The student body government planned out its advertising strategy to get students enthused for the first ever student housing fair at their meeting Monday night.
The Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee will be hosting a student housing fair Nov. 16 in the Memorial Union’s Great Hall.
Legislative Affair Committee Chair Sam Polstein said he wants to create excitement surrounding the event so students will be more likely to attend.
“We want to create a buzz surrounding this event, it’s the first annual housing fair and we want this to be a student event every year,” Polstein said.
Polstein said one suggestion he heard was to hand out a bunch of old keys to students before the event and have one of the keys open a lock box at the fair that would contain a prize like an iPod.
Representative Samuel Seering suggested they hand out the keys on Bascom Hill and attach a string and piece of paper advertising the fair and telling students their key might win a prize.
Representative Tim Schaefer said the committee should target house fellows in the dorms and ask them to pass the information on to the freshmen on their floor.
Schaefer added he thought the only way to get older students to come is to offer up free T-shirts or food.
Committee Secretary Elle Pennings said the committee should have people sitting out on library mall the day of the fair on furniture saying they do not know where they are going to live next year and have the people direct students to the housing fair.
The Committee also continued to hammer out the details of their proposal to have a medical amnesty policy put into place to protect students who call for help when their friends need medical assistance after consuming too much alcohol.
Committee Intern Hannah Somers said she and Polstein met with Johnnie Diamante, University of Wisconsin Police Department captain of field services, to discuss the medical amnesty plan.
Somers said Diamante told them it is already of the practice of UWPD to not issue citations to friends who call for help and he wanted the policy to be used as a prevention tool.
However, Polstein said Diamante did not want anyone who was acting irresponsibly to get off the hook.
The policy the committee wants put in place would allow the student who calls for help for their friend to be safe from receiving a ticket as long as they are not belligerent and comply with the police who respond, Polstein said.
Right now, Polstein said, the biggest question would be what would happen if a large group of people or a party called for help. Polstein said they are unsure if the party would be busted by the police responding to the call.
Representative Zach Ivins said the police could use their discretion when they arrive at a party.
“If it’s a party that’s not entirely out of control and that they wouldn’t bust normally it would be fine, and if it is something they would bust then they can go and do that,” Ivins said.
