By Michaella Lesieur, Staff Writer
The Liberal Arts building has been stepping up their student moral over the past couple months. Stu- dents may have noticed CAS dance parties on Wednesday’s, events such as Donuts with the Dean, National Smile Day, Na- tional Strawberry Day and National Pay a Com- pliment Day to name a few.
UMass Dartmouth Col- lege of Arts and Sciences is working hard to bring students, staff and faculty together. A Facebook post stated early this month, “This semester, UMass Dartmouth’s College of Arts and Sciences is per- fecting the art and science of the college experience.”
CAS Communications Coordinator Tricia Bret- on said that bringing new life to the CAS life was something they wanted to have in place before the new semester. “Right be- fore the beginning of the semester, the CAS Dean’s team wanted to find a way to breathe new life into the college. We wanted to see the college come alive with excitement and joy,” said Breton. “By trying to establish ourselves as the college, we hoped to cre- ate an environment that everyone, including facul- ty and staff, looked for- ward to going to every fourteen weeks.”
The main mission was to bring everyone togeth- er as a community and celebrate what it is to be a CAS member. “We de- veloped #CASLife as a way to create an environ- ment that not only sup- ported academics, but also supports a sense of com- munity,” said Breton. “We understand that college life can be difficult, so we’re trying to create little moments that bring smiles to our students in between the stress of college life. We’re trying to create an experience that seamlessly celebrates learning and joy.”
The overall goal is to bring students and faculty together and promote en- gagement. “Our biggest goal with #CASLife is to create an environment where students and facul- ty are engaged with one another. We want the col- lege to be a place that ev- eryone is proud to belong to. It should be a place that faculty and students are excited to be a part of, and they’re excited to share their experience with others,” said Breton.
The turnout has been nothing but success as it continues to grow as more students become aware of the series of events. “We’re proud of the turnout for most of our events and celebrations. It’s been great to interact with our students and see them smile when we give them a smiley face eraser or when we give free candy,” said Breton proudly. “Donuts with the Dean had an especially great turn- out, and we’re looking forward to our next two donut days.”
The dance parties are a great way for students to stop for three minutes of their day and just let loose, have fun, sing along and dance with their friends and faculty. “Our Wednesday dance parties at 1:52 p.m. are really fun, and only last about three minutes. We’ve had a few students come every week because they’re so much fun,” according to Breton. “After all, what’s better then moving and grooving before you head to class?”
Typically, the music will consist of line dances such as the Macarena and the Cotton-Eyed Joe; howev- er, they are up for song suggestions. If you have a song idea send Breton an email and you might just see your song picked at the next dance party. Word on the street is their will be some prizes handed out at the dance parties after spring break, so make sure you are ready to dance!
Liberal Arts also has a wide presence on social media, where students can navigate through the CAS life. “We’ve recently in- creased our social media presence, and we’re work- ing really hard to get stu- dents involved in our so- cial media strategies. Right now, we utilize FB, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, which we launched this semester,” said Breton.
“We’re also working to- ward #ADayInTheLife series and perhaps Tues- day Takeovers on Snap- chat. We’re always willing to utilize those students who want to share their CAS life with us and with our followers.”
There are two hashtags to carry out the conversa- tion, which can be found under #UMassDCAS and #CASLife. They encour- age all students to use their hashtags to share their stories. Furthermore, there are also frequent contests with /Instagram/ and /Snapchat/, where you can win some cool prizes.
In the next couple weeks don’t forget to join in on the fun. Events include Dance Parties on Wednes- day’s at 1:52 p.m. in the North Atrium of LARTS, Purple Day on March 26, Donuts with the Dean on March 19 and April 18, National High Five Day, April 19 and the last event, National Pretzel Day on April 26! To get a full list of dates you can find the signs around the building and up on social media.
Stay up to date all things CAS by following their Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter accounts. You just never know when a contest will pop on up and what col- lege student does not like free things?