Dear First Year Students (and Returners to On-Campus Housing),
For many of you, this is your first chance to move away from home without your parents or other family--immediate or extended. How exciting is that?! I remember the day I moved into my room my first year like it was yesterday. Watching my parents and siblings drive away in a car was bittersweet but that first deep breath as a real certified Adult (tm) was the best feeling ever. I can only hope for you that your experience is even better than mine was, and mine was pretty great--I mean I have no complaints. Congrats on making it this far!
There are a few things you should know about your Residence Hall (more commonly referred to as a Dorm) though! First and foremost, you have this AMAZING resource at the tip of your fingers called a Resident Assistant. We are people who live on or near your floor, paid in some form by the university or college to build community amongst the floor and protect your rights as on campus students: the rights to sleep, to study, and to report grievances. We are NOT out to get you in trouble. TRUST ME, the last thing we want to do is take two hours out of our nights to write up an incident report that details a minute by minute replay of how you and your buddies violated some policy because you made a couple mistakes in the building.
So here's some advice from an RA to all my kiddies that are living in on-campus housing or who have friends living in on-campus housing this year. First of all, the most important thing you could do during your first week on campus is figure out where you live in relation to everything else. And if you don't know how to determine your cardinal directions when you don't have a compass, start to memorize which monuments can help you determine where you're at on campus. In the worst-case scenario that you end up stranded, alone, with a dead iPhone at night your only way to find your way back will be if you can remember the things that tell you where you're at on campus. Buildings like Shaw that tells you you're right in the center of campus, or Brody that tells you you're on the North West corner of campus, or Hubbard/Akers that says you're on the East Side. Find an anchor on campus and use that to help you get home.
Second, don't be afraid of us! Like I said before, we are students too. And we were first-year students at one time as well! We know what it feels like to have all the work you did to rise up the ranks in high school not matter anymore. We also know what it is like to be stressed out with college classes for the first time as well! Think of us as your wise older siblings on campus, here to offer advice and show you the ropes if you let us. Our job is to build an inclusive and welcoming community for the entire floor that we live on and sometimes multiple floors! We want to talk to you and get to know you and most of us will keep pestering you if you try to ignore us.
Third, we know you're gonna violate some policies. Whether knowingly or not, everyone violates one or two at some point in their college career because honestly there are some that feel like they're designed to trip people up: that and most people never read the student life handbook before signing the housing agreement and forgetting it exists. Part of the Resident Assistant job is to document those policy violations, but that doesn't mean we're out here to get you in trouble. And honestly I've never met an RA that enjoys documenting policy violations, but we have to so we do.
Fourth, every RA is the cool RA if you think of them that way. Just because some kids on your floor got away with smoking weed in their room and some kids from the second floor didn't doesn't mean that RA on the second floor is a stickler for the rules. It most likely means that the kids on the second floor were careless in their policy violation and as a result got caught. Your RA only becomes the mean RA that "hates everyone" when you start telling other people that.
And last but not least, we are passionate about our jobs. What this means is that we are passionate about you having a positive on-campus housing experience. We want to help you get through having to learn how to study for the first time if you need the help. We want to help you find your passions on campus. We want to inspire you to be campus leaders and we want to help you achieve every dream you've ever had. Well maybe that last statement is a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Best,
Your friendly South Neighborhood RA