Tabling
Tabling is a wonderful way to get outside, meet some students, and show a Jewish presence on campus. Since the campus is so spread out, and there is no central building or area for tabling it is probably has less of an impact than on other campuses. It is essential not to sit in a chair while tabling, but rather to stand, be outgoing, and bring people over to see what you're doing. Again, being a little crazy goes a long way.
The effectiveness of tabling at Stanford definitely varies from week to week and from quarter to quarter. Tabling is most effective at the beginning of quarters since as students get bogged down with work and move quickly into midterms and finals, they shy away from stopping at tables. Fall quarter is a great time to table; winter quarter is hard because the spoiled Californians think its to cold to be outside in 60 degree whether; and spring quarter becomes nice enough for tabling again.
Like everything else in this area, success is weather-dependant; when it’s warm and sunny, people love to stop at tables; when it’s cold and/or wet, you almost may as well just forget it.
The best place to table is on White Plaza (right outside Hillel). There are always people selling tickets, trying out for "the tree" (Stanford's masco), or advocating for a political cause in this area. Getting to know the students working other tables is tremendously useful, as you can agree to help advertise/recruit for other campus organizations and vice versa. This is also a good method of “informal” networking and partnering.
The best time of day to table is around lunchtime, from about 11:45am – 1:15pm. The major rush through White Plaza is at 12pm, with another big rush at 1pm.
Places For Programs, Meetings
(Basically all reservations should be made by the Office Manager, Kathy
Cooper. If you don’t know exactly which space you want, just tell
her what it’s for and for how many people, and she can almost always
suggest an appropriate space.)
Hillel Library – This is a simple and easy location to use. Most students (even non-active ones) know where this is, and its our only guaranteed space for meetings. There is a library schedule posted outside the library where you can write down reservations. Of course, this is a non-ideal location for engagement programming, since it is the only Hillel space.
Dorm lounges and Row House lounges are super places for both meetings and programs. You (or a student) simply has to check with an RA first to be sure the lounge will not be in use when your program/meeting is scheduled. Some of the larger lounges, like Toyon Lounge how their own reservation systems that you can learn about from a resident in that dorm, or by contact the Resident Fellow (RF).
El Centro Chicano – We sometimes use their main lounge and back conference room for meetings and programs. The lounge area is really open, so it is not a great location, but the couches make it feel really relaxed.
Native American Center – They’re our closest neighbors down the hall, have wonderful comfortable couches, and a huge TV. Make sure to check with someone in that office before you crash on the couch, but they are always very open to sharing their space.
Old Union Ballroom – Upstairs from Hillel, this space is frequently used for Friday night services, Shabbat Oneg, and Hillel Shabbat Dinners. The Ballroom can also be used for student meetings, but it’s kind of ugly and dark so we try to stay away from programming there.
Bechtel International Center -- The International Center has a really nice conference center space that is great for a programs fair where you need to set-up multiple tables, a lecture, or a stand up meal.
Haas Center for Public Service -- Haas has a few conference rooms that we used for the Muslim-Jewish dialogue. Just reserve this space in advance.
Women's Center Lounge -- A really confortable and open space for Israeli folk dancing or Rosh Hodesh services, this is a place we use often.
Classrooms in the quad -- Kathy has a list of all of the classrooms and sizes. These are ideal spaces for lectures on campus.
Cubberly, Dinkelspiel, and Mem Aud -- These three big auditorium are perfect for huge events like High Holidays, concerts, or movie showings.
Couch Room – This room is really the A3C (Asian American Center) lounge, located upstairs from Hillel right next to the Ballroom. Reform Services are often held there. It was also a great place for our dialogue group (Muslim-Jewish) planning meetings since it is near both Hillel and the Muslim center upstairs.
Common Room – This room is located on the 3rd floor of the Old Union Clubhouse and is great for small classes and meetings. You can reserve this room by calling Memorial Church.
Tresidder has many conference rooms that can be used for meetings and programs. It is also extremely popular, so make sure to reserve it early.
Braun Music Building is sometimes used for Shabbat services.
Places To Take Students For Coffee/Lunch
Tresidder – Great salad bar, lots of choices, and tables outside.
Coffee House (CoHo) – Located in Tresidder, cool place to hang out,
good drinks and
sandwiches, fairly busy at lunch time.
Bookstore – Okay for coffee, small, quieter and more intimate. Good
for coffee meetings.
Moon Beams (near Green Library) – Outdoor coffee shop, good for
a "coffee date" on a nice day
Treehouse – My very favorite eating space on campus with great salads,
Teriyake dishes, and fairly good Mexican food with both indoor and outdoor
eating spaces.Dorm dining halls – if you can get students to take
you to their dorms, the can be really fun places to eat, get free food,
and make the students feel like they’re bringing you to their “home
space.”
Where/How To Publicize
Email – Stanford studens base their lives on e-mail -- too much in my opinion. It is, therefore, the very best way to publicize at Stanford. Even though everybody gets way more email than they can read and deletes the vast majority of it, email is still the quickest, easiest way to let people know what’s going on. And students general respond in less than a day.
Personal Email – No question, the best way to let anyone know about something is to send them a personal email about it. Even form letter personal e-mails tend to work. Obviously this is mostly for people you already know, not the general public, but it gets a great response.
Weekly Hillel Email – A weekly calendar of all Jewish events on campus for the week. This email goes to undergrads, grads, faculty and staff, community members, the Hillel Board. Some people read it, many just delete it, but all events should be listed on it anyway.
Hillel Web Site – Another basic piece of publicity. Everything that goes into the weekly email also goes on the website. And, this website is always improving.
Emails to Interest Groups – A very effective way to advertise
programs is to send an email to a list of students interested in the particular
topic the program deals with (nature, Israel, women’s issues, etc.).
You can obtain email lists of students with particular interests from
the DonorPerfect database (ask Kathy how to do this).
Special email lists – There are a couple of email listserves maintained
by students that provide forums for conversation and advertisements about
Jewish events:
Israeli Student Organization (ISO) listserve – iso@lists.stanford.edu
Class of 2004 Jewish students listserve – schmooze04@lists.stanford.edu
There are also listserves for the JLC board, AEPi, Jewish Women's Collective,
etc.
Flyers – Can be an effective way to publicize, especially in the dorms (I've heard that fliers are most often read in bathrooms), but only if the flyers are big, creative, bright and/or numerous..
Dorms – These are the most effective places to flyer, but don’t go out flyering yourself unless it’s absolutely necessary—get one of the student office workers to do it (ask Kathy to assign it to them as a job). For dorm programs, get the RA’s to flyer for you.
Stanford Daily -- Ads in the Daily are expensive, but we sometimes use them for major events.
Community Publications -- Press releases and ads in local Jewish publications, such as The Jewish Bulletin is another way to publicize big events where you want to attract community members as well as students.
Where People Live
The residential system for freshmen and most upperclassmen is based around “dorms,” which are self-contained groups of several halls. Students do everything in their dorms; eat, party, sleep, plan ski trips, etc. Each dorm has its own RA’s and residential life staff. Often, several individual dorms are contained in a single “building” (which are also referred to as “dorms,” just to be confusing). The major freshmen buildings, broken down by dorm, are:
Branner
(the largest all-frosh dorm)
East FloMo: Alondra, Cardenal, Faisan
West FloMo: Gavilan, Loro, Mirlo, Paloma
Freshman/Sophomore College (“FroSoCo”)
Lagunita Court: Adelfa, Eucalipto, Granada, Naranja, Ujamaa (African-American theme dorm)
Roble: (largest dorm on campus; all 4 class, but has many frosh)
Stern: Burbank, Casa Zapata (Latin-American theme dorm), Donner,
Larkin, Serra, Twain
Wilbur: Arroyo, Cedro, Junipero, Okada (Asian-American theme dorm),
Otero, Rinconada, Soto, Trancos
Non-frosh also live on campus, but besides living in regualar dorms, also gather in Greek houses, theme dorms, and row houses