Everything you know if you’re an RA at UD
No, we don’t want to get you in trouble
With great power comes great responsibility. It’s harder than you think to be a resident assistant, and there are some things they just don’t tell you first-hand.
When you ask your RA, they’ll generalize and just say it’s a lot of work. And it is, but it’s a lot of fun too, and comes with a lot of benefits. If you’re wondering what we do, or if you’re interested in the position, here’s everything you have to know.
Spirit Day during RA training summer 2016, Towers Team
Pros
The pay
The fact that this is a paid job that deposits money into our account twice a month is a great thing. Though some RAs complain that their stiffen only pays for dining, at least they can pay for dining now.
The free housing
This is a great benefit for out of state students, since the state of Delaware has a commitment to Delawareans to pay their housing. Knowing that the housing bill will be covered is one less expense for us.
Meeting other RAs
During RA training you meet so many other RAs through group activities and bonding that takes place – it’s why it seems like we all know one another. You grow a network of friends who can empathize with you later when you need it.
Meeting residents
Regardless of what you think about us, we’re genuinely excited to meet each and every one of you. Of course there are good and bad RAs, but we got this job because we showed our employers how much we care for your well-being.
Meeting housing staff
The housing staff are really nice people that offer their assistance when necessary. And they help to relieve you of your duties when tougher issues arise, like working with parents.
Earning respect
We Love earning the respect of our residents, our team of RAs, our supervisors, the community, everyone really. If we handle our responsibilities, we deserve respect for it.
Building new skills
We are always learning to work as a staff for each complex, we learn how to use our skills in our careers, and we learn how to interact with people more effectively.
Training 2016 Towers Team
Cons
Weekly meeting
There is a staff meeting every week, and depending on the week, an RA could be going to 3 or 4 meetings for this job.
New responsibilities
We have to know a lot. We access Title 9, suicide, and personal well being, not only for ourselves, but also for 20-60 other people (depending on how many residents we have). We also have to know how to fix issues, how to maintain keys, and what resources are available for our residents.
Trying to know everyone personally
It’s our jobs to promote and maintain health in the resident halls, and to do that we should interact with all of our residents. But this is hard, because sometimes schedules conflict, and sometimes residents just don’t want to be bothered.
Being a student at the same time
We have to take care of ourselves, and be a resource to about 40 other people. We do extra curricular activities, go to extra lectures, and have personal lives, but at the same time if a resident calls us, we will pause our life and run to them.
Writing Reports
We hate having to write incident reports. We don’t want anyone to get into trouble, but we also would like to not get into any trouble ourselves. If we don’t write the report and someone finds out, we lose our job.
Running into Reports
When we go door knocking just to see how out resident are doing, we hate running into an incident we have to report. Again we don’t want you to get in trouble, but if we see it, we have to report it.
Engaging everyone
Not everyone wants to be engaged. We understand that everyone has their own thing happening, and that the events we plan may not coordinate with everyone’s schedule. But some people just don’t want to come at all, and you have to be understanding of that.
All resident assistants hired for 2016-2017 school year (taken during spirit day in training)
Cons aside, we love being RAs. I know I love the perks, I love learning new things about teamwork, and I love helping people. You might too.