A Birthday, Farewells, and Change

E-UNI is now celebrating its 9th birthday, with a proud history of helping and guiding new players behind us. However, we cannot rest upon that tradition, but must constantly reevaluate and seek improvements. Some of the changes we attempt will be successful, and others may not live up to expectations, but I am sure that all of us will face these changes with an open mind, and with the goal of continuing E-UNI’s tradition for another nine years.

The first change facing us this birthday is our biggest, and something that has only happened once before in our history. Kelduum Revaan, our current CEO, is stepping down from his position as CEO.

Kelduum has been a vital part of E-UNI for many years, providing us with leadership and guidance throughout much of the Uni’s history. He has been our Director of Diplomacy, Director of Operations, CEO, and most recently, served the greater community as a CSM member. He has single handedly run most of the Uni’s web services for many years. His passion and dedication for E-UNI has been unparalleled.

It is hard to picture E-UNI without Kelduum in it, as he has been integral to its functioning since I joined the corporation. However, all things must eventually come to an end, and Kelduum’s time running the Uni is ending. He is at a different point in his life now, with new interests, activities, and time constraints. He will be sorely missed, and all of us will be poorer for his absence, but we will continue. In the years to come, Kelduum, like Morning Maniac before him, will be one of the legends of E-UNI history; a shining example of our ideals throughout time. Though his time leading us is ending, his memory will live forever.

Please join me in thanking Kelduum for his years of dedicated leadership and service, and wishing him the best in the future.

With his leaving, I have been chosen to take over as CEO. I have served the Uni as a mentor, recruitment officer, hangar officer, hangar manager, Director of Logistics, and Director of Operations. Despite all that, the thought of having to replace Kelduum is incomprehensible, as his contributions cannot be replaced. I am here to help our community and am open to any honest feedback. We may not always agree, but I will always listen. All I can promise to you is that I will continue to try my best to live up to the purpose of the Uni, and do my best to guide the Uni as well as Kelduum and Morning Maniac have done before me.

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In this spirit of change, we are starting our 10th year of existence with some significant changes.

First, we are loosening our restrictions on what ships and modules can be used. Currently, students have a list of ships that they should not fly under certain circumstances, without certain levels of experience, or lose to certain opponents. Under the new policy, you may fly any ship you like, other than capitals. We only ask that faction be restricted to sophomores and above, and unique/T3/pirate ships and mods only be used by graduates. This will give you time to learn when and why to use them. Capitals can only be used with permission from a Director, to ensure you have the necessary support to use it effectively. It is our hope that every student will responsibly use this freedom to explore their possibilities in New Eden. We encourage all of you to choose ships wisely, and make decisions that benefit you and the University.

We are here as an institute of learning, and if people lose ships imprudently, they will probably get a conversation from our Guidance Department to review how to improve their flying and avoid those sorts of losses in the future. Unfortunately, there will be a small number of people that will be unable or unwilling to learn, despite our best efforts, and they will have to be dealt with on an individual basis.

Second, we are changing our rules regarding which areas of space our pilots can fly in. Previously, students were not allowed to enter null-sec space that was player claimable (sov null). We are looking at relaxing this restriction so that our students can roam into sov-null and try to find some good fights. We will not be claiming space or engaging in structure warfare. We will continue to have some limits, such as only allowing people to enter sovereign null space when they are in a small gang or fleet with an experienced ILN FC.

This change is just to allow our roaming gangs another area of the game, and increase our students’ opportunities to learn. Fighting in sov null involves different types of tactics and opponents than other areas, and it is something we want our students to experience. When a student transitions to wanting to live in sov-null, they are probably ready to leave the University and join a group occupying that space. We hope that these roams will help expose them to that area of the game before making the choice to move for good.

Third, we will be doing a trial run on relaxing our restrictions on combat fleets. Currently, students should not be in combat fleets with individuals who do not have a standing of +10 with the Uni. This has limited people from using alts to support their combat fleets. Alts are a part of EVE, and our restriction has limited the ability of our students to explore this area of gameplay. Now, we will allow combat fleets with alts in an NPC corporation. This will allow most alts, such as scouting or booster alts, to be useful to members, without severe diplomatic consequences. As with other rules, we ask our students to be wise in its application. Actions involving alts that result in diplomatic incidents may cause us to reevaluate this rule.

Lastly, we will be rewriting our WSOP to better reflect the realities of EVE today. This will involve simplifying some rules, formatting it to clearly differentiate between rules and tips, and trying to capture the real intent of the document. As it has evolved over time, some wording has remained from previous years that is no longer a true reflection of the University’s view, and those segments need to be removed.

With any process, change is difficult. We hope these changes will help us continue to improve our ability to help students.

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Over the next year we will also try to reach out to various corporations throughout the game, and find what they feel most players need to know. I hope to involve groups in w-space, sov warfare, faction warfare, piracy, mining, industry, incursions, and high-sec missioning (to include only a few) in brainstorming what mindset and skills a player truly needs to be successful in their area of the game. We can then use that information to better shape our services to prepare students for whatever area of EVE most interests them.

I’m sure the next year will be an exciting one, full of positive changes geared towards helping us better teach the pilots of tomorrow, and I look forward to entering it with you. With all that said, I’ll close with a simple statement: Happy Birthday EVE University.