Movies at Michigan

It's a Thursday night, at the end of exam week, and I can tell you I am now exhausted. After a week of sleepless nights, caffeine dependence and knowledge overload all I want to do is to relax with a good movie. Lucky for me I have several options. Here are some of my favorite ways to watch movies on campus.

RHA Movie Channel. For those of you lucky enough to still live in the ResHalls this is a fantastic resource. Channel 56 is kind of like a campus HBO. Just this month there are multiple 2012 Oscar nominated movies and some great guilty pleasure movies. You can find the schedule here.

Askwith Media Library. This is probably my favorite resource on all of campus. I call it the campus Blockbuster. It is located on the second floor of the UGLi and it is completely free to students. You can check out movies for three days Sunday-Wednesday, for the entire weekend starting Thursday, and over the major breaks. They also have everything from new releases to old TV shows at Askwith for you to check out. You can find their site here.

Mflicks. Run through the University Unions, Mflicks offers several free screenings of movies a month. Sometimes they are more mainstream, sometimes a little more out there, but it is a great option if you are looking for something to do on a Friday night, you can check out the schedule on the website here.


Michigan Theater. A movie theater located in downtown Ann Arbor specializing in the "finest film and live entertainment available today." This includes mostly independent, art house movies, but there are still some more mainstream movies. It is also plays host to some great events like Sundance USA in Ann Arbor and live performances. The Michigan Theater is also a great destination for Ann Arbor locals. The website for the Michigan Theater can be found here.

The moral of the story is that there are a lot of options for movie options in Ann Arbor, if movies are your preferred of entertainment, you will never be bored here!

Friday Night - UMix

Imagine, its 12:30 AM on a Friday night (or I suppose Saturday morning), you are strapped for cash and you don't want to travel far to find food. Then you remember, you are in luck, UMix is tonight! No joke, this actually happened to me last week. 

What is UMix you ask? UMix is a series of late night activities, usually on Friday night from 10 pm - 2 am, put on by the University Center for Campus Involvement and the University Unions. UMix is held in Unions all over campus (mostly the Union on central or Pierpont on North). Many freshman will mock it as a lame alternative to partying on a Friday night, as a senior I will say I have made fun of it my fair share. That is, however, before I actually checked it out. I clearly did not know what I was missing. Developed as an alternative to drinking, UMix offeres activities such as arts and crafts, billiards, video games, movies, dances etc. I have even seen things such as karaoke and bumper cars. Oh, and did I mention the FOOD?! 

UMix is also differently themed every night. Last weekend was "UMix: Share the Love" where you could do things such as make Valentines Day cards for children at Mott's Children's Hospital as well as play the "roommate game" to test your knowledge of your friends. I had a lot of fun at this one! 

Center for Campus Involvement

Last weekend was "UMix on Ice" where they constructed an ice rink on North Campus! They had free skate rentals, a hot chocolate station, make-your-own snow globes, a screening of "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy" and more! Oh, and Food. 

Center for Campus Involvement

A lot of students will make jokes that the thing to do is to beat the system, to drink and then go to UMix. While I do not encourage this, I do encourage everyone to check out the night. If for no other reason than you are bored, hungry, or wanting to play free billiards, it certainly is a great activity for a Friday night!

For more information on UMix and a schedule of events check out the Center for Campus Involvement here. 

Campus Computing

Can you imagine going a week without a computer? Do you think it is even possible?

Unfortunately, last week I had to find out the hard way that it was. I found this out after accidentally destroying my hard drive (whoops) on my 4 year old MacBook. Through this week without a computer I learned a few important things about computing on the University of Michigan campus.

Firstly, I learned that it is possible to not have a computer. I live in a campus Residence Hall, which is lucky for me because all Residence Halls contain what is called a Community Learning Center (CLC). These sites are open 24/7 to residents of the building and are stocked with computers, printers, and during the day support offices. The CLC was where I spent most of my time doing work this past week.

Secondly, I learned a little more about the campus Computer Showcase (yes, this is the same place you got your i>clicker). There are two Computer Showcases on campus; one is located in the basement of the Michigan Union and one is in Pierpont Commons on North Campus. The showcase is an authorized Apple and Dell service provider (including repair services and sales). The showcase offeres not-for-profit academic pricing on both hardware and software, which means it would cost the same as (and in the case of software often less than) the educational discount at most stores. The difference is that the computer showcase is much closer than the local Apple store. The one thing to note about the computer showcase is that they offer three year warranties that are bundled into the price of the computers (these are the exact same warrantees you would purchase from the manufacturer and will work in all the same places). You must buy it with this warrantee, however, which might make it a tad more expensive than you want. I found, that after having to visit the showcase several times over the past years for various broken parts, I was happy to pay for the warrantee (Apple's Apple Care).

The Computer Showcase was able to both diagnose the problem with my computer (for free) and they offered to repair it for a fee. After a week of hemming and hawing over whether to replace an old hard drive or purchase a new machine, I was able to walk right in and purchase the computer and all the necessary accessories on the spot.

The take away from this experience, besides being careful about where you perch your MacBook (even 2 feet may be too high up), the University of Michigan is certainly friendly to those of all computer needs. Whether you need a question answered or a brand new machine the Computer Showcase can get you what you need and while you are waiting there are more than enough computer resources around campus to get you going.

The resources mentioned in this post are the Community Learning Center and the Computer Showcase.