Here you will find maps, academic departments, student life information and articles. You know, the generic college website.

 

While much of my time was spent on campus, my home @ American University is the Kay Spiritual Life Center. The AU Hillel is housed within the Kay Spiritual Life Center, the interfaith center on campus. Inside our home, often called the flaming cupcake...(see photo @ http://www.american.edu/ocl/kay/index1.html...) there are offices and meeting places for Methodists, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Budists, Hindus...etc. Working in an interfaith space has been a wonderful experience but definitely an adjustment. Our shared spaces are always packed with meetings and events and we are constantly working around each other's holidays and services. While the space if often crowded, we always have the chance to interact with students and clergy of all different backgrounds and involve them in our programs.  I never had this opportunity as an undergrad because our Hillel (yeh, Wash U Hillel!) was separate from other religious spaces, so I am really grateful to have this chance now as a professional.

 

Anything that gets done in Kay must be run by Elvie Melegrito. She is the Kay scheduling guru and overall interfaith wonderwoman. Her phone # is (202) 885-3321.

 

Another very helpful resource is Mark Schaefer, the Methodist minister. He's a fun and energetic guy with an incredible fund of Judeo-Christian knowledge (and he's a lawyer too!) His phone # is (202) 885-3304.

 

Tracey Florence works in the Student Activities office and advises the Jewish Student Association. She is extremely helpful in reminding all of us about the bureaucratic steps that need to be taken to make sure our programs are "kosher." Her phone # is (202) 885-3392.

 

To reserve a room on campus or tables for tabling, you have to speak with Betty Sepulveda, in the Student Activities office. Her phone # is (202) 885-3327.

To reserve a room in the dorms, speak to Nakia Anthony in the Housing office. Her email is nakia@american.edu.

 

To do any programming with the Greek community, you want to speak to the Greek advisor, Danny Kelley. It takes a while to track him down so be persistant! His email is dkelley@american.edu and he phone # is (202) 885-3301.

 

Places to Table: Tabling on AU's Campus is a challenge. The Mary Graydon Center is pretty small and doesn't provide student groups a tremendous amount of space to advertise programs. In the warmer weather, tabling outside Mary Graydon on the sidewalks is great! Otherwise, you have to be creative and sometimes be a little pushy to get a table inside.

 

Places to Program: DORMS, DORMS, DORMS!!! I have found time and time again that students are lazy. They are most likely to go to programs that are close to their living space, especially the underclassmen. Programs on the southside of campus also tend to attract more students that the northside. It's good to vary locations and keep the variety going, but attendance is almost always guaranteed on the southside.

 

Students also LOVE getting off campus. Dinner outings, off-campus coffee dates, events on the National Mall all work well. The students came to Washington, DC to be a part of the city life so getting off campus for programming gives them the chance to do something Jewish and social and see the city as well.

 

Places to Publicize: Because most students at some point in their day wander through Mary Graydon, it is my first and most consistent target for publicity. I also make a point of hitting up all the other eating areas on main campus and the student lounge spaces in the classroom buildings.

 

When publicizing programs, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE quarter sheets. They're small enough to get  into someone's pocket or on a lunch table but still enough space to be creative and eye catching. The week of an event, I make sure to have a stack with me whenever I'm on campus and pass them out to students as I run into them.

 

In addition to quarter sheets, I post fliers in the dorms, classroom buildings and walkways. The campus is pretty anal about posting policies but I have found that flooding the campus is the only way to get the message across. In addition to fliers, I have posted program annoucements on Today @ AU, the university's daily email. This email reaches everyone with a university email address and is incredibly useful for getting the word out. The school's main newspaper, The Eagle, is also a good place to publicize. For ads they charge money but you can usually slip in a little blurb about an event for free.