and learning through the situation. Do not denigrate anyone. We are all in a constant state of education. Happiness is, as Leibniz wrote, the Becoming Better.

courses. The point of each Convergent Media course is to help you define, develop and produce a project that reflects on the issues raised in that particular class. The aim here is to help you develop a portfolio of representative projects to take with you when you graduate. If you want to do a project that satisfies the requirements of two Convergent Media courses in one semester, you must design your project with this in mind from the outset. This means that your initial proposal for the project should indicate clearly and specifically what work and what type of work will be done for each class, and how the project will satisfy the requirements of each. This proposal must be agreed to and signed off on by both instructors at the beginning of the semester.

end-of-semester attitude. At the end of the semester, tensions are high. Stress is everywhere. Know this. Cut everyone slack. Drink water. Exercise. Enjoy the drizzle or the bluebonnets. Make great stuff. The health and happiness and positive productivity you bring to the ACTLab will be infectious.

end-of-semester cleanup. It is a condition of receiving a grade that the ACTLab be clean and neat at the end of the semester. If it is not, all students receive an incomplete for the semester until the situation is remedied. So think of keeping the actlab clean as a community job. After all presentations are finished we'll post a notice to the discuss list about whether we've signed off on the clean room or not. If not, it's all ACTLabbies' responsibility to get it right, and not hold up those graduating seniors.

equipment checkout. During the first week of the semester, students may sign an insurance form and pay a small fee to use equipment in the Cage on the second floor of CMB. Reservations are often needed for this equipment, and you are encouraged to plan ahead so you don't get stuck without what you need. The Instructional Media Center on the 5th floor of CMA also has equipment, but this equipment must be signed out by a professor or a graduate student. Use the Cage whenever possible. There is specific equipment reserved by each Convergent Media faculty member for each of their courses. Ask your instructor what is available for the course in which you are enrolled.

food. Unlike most other labs on campus, food and drinks are permitted, maybe even encouraged, in the actlab. We provide a refrigerator, coffee maker, and microwave for those late night munchies. If you use these, clean up after yourself, wash out the coffee maker, etc., for the next person.

freedom. You are being given the freedom and the place to develop your ideas and your work at any hour of the day or night. Some of you may not realize how rare this opportunity is. It is your responsibility to care for this freedom, to recognize and appreciate and foster and utilize it. If you squander this freedom and produce nothing, you are rejecting the very character of the ACTLab and the infinite range of its possibilities.

gear. Equipment, of whatever kind, is there for you to play with. Play with it. Find new ways to use it. Do weird stuff. Surprise us. There are machines in the room that we have just acquired, but have not yet put to use. You are welcome to try them out and to teach other people what you learn about them.

general aura. Make stuff. We value originality, experimentation, and risk taking. Unlike other programs, in the ACTLab it's better to try for something exceptional and fall a bit short than to aim low and succeed.

light grid. For everyone's safety please do not adjust or move any of the lights on the ACTLab grid without prior permission of a trained staff member or professor. If you happen to get permission to adjust the grid, please be sure at all times that safety straps are fastened to whatever lights and hoods you use or move.

turntables and records. Feel free to spin at your will, superstar DJ, but please be reminded that our turntables are belt driven and therefore cannot be used to scratch. Do not remove any records from the ACTLab as they are communal and not personal property.

listservs. The converge and discuss listservs, as well as others not sponsored by Convergent Media, are are exceptional forums for exchanging ideas, questions, technical advice, recipes, phobias, etc. with a diverse group of people from inside and outside the Convergent Media Area. Click listervs to learn more and subscribe.

lost and found. Located on a shelf of the bookcase.

phone. The ACTLab phone number is 512-471-6619. Please answer this phone "ACTLab/Convergent Media".

priorities. Students pursuing the Convergent Media certificate have priority over all other students in the ACTLab. Students enrolled in Convergent Media courses have second priority. When we reach crunch time and all machines are busy, we'll post signup sheets on which you can reserve a machine for a certain period. Remember that computer labs are springing up like fungi all across campus, so if you just need a computer, rather than a specialized, optimized, highly tuned, weapons-grade Convergent Media machine, there are lots of places to go. If you notice unauthorized persons in the Lab using machines whether or not you need them, you are authorized to ask them to leave.

screenings. You are welcome to conduct screenings in the ACTLab, provided there is no prior use of the room scheduled. If you want to show something, send a message to converge@actlab.us (preferably a day in advance) and let everyone know you will be doing so. In addition, write your event into the weekly ACTLab schedule posted on the big doors. If you screen something in the ACTLab, it is by default an open event. If anyone feels inconvenienced by your activities, you are required to stop and/or reschedule your event.

server. Each semester you will be required to document all of the work you do in the Convergent Media course(s) you take. This documentation should exist in two forms: a website and a CD-ROM (backup documentation of the website and its related files, folders, documents, etc.). The website must be uploaded to the ACTLab server by you and should represent fully the format specified in the handout entitled Web-Ready documentation and CD-ROM.

sound. If you plan to listen to music please bring your own headphones unless you really have to work on a project for the sound class where you'll be using the sound equipment. Make the actlab's aural space considerate.

library. A bookcase is provided for the constant exchange of reading materials, i.e. take a book, leave a book. The ratio is 1:1. No taking without leaving. (Leaving without taking will gain you karmic merit points.)

technical problems. If you come across malfunctioning equipment, please report the difficulty immediately to the College of Communication Technology Team. The number to call: 512-475-8665.

work. What you put into any class is what you will get out of it. ACTLab courses are not sites of spoon-feeding. If you don't like the content of a course, if you think a course should contain something it doesn't, if you want a specific experience you are not getting.

contribute. Make happen what is not happening. Bring what you need to the class. Talk to your professor and TA. Silence and griping solve nothing. Ask yourself what you are bringing to the table. Really. Ask yourself. You have been trained to receive information. The ACTLab, in principle, rejects the idea that education is about reception. Education is about PARTICIPATION.