User Rating: / 2
PoorBest 

The Residential Hall Blue Caucus breakout this past weekend went extremely well.  I want to express how thankful I am to everyone who participated with this breakout; I hope we can continue with this excellence as, ultimately, the issues we tackle in breakouts will benefit the Commonwealth, the students, and the University as a whole.  At this time, I would like to briefly bullet some of the main issues we covered this past weekend.

• A question was posed about the law enforcement cracking down on certain Commonwealth campuses and in their surrounding areas.  This includes increased security, parking fines and traffic violations (which, essentially, cause traffic jams).
• Altoona, Erie, and Harrisburg all have Greek Life (Berks is looking in to it).  I believe we have come to a consensus that having a person attend Council Weekends as a Greek Liaison/Director/Senator (call it what you will) would be beneficial for each Commonwealth campus.  Our goal is to get Dr. Roy Baker, Director of Greek Life, to come into a breakout in the near future to speak with us.
• The Book Exchange is a program that has been functioning for about a year but has yet to be used in a way that would be beneficial for this University.  Instead of buying books through other means, the Book Exchange would be like a book swap between students.  The only way the Book Exchange will work is if all students use it.  More students, more books to swap, better chance of finding the books you need.  The website is http://bookexchange.psu.edu/.
•  The student involvement among off-campus students seems sparse for our Commonwealth campuses.  In a way to gain more popularity with these students, we have come up with a few suggestions.  1. Assign an Off-Campus Director/Senator to attend Council Weekends.  2. Assign individual Residence Hall Directors/Senators and individual complex Directors/Senators to attend Council Weekends.
• The issue of transportation was also discussed.  We talked about Bus Loops/Shuttles and the issues that go with that (not enough buses, buses are never on time, buses are not in rotation late enough).  For commuters, there is also the issue of poor weather conditions and/or road conditions.  For this reason, we urge campuses to tell incoming freshman about text messaging services at FTCAP so they can get weather advisories and updates.
• For next Council (October 30-31) it is my hope to have Ed Mulfinger and/or Karen Kreger, the two Regional Directors of Housing & Food Services, to come to our breakout to discuss some of the issues involved with wasting cafeteria food, living on- and off-campus, and the like.
• An ANGEL group for the Residential Hall Blue Caucus has been created.  I would prefer to do all discussion through e-mail, this website, by phone, or in person, but the group is there as another communication option.  Also, all my group e-mails will go out from ANGEL.

As you can see, a lot was discussed!  If there are any questions, if you need clarification on any topic, or simply want more information please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .