The Start of a New Term

Hello Everyone! The start of a term has brought a lot of excitement, anticipation, and hard work into the SGB office. All of the newly elected board members and myself are diving right into all the project we proposed to students during the election period.

Before I go into the things I'm working on I would like to post my office hours. They are as follows:

Monday: 2pm - 5pm
Tuesday: 12pm - 1pm
Wednesday: 1pm - 3pm and 4pm - 5pm
Thursday: 12pm - 1pm
Friday: 4pm - 6pm

I can also be reached via e-mail at lacee.ecker@gmail.com I am open to any and all concerns and suggestions so please do not be shy.

Currently I am working on 3 projects:

1. Developing and completing the diversity/leadership curriculum with Dr. Humphrey that will be offered to Arts and Sciences majors in the near future, hopefully for the Fall 2008 semester.

2. Planning the 1st Townhall meeting of the semester which will be on 2/26 at 8:45pm in the Assembly Room and we will be focusing on issues pertaining the the students of color demographic.

3. Raising awareness and combating apathy amongst students in regard to SGB. My first task was to have the new board introduced at a Men's Basketball game which will be taking place on 1/26 during the Pitt vs. Rutgers game.

I will continue to update you all on what is happening. I plan on posting once a week so check back next week to see whats happening.

ciao!

Project Updates

I just wanted to fill everyone in on the projects I am currently working on.

1. Organizing the second Leadership council

2. Working with Shawn Brooks to ensure that the harassment hot line signs get hung up on every floor in every residence hall

3. Setting up meetings with the appropriate administrators to see if we can get diversity training curriculum worked into the Arts and Sciences Freshmen Programs class.

At this point in time I am just contacting all of the necessary people to see what steps need to be taken to completing these projects.

If anyone has any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail me or come to my office hours. I'm willing to help anyone with any campus issues they may be facing. Until next time....

Peace Out!

WELCOME BACK!

Hope the first couple weeks have been a great time for everyone. I am posting my office hours for all to see. Here they are:

Monday: 1-2, 4:15-5:15
Tuesday: 12-2:30
Wednesday: 11-12, 1-2, 4:15-5:15
Thursday: 12-2:30
Friday: By Appointment

If I'm not in my cubicle when you stop by chances are I'm running around so either wait a couple minutes or come down to the 6th floor where I am sometimes handling some business. Also, if anyone has any questions, concerns, suggestions for SGB or anything school related please feel free to contact me. I'll be looking forward to seeing you all.

Recent Progress

Hey Everybody,

I just want to update you on my current projects. Yesterday I had a meeting with Dr. Wosu, the Dean of Diversity for the School of Engineering. I spoke with him about the mandatory diversity workshop they have for all freshmen engineering students. Its a one-time two hour workshop that all students attend their first semester at Pitt. They even require that transfer students take it. He explained to me how it works and all the other logistical stuff. My next step from here is to try and get it implemented in the College of Arts and Sciences. Seeing how this school has the most students it should definitly have a similar program. The goal is to reach as much of the student body as possible with this training. If anyone has any ideas or people you think I should talk to please e-mail me at lacee.ecker@gmail.com.

Today, just a couple minutes ago, I had a meeting with Dr. Shawn Brooks, the Director of Residence Life. I talked to him about the harassment issues that were brought to the board's attention at both the People of Color and LGBT-Q townhall meetings. He was very concerned that students are being harassed within the residence halls. There is an e-mail address in place that he responds to that students can contact if they are having problems that they do not necessarily want to go to their RA's with. The problem with that is is that students do not know the e-mail address exists. What we're going to do is have signs posted on all the floors in all the residence halls that have the e-mail address and let students know they can contact him if they are having issues. I feel like this will benefit every student on campus. People will have an outlet to discuss personal issues. Again, if you have any feedback for me on this project or anything else I'm doing please feel free to contact me.

Until we meet again....ciao!

LGBT-Q Townhall Meeting

Hello Everyone!

Last night's meeting went very, very well. I would like to thank everyone who came out last night and voiced concerns. The meetings are useless without the students, so thank you. I heard a lot of concerns and I really feel like a lot of the things that were asked of the Student Government Board are feasible. I know that in the upcoming weeks and months I will be addressing specific things that were said.

If anyone would like more details about the specific things I am working on please come to my office hours. They are:

Mon. 12-1
Tues. 12-1 and 2:30 - 4:00
Wed. 12-1 and 2-5
Thurs. 12-1 and 2:30 -4:00

Also, you can e-mail me at lacee.ecker@gmail.com

Thanks and I'll be talking to you guys again soon.

Hi Guys!!!!!!!!!

Hey everybody...You can check here to get updates on what I'm doing for SGB.