LV Life

Students to test drive new program

Commuters form more than half of ULV's student population. Kelly Mitchell, Shellie Etheridge and Tricia Garcia, are on the job to make ULV feel just as comfortable and familiar as home to commuters and campus residents alike. / photo by Jason Cooper
Commuters form more than half of ULV’s student population. Kelly Mitchell, Shellie Etheridge and Tricia Garcia, are on the job to make ULV feel just as comfortable and familiar as home to commuters and campus residents alike. / photo by Jason Cooper

by Angelique B. D’Silva
Staff Writer

Michael Houdyshell, coordinator of campus activities and commuter programs, has reinvented and made innovative changes to change the Student Program Assistants (SPAs) positions to Commuter Program Assistants (CPAs). It is a program with the objective of getting commuter students to interact with the University of La Verne.

The organization was brought to ULV in the fall of 1999. Unfortunately, the SPAs were stagnant in their advancement of providing opportunities to commuters by welcoming and interacting with the school.

“When I started last fall, I had only been here two or three months. I had so much other stuff going on like Orientation to plan for. I didn’t have a plan either, and wasn’t prepared. I kind of knew what I wanted to do, but I really hadn’t thought it out,” said Houdyshell.

Now, SPAs have gone under construction and been renamed CPAs. According to Houdyshell the program will have, “five commuter students who will work with me, putting on programs for commuter students; either separately as our group, or in conjunction with another group, say, ASF.”

The new CPAs are seniors Shellie Etheridge, Kelly Mitchell, junior Trisha Garcia and sophomore Cintia Rivera. These positions are provided through federal work study and LEAD scholarships.

Mitchell, someone who has experience living on campus and now as a commuter, said she believes there is a difference between those who live here and those who do not. As a CPA Mitchell believes she will be able “to bring new ideas.”

These five CPAs will come together every Wednesday from 2-3 p.m. and brainstorm ideas to benefit the commuter students.

Not only will Houdyshell have the CPAs to prepare plans, but he has comprised a Commuter Advisory Board (CAB). The board will meet as needed or once a month. Houdyshell sought out this group on Wednesday, Aug. 30 at the Commuter Dinner.

These three individuals, according to Houdyshell, will be the ones spearheading the organization – Kaylyn Ince, Erik Gomeztrejo and Gary Watson.

Etheridge says that the CAB, “will work at all the issues on campus, programming, parking, the new structure, everything that happens on campus and how that effects commuters.”

She also said that with the first event being Homecoming the CAB will use the following questions to evaluate their performance: “Did we get enough advertisement? Did we find out about it? How did we find out about it? What worked the best?”

The CPAs and the CAB are attempting to deal with the problem of advertising and publicizing themselves. Commuter students, Houdyshell said, do not get involved because they are unaware of the events and activities.

The first event will be a barbecue commencing the program for Homecoming Week and Spirit Week. Houdyshell believes it will give the commuters an opportunity to meet other commuters, and maybe make friends who could accompany them to the different activities throughout the week.

Garcia is convinced that for the program to go well, the organization needs to “market the program better to get more of an interaction with students on campus.”

Angelique B. D'Silva, Arts Editor
Angelique B. D'Silva
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Jason Cooper, Staff Photographer
Jason Cooper
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