The Student Association met Monday to discuss involving the Public Relations Student Society of America as a public relations association for the student association, said SA assembly member Ryan Kelly.

‘With all the bad press on campus, many students feel that we, the Student Association, are not doing our job to the best of its ability and are not involved enough on campus,’ Kelly said in a statement before the assembly. ‘If we revamped our public relations communication team, we could solve some of these problems.’

Kelly’s planned partnership with PRSSA is not tied to SA President Travis Mason’s proposed media policy, Kelly said.

Kelly’s proposal to integrate a subgroup within PRSSA, called The Firm, currently has no estimated cost, he said. The Firm has worked on events with the Young Republicans and Relay for Life.

‘Including PRSSA in our activities would be mutually beneficial because they get pre-professional experience in the public relations field, while we have more people to get our message across,’ Kelly said.

Kelly has already begun working with PRSSA to reach an agreement, Kelly said.

‘It’s pretty much an up-and-coming idea,’ said Sharon Clott, assembly member and public relations director. ‘Ryan was really excited about the idea so he really took the initiative to get it started.’

Kelly and Clott both said they also hope a partnership with PRSSA will help to remedy student apathy on campus.

‘Students really aren’t apathetic, they’re just not connected,’ Clott said. ‘This brings a form of connection and communication.’

The PRSSA campaign is also meant to improve SA’s public image, Kelly said.

‘We are the student government; we should be recognized on campus,’ Kelly said. ‘We should be able to say that we did this for you.’

Mason announced his own public relations campaigns, called the ‘We Hear You’ campaign and another campaign that he declined to name. The ‘We Hear You’ campaign would put up posters outlining SA’s current projects and accomplishments and advertise the SA calendar, Mason said.

The unnamed campaign would use posters and press releases to highlight ‘things that don’t get front page,’ Mason said. ‘We’re trying to give SA a face.’

According to Clott, the campaign is unnamed because it is still being discussed and has yet to be confirmed.

In other SA news, the SA unanimously elected Jeffrey Pawlowski, a first-year architecture student, to the Board of Elections and Membership committee.

Danerys Gutierrez, a freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, was elected assistant vice-president of operations.

‘After I’m gone, (Gutierrez) is going to be parliamentarian for a while,’ said Vice-President of Operations Joan Gabel.

Mason also proposed a leadership conference with local high school and middle school students to teach them parliamentary procedure for their own student associations. The conference will not take place on campus, Mason said.

‘Too many times we ask the community to come to us and we don’t come to the community,’ Mason said.

Gabel said she would also like to teach the high school students ‘how to handle the media, how to put on a media event – real practical skills.’

Executive Vice President Eric Crites proposed a $4,963 budget for the Big Event which would be charged out of the student fee. Crites also proposed a pre-Big Event banquet be held the night before, April 15, by the OrangeSeeds.

‘It would be really important to have a banquet for the day,’ Crites said.

Published on March 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm