TU groups combine programming to offer variety of month-long activities, speakers
By: Brian Stelter
Posted:
1/27/05
The spring semester will begin with a February Festival across campus, thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Office of Student Activities and a newly formed Integrated Programming Council.
"We realized that we don't start the spring semester off with a bang the way we do in the fall," Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Teri Hall explained.
Using the September Celebration formula, OSA staffers organized several campus events and compiled a calendar of upcoming programming.
"Once we started working on this, we realized how many events were going on in the spring that we didn't always know about," Hall said.
Last semester Hall formed a committee of campus representatives to coordinate events on campus. The IPC received $50,000 from Vice President for Student Affairs Debra Moriarty to plan a spring speaker series. The IPC brings "all the major campus programmers around one table," Hall said. "All the individual departments have done great programming for years, but this way we're all coming together. The synergy that comes from it...really makes a difference."
The IPC has been meeting once a month since last fall. The meetings include representatives from the Office of Student Activities, Campus Activities Board, Office of Diversity Resources, Housing & Residence Life, Career Center, Campus Recreation Services, International Student Scholar Office, along with several other campus groups.
Hall said the IPC also encourages stronger promotional efforts and enables better use of campus resources.
"It requires a different kind of thinking. It's hard to get past your own calendar and your own events," she said. "But I think it's the right time, with the right people around the table, to make it work."
Moriarty said she has encouraged her staff to "think more broadly and more comprehensively" about campus programming. She hopes the events will form "new traditions" on campus.
"Students actually have more time to participate in activities in the beginning of the semester than when the semester winds down," she pointed out.
The IPC's first major program is a series of high-profile speakers, including legendary football coach Herman Boone and Apprentice winner Bill Rancic. Assistant Director for Student Activities Jason Heiserman said the IPC surveyed students before booking the speakers.
"We wanted to make sure we had student input on who we were going to be able to bring in," he said. "We didn't want it to be a faculty/staff decision. The event is for the students, so we wanted to put some ownership in their hands."
Two of the students' top three choices -- Martin Luther King III and Mark Curry -- will be coming to campus this semester.
Additionally, the IPC is collaborating with the Athletic Marketing Department to host Center Court with comedian Dave Coulier immediately following the men's basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 9.
"We really want to try to draw people to the Towson Center with an additional incentive to the basketball game," Heiserman said.
The event will also include a dance team performance and several contests.
University officials hope the events will serve as a welcome mat of sorts for new students.
"Part of this is about welcoming our new transfer students into the semester in a similar style to how we welcome students in the fall," Moriarty explained.
About 800 transfer students enroll at Towson University each spring.
"I've always worried that, for our spring transfer students, it's kind of like 'here's a schedule, go find your class,'" Hall said.
Spring students attend a one-day TU CARES orientation program, but do not attend the in-depth orientation program that fall semester students experience.
Moriarty said part of the February Festival concept is about "packaging" the events in a comprehensive way.
"One of the challenges of this campus is that we don't have a good way of communicating," she said.
February Festival brochures are available in University Union Room 217.
