Former AC employees work to improve Consortium

Are you tired of doing the same old thing every night? Are you interested in meeting new people and seeing what the city of Worcester has to offer? Would you like to attend concerts, cultural programs, or sporting events with other Worcester college students? Would you like to find a job and stay in the Worcester area after graduation? With the work of the Worcester Consortium, such opportunities may soon be available to all students of the Worcester colleges.
"Our role at the Consortium is to enhance the individual missions of our 13 college and university members and advance higher education in the region," said Mark Bilotta, CEO of the Worcester Consortium. "At the same time, we're in tune with the challenges that face our region in areas that we can impact."
Since he began his work with the Consortium, Bilotta, former executive assistant to the president at Assumption, has worked toward his goal of bringing students of the 13 area colleges together for events and programs. One area that he is particularly concerned with is job opportunities for students. In order to ensure "a strong and well prepared workforce for Central Massachusetts," the Consortium is developing a plan to recruit and retain students in the Greater Worcester area.
The Worcester Regional Research Bureau recently did a study about retention of area college graduates and found that "the more engaged students were in the Worcester community, the more apt they were to stay after graduation," Bilotta said. Therefore, the Consortium is working on two initiatives to raise retention rates: an online internship database and the development of intercollegiate social programming in Worcester.
Karen Manson, director of student affairs for the Worcester Consortium, is working with Bilotta to create events for students. They plan on "bringing the colleges together and with the community as well," said Manson, who formerly worked in the student activities office at Assumption. Manson explained that two groups created through the Consortium are meeting this semester to further their social programming plans. Assumption student Diane Comstock is a Junior Management major and assistant chairperson of the campus activities board who is currently working with Bilotta and Manson as the Worcester Consortium's intern for student affairs. She works closely with both of the Consortium committees.
"Our goal is to create a college town atmosphere in the city; to make it a place that students want to come not only for the schools, but for the entertainment and social life that is offered," Comstock said. "It will benefit students by enabling interaction between students from all different schools as well as giving them a chance to really get out into Worcester and take advantage of some of the benefits of living in a city."
The first group, Worcester Intercollegiate Government (WIG), is about a year old and is made up of the student government presidents from each Consortium college. The group is able to share their experiences and is currently working on piloting a night and weekend shuttle to run from participating campuses to downtown areas. The shuttle would run Thursday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.; this idea is still in the planning stages.
The second group, the Worcester Consortium Event Planning Committee (WCEPC), is a new committee that involves the programming board from each campus (i.e. CAB). Their goal is to do two large events a year drawing in approximately 5,000 students each or one smaller even per month to bring in about 500 students each. The group does not have a budget, so they will be relying on working together to raise and provide the money for these events.
Comstock plays a major role in this committee in particular.
"The work that I do for WCEPC involves finding representatives from each student programming board in the Consortium who are interested in creating a cohesive schedule of large-scale events available on campuses as well as within the city of Worcester, and making these events known to students," Comstock said.
The group's ideas include a block party with college bands and an art festival called Start on the Streets. The group is also working to put together plans for Pulsefest 2007 and is looking into getting wireless capabilities for the Consortium shuttle. And while students can now get eight dollar discounted tickets to Worcester Sharks home games on Friday nights, the committee is proposing to open this offer up for both Friday and Saturday nights, possibly with a free skate option beforehand and ideally using the Sharks as a sponsor to provide this deal. There is also the potential to start a "Culture Pass" program for students by working with the 44 cultural organizations in Worcester. The development of a student discount card is being looked into so students may have cheaper access to such organizations as Foothills Theater or the Worcester Art Museum.
Meanwhile, the Worcester Consortium has already organized a Consortium-wide Career Fair on Thursday, March 29th. The fair will be held at the Worcester Hotel and Conference Center, and Manson is excited that over 60 employers have already registered to participate in the event. Other upcoming events can be found on www.socialweb.net.
Manson hopes that these programs will give students of the Consortium a chance to share their experiences. "They wouldn't have the same opportunity on their campus," she said. "Hopefully, students from all Worcester colleges will be able to take advantage of these opportunities to get together with other Consortium students."
"Each college in Worcester truly has a unique character, something that makes it different from any other school in Worcester," Comstock said. "The diversity in the Consortium is a truly unique aspect of the city, something which the WCEPC could definitely help students to experience in the near future.