'The Pulse' - Feb 2014

 OACUHO P RESIDENT ’ S M ESSAGE —1 F eb. 201 4

$10 000 in 1 day through Campus and Community partnerships- 2 

Waterloo’s

Door Knocker

Campaign - 3

Campus Community Partnerships

President’s Corner: Hello OACUHO! I hope this issue of the Pulse finds you all well. Many of our members have wrapped up hiring residence life teams for 2014-15, our assignments folks are well on their way to ensuring our spaces are as full as possible. Facilities and Summer operation staff are likely focused on the a busy season right around the corner.

As we edge closer to spring every year I start looking forward to the OACUHO Spring Conference. This year the OACUHO Spring Conference will be hosted by Laurier. We are so excited by their progress! With the deadline for program proposals having just passed, we are excited and hoping to see the various functional areas of student housing represented when programming at the conference is revealed. OACUHO represents all functional areas of student housing and the only way we can have content across functional areas is if we all contribute.

While the timing of the Spring Conference may be challenging for some of you – we hope to see folks from all functional areas at the conference.

Another exciting time in the OACUHO annual cycle is nomination time.

Thank you to all members who submitted a nomination for the 2014-15 Board of Directors. This years Board has worked hard to provide opportunities for members across all functional areas to be engaged with OACUHO. This is your professional home and we hope to continue to engage all functional areas through all experience levels. OACUHO has so many cool and interesting initiatives on the go right now. We require members from all experience levels to help us advance the field of Student Housing.

We have recently wrapped up a midyear assessment of OACUHO. We solicited feedback from the Board, Committee members and network chairs. This information will help us understand how we are doing and ensure we meet our goals before May. I understand that OACUHO is not just the board and committees. If any of you have feedback or comments about OACUHO and our progress please feel free to reach out. E-mail: me@chadnuttall.com Thank you!

Chad Nuttall President, OACUHO

CONNECT WITH OACUHO!!

Raising $10 000 in 1 day through Campus and Community partnerships Submitted by Sunita Karir, Trent University Many of us have the privilege of working with amazing student leaders each and every day in our jobs.

Something I always find a little extra inspiring though is when students just do great things for the sake of giving back.

I was approached last fall by a couple of students who wanted help connecting with partners on campus and in the community for an initiative they called Project 10K. One of the students, Dexter Fichuk, is currently a first year living in residence at Trent, and the other student, Scott Pharand, is a second year student who was one of our orientation leaders last fall.

Dexter and Scott went to “We Day” in Waterloo and heard a presentation by a speaker named Taylor Conroy. Taylor wanted to build a school and he wanted to do it quickly.

He started an initiative with his friends to raise $10 000 over the course of 3 months. Basically he approached 33 of his friends and asked each of them to donate $3.33 each day for 3 months. The amount was based on giving up a “coffee a day” in order to reach his goal. You can check out Taylor’s TEDx talk online (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=aC02SmuOxYI).

Dexter and Scott were really inspired by Taylor’s initiative. They talked about the advantage of being a part of a postsecondary institution like Trent, and how they had the ability to reach out to so many students who want to get involved.

From that perspective, Scott and Dexter decided that they didn’t want to wait 3 months to raise the money – they wanted to do it in one day.

The concept of Project 10K developed into an initiative to raise $10 000 in one day that would go towards building a school in Africa. Scott and Dexter started to brainstorm different ideas for small fundraisers they could do around campus and in the Peterborough community to reach this goal. They picked Friday, January 24 th as the big day. They wanted to pack the day with different events on campus that would appeal to a variety of people. One thing they really tried to push was a bottle drive on campus. They had merchandise for sale, such as t-shirts and wristbands that gave purchasers free cover into a Peterborough nightclub. They served hot chocolate, s’mores and other treats in one of the campus dining halls. They had a speaker come to campus from Free the Children, as well as a performance by Degrassi star and musician Kevin Alves. Dexter and Scott also enlisted a lot of help from student groups at Trent and received support from our Residence Life staff.

Some of the Dons got together to run silent auctions and an open mic night, and generally just helped spread the word to residence students about this initiative.

When I sat down to talk to Dexter and Scott in particular about their commitment to connecting with different campus and community partners they said they really got the ball rolling through social media.

They used a consistent Twitter hashtag and worked hard at promoting their Facebook page. A few people they approached to help assist with the project were initially taken aback by the lofty goal, but when they saw the support the initiative was receiving on social media they realized that Scott and Dexter were really committed and going to work hard towards achieving it.

Scott and Dexter said they didn’t encounter too many challenges when reaching out to partners on campus and in the community. Sometimes they had to be really persistent in their emails or phone calls, but they found that once they got a few key people on board other pieces just fell into place. They used connections that they built to create new networks and reach even more people. The nightclub that sponsored the wristbands, Club Aria, connected them with local media company, PtboCanada, which wrote a press release about their event and helped get the word out to the greater Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes community beyond Trent.

...

When I asked Scott and Dexter what advice they had for people wanting to take on an initiative and connect with different campus or community groups they suggested contacting as many people as you can from the beginning. Know what you want to do and have a vision. Dexter and Scott had their goal and it is what kept them motivated to keep working hard and do whatever it takes. They definitely tapped into the power of social media and accomplished a lot through that avenue.

However, they were careful to avoid spamming people and practiced quality over quantity when sending out event promos.

They did some amazing design work with graphics for posters and advertisements that were clean and professional. Above all, they welcomed any student that wanted to participate or volunteer and created a very inclusive event. Working together, they accomplished a lot.

Dexter and Scott fell a little bit shy of their goal, raising just over $8 000. They were incredibly proud of what they accomplished, but are still working towards raising the rest of the money to donate to Free the Children for this initiative. They already have plans in the works for next year to make it an annual event, and have registered with the Trent Central Student Association as a student group so they can apply for funding to get the initiative started. Project 10K is just one shining example of how building campus and community partnerships, especially in a smaller university in a small city like Peterborough, can help you achieve great things. While Scott and Dexter said it’s probably the most time they’ve ever spent on a project and took a lot of hard work, they found it to be an incredible rewarding experience and can’t wait to do it again next year!

For more information on Project 10K you can check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Project10k or their website: http://www.project10k.org/

Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Waterloo’s Door Knocker Campaign By: Ryan King, University of Waterloo This community initiative all started through the Town and Gown Committee in the Waterloo Region as a way to ensure the community near campus was aware about the impacts students have in the community. Below is the communication that is shared with those involved in the program.

tion of public safety while taking a strict enforcement approach to municipal noise bylaws, the criminal code, and the Highway Traffic Act. It is estimated that the combined student population in the area is 45,000, making up about 30 per cent of the City of Waterloo's population during the academic year.

The University of Waterloo's Off-Campus Housing programs are designed to foment student success while living off-campus, and their services include a housing listing service, free lease reviews, education programs and the new Off-Campus Advisory Board.

University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University will The door knocker program was established in 2004. be taking part in the annual Door-Knocker Program or- Each year, 1,500 door hangers and introduction letters ganized by Waterloo Regional Police Services. are delivered to addresses near campus neighbourhoods.

The program sends teams of volunteers along with police officers, bylaw officers, and firefighters door-to-door in the neighbourhoods around both universities, to em- For more information about the university's Off-Campus phasize the support available to students living in the Housing program please visit the Off-Campus Housing community, to promote safety and positive interaction in website. the community.

Students who live off-campus will be made aware of the support services delivered by both institutions to help them navigate their off-campus experience, and for permanent residents, the hope is to instill the message of students and the universities are both good neighbours and active community members.

Members of the local enforcement agencies send a message of proactive conflict resolution and the promo-