Meetings!

On Tuesdays morning I was sitting doing some work on my computer for my internship when I got an e-mail from Ms. Young. The e-mail was asking me if I can come to the school before noon because the Berkeley President Dr. Dario Cortes wants to meet with me! I got very excited because not many people get this kind of opportunity at their college or university. I got ready really fast since it was already 10:40 and I left.

When I got to the school I went to Ms. Young’s office to ask her where I have to go and she told me to go to the corporate offices. I spoke to Dr. Cortes’s secretary and I waited about 5 minutes before going in. When I went in the office I was greeted with a very friendly atmosphere and a very welcoming handshake. I sat down in his office and we chatted for about 15 minutes.

He wanted to invite me to his office to let me know that he has an open door policy for students. He may be a busy man but he feels that students are very important and he wants to make himself available for them. I remembered back when I was part of the interviewing process for the new president one of my concerns and number one questions was “How would you make yourself available to students?” Dr. Cortes answered that he feels this is very important and he would try his best to have an open door policy. I am very happy to see that he kept his word to the students. I invited Dr. Cortes to our SGA meeting next Tuesday and he was very willing to come and sit in. This will be very exciting!

Another thing that I have been working on is planning for a video conference on August 20th with different members of Berkeley staff to discuss student issues around the NJ and NY campuses. Back around May I had the Strategic Planning meeting where we talked about some of those issues already which prepared me well for this meeting. I added some things to the list and I hope the meeting goes well. Yesterday we have decided that not only should the Presidents be allowed in this meeting but other SGA members that are interested in sitting in as well. Should be a great experience!