ACUHO-I 2007 National Chair Report
10.02.2007 | Contact: Jay Dixon, National Chair
I was full of excitement upon entering Seattle, Washington. As I flew from my native state of New York out of JFK, the flight was very comfortable. As we landed, I met two other attendees of the ACUHO-I conference; one was a corporate vender for the ACUHO-I Exposition and a housing officer representing University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. All together, I took a small bus for about fifteen minutes until we reached at the main conference hotel; Sheraton Seattle. The hotel was about three blocks away from the Seattle Conference Site where majority of the programming and presentations were taking place. I arrive around 9:00 PM PST, which is 12:00 AM EST - as such, I experienced jet-lag and was very tired. However, the atmosphere reminded me of NACURH students cheering; however, the advisors came back from opening ceremonies through the Seattle port. From the overall crowds of the lobby and the overall atmosphere, I truly felt the energy of ACUHO-I and thus was inspired even more to represent NACURH.
Opening Ceremonies
The following morning, I got a few pictures of the outside exterior of the Seattle Conference site and it is truly breathtaking. As I entered, I attended the second opening ceremonies where Connie Carson (Wake Forest University), ACUHO-I Past President (as of now) introduced NACURH as one of the special guests in addition to various awards and recognition to professional staff. Opening ceremonies is quite a contrast in comparison to NACURH, as notably there wasn't any cheering perse and very scheduled as they had awards and other tiems to hand out. Yet, the atompshere still provided positive enthusiasm for the delegates in attendance. The keynote speaker, Nell Howe, was absolutely fantastic. He is a national speaker who is known for his publications with residence life through The Washington Post, New York Times, USA Weekend, and his experience with the millennial generation that we currently outreached. His presentation definitely gave all of us some further insight as to the needs and expectations of this current generation. It was overall a great experience.
ACUHO-I Greetings
Afterwards, I had the opportunity to walk around the conference site of ACUHO-I for a few minutes before the first session. It was extraordinary to see the number of vendors; the availability of resources that members could purchase; the publicity of ACUHO-I as an organization that takes pride in its mission and vision. While walking around taking photos, I managed to connect with our National Advisor, Valerie Averill and our Conference Resource Consultant, Paula Bland in regards to the overall experience of ACUHO-I. Following, I meet up briefly with Angela Powell, Andy McDade and Scott Singleton from our corporate partner – On Campus Marketing. I also saw some Regional Advisors, Ed Gilhool from IACURH and Rich DeShields from PACURH. I also ran into Jacque Bollinger, former NACURH 2007 Conference Advisor from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. Trust me folks, this was only the beginning of the numerous contacts that NACURH connected with through this conference!
ACUHO-I Interest Session
"Interest Sessions" in ACUHO-I is similar to NACURH’s “Programming Track/Sessions” that we have at our annual regional/national conferences. However, one of the notable differences that I found right from the beginning are outside of listening the abstract and presenters, ACUHO-I includes up to three learning objectives that participants will gain from each interest sessions. I found this very insightful and something that I think NACURH should look into towards standardizing programming abstract formats for our conferences. The first interest session I attended was the 21st Century Project Update. For those of you who did not know what the 21st Century Project, here is an excerpt from the 21st Century Website:
"The 21st Century Project of ACUHO-I is a multi-phased initiative leading to the construction of a new, state-of-the-art residential facility. In addition to creating one or more prototype residential facilities, the project will assist colleges and universities in designing new buildings that reflect the ever-changing roles residences play in the collegiate experience"
From the presentation at Pre-Conference 2007 at Oshkosh, one of the vital elements presented was that NACURH has and will continue to work on improving the partnership with ACUHO-I, especially with this important initiative. It is important to provide both a student and professional voice to truly understand the future of the communities that we represent. Learning about this initative, I think it would vital, as per recommendations from last year with Mike Marshall, Past NACURH Chair, to have a better understanding of what this program is about and evaluate NACURH's parternship with the 21st Century Project.
NACURH/ACUHO-I Program of the Year
Following the 21st Century Interest Session, the student leaders and professional staff from New York University had the opportunity to showcase the 2007 NACURH/ACUHO-I Program of the Year, "Lights, Cameras, and Action! Ultra Violet Live!"
As a brief overview of the program, the national winning program is an annual event that is an academic year-long initiative. Geared as a performance of talented residents from each resident hall, the program is beyond just a "talent show." Objectives of this program includes developing hall unity, increasing diversity awareness, building campus-wide community spirit within a university that lacks a central campus environment, strengthening university alumni relations, and serves as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.Below are some of the photos from the presentation (and sorry about the darkness of some of them; I didn’t have the best camera for this experience). I have to say NYU truly represented their university and NACURH at the upmost respect to more than 30 attendees of this interest session. We were honored to have them a part of this and once again, congratulations NYU!
(L to R) Jordan Shyi (NCC 07-08), Andrea Tuccillo (RA & NRHH Member 06-08), Heidi Knight (IRHC Programming Co-Chair 07-08), Uma Krishan (IRHC Public Relations Chair 07-08), Danny Mitartondo (IRHC Treasurer 06-07), Tony Fangel (IRHC Advisor), Courtney Crowder (IRHC Programming Co-Chair 07-08), Nic Evans (IRHC Advisor)