What’s a college RA

14 comments

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2. It’s an older who student who lives in a dorm, usually freshman (I can’t remember if they existed at my school in non-freshman dorms), and kind of acts as like a mentor and guide. Our RA led freshman orientation for the most part, which lasted a week, and then was available on an individual basis to help kids with stuff as things came up. I think they play a part in the disciplinary process if needed but I never had to interact with anything like that. I actually barely spoke to my RA after the first, like, month except to say hello when I saw him.

   Well one time my roommate and I threw a big party in our dorm room and he came by to tell us to shut the fuck up, or at least not be so loud, so that someone who actually cared to enforce rules about underage drinking wouldn’t notice and bust us up. So that was nice of him lol.

3. Resident advisor. It’s a college-aged (2nd to 4th-year student) who lives in the dorms and assists other students in their dorm with things like roommate issues, safety issues, writing up students who break rules, basically just making sure everyone is safe and happy. At my school they also had to plan dorm activities. In exchange they often get free room and board.

4. It’s a more senior student who lives in the dorm. They get to live there cheap or free and in return they provide some oversight on rules for the school and a resource for younger students to ask questions of. Often they also host some informational meetings, post notices in common areas, may organize dorm events, whatever depending on the school.

   An important bit of context is that at many school students live in dorms their first year or two and then a great many move to off campus apartments, so many dorms are full of new students that might need some help navigating campus basics.

5. It could also mean research assistant. At the undergraduate level someone who is strongly committed to a research lab and there for longer than a semester. May or may not be paid. As a graduate it’s similar but more involved, and almost certainly paid and provides some substantial tuition waiver. You can have this position or be a teaching assistant (TA), an RA is more cushy because you can double-dip and do your own research while getting paid and not be distracted with grading, but positions are typically grant-contingent.

6. It’s a stick in the mud, that’s what

7. Former Hall Director here! I used to supervise RA’s.

   RA = Resident Advisor or Resident Assistant (they’re the same job). RA’s are typically students of the school who are hired by the housing department to serve as a sort of floor/area leader for other residents. What that job entails and how many RA’s are at a school varies widely based on budgeting, size of housing program, etc.

   The most common physical arrangement is that you have a college residence hall (what many refer to as a dorm…but that semantic argument is for another thread). Typically, these halls are on school campus/grounds, and students live in them while going to school. There is usually an RA hired to each floor, or if the building is massive, more RA’s per floor. If it’s a super small building, it’s possible there’s one RA for two floors or something like that.

   The role of the RA’s usually fall into these categories:

   * Serve as a peer/student leader and advise/help residents living in their assigned area

   * Put on programs and events to get students engaged with other students, expand on-campus opportunities, and overall, provide students with a fun and rewarding experience. Programs can be educational, social, etc.

   * Be first responders to issues or conflicts in their residential area. Based on the scenario, they may or may not handle the situation themselves, or if it’s more serious, call up the ladder to the hall director. Some of these responses can be as mild as having students turn down loud music, to responding to a suicidal or violent situation. However, RA’s typically don’t have authority to physically intervene with any conflict, and should call campus safety/police should physical intervention be needed. The RA role in conflict/crisis response is getting as many people to safety in the moment without putting themselves or others in harm’s way. They’re just students, not trained security or counselors.

   * Most housing departments have on-call rotations where RA’s share a phone and rotating schedule of serving over-night or 24-hour on call duties. In this role, they respond to situations where other RA’s are not available, and are the go-to contact if students have issues such as facility problems, get locked out of their room, etc.

   * A lot of RA roles involve lots of decorations and marketing events and opportunities on campus. They are often the ones putting up information and posters/flyers about job openings, course/study opportunities, fun events in their floor or buildings.

   * Overall, the role of the RA is to build a community and provide a positive experience for residents, along with helping students in their area develop academically and personally.

   Typically, you have to be at least a sophomore or junior to be an RA, and it is one of the tougher on-campus jobs you can get IMO. Crisis response is a very challenging skill and when RA’s are not rehired for the next year, it often has to do with their crisis response management. RA’s do NOT handle any sort of conduct or response to academic violations though! Any academic issues would be redirected to Academics, which housing and residence life typically are not a part of.

8. “Resident Advisor”

   An older student who lives in a dormitory and who acts as a sort of floor supervisor. They enforce the rules, organize social events (pizza and movie night, game night, etc) and help students with any rooming related issues. In exchange they generally get free room and board and sometimes a small stipend.

9. My RA told us he didn’t care what we did as long as we didn’t bother him or get him in trouble. We rarely ever saw the guy. Other dorms had strict RA’s but we got to do as we pleased. It was great.

10. An older student who lives in and enforces the rules in a college dorm hallway. They would try to mediate disputes between room mates, encourage friendliness and community through programs and activities, and be in charge of disciplinary referrals in case of breaking school policy. They usually get paid by free room and board and/or a stipend for their work.

11. Our RA at an all male engineering school used to go around beating on our doors at night on the weekends yelling he knew what we were up to. We would tape our doors and put a wet towel at the bottom of the door and open the windows. We may have been out in the country but there surely weren’t that many skunks around campus…

12. In regards to your edit. Not a Narc. Just meant to be the first person you go to with issues. They’re meant to help and keep order. There’s usually one per floor of the dorm. Some can be assholes like with any cluster of humans but usually they don’t bother you unless someone farther up the chain makes them. They’re college students like you are and being an RA can give them either a small living stipend or discount on their fees depending on what the school offers. I never did it so I don’t know the specifics. Mine were usually pretty chill though. I’ve actually kept in contact with one. She owns a little homestead now.

13. The answers you’re getting work for the large majority of colleges, but not all of them. At my college, our RAs were actually faculty members, graduate students, or relatively senior administrative employees. Every dorm also had a handful of visiting “scholars in residence.”

    It was a rather different vibe than having a slightly older fellow student as an RA. I guess they still did “narc” type things like shut down loud parties, but there was much more of a feeling of them truly being “advisers.” Each dorm had at least one such adviser in every general subject area. One year I coincidentally lived on the same floor as the adviser in my major (who was a phd student), and we developed a great relationship.

14. I went to a big state school (kind of your stereotypical college) and RAs were there as a resource – in my experience, they were considered helpful more so than as narcs.