In an effort to teach students how to best use its offices, the Center for Community in the College Union will host a series of monthly informative events that offer activities, snacks and the chance to participate in local charities.
Through these events, students can learn how the Center for Community’s offices work together to provide students with one-stop shopping services.
“People don’t truly know what the Center for Community is,” said Tamara Kenney, assistant dean for student conduct. “It’s the umbrella to these individual offices.”
The offices include Fraternal Life, Student Conduct and Community Standards, Multicultural Programs and Services, Leadership and Service, Orientation and First-Year Programs, Student Volunteerism and Service Learning and Off-Campus Living.
“We all interconnect with our work, and we interconnect on our projects and helping people out,” said Kenney. “If you come to the Center for Community, which is the College Union room 354, you can be directed to different offices that may actually fit your need.”
The first of these events took place Wednesday, Sept. 19. Attendees enjoyed free ice cream sandwiches and were challenged to correctly match staff to their baby pictures for a chance to win a Starbucks gift card. At the same time, the staff collected nonperishable food items and disposable paper goods for the Geneseo Groveland Food Pantry.
The Center for Community anticipates working closely with AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers to assist the Livingston County Office for the Aging, which, among many projects, assists the local elderly population with basic necessities.
“We felt that it was very important that we have a service project because we are the Center for Community,” said Kenney. “Our mission is to serve the student population as well as the college community.”
The next Center for Community Day will take place on Oct. 30 from 1-3 p.m. The entire campus community - including students, faculty and staff - is invited to all events. If successful, Kenney said the department anticipates holding these monthly functions year-round.
“If people understood the Center for Community had all these different pieces, but they are under one umbrella, that’s one phone call as opposed to calling multiple offices… We are a department,” said Kenney.
Kenney said her department simply wants students to “come meet the Center for Community.” There is no obligation, just an opportunity to learn how the Center for Community can efficiently address a variety of student needs.