More than 200 students applied to be Resident Advisor at New School last year but only 20 of them secured the coveted positions. Those selected have not only garnered a place to live in an exorbitantly expensive city, but have found a way to authentically build management and leadership skills without ever leaving campus. The lucky few have also agreed to potentially sacrifice their own social life for the sake of drunken freshmen and not only knowing, but enforcing the rules of the university. I recently spent an afternoon speaking with two RAs, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, in an attempt to understand the pros and the cons of taking on the job.
Maya is 19 and in the middle of her first year as a Resident Assistant. She heard about the application process in the spring of 2009. Initially unaware of the extensive application process, her first step was to complete the application, which involved little more than “filling in blanks and answering a few short essay questions.”
“At that point, they looked at my GPA and my involvement in other student activities. Then we have a group interview, which is designed to figure out how we work with others.” Maya confesses feeling strange about this portion of the interview now. Since her appointment to the position, she has been required to watch and evaluate potential candidates. “Everyone reacts so differently to the task and of course it’s all affected by the idea that you are being watched.” Accurate or not, Maya sees a lot of similarities between this portion of the application and the actual job which involves living your life in the public eye of a college dormitory.
The role of Resident Advisor was on Marcelo’s mind from the moment he moved into the dorms. “I lived with my RA my freshman year and we talked a lot about what it means to do the job. I decided that I wanted to do it before I even heard about the financial benefits.”
With four semesters of experience under his belt, Marcelo recalls his initial desire to meet people, “I just felt I would be good at the community building. I just thought it sounded fun.” Marcelo’s first post, at a now defunct dorm, was his favorite. “The place was unpopular because the facilities were so old. There was a back entrance through a shoe store, paper-thing walls and a pretty intense mouse problem.” His new building is structurally sound and provides other amenities, but Marcelo recalls his first building fondly, citing its many challenges as the very things that forged bonds between the residents.
Not every building has something as endearing as a rodent problem to bring them together. The job description for Resident Advisor includes phrases such as, “ …facilitates the holistic development of residents through programming, promotes resident involvement.” This is no small task when a dorm is in the middle of New York City, arguably one of the most entertaining places in the world. Motivating students to take part in residential programs has proven to be difficult for both Maya and Marcelo. “Nobody wants to come to our programs,” comments Marcelo. “I mean sure, I didn’t really want to when I was a freshman, but I was sure some people wanted to go. It is like pulling teeth getting these kids to come to our stuff, and as a result it is hard to get motivated to put on events for people who don’t seem to appreciate our effort.”
Maya notes that RAs spend a great deal of time thinking about goals and how they want the experience of living in a dorm to “feel” to residents. “The residents actually have to want these things to happen though.” Maya considers the population of her dorm, primarily upper classmen and graduate students, to be more resistant to community building activities. “They have their own personal goals. With freshmen it’s easier because they are all so eager to make friends.”
As she navigates her first year on the job, Maya confesses that she finds herself noticing the differences between even the floors in her building. “I think there are some floors that are more creative than others. But I think that has more to do with the residents then RAs. My main goal is to create a community and I have found it difficult. It’s my first year so I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Maya currently lives in a room within a suite with two other girls. They share a common living space and bathroom and her two roommates share the other bedroom. Though she enjoys having an entire room to herself, she initially worried that the other girls would be uncomfortable sharing a suite with an RA. At the beginning of the semester, Maya confronted the situation head on, informing her suitemates, “I am not here to watch you. You are my roommates. I’m an RA and do have certain responsibilities but I hope those don’t interfere with our relationships.” A self-described deep-sleeper, Maya confesses that having roommates also helps her with her job. “People come to my room in the middle of the night. My roommates wind up answering the door because they are closer and I would wind up sleeping right through it!”
The effects of having a leadership position can affect other areas of an RAs social life as well. Time, or the lack of it, plays an important role in the lives of the Resident Advisor. “There is more work to be done in the job than any person has enough time for. Anyone could spend every waking moment of their life working at becoming a perfect RA, but there will always be room for improvement,” confesses Marcelo. “I am a bit of a perfectionist, so it is hard for me to accept that there are certain things I will not accomplish. There are some residents I will not get to know as well as I’d like. It’s hard for me to find that middle ground, to do the amount of work that I can and not feel guilty about what I can’t.”
Not only must RAs manage time, roommates and late night visitors, they must also manage the occasionally conflicted conscious. When it comes to his role as enforcer, Marcelo confesses, “There is an occasional incident that could go either way that I don’t document.” That said, he believes in his roll and takes the responsibility seriously. “I do write ups for almost everything.”
Marcelo reports that he personally tries to keep his rabble rousing to a minimum. “The rules are in place not as pejorative or belittling rules, but as guidelines for preserving the safety and well-being of our residents, both personally and academically. Our first priority is preserving the safety of our residents, and that includes protecting our professional integrity; documenting incidents is often not about the incident itself, but rather consistency. The RAs who don’t document bigger incidents put a considerable amount of strain on the integrity of our department and make it more difficult for the rest of us to do our jobs.”
Maya takes a more personal approach to her role. “It’s a personal call for everyone. It’s judging the difference between underage drinking with a few friends and somebody throwing shit out the window. All of the training that we get is pretty ridiculous. If you understand people then you should be able to do the job.”
Being an RA definitely provides quality storytelling fodder. Marcelo admits that while the most rewarding aspects of this job stem from the relationships formed with former residents, the stories he encounters are worth telling. “One night, I was on rounds, and I walked onto a floor where there as a girl lying face-down in her own vomit. I was terrified; luckily she had just passed out, but when she came to, she ambled into the bathroom, locked it, and hit her head on the toilet and passed out again.” The story ended uneventfully, but Marcelo found it to be one of the scariest situations he can remember.
New York City plays a role in the life of every student at New School. Marcelo notes, “The city makes our job much more difficult for a couple of reasons. One, our residents would rather get out into the city than hang out in the dorm, making programming very hard. Two, it is much easier to do illegal things like drugs and underage drinking in the city, and our residents bring it back here; maybe this is ok in a suburban university where the community is isolated and can protect their students, but literally, once you step off our doorstep you are in New York City. It is a separate, clear imperative for us to educate our residents specifically about New York and its dangers.”
“A girl went missing once from my building and her parents were calling and no one could reach her,” Maya comments. “There rumors that she could be in an unsafe situation, but then she turned up.” Other situations spring to mind, but Maya, perhaps surprised by her own adherence to protocol, declines to comment on them. “It is such a weird thing. I am 19 years old and I actually won’t talk about certain things because I work for an institution.”
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