Resident Assistant

The Resident Assistant (RA) position is a student employee position within Department of Housing and Residence Life which works as a member of a residence hall staff.  An RA’s primary responsibility is to act as a facilitator of community development in the residence halls by working with students to provide an orderly and safe environment to live in, and to provide opportunities for the social, educational, intellectual and cultural development of the residents.

RAs are selected on the basis of their intellect, leadership qualities, willingness to assume responsibilities, and ability to relate to residents. To meet the needs of the department, RAs must remain flexible and creative enough to fill a combination of roles, including: friend, advisor, programmer, resource person, educator, counselor, role model, and authority figure, among others. In addition, RAs should be committed to their own personal growth and education.

RAs are supervised by and are directly responsible to the Residence Community Directors of their assigned residence hall. A RA’s job performance may be evaluated by the residents of their wing or floor, the Community Director(s), the Cluster Leader, and/or the Assistant Director for Business Operations. It is expected that the RA will satisfactorily meet all duties and responsibilities as identified. Unsatisfactory job performance will be addressed by the appropriate supervisor through verbal warning, written warning, probation, or termination. The RA position is appointed by Housing for the period of one semester contingent upon satisfactory job performance and is considered an “at will” position.

RAs receive a monthly stipend, private room (as available) and board with a 7 day meal plan as compensation for averaging a 15 hour work week, with an additional 10 hours available for pay. Most of the RA workload is spent working the front desk, performing on–call duties, holiday on-calls,  reporting maintenance problems, enforcing policy and regulations, putting on programs, taking an active part in hall functions, assisting individual students, attending staff development and training, First Fight week, and executing other tasks assigned by the Community Director or Central Housing.

The proceeding information outlines some of the RA’s job responsibilities. Central Housing and the RA’s Community Directors reserve the right to assign other duties as needed to meet departmental and building needs.