Post by Lexi on Aug 13, 2005 18:50:00 GMT -5
Alright guys, I know some of you are wondering what exactly happened to Panther Treks this year. It's a valid question. I've had a pretty crazy summer so I haven't been great about keeping people informed by email. So here's the deal as I understand it:
We requested mailing labels from the University for the incoming freshmen so that we could send them our Panther Treks brochures. Last year we tried to hand out our pamphlets at the Pitt Start sessions and it just didn't work. We believed that the mailing labels were key. We informed the University of this sometime in the fall and were told that we needed to submit some forms and our pamphlet by a certain time in the spring. We did this. We were early in fact. After that, things get a little bit convoluded.
I believe we were told first that they lost our pamphlet and then that they lost our forms. We gave them both again as soon as we were notified. We were then told that they were going to have to reconsider giving us the mailing labels. These things happened over the course of several weeks. We remained in touch with a guy that said he would tell us as soon as we were approved. We were kept hanging for several months. Yes, months. We were finally told at the end of June that the person that was reviewing our request for mailing labels was not actually starting their position at the University until June 20th. Close to the very end of June, we were officially denied the labels.
We were working on deadlines the whole time because we need to tell housing who was moving in early for Panther Treks. Initially we agreed on July 1. We pushed that back until the middle of July, but it still didn't give us adequate time to find an alternate means of getting the necessary information out. Out of around 500 kids we were hoping for 24. It was decided that we probably were not going to get enough response. 8 kids was the minimum.
Basically, the bureaucracy that is the University of Pittsburgh killed Panther Treks. The University still does many great things for us (like gives us lots of money) but in this instance, it killed us. That is the story as I understand it.
We requested mailing labels from the University for the incoming freshmen so that we could send them our Panther Treks brochures. Last year we tried to hand out our pamphlets at the Pitt Start sessions and it just didn't work. We believed that the mailing labels were key. We informed the University of this sometime in the fall and were told that we needed to submit some forms and our pamphlet by a certain time in the spring. We did this. We were early in fact. After that, things get a little bit convoluded.
I believe we were told first that they lost our pamphlet and then that they lost our forms. We gave them both again as soon as we were notified. We were then told that they were going to have to reconsider giving us the mailing labels. These things happened over the course of several weeks. We remained in touch with a guy that said he would tell us as soon as we were approved. We were kept hanging for several months. Yes, months. We were finally told at the end of June that the person that was reviewing our request for mailing labels was not actually starting their position at the University until June 20th. Close to the very end of June, we were officially denied the labels.
We were working on deadlines the whole time because we need to tell housing who was moving in early for Panther Treks. Initially we agreed on July 1. We pushed that back until the middle of July, but it still didn't give us adequate time to find an alternate means of getting the necessary information out. Out of around 500 kids we were hoping for 24. It was decided that we probably were not going to get enough response. 8 kids was the minimum.
Basically, the bureaucracy that is the University of Pittsburgh killed Panther Treks. The University still does many great things for us (like gives us lots of money) but in this instance, it killed us. That is the story as I understand it.