RA Selection

Resident Assistant Job, The Real Story

So, what does a Resident Assistant actually do, you ask? Well, here goes..

Residence Life Team Member: The entire RA staff is made up of 47 student leaders. This team is divided into groups of RA staffs that live in one of the residence halls and is supervised by the Residence Director of that facility. The RA staffs meet weekly with their RD and as a staff to discuss issues relating to residents and the halls, and to plan events and programs hosted by Residential Life. As a member of the Residential Life team, each RA is expected to support and assist their RA constituents.

Peer Advisor: As a leader in the residence hall, many residents will come to the RA for advice, information, assistance, and a wide range of problems. For example, the RA may deal with roommate conflicts, eating disorders, frustrated students, and any number of things. It is important that the RA understands how to handle various situations, and be a resource for their residents. RAs receive extensive training prior to serving in the RA role to provide tools, ideas, and skills to help develop the necessary confidence for the RA to handle the situations that may arise. RAs learn the proper protocol for serious and emergency situations, as well as the day-to-day issues.

Resource Person: RAs are viewed as a walking information booth. An RA will be sought out by residents to answer questions from "where's the Campus Center?" to "How do I log onto Fish R Net?" The RA will be made aware of all the resources we have on our campus through training. And if you still don't know the answer to a question, you will have the confidence to say, "I don't know. But let's find out together."

Programmer & Community Builder: Offering social, educational, service and diversity programming, as well as building community, for residents is a vital element to linking the Residential Life program to the mission and goals of SJFC. Resident Assistants are responsible to abide by and enforce SJFC community standards and housing policies. Each policy was created with the purpose of developing a safe and non-threatening place for the residence hall community members. RAs are expected to confront infractions of these behavioral standards and report violations to his/her Residence Director. Extensive training equips RAs to negotiate the confrontation process.

Administrator: Yes, RAs also have administrative responsibilities, too. The RA, as part of the Residential Life team, is responsible for checking students in and out of rooms, being on-duty in the residence halls on a rotating basis, filling out paperwork and forms, signing out vacuums, reporting room repair requests, and other duties. Another important part of the RA role is to stay in communication with the Residence Director regarding various issues in the halls. (Adapted from http://www.vanguard.edu/)

Programming

Programming is the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating activities to improve the sense of community on a floor or in a residence hall.

Why do we program?: As you probably realize from your own education, much of a student's learning takes places outside of the classroom! For students who live in the residence halls, much of this out of the classroom learning takes place in the residence halls. That gives us, as the Residential Life staff, the opportunity to provide our residents with many different learning experiences! Though active and passive programs are not the only way to provide learning experiences in the residence halls, they are a good way to promote learning and growth in our residents.

Active Programs: Active programs require that you and your residents are interacting with one another. This could be in a social, educational, diverse or service oriented setting. But the main focuses of these programs are to provide the opportunity to interact.

Passive Programs: Passive programs are not as direct as active programs but still provide a learning opportunity and potential for interaction. These programs can include bulletin boards, newsletters, etc.

The Basic 4 Programming Model

Basic Requirements

• Complete at least 6 active programs within the school year (3 per semester).
• Complete 1 program in each of the 4 dimensions, the other 2 can be your choice.
• 2 Passive Programs per semester.
• 1 building-wide Stress Free Week program per semester.
• 2 Community Builders per month.