ASC Group Attends NEACURH Regional Conference at Western New England College

Recently, Alfred State
College National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) adviser Allison Keddie and a
group of five ASC students attended the NEACURH (National Affiliation of
College and University Residence Halls) Regional Conference at Western New
England College.  While at the conference, the Alfred State NRHH chapter was
awarded a NEACURH Scholarship of $250.  This scholarship, which is given
to only a few schools per year, was quite an honor for ASC as it has been a
member of NRHH for just under a year. 

"Obviously, Allison and NRHH chapter president Tom Lubitz (Walden,
architectural technology)  have made great strides this year in making our
NRHH chapter an exemplary model of what a brand new organization should strive
to accomplish," notes Paul Posener, director, Residential Life at ASC.

In order to qualify for the scholarship, ASC's NRHH chapter needed to apply,
explaining how the funding might be used by the local chapter.  "Without
additional funding, the ASC chapter of NRHH is finding it difficult to sponsor
events and broaden our membership," wrote Lubitz in the application.

"Most
of our current budget has been used [sic] to send some of our members to the
upcoming [sic] NEACURH Conference at Western New England College."

Additionally, Lubitz wrote, "We have been successful with the programs that we
have been able to provide to our campus even with a very limited budget. On
Oct. 31, 2008, we hosted a Halloween party for some of the elementary students
at the local school, as they don't have a very large town to trick or treat in.
We organized games, created large coloring pages for kids, and had fun just
hanging out and getting to know the students.  Another event we sponsored
last semester was "Recognize a Friend with a Letter Day," during which we
provided supplies to students to enable them to write letters to other students
and faculty members to let them know how much they were appreciated-an appropriate activity on Valentine's Day! All together about 200 letters were
written within a three-hour period to create an opportunity for everyone to have fun and use their
creativity in writing that letter.

"This scholarship would be very helpful to our organization because we would
use it to help fund our conference trips. We are a newly affiliated college
within NEACURH and would like to grow within our community as well as yours but
with the limited budget that we have, it is a struggle for us to start this up
and grow."

"Because
our affiliation with NRHH began midway through the academic year, we had no way
to be included in the budget planning process.  When we attended our first
NRHH conference at SUNY Geneseo, we sent four delegates who each paid $20
themselves to attend the conference. The ASC vice president of student affairs
paid the remaining costs as a one-time show of support for the group. We would
like to involve ourselves in the Monthly Moose Calling so we can begin
communication with other local campuses. We would also like to become a more
active part of the NEACURH community and to grow larger and more prominent
within our region."

According
to its Web site, the National Residence Hall Honorary "is the only nationwide
organization that exclusively recognizes leaders in the residence halls; it is
also considered the recognition branch of the National Association of College
and University Residence Halls (NACURH), Inc. The opportunity to have a chapter
is a service of NACURH, Inc. designed to give local, regional, and national
recognition to students making outstanding contributions to their campus and
residence halls. NACURH firmly believes in the value of student involvement in
residence hall life through community service, community building, advocacy,
and educational programming.

"Realizing
the value of participation, leaders have contributed vast amounts of their
personal time in an effort to make their own college experiences more
meaningful to them. This effort not only benefits them, it benefits their
campus and entire residence hall system at their school as well. NRHH exists to
honor these leaders. That is the fundamental purpose of an NRHH Chapter.

"Even
though the main purpose of having an NRHH chapter on campus is to honor
outstanding leaders, some chapters choose to take the process one step further.
Many chapters sponsor on-campus
leadership workshops and/or speakers, co-sponsor programs with the Residence
Hall Association, serve on housing committees, and establish residence hall
leadership awards or scholarships. Chapters can be as active as their members
deem appropriate.

"Membership
in chapters is limited to one percent of the school's residence hall
population, or 20 members, whichever is greater. NRHH is a very select group of
leaders thus being selected into the membership is an honor in which one can
take a great amount of pride in."