Meet Our Marketing Interns!

This year we decided to offer two marketing/PR internships to help us with new ideas for promoting our services. After seeing many great applicants, we chose two motivated and creative students who have backgrounds in everything from online journalism to public relations. Meet Kari Nickell and Ryan Pfefferle!

Kari is a Junior Public Relations major and Journalism minor from South Charleston, Ohio. In the future she hopes to take her passion for public relation and global culture and work internationally for a large corporation or the government. Kari hopes to gain experience from her internship as well as being able to see through the exciting public relations plan the interns created for CSLS.

Ryan is a senior at Ohio University, currently in the process of completing dual programs in Online Journalism and Economics. He grew up in Dublin, Ohio in a family of five and intends to follow in the footsteps of his father, sister, and sister-in-law by attending law school next academic year following his graduation from Ohio University in June.  While he is not completely sure where an education in law will take him in life, he eagerly anticipates the academic and professional challenges that await him the future.  He initially applied for the internship with CSLS to get his foot in the door at a successful non-profit legal assistance program, but he is finding that the implementation of good Public Relations and Marketing strategies are essential for any group’s success. He is excited to be a part of a team as diligent as those at The Center for Student Legal Services.

So far this quarter, Kari and Ryan have been working with Chairperson Tracy Kelly, Intern Director Allison Arnold and Program Coordinator Heidi Sochia to implement the public relations plan they formulated at the end of November. So far this quarter, they have been putting a lot of effort into their first endeavor, the CSLS Website Launch Party, set to take place on January 17th. Next on their plate will be planning a promotional event to celebrate our 15th anniversary in February. We are excited to showcase the talents of our hardworking interns!

Help Us Celebrate With Free Food and Prizes!

To celebrate the release of our new and improved website and blog, we are having a website launch party at Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 from 5-7pm. Come enjoy free food, giveaways and lots of great prizes, such as gift cards to Brenens, Cross Court, Athena Grand, Fluff and many more! The grand prize is a $100 gift card to Kroger! Prizes will be drawn every 15 minutes. Join us for free wings, great prizes,  giveaways and learn more about our services! There will also be re-enrollment forms available if you accidentally waived your fee. Download the party flier here. Come early to start winning prizes and bring your friends! The first 25 attendees will get a free sports bottle!

Welcome to The New and Improved Website!

After months of planning and hard work we have completed our new website and blog, just in time for our 15th anniversary! Check out some of our new features:

• “Quick Links” on the front page is  fast way to take you to the topics that students most frequently search.
• All printable materials are now available in one place. The ”Downloads” section contains copyright free fliers on a variety of topics for print and distribution, forms you may need during your case, and examples of letters and other forms for housing issues.
• The four most recent blogs are featured on the front page so you always know about the current topic here at CSLS.
• Just click the buttons to join our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and add our blog to your RSS feed. Our Facebook page features the “CSLS Tip of the Week”.
• The Board of Directors are now featured in the “About Us” section. Meet the students that are an essential part of the operation of CSLS!

This is still a work in progress, so if you see anything that is not working, please shoot me an email at heidi@studentlegalrights.org. The “Housing Law” and “Consumer Law” sections are still under contruction and will be available soon. In the meantime, if you have a question that is not answered on the website, please call us to schedule an appointment.

Special thanks to John Sammon of Sixth City Marketing for his help, expertise and tremendous amount of patience. John is an Ohio University alum who owns Sixth City Marketing, a company that specializes in online marketing, search engine optimization and PPC.

Enjoy!

Heidi Sochia, Program Coordinator

Waived Your Fee by Mistake? Re-Enroll Now!

To gain access to our services, Ohio University students pay the $8.00 legal fee listed as an option your tuition bill. You have the first three weeks of the quarter to waive the fee if you didn’t do so when you paid your tuition. But many students have waived the fee by accident while using the new e-bill system or didn’t feel they were thoroughly informed about our program before waiving.

Now, you can re-enroll before the three week deadline that was previously just for waiving. Here’s the deal: if you do not currently need need legal assistance but waived by accident, changed your mind and decided you want to have legal coverage, or want to re-enroll because you learned more about our valuable services, just come to the office and fill out a re-enrollment form, or download it here and either drop it off or scan and return it to csls@studentlegalrights.org. We will have the Bursar’s office put the legal services fee back on your tuition bill and you are responsible for paying it.

By signing the agreement, you are agreeing to pay your $8.00 legal services fee and acknowledging that you are eligible for legal services from the date and time you signed the form. If you are re-enrolling just because you have a legal issue, the $8.00 legal services fee will be put back on your bill and you will be subject to additional attorney fees. See our fee section for complete information.

Why do you have to pay additional fees if you re-enroll because you need legal assistance? Think of it like insurance. You can’t break your arm and buy insurance on the way to the hospital. Our program is like legal insurance; you buy it in case you need it. If everyone just enrolled when they needed legal help we wouldn’t be able to keep the fee so low and students wouldn’t be able to afford us.  You can’t get an attorney anywhere else for $8.00, so pay your fee and help keep it affordable for all Ohio University students.