What I have so far

RAs are peer authorities, which is inherently a weird position to be in. Having to enforce rules you may feel like breaking yourself from time to time. Dealing with situations not necessarily congruent with your own maturity level. Taking responsibility when all you wanted was more affordable school. Worrying about a missing girl when it should be a worry about your missing midterm paper.

RA’s are students who, after a very intense interview process and training session are chosen to enforce the rules what can and cannot be done within the dorms.
- In order to become an RA one must have a 2.5 GPA, write short essays, have group interview where they are assessed and based on how they handle specific situations that are thrown at them, and then finally a one on one interview.
- “ Its not really an accurate perception of who somebody is but I do think its pretty accurate to see how someone will react as an RA because you know, you kind of are being watched and judged at all times.”

Last year out of 200 students that applied, 20 got the Job, which gives you free housing and $800 a year.

As for your social life things get tricky…
- “It takes a toll, yeah, I mean I found a way to get by but I feel like you have to be really good at managing your time if you’re an RA because its easy to get caught up. I schedule all of my friends now and social stuff. I mean I used to be able to just go out whenever and now I have to think am I on duty or what are my responsibilities or you know if I come back in the morning and I look haggard and I obviously was out all night who is going to see me and what will they think. I have to organize everything. It is really hard. I am normally on duty twice a week and you have to do a certain amount of weekend hours so like, weekends you do 24 hours so I get the on duty phone at 6pm on Friday and then I have it and wont be able to go out until 6pm on Saturday. This means during the night time hours I cant leave the building and during the day I can only be within 15 minutes of the building by foot.”

Hardest part?
- “Time, like in everyway just time, the amount of time I spend on duty but not just on duty like I have tasks I have to do every day like right now I have a staff meeting today at 6pm and I have to talk to another RA before that about this event we are planning and that’s outside of being on duty and doing my work and its difficult doing work while on duty because people come in and ask questions while I am on duty so I don’t do much work then so yeah, time.”
What is the craziest thing that you have had to deal with as an RA thus far?
- “My building isn’t so crazy but the freshman ones are crazy. A girl went missing once from my building and her parents were calling and no one could reach her so that was scary especially because there were rumors that she could be in an unsafe situation, but then she turned up. The other ones I would love to talk about I don’t think I can do to confidentiality stuff, which is such a weird thing. I am 19 years old and I actually am not allowed to talk about certain things because of my job and working for an institution.
She had been missing for three days and I called my supervisor who called her supervisor but in the end we figured it out and it felt good because it all worked out.”
How is working as an RA in a place like New York City different from other colleges in different towns?
“My job isn’t just to be around and have a title its almost like a concierge thing sometimes because its almost like a service parents are paying so that their children will have RAs and security guards its this whole network of people who are there to help and support these kids so yeah sometimes I feel like I am providing a service its different from being a campus.”