Most first-year students are far from first seed in landing leadership positions within campus organizations.

But a new Student Association program, OrangeSeeds, will teach incoming first-year students leadership skills within the university environment and help them become actively involved in campus life.

SA Vice President Travis Mason presented a full report to the assembly last night on the SA-governed program. Beginning next fall, 44 incoming first-year students will be selected through a blind application process, and through six bi-monthly meetings, retreats, planning of a large service project and office hours, the students will learn how to be most effective in leadership positions at SU, Mason said.

Once they graduate the program, they will be placed into leadership positions within various campus organizations.

Students who are not selected for the program, though, will still be able to become involved in campus leadership positions, as SA plans to set up a sort of freshmen council to integrate both OrangeSeeds and other students, Mason said.

‘It’s not going to be that if you’re not in OrangeSeeds, you’re not going to be a leader,’ Mason said. ‘We’re going to try to educate everybody.’

In other SA news:

n The SA Traditions Committee will be in the Schine Student Center today handing out free T-shirts and reminding students to wear orange, and the committee will help to hand out awards and distribute free cake Wednesday.

Members learned their responsibilities for spreading the word about National Orange Day Wednesday, including handing out ‘Orange Rewards’ to students wearing orange to increase their chances of winning SU prizes.

n More than 300 students rode the SA-sponsored shuttles from the Hancock International Airport and the Regional Transportation Center to campus the second weekend of Spring Break, said assemblyman Michael Miller. The numbers may have been higher if cab drivers had not tried to move people away from the shuttle waiting areas.

The success of the Spring Break shuttle bodes well for SA members who are working with the Centro bus company to establish a shuttle to either Wegmans, Wal-Mart or Shoppingtown Mall that would run twice a weekend, Mason said.

n The structure of SA may be changing after recommendations from a re-organization report expected to be completed next month, said Parliamentarian David Panetta.

The re-organization will include three main actions, including the re-allocation of assembly seats from the various colleges, the assignment of assembly members into random committees, and an invigoration of the SA’s Student Organization Council, in which a member of each registered student organization has a seat.

‘It’s a time for organizations to get together and talk about cosponsoring events, and network,’ Mason said.

Published on March 22, 2004 at 12:00 pm