Flying to RA Info Session: RA 101

Flying to RA Info Session: RA 101  

By: Moira Solano

Students taking notes at the RA Info Session

 On Wednesday, October 17th, one of the RA Info Sessions was held on the Atlantic City campus in the Residential Building in room B119 from 10:00 P.M to 11:00 P.M. The name of this session was, “Flying to RA Info Session”, where current RAs, Residential Assistants, shared with interested students about the life and responsibilities. The goal for this session, alongside previous and upcoming ones, is to hire new RAs, inform students what the position consists of, and being a part of a team.

The info session for that night was ran by Justin, who is an RA in Housing 1 on the Galloway campus, Alyssa, who is an RA in Housing 5 on the Galloway campus as well, and Tiffany, who is a CD, Complex Director, in the Atlantic City campus Residential Building for Wings B and C. Complex Directors are in charge and manage the RAs for the housing on campus.

The topics that were discussed during this meeting were the benefits, the qualifications, job responsibilities, housing locations, selection process, and timeline. The benefits included, but not limited to, a resume builder, team atmosphere, free housing, receive a paycheck of $125 every month, and $500 credit towards a meal plan.

The qualifications for becoming an RA include, but are not limited to, having at least a 2.5 GPA, being a full-time undergraduate or graduate student with at least 12 credits, having a clean record meaning not getting in trouble with the school, attending all training sessions in August and January, and submitting an application as well as a resume. Justin pointed out, “...being an RA, you have a leadership position...”.

The job responsibilities an RA is required to do include, but are not limited to, creating programs and activities for you residents, performing duty rounds, completing mandatory public safety and housing inspections, dealing with roommate mediations if a conflict arises, and doing office duties. Going more in-depth about what happens during roommate mediations, Alyssa mentioned, “...bring out that roommate contract that they did together at the beginning of the semester and say do we either have to amend this roommate contract or is this something that we have to stick to...”.

There are a lot of steps that need to be completed before officially becoming a Residential Assistant. This includes interviews, one-on-ones, creating something to present, and going through what is called group process, which is when a group of about 15 potential RAs are put together and are evaluated on how they interact with one another, which is very important since it’s team oriented. Tiffany made note, “True colors come out in group process, people get real angry, people get real impatient, we see the natural leaders come out...”.