A. Hello!
Your question about getting students involved is one
of the age old problems that many RAs face...so don't
feel alone!! As a matter of fact, many of my staff
members have faced similar issues over the past years.
The biggest suggestion I have is to ask your residents
what they want to do. Assessing their interests
is a great way not only to find out what they want to
do, but it will give you some quality time to get to
know them better. Have you thought about creating
an interest survey or some kind of interest board in
your hallway so they can write down things they like
to do? Programs and community building activities
work best when the residents want to get involved and
know that if they come they'll be involved in something
they want to do.
Heck...by doing an assessment you might find out that
certain residents might be willing to host or plan an
event! Delegation is a great way to get them involved...and
keep them involved. Don't get into the slump of
forcing programming, neither you nor the residents will
really want to be there and it won't be fun. If
you can get your residents to feel involved in the process
or actually planning the events, that would be a great
thing and make your job a whole lot easier!
Best of luck!
Steve Crudup
Resident Director, O'Connor Hall
Dickinson Community
Binghamton University
A.
Hi!
- One thing to remember is that bonding really takes
time. If your hall is
all male, expect it to take longer.
I am assuming that you are in Seattle, WA, so you
may want to do a very casual, coffee and pastries/coffee
and doughnuts thing and call it Cafe' RA.
You could do it in your room or in the lobby at a
time when lots of people walk through.
No theme, no pressured involvement, just a chance
to have coffee and chat. If your residents are
environmentally conscious, you could make it a bring
your own mug and have a contest for the weirdest/coolest
coffee mug.
Other low level involvement programs that take little
prep time, and can be done on your floor may help.
Progressive NAchos is also fun. One resident
or ra has the plates & Chips, another has the
cheese, etc and then the Salsa/Soda is in the lobby.
This event can turn your hal into an ant farm--people
going up and down the stairs, depending on the time
and participation.
Let me know if these ideas help.
And as always, talk to your hall director about new
ideas and tried and true programs at your campus.
Your staff are your best resource. Just know
that bonding takes time.
Holly Habicht, RLC
Graduate and Family Housing Georgia Tech
A.
Hi
from University of Houston!
Bonding issues, huh? I guess my suggestion would
be for you to put out an interest survey on your floor.
You might want to list some programming ideas that
you have and ask them if they would be interested
in attending those. Also leave space for them
to write in their own program ideas.
Do you have community bathrooms? If you do,
maybe do some creative advertising using that space,
like flyers or a floor newsletter on the backs of
the doors talking about upcoming programming.
Find
a couple of residents on your floor that are creative
and ask them to help you with your programming.
They may be able to get some ideas from their floormates
without it coming from the RA.
How
about a graffiti wall? Put up a piece of butcher
paper and leave some markers beside it. Pose
a question, possibly about what kinds of things they
would like to do as a floor, and have them answer
it on the butcher paper.
Think about timing when scheduling a program.
Doing a program about study skills during homecoming
week might not be the best idea....
Do you have a floor budget? Food will always
attract some participants. Go doorknocking the
night of your program. Call and leave funny
messages about your programs on answering machines
of your residents. Do personalized invitations
to your residents.
Does your school do intramural teams? Maybe
see if some of your residents are interested in any
of those teams or forming teams of their own.
Hope these ideas help. If you need anything
else, please feel free to
contact me! :)
Aimee
Aimee Zimmer
Quadrangle Area Coordinator
University of Houston
A.
I
have a couple of thoughts that I wanted to share with
you...
1. Numbers aren't necessarily what make a good or
successful program. If you reach at least one
student, the program was WORTH IT :-)!
2. How are you advertising your events? Students
are soooo busy these days. They tend to make
plans to attend things at least a week in advance.
Have something up (i.e. a poster or banner) at least
7 full days before the event. About 3 days out
you may want to do a follow up teaser like a door
hanger or a personal invitation to each resident of
your floor. Finally, NEVER forget the power
of face to face contact in advertising. Make
a point of getting around to all of your residents
and informing them of the event. Make clear your expectations
that they be in attendance.
3. Lastly, have you completed some kind of survey
of your residents to see what if anything they would
be interested in coming to? What are their interests?
Are any of them interested in helping you plan something?
The more your residents are personally involved in
the planning process, the more success you will find.
I hope these items give you a little food for thought.
Best of Luck!
Adrienne Otto Frame
Residence Coordinator
Mahoney Residential College
University of Miami
A.
The question forwarded to me was basically how to
get more people to programs and how to build a stronger
community. First, I would just offer some support,
don't give up and just keep providing your residents
with great opportunities to be involved. I would also
recommend, if you already haven't, encouraging residents
to keep their doors open as much as possible, and
keeping your door open as much as possible. The first
step in creating a good community is a sense of openness
and providing as many people as possible a support
and friendship network on the floor or in the hall.
Ask your residents what programs they would like to
see, let them become active in the programming efforts.
Empower them to operate the community, this can be
accomplished through programming and policy enforcement.
When people are loud encourage the residents to ask,
in a polite and constructive way, for the noise to
be lowered instead of asking you to confront the noise.
I guess the main point here is providing your residents
a with opportunities to be involved, and with your
positive role modeling and leadership you will eventually
notice improvement.
Gregg Stewart
Residence Life Coordinator
University of Central Oklahoma
A.
Hello,
I have a couple of tricks to the trade.
1. Identify the social leaders on your floor
or hall. Get them involved. Talk with
them and do a program that you know they will want
to attend. Involve them in the creation of the
program. When people do work for a program,
they will attend and bring others. If you can
get one great success under your belt using this method,
that will give you credibility with everyone in future
programming.
2. Invite people in person. There are
so many creative ways to advertise programming, and
many of them are very effective, but nothing works
as well as a one on one invitation. The key
is you need to be excited and sell that your program
will be worth their time. People have a hard
time saying no to someone's face and will usually
back up their word if they say they are coming.
The key is to have good programming when they get
there so that you again build credibility.
3. It is all about relationships. You
might want to take a step back and ask yourself "how
well do I know my residents?" The key to
success for an RA is to spend all the time you can
in the first months of the year building relationships
with your residents. When you do this, and do
it well, it will make your whole life easier.
Your conduct problems will drop, people will attend
your programs, and people will trust you greatly and
use you as a resource.
4. Do the obvious. If you see that 6-10
people do something (like watch a TV show, sports,
etc.), create a program out of it. Remember, the key
is people enjoying your program so they think the
next one will be just as good. It might not
seem to creative, but you are building trust and relationships.
That is more important right now then doing what you
want to do.
Hope this helps,
Grant Anderson
Hall Director
Colorado State University
See also Resident
Participation - Getting them to come to "serious"
programs.
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