Students celebrate first Staff Appreciation week

April 6 will mark the kickoff of USC’s first Staff Appreciation week, a five-day event put on by students and dedicated to honoring the work of the USC Hospitality staff.

The week will consist of a series of activities and presentations, which aim to raise awareness about USC Hospitality and the individuals who work in the division.

The idea was spearheaded and organized by the “journeymen” of Delta Omicron Zeta, USC’s leadership fraternity. Journeymen are the equivalent of pledge class members in traditional fraternities, and in DOZ, one of the first tasks assigned to new members is to identify a problem on campus and come up with a plan to combat the issue.

Austin Roy, a sophomore majoring in cognitive science and a DOZ journeyman, said the new members had many diverse and sound ideas.

“Someone wanted to build a garden on top of Leavey, but a lot of us agreed on the idea of Staff Appreciation Week, in light of the recent strike events,” Roy said.

The idea for a the event was led by two DOZ journeymen — Domenica Ordonez, a freshman majoring in architecture, and Hannah Kulis, a freshman majoring in piano.

Throughout this semester, hospitality workers on campus have protested for higher wages, and recently came to an agreement with USC for a 75-cent raise. Regardless, Roy maintains that the incentives for Staff Appreciation Week have little to do with wages.

“We really wanted to focus on staff appreciation,” Roy said. “We think that staff members can feel unappreciated by students. I think they should feel just as much a part of the Trojan family, as students, their family members and the staff members do.”

For each day of Staff Appreciation Week, there will be a different event that is geared toward making staff members feel more at home on campus. The week begins with “Manners Monday” on April 6, in which students are encouraged to take a “selfie” with a staff member and upload it on to any social media platform with the tag #ThankYouUSCStaff.

On “Tea Tuesday,” participants will meet at the Finger Fountain at 11:55 p.m. to deliver tea to security workers who work late-night shifts.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, there will be a table on Trousdale with information about employees’ wages and the issues they face. During the same time on Thursday, the table will serve as a station for students to write thank you notes to an individual worker or a division of staff workers as a whole. These notes will be posted on a mural that will be presented on campus.

On April 10, or “Festive Friday,” the event will conclude with a concert located at the VKC arches at 5 p.m. The concert will feature a number of student music and entertainment groups.

All events are posted on USC Staff Appreciation Week’s Facebook event page, which nearly 500 people have already joined.