Yesterday, Todd Carey completed his... fifth (?) concert here at Miami Hamilton in Schwarm Commons. Todd has his own little fan club here on campus, and it's not hard to see why.
Aside from being easy on the eyes, Todd is so sweet and friendly and just an all-around good guy. He loves coming back to Hamilton each year and has really taken time to get to know some of the staff and students around these parts. We have also become really good at giving him a very warm welcome when he plays:
And we just thought this was a really cute picture of Lea:
In other news, FALL FEST is tomorrow. Fall Fest is one of the biggest events of the year.... we have 27 tables full of fun games, food, and prizes. When you go to 12 tables and get a stamp, you take your ticket to the Student Activities table for a free spin on the prize wheel, where you win even MORE free stuff.
So if you're around tomorrow between 11 am and 1:30 pm, join us on the campus lawn for a great time at Fall Fest!
I have to start this post by saying first and foremost: the 365 Club is in no way affiliated with Miami University. It's just a pretty cool idea and you should join us!
Today in Schwarm Commons, an idea arose. And I'm feeling pretty good about this idea. In fact, I think it's going to be a mini-revolution in Southwest Ohio.
Myself and eleven other people have just made an agreement to run a minimum of one mile every day for a year. That's 365 days straight of running at least a mile. And yes, that includes holidays and weekends and days when we're really busy. Our "year" kicks off on September 1, 2011 and will conclude on September 1, 2012.
It's definitely a pretty significant commitment. The most difficult part will definitely be the consistency. Every. Single. Day. That's a lot of days. On the other hand, a mile really only takes (depending on your fitness level) 7 to 15 minutes. When you think about making a 7-15 minute commitment a day... it sounds way more feasible. I think the hardest part about running is really just deciding to do it. And for the next year, we've decided to do it. And hopefully on lots of these days we'll feel like running more than a mile. Here is the contract, with the participants (so far!).
Anyone else care to join this non-official (at all) group of runners? We are still accepting recruits. I do feel compelled to add, to the participants: don't do anything crazy like run through a thunder and lightning storm or while nursing a broken leg. I mean, let's be reasonable. We run at our own risk.
I'll be back tomorrow with a posting about Todd Carey being on campus today. If you see any of the above folks, be sure to give them a few words of encouragement and congratulations for being so hardcore and amazing!
Over the summer while most students were away and not taking classes, Miami Hamilton took on several construction projects to improve the function and appeal of campus. This seems to be a recurring theme for summers and it makes sense; get the construction (or as much as possible) taken care of and inconvenience the fewest number of students possible while we're at it. Two summers ago, we took on the Mosler-Rentschler Patio, and last summer we completely renovated the 2nd Floor of Rentschler Hall. This summer, we focused on parking lots.
For those of you who have been here a while, you know that parking has probably been the biggest complaint about campus, especially the first few weeks of class. I've heard horror stories of people circling the lot for a half hour with not a single, solitary parking spot open, people parking in the grass, running late for class, etc. Clearly, it was time for an upgrade!
The first change this summer was the main student lot. We used to have a bit of a drainage problem. You might remember the small lakes that would appear faithfully with each rain. We have re-paved and made some fancy elevation adjustments to remedy this problem. Then we added four rows to the west end of the lot, which gave us another 230 parking spots.
We also converted the old curbside faculty & staff parking in the main lot to Disability Parking, and added ramps to make it more convenient as well. The faculty & staff spots got moved to the first few spots of each row.
Across the street from Rentschler, we resurfaced and re-striped the "Recreation Park" lot, and added on 140 spots and a new entrance.
The last parking-related change over the summer was the reconfiguring the half-circle drive in front of Rentschler into a dropoff/pickup zone. This project was intended to ease congestion and improve safety for Campus Kids, the childcare center on campus. It also added eight handicap parking spaces.
New lighting poles are also being installed soon in all of the parking lots.
In additional to the parking lot projects, we upgraded faculty office space and classrooms on the third and fifth floors of Mosler Hall, and renovated the IT services area as well. All of Mosler Hall got ceiling renovations, in installments. The IT services area is my favorite - it looks so modern, open and inviting.
Lastly, 307 Phelps has been converted to a true theater classroom. The ceiling was removed in order to install a grid system for theater lights and a new sounds system is on the way. It's kind of like a small black box theater. I can't wait to see what kind of shows and programs our new "Studio 307" produces!
So that's about it. I think the Physical Facilities Department and contractors did an outstanding job on finishing everything on time (just barely). They haven't yet released what they're planning to work on next summer. I personally hope they choose a bigger Student Activities office, but that's just me. What about you? What improvements would you recommend for next year? What do you think about the latest upgrades?
Yes, that was the line for the bookstore for most of the day.
It does feel great to have the campus feel alive again, after a quiet summer.
Campus Activities Committee (CAC) has been handing out donuts and popsicles all day, as a welcome gesture. We've also been hosting a "Harrier Help Desk" out by the Mosler-Rentschler Patio, to answer questions from new students who are lost or don't know where to go for something. That goes Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 am to 7:30 pm during the first week of class.
We've got some fun stuff planned for Welcome Week - here is the rundown!
I'm especially excited for the Kickball Game on Thursday. Last year, the faculty & staff actually beat the students for the first time in a while. I'm anticipating another big win!
This week we have a "Guest Posting," written by Jeff Gambrell, a third year Miami Hamilton student. Jeff is the President of Student Government Association and Students for Life, and is the Treasurer of the Environmentally Conscious Organization, ECO. Here is his recollection of his recent service trip to Haiti.
It was sort of abrupt and unanticipated how it all happened.
Less than two weeks prior to the trip I’ll never forget, the opportunity was extended to me to join a group of inspirational men and women on a journey to serve the poorest of poor. The destination was Haiti, a developing nation south of the United States that has suffered through a history of enslavement and political turmoil. An earthquake in January 2010 further devastated the nation and left thousands of its people displaced. The earthquake also led to an international movement bringing missionary groups from all over the world in response to their cries for help.
One of those missionary groups was the team I was a part of through Caring Partners International. The experience I partook in this past July marked the second summer in a row that I had the opportunity to humbly serve others while also growing spiritually.
Miami University Hamilton’s Rotaract club, a community service organization and the club I represented, teamed up with the Rotary club of Fairfield and Princeton Pike Church of God to sponsor a medical missionary trip through Caring Partners International. Stationed in Franklin, Ohio, Caring Partners International is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free medical clinics in poor, developing nations around the world. It was no coincidence that all these organizations came together as one unit in an effort to save a deprived people, I think it was destiny.
I was approached just a week and a half prior to departure and invited to participate in this trip. Another student had been planning to go but had to withdraw at the last minute. Having been to Haiti last summer, I jumped at the chance to go again. Things quickly fell into place and we hopped on a plane on Saturday, July 23.
During the week of July 23-30, we resided at an orphanage located in Pierre Payen, Haiti (two hours north of Port-au-Prince). It was here that we witnessed and bonded through service. Day after day, we woke up bright and early, eager to serve the Haitian people. Hiking miles up mountains or simply driving to the city, we came equipped with over $100,000 worth of medical supplies and an endless supply of determination to accomplish the mission we were sent there to do.
On one of our medical missionary expeditions, we hopped in the back of the tap-tap truck (a truck with covered back) and proceeded north onto the main route that connects Port-au-Prince with the rest of the nation. Our destination was a small village set on top of a soaring mountain covered with luscious green vegetation, including the native plantain trees. About halfway up the mountain, however, we found ourselves in a heaping mound of trouble as we turned a corner and proceeded towards a narrow path of deep, viscous mud. It didn’t take long until we found ourselves unable to move, as a few people on our team hopped out to assist by asserting force against our wedged vehicle. Soon, Haitian men started to appear left and right out of the seemingly isolated fields with their tools in hand, rushing to our assistance.
After working with the Haitians for over a half hour by manipulating the mud and setting down dead plantain leaves in the path to provide better traction, we had only advanced about fifty meters.
Finally it became apparent that we weren’t going to make it in the vehicle. Rick, the man who runs Destiny Village, instructed everyone to disperse from the truck as the new game plan was for everyone to walk the two mile trek up the steep, rocky mountain with our sixteen 50-pound duffle bags full of medical supplies and gifts. The sun was a scorching 95 degrees and the path ahead had many bumps and potholes, yet not one person from our group complained. This was the experience we signed up for, the life of a missionary.
It's amazing that such a beautiful country has such deep-seeded poverty issues.
At the end of the eventful week, we treated just fewer than 1,200 patients and nourished many others both physically and spiritually. Together, we brought hope and love to everyone we encountered…it was a trip I’ll never forget.
Some of you have probably been to the Office of Student Activities in Schwarm. You've perhaps seen it on a rare good day when everything is looking clean and uncluttered (unlikely, but possible on rare occasions). Or perhaps you've seen it on one of it's messiest and craziest just-finished-with-Fall Fest-or-Casino Night-or-another-humongous-program days. Like this:
After Fall Fest in 2010
But for those of you who don't get to see it all that often, I thought I'd take you on a tour of a "typical summer day" in the Office of Student Activities and Orientation. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did straighten up a little bit pre-pictures, but it wasn't a full blown scrub-down or anything.
You saw a picture of Schwarm Commons last week in this post, and the Office of Student Activities (or OSA, for short), is right off the commons. Right smack in the middle of the action. From the commons, you see this view:
The right door is always open as long as we're in the office and not in a meeting, just as pictured. Usually we have about 10 flyers on the left hand door describing upcoming events. It's a great spot for students to stop and see what programs are coming up.
If you walk in and look to the right, you see Tammy Lane's desk area. Tammy is the Program Associate for the Office and works half-time here and half-time in the Gym with the Athletic Department. Here is view of her area:
Notice the amazing tie-dyed Relay for Life sign. I was so proud of the students who worked on this banner (Lauren, Shayna & Leah). They really went all out, hand cutting each of those letters and silhouette people out of black fabric! Those yellow boxes are packs of 100 popsicles each (for our popsicle breaks during Orientation. We have three more boxes in addition to these as well! Hmmm... you might be seeing a "Free Popsicle" event in the first few weeks of school this year....
Here is the other angle of Tammy's area:
That copier is fairly new - we've had it for about a year. And it is about 10 bazillion times better than our last copier, which was literally from 1991, worked only sporadically, and spewed out shoddy black and white copies. I'm pretty sure it was worse than the copier from Office Space, and it was about one error message shy of meeting it's fate the same way:
I also love the bulletin boards in the office, decorated by Emily and Leah, my student workers last year. If you turn around to the left side of the office, this is your view:
We have one workstation for student workers or student organization officers. Our little fridge and microwave get a ton of action, especially during the school year and the Commons' microwave is broken! You can kind of make out the stacks of paper on the desk going from the microwave to the back wall - that is symbolic of summertime in the office, and it's all the "stuff" that we put in the folders at Orientation.
Here is a closeup of the games on top of the overhead shelves:
We have a great game-rental system, where students can just bring us their Miami Student ID card and we hang on to it while they borrow the game (for free). When the game is returned to us, we return the ID card to the student.
On the other side of the wall is my personal office (and a bookshelf for storage):
You can't always see the top of the desk. I usually have about 10 different project I'm working on at the same time, so it's very difficult to keep everything tidy!
So. Now you know where the magic happens. It's a small office for the amount of traffic we see coming in and out everyday and for the amount of "stuff" we do, but it's been good to us so far. I'll be sure to do this again in the throes of fall semester, because it's actually quite calm in the office over the summer and such is not the case during the school year. And we're always changing things up, too!
Look for a post soon from Jeff Gambrell about his recent service trip to Haiti! He promises lots of stories and pictures.
