Whether you realize it, many things go on “behind the scenes” to make dorm life work smoothly. Much consideration goes into the regulations of resident life. This year, one of the biggest changes concerns the residental assistants (RAs) and their relationships with the students.
Michael Cox, director of residence life, said this change is called “in-nights, and that it is the way we are changing what has typically been lobby duty.”
“RAs are required to be in the building hanging out with students,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll be in their rooms, sometimes they’ll be up and down the halls, sometimes, hopefully, they’ll be in student’s rooms and sometimes they’ll be in the lobbies hanging out with students.”
In previous years, the RAs were required to sit in the lobby for three hours. They couldn’t go elsewhere during that time, to make the RAs available to the students, but many felt like it didn’t accomplish that aim. They weren’t fond of lobby duty either.
“My brother was a RA last year, and he’d tell me how much he hated lobby duty,” said Lindsey Pearson, a Frances Crawford West RA. “Just knowing that he ‘had’ to sit down in the lobby for that period of time.”
Now, the RAs are responding positively to the change. Many feel it is a better way to build relationships with students.
“It’s a lot more inclusive,” said Stephen Chapman, a Daniel North RA. “I’ll have guys come in, and we’ll start conversations during my in-night, and I’ll talk to them till one in the morning. It’s a lot more personal.”
However, there are some slight issues to overcome. Students have to feel comfortable going to see their RA in a different environment.
“I think some of them think that, ‘well that’s their room, and I can’t go in there to talk to them’, but we try to get across when our door is open, you can come in,” said Ben Clardy, a Daniel North RA.
The RAs see building bonds with the students as an essential part of their jobs and hope that the students feel more relaxed with the in-nights.
“A lot of times, the RAs [in the past] were just people who sat down in the lobby and just were kind of ‘there’” Chapman said. “It’s more like a ministry for us [this year]. n
