Undergraduate Students at Conference

What a great dinner we had last night. The entertainment was just as good. What a good college group they had performing for us.

After the Boardwalk Banquet, I had the opportunity to participate, and represent my region, region 14, in the battle of the regions competition. Sadly, my team failed to receive any points in ACUI Feud, but it sure was fun participating.

Today started off well with the opening session about creating a student organization one stop service facility and website. This workshop gave me some great ideas to take back to my campus in regards to creating a friendly, easy to use website and one-stop physical area for college students to get information and materials to assist them in getting things in regards to student services accomplished and executed effectively and efficiently.

The keynote speaker today, Juana Bordas, was very enlightening and gave a great perspective of the all inclusive society we live and associate in. She was very enthusiastic and fun to listen to.

My group’s case study went very well, and it was exciting to brainstorm ideas with my group members as to how we wanted to go about presenting it to the judges. It was definitely a learning experience.

I am now off to explore the restaurants that downtown Anaheim has to offer for dinner. Should be exciting!

I am looking forward to the service project that is going on tomorrow.

I started off my day going to educational session entitled “Tomorrowland: Student Unions and the Collaborative spirit”. This was a great session for me, as I can take many of the ideas streamlined into this session and apply them back at my campus. Specifically, alternative ways for institutions to make cuts in their budgets, while reducing the educational strain on the students and instructors, can be applied on my campus.

The examples used and demonstrated by Texas Women’s University were general, abstract, and simple. Coming from the institution that took the biggest hit in the Texas budget cuts, it was obvious that this university was going to great lengths to keep their institution strong, and their methods can be applied all over the nation.

From the opening educational session I attended, I made my way over to Cal State Fullerton for the Student Etiquette lunch. Before hand, we were able to tour the Student Union Building, and see some great things it had to offer (my favorite being the bowling alley). There appeared to be some hang ups in the lunch we were supposed to have, and we ended up going to In-n-Out Burger, which was great, and considering the amount of people we had ordering, it went very well. If you ever need a team building exercise, try putting 30 people on a bus and find out what food belongs to whom.

From there, we made our way back to the Marriott and began our interesting case study, followed by the “Expanding the Union’s Mission” workshop. This was another great session that highlighted ways that Southern Illinois University incorporated student ideals of a Union Building when expanding one of their buildings into their student center.

All in all, it was another great and educational day here in Anaheim, with wonderful weather to match.

What an exciting start to the ACUI conference here in Anaheim! My name is Tad Roeder and I am the undergraduate student blogger for the conference. My group arrived here in Anaheim around 11:00 am this morning from Centralia College in Centralia, Washington.

Despite our early day break departure from Portland, OR, our spirits were shapely rejuvenated by the wonderful weather of Southern California.

Our opening undergraduate session started off very well with a few great ice breaker exercises to get us acquainted with our fellow undergraduate students. During this session, we were informed of the perks of the I-LEAD® institute, which sounds like a wonderful six-day program for ACUI colleagues to get to know each other and expand on their ideas, while networking, reflecting on experiences, and undergoing a great, rigorous, curriculum. I would strongly urge any undergraduate students who have the opportunity to attend this institute to do so.

Once everyone was acquainted, we headed over to listen to the keynote speaker, B.D. Wong speak about his experiences, and share his anecdotes related to cultural diversity with us. We were greeted at the ballroom with a tremendous performance by members on the USC marching band.

Our region then met and talked about things going on in Region 14. What a great opportunity to meet and greet members of our region! After this, we adjourned for a delicious dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s Grille which featured salmon and chicken among other delicious courses.

I think I speak for all of us when I say I am looking forward to seeing what the educational sessions will offer tomorrow. I am sure we have another exciting day in front of us filled with many new acquaintances. 

Follow Tad Roeder as he blogs for the undergraduate students about the 2009 ACUI annual conference in Anaheim!