Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or SETA, is one of Columbus State’s newest organizations. Still in its early, formative stage, SETA, as the name implies, was started by a group of students who wanted to use their time and energy to promote the welfare of animals.

SETA, however, did not begin as most campus organizations do. Actually, it started out as eight students semester-long project for Tamara Bollis-Pecci’s Group Communications course.

The students involved in the creation of this project were Jason Gale, Amber Walker, Dawn Joines, Carol Simmons, Shannon Brown, Beth Wilson, Danielle Green, and Monica Mitchell.

The topic for the assignment was “How to effectively communicate in groups.” Basically, the students’ goal was to form a group and get something accomplished.

According to Amber Walker, a junior and communications major here at CSU, “We formed a group and we played around with a couple of ideas and we finally settled on wanting to help the Humane Society.”

Originally the group thought they could help the Humane Society by getting donations of dog and cat food.

After the group’s meeting with a few of the board members of the Humane Society, however, Walker says, “We found out that they needed a lot more than that.”

The group learned that the Humane Society was also in need of items such as cleaning supplies and paper towels. Also, the building itself needed a fresh paint job.

Upon hearing what a great need for their services existed, the students decided to take on the project and call themselves SETA.

At first some debate existed as to whether or not the group could use the name SETA. Walker says the group looked in to it and found out that, in fact, there is no affiliation between SETA and PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“Other people have used the acronym [SETA] before but there [aren’t] rights to the name or anything,” Walker says.

SETA was originally just the name for the project. Even so, after posting flyers around school for the bake sale they were planning to hold, Walker says, “there was a lot of response from students saying they wanted to join.”

“After that happened,” Walker says, “we met with SGA to find out what you have to do to become an organization.”

The group decided to fill out the necessary paperwork and, Walker says, “By the end of the semester, we had become an organization here on campus.”

Melissa Stewart, on the members of the board of directors at the Humane Society, was the group’s main contact for the project. She helped give the students and idea of what type of things the Humane Society needed done.

According to Walker, Stewart even “came to our final presentation [of the project] and gave us all certificates and said thank you.”

Once the project got under way, SETA undertook a variety of tasks. One of their main goals was fundraising, and the group held a number of fundraisers throughout the fall semester.

According to Walker, the bake sale they held really helped to generate interest for their project. Also, the booth the group set up at the Halloween Carnival helped to raise funds as well as awareness for the cause. Another major fundraiser for the group was a raffle they held before Thanksgiving. The group, Walker says, “got local businesses, and anyone who would, to donate things that we could raffle off.” Some of these items included food coupons, a necklace, and a certificate for a month of free tanning.

Walker said the raffle brought in around three hundred and fifty dollars.

The group’s other major project was painting the Humane Society’s building. “We got together on three or four Saturdays and we painted the foyer,” Walker says.

A paint store donated the paint for the project. Also, a landscaping company donated their services for landscaping the outside of the building.

The group also found an artist here on campus to paint a mural inside the building.

Home Depot donated the paint for the mural, which should be done by the end of February.

At the end of the semester, SETA gave the Humane Society a check for all the money they had raised.

Estimating the cost of time and labor, Walker says the group figured they provided the Humane Society with about eight thousand dollars worth of cash and services.

The project’s overwhelming success came as quite a surprise to the group, according to Walker.

"It was a lot bigger than I ever thought it would be,” Walker says.

“It took up a lot more time than I’d ever planned to devote to one class, but I think it was just something that we all believed in.”

Walker hopes to see the organization really come together this semester and elect officers, as well as finalize details about meetings.

She is very eager to see SETA continue its work because she says, “There’s so many things that we could help do. Because our campus is this big, there are a lot of people who can do a lot of things.”