MaryBeth Carswell, SA Vice President of Activities
This past weekend, from Friday March 9 to Sunday March 11, Executive Vice President Jillian Vell, Vice President of Activities MaryBeth Carswell, Senator Yolanda Sun and Hunt Union Manager Christina Wlodarczyk, along with their advisor, Director of Campus Activities Bill Harcleroad, ventured to the Hudson River Valley for the regional Associations of College Unions International (ACUI) conference. The theme of the conference was “Bridging Tradition with Innovation” and events were held between Marist College, SUNY New Paltz, the Culinary Institute of America and Vassar College. The purpose of the conference is to bring together administrators and students whose mission is to build community on college campuses. This is done by being placed in one of four tracks (Student Government, Student Managers, Student Programmers or Professional) and attending a variety of educational sessions, lectures, networking events and games or activities. These education sessions included expanding one’s knowledge of topics ranging from late night programming to improving one’s communication skills.
There were keynote lectures given during meal time, each exploring a different topic from the history of college unions to creating music from abstract mediums. The whole conference offered a chance for students and administrators to share how their campus programming boards/college unions/student governments run and gave the opportunity to receive feedback on how their daily operations can be improved.
Conference attendees had a break on Saturday and were given the option to go on a tour of The Culinary Institute of America, Dutchess County Community College, the walkway over the Hudson or to participate in a community service project. These breaks gave students and professionals a chance to interact and build connections with members from other schools.
This year’s conference revealed the location of the ACUI region 2 2013 conference which will be in Rochester, New York. The conference will be held November 1 to 3 and the theme will be “Sharing Ingredients for our Success.” Nick Mortecelli, programming president at SUNY Brockport, states, “Our school is amped for the ACUI conference to be coming back to our part of New York. I’m excited to show off our student union and create bonds with other schools.”
We are always looking for student leaders who are interested in attending and advancing their knowledge in student leadership and organizations. I encourage you to look for more information about ACUI and their conferences check out http://www.acui.org.
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