New students to Oregon State University-Cascades can look forward to a handbook for success from their student government. The group also discussed their Winterfest plans at their latest meeting.
by Noah Hughes
The Broadside
The Associated Students of the Cascades Campus are looking for a way to encourage student leadership as a road to academic success. Kate Roth, the marketing and public relations coordinator for ASCC, is overseeing the handbook project.
Roth proposed the idea to aim students toward roles in student life. Content could include information on academic programs offered by the Cascades Campus, child-care subsidy and admissions deadlines with an emphasis on student organizations.
Matters of debate over the handbook project included the need to provide student policies. According to Roth, if they added any mention of OSU policies, they would need to include the entire policy in lieu of an abridged version, as required by OSU standards. To save on space, they also debated whether to include a student calendar of events and even techniques for stress management. Similar handbooks from other universities contain much of this kind of information, according to Megan Knight, ASCC Vice President.
Also of concern is whether any of the information in the handbook would be considered redundant. According to Andrew Davis, ASCC faculty advisor, most of the information being suggested for the handbook is presented during student orientation. Davis also expressed doubts as to whether the handbook would increase the amount of students getting involved in student life programs.
“People who want to be involved will seek out the information they need, that’s the nature of involvement,” said Davis.
ASCC hammered out more details concerning their Winterfest activities. With a spinning wheel for prizes, participants can win die-cast stickers with the ASCC logo, and entry in to a raffle drawing. There will be two raffles, each with a different prize. The first prize is four sledding passes. The second prize was debated during the meeting.
Originally, ASCC wanted to buy a snowboard for the raffle prize, but it was too expensive for their budget. After somedebate, they decided to purchase snowshoes as the prize, in a male and female set for $150. The advantage with snowshoes is that they could be branded with the OSU -Cascades logo, according to Andrew Davis.
Roth objected. She felt snowshoes were not a universal gift. A winter coat would have been problematic due to varying sizes, and a gift card wouldn’t be possible. Andrew Davis stated OSU doesn’t generally like gift cards since there’s no guarantee what the individual will purchase with one.
Arguments in favor of the snowshoes boiled down to practicality. With a prize like a snowboard, someone might have to then acquire all the other gear necessary to use it. Not so with a pair of snowshoes, according to Taylor Bacci, ASCC activities coordinator.
“You don’t need to accessorize with snowshoes,” said Bacci.
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