News from SEAHO 2014 Conference:  At the 50^th anniversary conference of the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers (SEAHO), held in February in Louisville, Ky., Stetson University was well represented by attendees Ben Falter, executive director of Stetson’s Department of Housing and Residential Life, Monica Saldarriaga, coordinator for residential programs, and Colin MacFarlane, assistant director for housing operations. Falter’s presentation, “Creating Mid-Level Positions with Limited Resources,” was part of the conference attended by 686 SEAHO members representing 155 institutions from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and two schools from outside the SEAHO region.

For the second year in a row MacFarlane, pictured left with his two awards, received an award from the SEAHO organization. In 2013 he received the Best Conference Presentation. This year McFarlane was presented the SEAHO Service Award recognizing his contributions to Stetson and to the profession.

“We are excited to share this good news with the Stetson community,” said Falter. “We’ve been able to provide some great updates within our Housing and Residential Life staff on emergency management, relationships with Facilities Management, Residential Curriculum and more.”

Current/Former Student Staff Updates: In other HRL news, Residential Advisor (RA) Keighla Burns accepted an internship with Kansas State University for the summer working with their Residence Life Department. Currently she was accepted to the University of South Carolina’s higher education program with one assistantship offer, while awaiting other offers. After RA Kiara John interviewed with two graduate schools for their programs in psychology, she has been accepted at University of Indiana in the doctoral program for psychology. Former RA Paul Carey was accepted into the University of South Florida, and offered a graduate assistantship in the College of Medicine Admissions.

RA Programming Spotlight: RAs Lacey Heath and Shay Vasquez headed up an Emotional Wellness program in which they brought flowers, cards and chocolates and distributed them to every room in Carson-Hollis, Gordis, and Smith halls to show all the students in that area that someone cares about them. By the end of the day, they had made contact with over 120 Stetson students.

Summer ACUHO-I (Association of College and University Housing Officers – International) Interns: For the second summer in a row we will be hosting two ACUHO-I interns in HRL. Meredith Gasaway from Western Caroline University will be the Summer Graduate Assistant/Intern for Housing and Residential Life, specific to Residential Life. Katherine O’Keefe from Old Dominion University will be the Summer Graduate Assistant/Intern for Housing and Residential Life, specific to Housing Operations.