Committee Name: University Life

Committee Name: University Life Chair: Nathaniel Pittman Vice Chair: Leila Raminpour Mins: Heidi Ouf Date: February 16, 2016

Name: Attendance Resolution/Bill Resolution/Bill

Nathaniel Pittman © EA

Chelsea Loane P

Kenya Moore A

Ben Olsen P

Heidi Ouf P

Leila Raminpour P

Iman Rehmatulah P

Jalen Stubblefield P

VOTE 6/ 8

In Attendance: Sesinos Zarbabiel, Dylan Davis, Aish Iyer, Gaby Peda

Meeting Commenced: 6:02 pm

Raminpour: Nathan’s report – reached out to auxiliary enterprises and waiting for a response. Start thinking about ideas for destress fest

Raminpour: will walk about homecoming and Mason Day (Friday April 22nd). One event from week of action will be mandatory for everyone.

Peda: not much since homecoming. Mason Day and Destress fest – we want to think big then narrow down if we need to.

Zarbabiel: No report Davis: Homecoming was awesome – there are 3 Game of the Week – Men’s Basketball on Wednesday - Celebrate Technology game – if you’re looking for a job in the technology field be there before the men’s game. Wrestling on Thursday at 7. Women’s basketball game is on Saturday at 2.

Iyer: Week of action is March 27th – April 2nd. Working with Mason PD to have a self-defense demonstration. Want to have a silent event – more of a shock value event so we need a lot of volunteers for that – either in the JC or North Plaza. Planning on showing the video campaign in the JC atrium, probably around noon. Met with Chief Longo for the biweekly meeting – talked about the rise in online dating violence and about ways for SG to get involved in reducing that.

Raminpour: light conversation about athletic participation.

Davis: there was a good crowd. There was a lot more activity and participation. A lot of people left during halftime.

Ellison: I echo that – record turnout for the semester. It would be nice to see this consistently, not just for basketball but for all the other sports

Raminpour: do we have any ideas?

Davis: for people who don’t go to that many games, what gets you to the games?

Stubblefield: The people on the top don’t really cheer which doesn’t make it a peppy environment

Davis: There’s a new student section near the green machine

Peda: At my HS, all students attended games and wore school spirit tshirts. We don’t really have that here. Not as much unity.

Stubblefield: What about sections where there aren’t seats?

Davis: I was thinking about that – more of a third party thing, but it could be something to look into. Will look into in and contact Andrew to ask about

Zarbabiel: We also need to look into changing policies, like the tailgate, to encourage people to attend. Maybe more giveaways

Peda: Giveaways won’t really cut it anymore

Ellison: echo Peda: we’re thinking too large scale – can we think about targeting specific groups, etc?

Davis: we need to increase the amount of green and gold we see around campus. There were people at the homecoming game wearing other school colors

Iyer: there are low cost things we can do to increase green and gold around campus. Maybe we can do spirit violation type of things and reward people for wearing green and gold around campus during the week

Raminpour: People transfer to mason after 2 years which can contribute to people not wearing mason colors around.

Ellison: We can’t really get people to baseball games, for example, for because they’re at 3 pm and that’s when people have class. If we keep it small, we can make small steps.

Stubblefield: maybe we can increase attendance by attending ourselves. To encourage our friends to go.

Davis: do you mean weekly or biweekly?

Stubblefield: it doesn’t have to be anything official, just attend as students and encourage our friends to attend

Iyer: it can even be a fun SG thing that grows into us inviting our friends to go with us.

Peda: Maybe we can talk to the bookstore about changing the spirit violations to something positive

Raminpour: The patriot pride patrol wasn’t really an SG initiative but we had an SG member that also worked with in Auxiliary Enterprise so once they left the organization that event kind of died down

Davis: Maybe we can start with the VCU game?

Stubblefield: Maybe we can make a Facebook event with the game so we can invite people to attend with us. Also, maybe we can just talk about getting the spirit violations started back up.

Iyer: The Facebook event might not work, just because not many people would share it. Also, positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement

Peda: Not a big fan of having it on Fridays, since not that many people there Stubblefield: Maybe it should be on game days. We have to acknowledge that there is apathy about the college experience for a lot of people, but we can make things better for people who are looking for that college experience. We can at least try with the Facebook event.

Olsen: Back to Gaby’s comments – maybe we could change the spirit days to Tuesdays or Thursdays. Might halp with better attendance, etc

Peda: It would have to be consistent – have that spirit day regardless. The spirit violations haven’t really worked. There already are event pages for the big games. First step will be to get SG to go.

Loane: Echoing Gaby – consistency is important, especially for logistics

Stubblefield: Maybe we can do Mason Mondays. Also, ULife can look at ways to increase baseball attendance.

Raminpour: Changing the subject to Mason Day – we’ve had tumblers for the past couple of years. To control the number, we had people liking our social media pages in order to get a free one.

Olsen: I’m a freshman, so not really sure what Mason Day is

Peda: Basically a huge carnival that happens in Lot C annually. There are games, music, food, and big performers – like Jesse McCartney, etc.

Olsen: why do want it to be bigger

Raminpour: we want SG’s role to be bigger

Peda: PAC does giveaways and asks people to follow on social media. Used as a marketing tool – SG should do the same thing. Thinking about capping it at $1000.

Loane: more to get people engaged because then they’ll see the flyers, graphics, etc that we share. As far as giveaways, it should be something practical – doesn’t necessarily have to be the tumblers, but something that people will keep using.

Gaby: echoing that – PAC got pens with highlighters, etc. one of the best giveaways we’ve given was the mug from PAC’s breakfast scramble.

Aish: WAGS has Mason jar tumblers, that might be a cool idea. Davis: I really like mug idea. Hats are a good idea too. Also could make it more inviting – set up a lounge tent and a giveaway tent.

Peda: The only thing about lounge areas at Mason Day is that there isn’t really space and people aren’t really looking to just lounge and talk – they conglomerate and only sit when they need to rest.

Raminpour: like Sara said at the Senate meeting last week – want it to be more than just a giveaway

Olsen: we want to be more than just a table with a giveaway. All the other orgs will be doing the same thing and we want to set ourselves apart. The “lounge” tent could make things more welcoming.

Iyer: I think the tent would be a good idea for a different event, because Mason Day is more of an active event – could use a more peppy version of that

Loane: maybe we could have a carnival style game and once they play the game they get the prize.

Olsen: like Chelsea’s idea about a game to reel in the students – how would prizes work for that?

Loane: logistically, it would be easier if we ordered just one or two things to save money and have the giveaway for whoever plays those games.

Raminpour: remember to go to PIA at 5pm on Tuesdays. Next week we will be thinking of destress fest idea – thinking bigger than just the snacks. Any announcements?

Loane: Remember that March 3rd at 3pm is the Tuition town hall in Dewberry

Jalen: Code bill amendments due next week

Meeting Adjourned: 6:57 pm