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'Potty Press' to grace restrooms
The Advocate
When MHCC’s Associated Student Government introduces its “Call to Nature” program this week, their new marketing technique will hold a captive audience.
The “potty press,” as it has been nicknamed by ASG officials, will be a biweekly publication presented in calendar form on the inside of restroom stalls throughout MHCC.
The MHCC President’s Cabinet approved the signs April 6 to be placed in the three most used men’s and women’s restrooms: near the cafeteria, the library and the bookstore. If the program works to the cabinet’s approval, it will be continued and extended to all campus bathrooms next year.
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ASG Director of Communications James Dezellem said the idea came from an Oregon Community College Student Association retreat. At these retreats, student governments from around the state get together and share ideas. The bathroom calendar program is similar to one used at Portland Community College.
Graphic design student Melissa Andrews developed the template for the calendars. “She does a great job and she worked really hard to put it together,” said Dezellem.
The main goal of the program is to have a place for events to be publicized where everyone can see it.
The calendar will be created by the communications cabinet of ASG. The cabinet will decide which events make the calendar and will distribute them, but events are not limited to what student government is doing. Dezellem hopes the college staff uses this. “We want a wide range of events where we can choose the best events that will impact students,” he said.
To seek out school-wide events, the ASG cabinet sent out an all-staff e-mail. “We’re hoping that they will be sending us information that we can just take as much as we can from it and put it out. There’s obviously space restrictions.”
Space is limited. Dezellum says there may be times when five events happen on one day and they may only have space for two. “We’re going to do our best to accommodate everything we can,” he said.
ASG President Bradley Best explained the scale of events that happen on campus. Best said he asks Diane Rosenthall, who does all the room assignments for events on campus, for a printout of the monthly events and it’s about seven pages long in small print.
Best said there would be discretion to prioritize what the cabinet thinks are bigger events. “If we have a full boat or not enough items, I don’t think we’re ever going to hold anybody out or keep them away from gaining recognition by any means,” Best said.
Dezellum wants to bring the whole staff together with this program. He said he wants input from staff, student, ASG and clubs. “Lots of things right now slip through the cracks,” he said.
In early discussions, vandalism came up as a threat to the project. Best said they brought up the vandalism in talks with other community colleges and he was comfortable that it would not be a problem.
Best praised the plan and Dezellum’s work as director of communications. He said that the penetration rate to reach the student body in previous years was around the 10 percent mark and that with Dezellum as director he’s possibly doubled or tripled that mark.
According to Best and Dezellum, the MHCC student activities Facebook page started the year at 125 students and is now over 1,300 students. The Facebook group sends a weekly e-mail as another means to find out what is going on.
Dezellum hopes the Call to Nature will chip away at the challenge of getting students involved in anything they’re interested in. Dezellum said he doesn’t want students just going to class and thinking, “It’s a lame school because I didn’t get involved.”
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