Crimson and Gold Connection; Eva Sager

Hello, and thanks for joining us for Crimson and Gold Connection. I'm Kelsey Rinfro. Today, our guest is Eva Sager. Eva is the new assistant director for Campus Activities at Pittsburgh State University. Thanks for joining us, Eva. What is your job title and what is that kind of entail? So, I'm the assistant director for Campus Activities, and really what that means is that I kind of get to work with a little bit of every aspect of Campus Activities. We have three program coordinators, J.T. Canole, Megan Smeger, and Mary Mercer, who all work with different aspects of Campus Life. And I get the opportunity to work with them on a daily basis, as well as I get to work directly with student government association and leadership projects like the Presidential Emerging Leaders Program, Global Leadership Institute, and Leadership and Awards Banquet. Did you always know this was something you wanted to do, or did it just kind of happen that way? Really, I have been in Campus Activities for a while. I was active with Student Activities Council when I was an undergrad, and then had the opportunity to come back and work for a few years

as a program coordinator working with Student Activities Council and the Homecoming Committee. And the opportunity came along to you at Viance, and it was just one of those things I couldn't pass up. The responsibilities of being a assistant director, you get a little bit more control on making some decision-making with some of the programs that we have. And I really think that there are some things that we could infuse with a little bit more energy and hopefully kind of restore back to some more notoriety. Presidential Emerging Leaders Program, as well known, I think on our campus, as it used to be a few years ago, so that's really one of the projects I'd like to see. Have more recognition and hopefully develop our students a little bit better and meet their needs the way they want it to. Tell us a little bit about the steps that are taken to plan an activity or program on campus. So really it kind of depends on what aspect you're coming from for student organizations in order for them to program an event. They first have to be registered and recognized by the university as a group, but then they can contact the scheduling office

depending on where they want to book an event. The student center and grounds kind of fall in one area and then athletics and the rec center have some different spaces that they have control over and then the registrar's office actually controls all the classroom spaces. So kind of working with those different offices to see what space is available. There's also a number of agencies you can work with to get talent in as well as working with people in the Pittsburgh community because we have a lot of people that are either bands or speakers that we can tap into that are right here at home. What would you say is the biggest challenge in your job? I think keeping track of everybody gets a little daunting, particularly this first semester in the position. Fall is always really crazy, it seems like for us because we start off before school even is going with events going on. Megan's working with sorority recruitment before classes start and then we're working with fraternal leadership summit and off to PSU the first couple of weeks of school and it just keeps going nonstop. It seems like until homecoming.

So kind of making sure that everybody is where they're supposed to be and that you have all the important dates and meetings written down can sometimes overlap and so figuring out how to be in two places at one time is a really good skill. I haven't really mastered it but I hear it can be done. So far what's your favorite part about your job? I really have the opportunity to see a different mix of students now than I previously had and so that's really exciting. Why do you think it's important to have these various activities scheduled on campus? We know that getting an academic degree is the number one reason for students to be at Pitt State and we support that whole heartedly but going out and competing in the job force really means being able to mark yourself well and have a well-rounded set of skills. So being active in student organizations really helps build those talents before you go out and try and get a job and offering a different set of programming allows students to be exposed to different areas whether it's music or art or different culture

and it also helps attract them into those student organizations so they can develop those skills. So we really want to try and reach every student and if we did the same programming all the time around an inconsistent basis we wouldn't reach the same the same number that we're capable of reaching with a more diverse set of programming. Do you get a lot of feedback from students and if so does that help plan what kind of activities you'll have in the future? Well it really kind of depends student activities council which falls under our new program coordinator Mary Mercer gets a lot of feedback I think from students that join the organization or who will email them or Facebook them and say hey we really liked grocery bingo which has become kind of an annual event because we know that students really like that. We also know that like they may not have liked a specific band or specific comedian or you know the film festival went really good last year and didn't go so good this year and how can we change those things?

Once you have an event scheduled how do you go about getting the word out about that event and advertising? Kind of depends on who's running the event if it's performing arts and lecture series or quizble which are things that are coming directly out of our office you'll typically see things like bulkeys, posters, Facebook messages, Twitter or working on building our social media a little bit more digital slides and the dining hall and the student center. If you're talking about things that are more run by a student committee like student government or the homecoming committee you're still going to see the social media piece and the posters and the digital slides but you're also going to see sidewalk chalk, handouts, flyers, mailbox stuff or so those kind of things. If you're talking about a programming group like student activities council you're also going to see some things that they call out of the box which might be hay bales on the oval to advertise online dance. What would your advice be to students who have never attended a campus event or maybe on the fence about ever going to one?

What would you say to them? Well it should always be aware of which groups are offering free food because that's a great way to score a good meal and really if you're not opening that yourself up to any experiences you're missing on a huge part of pit state and kind of the last kicker on it is is that if you paid student fee dollars to come to pit state at some point you're probably putting funding in to some of the programming that's going on on campus so you might as well take advantage of what you're already funding. There's obviously a lot of different benefits for students who attend these type of activities. Can you tell us what those benefits are? I really think that our goal here at pit state is to make sure that students are making a connection with people outside of the classroom. Research really shows that if you are active in a student organization you're typically going to get better grades you're more likely to graduate on time. You're getting real-world experiences that are building up your resume and are going to help you in interview situations

even if you're only doing things like being part of an organization that's small and you end up being their homecoming king or queen king at it. You get the opportunity to go through multiple interview situations which really homes your communication skills. So you shouldn't just stay at home with your friends and play board games every night when you're not doing homework. Really get out there and meet a new group of people. You never know when that next scene shake or that next cheesy name game is going to introduce you to the person that helps you with a scholarship that helps you get a job helps you find your next roommate or helps you find the person you spend the rest of your life with. Our guest today has been Eva Sager. Eva is the new assistant director for Campus Activities at Pittsburgh State University.