A. monthly birthday parties... competitions between other communities...
UC Davis

A. Having the residents pick and run floor programs such as floor dinners.  Our floor planned a trip to Great America all by themselves and they had an excellent time.  A great way for them to get to know each other!
Leigh Ann L. - University of Wisconsin at Whitewater

A. I think that probably the most successful thing an RA can do to promote unity is program, program, program. I can just picture RA's saying yeah, yeah we have all heard of that one before. However, promoting unity depends upon how you approach programming. Some useful tips that I think would be helpful are as follows:

A. Look for things that your residents have in common and form programs around those similarities. For example, if you see that your floor likes to watch South Park every Wednesday night have South Park night every Wednesday.

B. Get your residents involved in planning programs. This will ensure that you have a good turnout since residents will appreciate what they have worked for.

C. Have residents get involved in decorating the hall for various occasions such as holidays or special events. When I was an RA at UNC-Wilmington each floor in every hall decorated for halloween. I found that this was good for allowing residents to work together for a common goal.

I think that these three tips are important for promoting unity on any floor within any residence environment.
Eric H. - Northern Carolina State University

A. I think the easiest and quickest way to do this is to organize a lot of "getting to know you" activities the first week of classes. This helps residents to get to know each other before they get buried in classes and extracurriculars. After that, it's easy to foster unity--people just naturally tend to want to hang with the people they know, and if they know their floor, they'll feel more comfortable and they'll have some ready-made friends.
Amber B. - Colorado State University

A. One Great opportunity for Unity is a competition vs another floor. Tug - o - war works great, everyone comes together in that community to succeed with each other.  Try getting to know your residents a little more each week. Week 1 names faces and hometowns, week 2 majors, week 3 hobbies and interests - the more you discuss with them the stronger base relationship you will have, and the more likely they are to share that info with other floor members, thus building the community.
Michael W. - Concordia College  

A Making yourself visible is the #1 thing that will make a successfully unified community. When I am in my room, the door is open and I've usually got music on, and I am constantly amazed at how quickly my residents will follow suit.
Jennifer A. - Southern Methodist University