New Web Site Offers Advice for Resident Advisers

Dormitory dwellers can usually count on their resident assistants for wisdom on everything from calculus to sex. But sometimes R.A.'s, too, need advice.

Dan Oltersdorf, a senior who is an R.A. at Colorado State University, has created a World Wide Web site that provides a forum for R.A.'s to help each other. The site (http://www.residentassistant.com) includes articles written for and by resident advisers, on topics like conflicts with roommates and improving floor unity.

Advice posted on the site has already inspired Mr. Oltersdorf to organize "Pizza With a Catch," an event in which students eat pizza wearing blindfolds or while sitting in a wheelchair. "The idea was to help residents to understand better people with disabilities," he says.

Christian Conti, a senior and a resident assistant at Wake Forest University, finds the site helpful. "When I was starting, it would have been really nice to have something like this," he says.

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Section: Students
Page: A54

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