2/21/07

Good evening all. On Thursday, CDAC will meet to continue our discussion on the formation of a minority student survey. We’re still currently formulating the survey and figuring out how we will reach our chosen demographic, and will be meeting on Thursday to work out the details. Hopefully, we will be able to get this survey out in the near future.

On February 27^th, at 8 p.m. in Baker 226, there will be a focus group for out-of-state students taking place. We’re hoping to cover multiple issues ranging from the lack of adequate transportation to and from airports to how to better acclimate out-of-state students to life in Athens, Ohio. If you are an out-of-state student or know of anyone who might be interested in partaking, please contact me and I’d be happy to send out an invite to the event.

Other than that, the rest of my week has been spent researching how other colleges and universities deal with housing for students with disabilities. Commissioner Diehl, Senator Sayward and I are hoping to compile a list of recommendations that we will submit to housing addressing how they could better accommodate students with disabilities.

Finally, there are two resolutions up tonight, one encouraging the university to follow our recommendations from the diversity and retention forum. The other, encouraging the adoption of naming the new dorm on campus after a prominent African American from Athens. I encourage you all to support these resolutions. I hope everyone’s week is going well!

Tristan Walker

2/14/07

Good evening all. On Thursday, CDAC met to discuss the formation of a minority student survey. We’re still currently formulating the survey and figuring out how we will reach our chosen demographic, but hopefully we will have it out in the near future. On

February 27^th th 8 p.m. in Baker 226, there will be a focus group for out-of-state students taking place. We’re hoping to cover a multiple issues ranging from the lack of adequate transportation to and from airports to how to better acclimate out-of-state students to life in Athens, Ohio. If you are an out-of-state student or know of anyone who might be interested in partaking, please contact me and I’d be happy to send out an invite to the event.

Other than that, the rest of my week has been spent researching how other colleges and universities deal with housing for students with disabilities. Commissioner Diehl, Senator Sayward and I are hoping to compile a list of recommendations that we will submit to housing addressing how they could better accommodate students with disabilities. I hope everyone’s week is going well!

Tristan Walker

2/7/07

Good evening all! This week has been rather slow for my commission. I’ve been continuing to look into information pertaining to out of state of students and ways we can improve their lives on campus. Tomorrow, I will be meeting with the members of CDAC to work on our survey for minority students. Hopefully, we will be able to complete this soon and work on sending it out for the end of the year. I’m also hoping to meet with someone from the post later this week to discuss issues pertaining to students with disabilities and housing. Other than that, I hope everyone’s week is going well.

Tristan Walker

1/31/07

Good evening all! This week, I’ve been looking into contacting out-of-state students in an effort to see ways we can improve life for them on campus. Concern was expressed that OU makes an effort to attract out-of-state students however, once they’re here, they often feel isolated. During or diversity forum, there was also talk about possibly forming a group for out-of-state students, so I’m attempting to contact members of the forum to see if they’d still be interested in pursing that. On Friday, I attended Commissioner Robbins Take Back The Night Meeting. I’d like to commend her for all the work she’s done thus far and I’m really looking forward to helping her in any way I can. Other than that, I attended the University’s Town Hall meeting, which was interesting to say the least, and I’ve been meeting with my awesome intern Jamie, who’s covering for me tonight. I hope you all have a good week.

Tristan Walker