September 2003 Newsletter

September Newsletter Content:

• Feature Article - "Do or Die Strategies for the First 6 Weeks"
• Student Issues Calendar

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Do or Die RA Strategies to Make or Break Your Year

For this month's featured newsletter section, I asked the ResidentAssistant.com "Ask the Experts" panel the following question: "What are your 'top 10' strategies for success during the first 6 weeks?" Their responses include some of the most important information you can apply in your position as an RA! (for more information on who these people are, check out their bios on the "Ask the Experts" page of ResidentAssistant.com).

Here are the responses from the ResidentAssistant.com Experts:

Trey Reckling:

1. Don't smile till Christmas. It's old advice they give teachers in grad school. Not to be taken literally of course but it is a good point to remember that you can always ease up a bit but unless you set boundaries early, it will be much more difficult later
2. Be fair and consistent. Students are very aware of inequity. Having favorites or allowing special circumstances for certain people will undermine you.
3. Love the unlovable. It is easy to befriend the students that are socially skilled and communicate well. Those people that are positive and outgoing usually have little problem making friends. It is the other folks, the outsiders, that need extra love and attention.
4. Challenge by choice: no students should be made to participate in what you consider to be a fun activity. All you can do is allow them opportunities to interact. Sometimes you can help the more shy students to meet people by introducing them and inviting them to do things with you but you should not make them feel that they must.
5. Don't take it personally. Students will be students. They will break policies. It is not about you! They usually do it without any thought of disappointing their RA. At the same time, when enforcing policy, it is not about them. It is about their actions.
6. Learn your students names! You cannot develop a relationship with someone you do know the name of.
7. Beware permission by omission. If you see a violation of policies and do not address it, you have given permission. Expect to see more. At the same time, there is a time and place to confront. Some situations may be better addressed in private.
8. Stay healthy. You cannot save the world but you can make one small part of it a better place to live. You cannot be an effective role-model, friend, teacher, confidant or healer if you are not healthy. Get sleep and pace yourself.
9. Light small fires. Students will not change overnight. You may say something or have a program that doesn't actually impact them for some time to come. Do not expect to see fruits or your labor immediately. Do not expect anyone to personally thank you. If they do, cherish it and show your appreciation for the feedback. It doesn't happen often enough.
10. Enjoy your job. You have chosen to do what you do. You have asked for this opportunity. Some would say that you have been called to do this job. It is a very unique and rewarding experience. Do not expect others to understand what you do unless they have done something similar. Take pictures, take notes and have fun. Although some nights are long, the job is over soon. It may be something you relish for years to come.

Ray Gasser:

1. Begin developing relationships with your residents. By having a relationship with the residents, you build trust and respect for your role and they will be more responsive to your needs as an RA.
   
2. Develop community and encourage residents to build relationships amongst each other. When you have a community of people who know each other they are less likely to act out in the community because they don’t want to create grief or problems for their neighbors.
   
3. Encourage residents to study early on. Typically first year students stumble their first semester because they are using high school as their model for learning/studying. Students are going to need to push themselves harder and by doing so early, they will be less likely to fall behind.
   
4. Role model what you expect from your residents and community. If you expect students to study and obey residence hall guidelines, you should do the same. Students learn a lot from each other and if they see you starting the behavior they are more likely to follow along.
5. Learn the names of your residents within the first 1-2 weeks. The sooner you can call people by name, the more apart of a community they will feel.
   
6. Establish the ground rules early on during a floor meeting. By sharing the expectations of the residence halls early and what the community expects from each other beyond those rules, you will be on your way to ensuring each resident’s success.
   
7. Encourage your residents to get involved with hall government. Hall government provides residents with a voice in the hall and this is a great way to create a strong floor community.
8. Go to dinner with your floor. Everyone likes to eat and this is a great way to begin developing a raport with your floor.
9. Ask the residents what they want you to do during the year. Discovering the types of programs that a resident wants to see on the floor will help you determine the type of programming you should do.
10. Have some fun with your residents. This will establish you as a peer amongst them and help you not be seen as just the RA and the enforcer of rules. Social activities/programs are a good way to have some fun (i.e. bowling, intramural sports, video games, shopping, etc.)

Tom Ellet:

1. Get to know all of your residents first names
2. Learn something to remember each of them by
3. Set the tone early by having students confront others
4. Don't be seen as an enforcer, rather as a respected peer
5. Don't compromise your position
6. Create a floor mascot
7. Create a weekly tradition or two (Tuesday night dinners or Sunday night floor standard discussions)
8. Bring your floor to the best three locations on campus (whatever they are)
9. Create a floor "song" be seen throughout the entire building
10. Try and learn the names of ALL students in your building

Gavin Henning:

1. Get to know each resident (more than just say hi) and talk with them, even briefly each week (be active, don't wait for residents to come to you the RA)
2. Memorize the names of each residents
3. Have a floor meeting the first or second night to establish expectations of residents' behavior and floor community
4. Get your residents to know each other (the avenue may be different depending on the community). It could be an informal food gathering, a formalized floor program, a hiking trip, etc. The RA will need to assess their floor to determine what is the best approach
5. Be available for residents - keeping door open
6. Establish peer support - find another RA(s) or former RA that you talk about the job with. Having a support person(s) that knows the job will help as you deal with stressful times. This person will understand what you are going through and can lend an ear or advice depending on what you need at the time
7. Establish peer support that isn't an RA. It is preferable is this person lives off-campus. This person will allow you to "escape" the job and the responsibilities when you need a little break. If the person isn't an RA you are less apt to discuss the RA life.
8. Determine how you will keep energized and sane. For some it is exercise, for some it is a hobby, for some it is something else. Determine early what this is for you AND practice it. Keeping your energized and sane will sustain you in the RA job for the whole year. This allows you to enjoy the job without feeling run down which ultimately not only helps you, but also your residents.
9. Establish regular meetings with your supervisor, if they haven't been established already. Your supervisor is key in helping you be the best RA you can be. Use him or her.
10. Have fun. While the RA job is a large responsibility, it will be more enjoyable and you will be better if you have fun at it.
    
    

You will note there are a lot of themes in these responses. Keep them in mind as you move into the beginning of the semester. If you apply these principles, you will enjoy your job more, and your residents will benefit from a strong community!

Sincerely,

Dan Oltersdorf

PS - If you have a question you would like to pose to the ResidentAssistant.com, experts, you may do so by visiting the ResidentAssistant.com advice page.

Student Issues Calendar

These are some issues students may face during this time of year. This information can be useful to not only be aware of what students may be going through, but also to plan relevant programs. *Because different schools start at different times of the year, I have combined August and September for these two newsletters.

August/September 

• Homesickness - especially for freshmen
• Roommate conflicts caused by personality differences, lack of understanding and unwillingness to compromise or the new experience of having to live with someone. 
  
  
• Initial adjustment to academic environment - feelings of inadequacy and inferiority develop because of the discrepancy between high school status and grades and initial college performance. 
  
  
• Class size, especially in mass lecture halls, lack of personal interest by professors and performance expectations are also major factors. 
  
  
• Values exploration - students are confronted with questions of conscience over conflict areas of race and alcohol experimentation, morality, religion and social expectations. 
  
  
• New social life adjustments - including new freedom of not having to check with parents about what time to be in, having the opportunity to experience new areas, making your own decisions on when to conduct social activities and establishing yourself in a peer group. 
  
  
• Initial social rejections - creates feeling of inadequacy when not immediately accepted in a peer group, or into a social sorority or fraternity. 
  
  
• "En-loco parentis" problems - students feel depressed because of real or perceived restrictive policies and regulations of the college.
  
  
• Campus familiarization - includes becoming familiar with campus, classrooms, buildings and meeting places. ¨ Long distance relationship - torn between being loyal to your significant other from home and going out with new people. Can the expectations of both people be adequately met? 
  
  
• Financial adjustment - involves adjusting to a somewhat tighter budget now that they are in schools opposed to when they were living at home. Students who are supporting themselves have to adjust to budgeting their money also. 
  
  
• International student adjustment - experience a sense of confusion, vulnerability and a lack of any advocate in higher positions while trying to make a successful cultural and academic transition.
  
  
• Family problems seem amplified because the student may either be caught in the middle, relied on for the answer or because they are far away, feeling helpless in helping reach a solution. 
  
  
• Adjusting to "Administrative Red Tape" with students soon realizing that it is usually a long and frustrating process when trying to find an answer to what seems to be a simple question, or trying to work something through the administrative process