PUB Attends Conference, Wins Awards

The Pacer Union Board participated in the National Association for Campus Activities 2007's Regional Conference in Charleston, South Carolina on Sept. 27 to Sept. 30.

Prior to attending the conference, students had to submit information and letters of support reflecting PUB, their programming and events before being considered as a finalist for the award. At the conference the Pacer Union Board had to give a 30 minute presentation to a panel of judges regarding their programming efforts and how their efforts directly relate to the university's mission and values. The USCA conference student delegates were Jazz Byrd, Jeanetra Wright, Laney Wiggins, Dimetrius Wilson, Rebecca Colflesh, Brandon Knightner, and Lee Stroud. During the conference the students attended educational sessions on topics such as diversity, publicity, programming, and leadership.

Two of the student delegates were accepted to do presentations during the conference. Colflesh presented on collaboration in her presentation titled "Co-Sponsorships: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!"

Stroud completed his presentation on working with small budgets titled "Money's Not Everything...But It Sure Does Help." The students previewed potential events to bring to campus and met with agents from across the nation.

Professional staff members Ahmed Samaha and Angel Lee also presented while at the conference.

Samaha spoke about "Developing New Components to Your Leadership Programs" and "Find out Your True Colors." He discussed how his presentations focused on developing a living, learning community in the residence hall for freshman to enhance their leadership skills and discussed the Live 2 Lead leadership program.

Angel Lee presented with Jean Garcia from Pfeiffer University on "Heterosexual Privileges for Sale!" Lee described how she and Jean defined terms such as heterosexual, bisexual, as well as describing in detail Homophobia. They described what the term homophobia means, the levels of homophobia, as well as examples and an assessment of personal homophobia. Special focus was given to the cost of heterosexism and how it hurts everyone.

Lee and Garcia provided information on how to stop heterosexist behavior. Lee described aspects of heterosexual privileges such as "having a recognized marriage, shared health insurance, and discounted auto insurance rates for being married, just to name a few and each group was given money to buy privileges for $100 each and asked to explain what benefits they thought were more important and why." Lee and Garcia received the award for Most Outstanding Presentation by a Professional.