11/09/11 ks

HAYS, Kan. -- "What Would You Do?," a three-minute anti-bullying video made by and starring residence hall assistants at Fort Hays State University, has won a regional computer software publications award from NASPA, the international professional organization for student affairs administrators in higher education.

The video revolves around the poem "What Would You Do?," written by Dallas, Texas, sophomore Jamison Green especially for the video and narrated by him during the video.

Bullying was one of several issues that came to light nationally during 2010, said Vinay Patel, McMindes Hall director at FHSU.

"We wanted to creatively teach the importance of this topic to the resident assistant staff," he said. Patel wanted the video to serve not only to educate the student residence hall assistants but to help them bond as a unit. He asked Green to write the poem in fall 2010, and creating the video became the spring 2011 project.

"The RA student staff took it over from there and ran with it," said Patel. "It was completely done by undergraduate students." More than 30 student RA staff members were involved in the writing, filming and editing, and performance.

"I think it shows the work our students are capable of to create such a powerful video," he said.

And the topic, bullying, "is not just something we deal with in the K-12 system," he said. When he attended the regional NASPA conference in Denver to accept the award, he was asked by other attendees for access to show it in their classrooms.

"It was made so that it could be used in a variety of places," he said.The video has been shown on campus television and is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvtkcz7550

At the same conference, Region IV West of NASPA also presented Dr. Edward H. Hammond, president of Fort Hays State University, with its Presidential Excellence Award.

For more information, call Patel at 785-628-4906.