Friday, May 31, 2024, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM held a routine activity of Cheerful Friday, Healthy FIB held in the yard of FIB UGM. The routine activity in the morning was attended by all teaching staff and lecturers of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM with five types of activities available: Line Dance, healthy gymnastics, table tennis and badminton, Fitness/Gym, and healthy walking.

Starting at 07.00 WIB, the academic community with an atmosphere of enthusiasm underwent various types of sports activities available with joy. This activity is not only to improve health and physical fitness, but also to strengthen relationships with the extended family of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM. Exercising together is a commitment to promote physical and mental health and well-being among the academic community.

Leveling is the determination of the equivalence of books for readers with reading levels. Non-textbook is a type of book that aims to provide enrichment of knowledge, insights and skills for textbooks from certain scientific studies. From this limitation, “Nontext Book Leveling” is an important tool that should be known, understood, and applied for writers/authors of nontext books.

The topic was delivered by Wiwien Widyawati Rahayu, lecturer of Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture study program, Department of Language and Literature, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM at the “Technical Guidance on Writing Javanese Children’s Stories” organized by Yogyakarta Language Center (BBY) at Grand Rohan Hotel Yogyakarta on May 18, 2024 at 08.00-16.00 WIB. Bimtek is a series of activities that began with a proposal writing competition which was attended by 375 people / titles. From the assessment of three judges, including Wiwien Widyawati Rahayu, 97 titles were selected. This proposal contains not only the chosen theme, topic, title, and level but also contains a description of the character and his characterization, a synopsis of the story, as well as a draft of the contents of the script per page along with a description of the illustrations that must be included. Why does it have to be this detailed? Because through what is written by the proposer, it will be known that it is suitable for the age level chosen.

With the guidance, it is hoped that the discrepancies found in the 97 selected proposals can be recognized, consulted, and corrected by the authors. The suitability is based on the classification of readers, including early readers (A: 0-7 years), early readers (B1, B2, B3: 6-10 years), intermediate readers (C: 10-13 years), intermediate readers (D: 13-15 years), and advanced readers (E: 16 years and above). Of the five classifications, only three were presented (except for intermediate and advanced readers) in detail because they were adjusted to the provisions set by BBY as a requirement for the competition level.

The participants, who were children’s story writers, came from various districts in Yogyakarta. The diversity of professions, such as formal and non-formal educators, civil servants outside the field of education, students, journalists, retirees, professional writers, housewives, entrepreneurs, and private employees proves that writing activities occur widely in society. This can be used as additional evidence that being a writer is a professional choice that can be pursued and relied upon for all time.

At the end of her presentation, Wiwien said that, “writing non-textbooks is an opportunity for all of us as long as we are able to identify the disparity between the curriculum objectives to be achieved and the availability of textbooks, as well as existing learning practices. This needs to be known, considering that the function of non-textbooks is to complement and strengthen existing textbooks”.

The activities that have been carried out are related to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), namely Quality Education (4) because the participants/writers involved in the technical guidance can improve their writing competencies in accordance with the reader’s level; Decent Work and Economic Growth (8) because with the competencies gained, the technical guidance participants can recognize the opportunity that writing can be used as a profession; Partnership to achieve goals (17) because the relationship between participants with various professions, academics as resource persons, and institutions as stakeholders can take place well because they are aware of their own capacities so that relations of mutual need and complementarity are realized to achieve goals.

The activity “Socialization of Archaeological Research Results in Kalumpang Sub-district, Mamuju Regency, West Sulawesi” was the final part of delineation activities in preparation for the establishment of the location of ODCB findings into CB. This activity consisted of four presentation sessions and ended with a discussion session. Two presentation materials were the presentation of research results in Kalumpang, especially the latest findings, one material about the condition of Kalumpang’s natural environment and its potential as a “Geoheritage Park”, and one material from the aspect of protection of Suspected Cultural Heritage Objects. The material presented by Dr. Anggraeni, M.A., entitled “Minanga Sipakko (Sitokon) and Palemba Sites Evidence of Cultural Development in Karama Valley, Kalumpang District”. In the question and answer session at the end of the socialization, there were many questions and inputs from the participants. One of the traditional leaders suggested changing the name of the Minanga Sipakko Site to Sitokon Site which is better known by the local community, while another participant who is a teacher suggested that socialization activities could be carried out every year.

Considering that among the participants were teachers and junior high school students, after the socialization event was closed, Dr. Anggraeni, M.A. conducted an interview with one of the teachers and junior high school students to inform them about the book “Kalumpang Pottery Product Design Development Module Based on Archaeological Remains”. The book was prepared to provide an example to revive the enthusiasm of potters in Kalumpang District to produce. The skills still possessed by potters in Lebani Hamlet are threatened with extinction if there is no next generation. Therefore, teachers and students are encouraged to become agents of pottery product design development so that pottery-making skills can be preserved. In this case, the inspiration for the development of ornamental varieties comes from the remains of decorated pottery found in archaeological sites in the Kalumpang District area. The role of teachers and students from Kalumpang is to bridge and ensure that the modules and prototype examples of decorated pottery that have been prepared can really be useful and inspire an increase in the variety of pottery products.

This effort was taken considering that Kalumpang teachers and students are the ones who can continuously provide assistance. Meanwhile, researchers can only occasionally be present to assist and evaluate the results of pottery product development. Teachers and students are also expected to serve as intermediaries between producers and consumers. Without consumers, the productivity of potters would not be maintained and developed.

The waste emergency that occurred in Yogyakarta and its surrounding areas due to the closure of the Piyungan Landfill (TPA) which experienced excess capacity had a negative impact on environmental problems, including in Naga Asri Permai Housing, Kwarasan, Nogotirto, Gamping, Sleman. Garbage that is not transported for a long time creates an unpleasant odor that pollutes the environment and invites insects, especially flies, to come and breed. Some residents also take the initiative to burn garbage in residential areas so that the burning smoke pollutes the air which can endanger health.

This problem has been going on for a long time and is likely to continue considering that until now the local government has not been able to overcome this waste emergency problem. For this reason, it is necessary to think and act together at the lowest level, namely the community, to help overcome this problem. If so far the handling of waste has only focused on downstream in the form of final disposal, it is necessary to think about how to deal with it from upstream. together to tackle it from upstream, namely households as waste producers.

Households as the largest producers of waste need to be involved in efforts to control and manage the waste they produce. The movement to reduce or minimize waste production through waste sorting actions, the 3R Movement (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), and others, at the household level. Socialization activities need to be encouraged to raise awareness that the waste problem is a shared responsibility starting from oneself, family, immediate environment to the surrounding environment. For this reason, Stedi Wardoyo, S.S., M.A., lecturer in Japanese Language and Culture initiated socialization activities and waste handling simulations as a first step to raise awareness of residents in the smallest environment, namely Dasa Wisma A Housing Naga Asri Permai, Gamping, Sleman, which totals 14 heads of families.

Activities in the form of lectures and counseling related to waste management in the household scope. On the occasion, there was also a demonstration of processing organic waste into compost and bio-enzymes by environmental and waste processing practitioner, Mrs. Neni Widuri Lestari from Guwosari Training Center (GWTC) Pajangan, Bantul.

Sunday, May 12, 2024, at The Ratan, Kampung Mataraman, Bantul, the 10th book discussion was held in the Jogja Art and Book Festival event. At around 15.10 WIB, the discussion of the novel Dirty Hands Behind the Screen with Puthut EA as the author and Saeful Anwar as the discussant was opened by Abdul Rahman who became the moderator. In front of about 50 participants, the discussion began with the presentation of Saeful Anwar’s reading, which broadly linked the tradition of writing criticism of the current government in Indonesian novels and the content of criticism in Puthut EA’s work. In addition, in the first discussion, the speaker also revealed the impression of distraction due to the names of the characters in the novel derived from real characters around the author.

Puthut EA as the author admitted this and revealed that he had a weakness in remembering names so he used names he knew in his daily life as a solution to the problem. Puthut also revealed that actually criticizing the current power was not the main focus of the novel. He stated that his novel was more intended to criticize the condition of today’s society which easily cultivates a person. This was also responded to by the interviewee who quoted Pierre Bourdie’s opinion that there is a tendency for people today to consider someone who has privileges as an auctor (prophet), not as a lector (teacher/teacher). If a prophet is trusted and believed in because of his person, a teacher/lector is followed not because of his person, but because of the teachings he carries. Nowadays, people tend to lose their critical thinking, so they don’t see what the teachings are, but who the person is.

In the question and answer session, many questions arose, including, what is the motivation for writing a novel (for the author) and to what extent is the motivation successfully expressed in the novel (for the speaker), can someone criticize a novel without knowing literary theory, what if the novel being read turns out to have the characteristics of a novelette which tends to be concise and one-sitting in reading, why criticism of the authorities rarely appears in the work, and is there a possibility of the author being legally sued because of criticism in his work?

All these questions were alternately answered by the author and resource persons by providing descriptions of the problems and examples of cases. The discussion ended with the conclusion that the novel Dirty Hands Behind the Screen does not make criticism of the government the center of the story, but is the main attraction of this novel because the issue is still actual.