An Affair to Remember

Hello and welcome to the Hump. It is going to be an exciting year! This year’s PASA (Public Affairs Student Association) has sponsored some great events and we are very enthusiastic about this upcoming year. PASA is the only student organization at the Humphrey. We host social events, organize lectures, and in general make the Hump a lot more fun. Last semester we organized an institute wide field trip to the Race Exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum, a staff and faculty appreciation day, an Earth Day Clean up, the annual spring banquet, weekly happy hours, finals week food, and an International Fellows speaker series. Plus we were organizing in the local Cedar-Riverside Community, evaluating the Humphrey Curriculum, and raising issues of diversity and how it affects the Humphrey community.

This upcoming semester we are going to kick the year off with a bang! During the first week of school keep your eyes open for an Ice Cream Sundae study break and the first annual kickball tournament and BBQ. Please bring your best kicking leg! In addition, throughout the semester you can still expect weekly happy hour type events, a field trip to somewhere really cool and exciting, diversity week, summer internship photo fair, and lots of other events yet to be disclosed.

So, how can you get involved? Well there are standing committees that everyone is welcome to join. There is CHANCE, which does work in the local community. The Diversity Committee, which examines the issue of diversity and power dynamic within the institute. The Curriculum Committee has been working on surveying students and working with the faculty to improve the curriculum. And of course we encourage you to bring your own ideas to the table and let us know what you would like to do. There are also some small grants available if there is something you would like to organize.

The Humphrey Community is really important to the year’s PASA and we have been working very hard to bring the institute together. If you would like to get involved in any of the committees above or have any great ideas, please feel free to contact me or the other PASA officers. Have a kickin’ summer and PASA cannot wait to meet you!

Sincerely,

Renee Maas
PASA President