A day in the life of an R.A.

Resident assistants, or RA’s, can be found in every dorm building on campus here at Utah State  University. They are around to help keep relations between roommates positive, amongst many other jobs.

Brooke Hanks, a sophomore this year, is one of the RA’s in South Campus housing. As this is her first year as an RA, she said that the beginning of the fall semester was really stressful for her.

“I was trying to help the new residents check-in and adjust to our community and learn all of the policies,” she said, “while I still had no idea what I was doing myself.”

As this year has gone along, however, Hanks has come to thoroughly enjoy her job and the way it helps her meet new people and stay involved.

“My favorite part of the RA position, is being able to take on a leadership role and help others around me,” she said. “I am pretty shy and reserved by nature, but this position has pushed me to venture out of my comfort zone and has allowed me to establish friendships that I probably would not have otherwise.”

As an RA, Hanks strives to create a safe and welcoming living environment for her residents as well as be a role model for them. The training for the position was fairly rigorous, she said, but in the end the position is definitely worth it.

Allison Hansen, a senior, is the president of the Residence Hall Association this year. RHA is an entirely student-run organization in charge of giving different opportunities to on-campus students. USU’s branch of  RHA is actually part of an intermountain as well as national organization.

“The role of RHA is basically to help on-campus students succeed in all they do,” she said. “We give a lot of students a place to go that feels like home with people that feel like family, which can be a huge support when they are on their own.”

Activities like the Week of Welcome barbeque, Ski the Beav and the block party are all put on by the RHA traditionally. The smaller scale activities vary year to year.

“RHA is important because it gives back to the students,” Hansen said, “ it makes living on campus more than occupying a bed space.”

She has been involved in RHA for four years and said the biggest impact she’s seen is how people are brought together by it. As the president of RHA for USU, Hansen has a fairly hefty load to be in charge of. She keeps things running and in accordance to the rules, as well as planning, leading and advising.

Previously, Hansen was an RA in Jones Hall. She has loved being able to give students the best possible living experience there is to offer.

Christy Spencer was an RA from 2002 to 2004.

“You have to be outgoing and like to do things,” she said, “but you also have to be able to enforce and have hard conversations with people.”

When she was working for Valley View tower, she remembered setting up midnight quesadilla study sessions with a live band. Being a resident assistant means setting up many different and fun activities for your residents to partake in.

“You get involved in every element of people’s lives,” Spencer said. “You need to make it fun.”

Spencer met her husband as a resident assistant. They were introduced the first day of training when they played an orange passing game together. After eight years of dating, the Spencers are married and now have two children.

In 2002, she said, a few residents started a run of pranks. One night, they released a sheep into the building at night and the RA’s had to wrangle it themselves and then return it to the labs.

There were also problems with the fire alarms during that same year. Spencer remembered being caught in the shower and having to run out into the snow, in a towel, to round up students.

Burnt popcorn — fire alarms. Constantly. When she was in the shower — wearing a towel out in the snow

“We’re all just kind of becoming better friends because you have to when you’re in that close of quarters,” she said.

“The relationships I made have lasted for 15 years,” Spencer said, “Be sure to treat everyone like they’re going to be in your life forever.”

— savannah.lund@aggiemail.usu.edu

@savannah_lund