As a third year Resident Assistant at Southeast, I've learned many things. One thing that remains the same is the amount of negativity new students place on RAs ... or the "bad guys" on the floor. Here is a list of the five most important tidbits that I ALWAYS stress to my residents.
1. We’re not out to get you.
This, my friends, is hard for some residents to wrap their mind around. We don’t want to get you in trouble just as bad as you don’t want us to get you in trouble. One, that means a lot of paperwork for us. Two, we are here to help you, not hurt you. RAs live where they work. Who wants to live in an unhappy place every day of the year? When our residents are happy, we are happy.2. If you're lost, ask us questions.
Again, we are here to help you. We know the ins and outs of campus and we can lead you in the right direction. If we don’t have the answer to your question, we will gladly search for the answer or we will refer you to the right person who can help.3. Please respect our decorations...please.
We spend countless hours thinking of a floor theme and making/hanging decorations throughout the hall. So when someone tears down door decorations or vandalizes bulletin boards, we WILL get frustrated. We hang up decorations to give the floor life, color, and a fun atmosphere. We respect your hard work, so please respect ours.4. Come to our programs.
It’s true, Resident Assistants at Southeast are required to put on at least one program every month, but it is also true that we want ALL of our residents to show up. We program for YOU. We try our best to target a program to what you like, but we can't please everybody. It takes a lot of time to put on a program that everyone will enjoy. If you can’t come for the entire program, stop by when you can. Show your face, meet new people in the hall, and grab some free food!5. We truly care.
This, here, is the most important tidbit. If we didn’t want to help others, we would not have applied for this job. 80 percent of our job is spending time with our residents and helping them pave the way for their future. It’s our job to get to know each and every single one of you. We take it upon ourselves to learn your likes, dislikes, interests, and most importantly, what makes you happy. When you’re sad, we’re here to listen. When you aced your midterm, we’ll hang it up on our door for all the residents to see. If you are homesick, we’ll do our best to make you feel welcome. When you’re pissed because your best friend hooked up with your boyfriend while they were drunk at a party last night, we’ll be ready to knock her out (but we won’t express that and we most definitely won’t act on it..). We care about you and we want you to succeed.So, don't be scared of us! We are humans, we are students, and we want to help make your years at Southeast an amazing experience!
