#resident assistant

What the heck is an RA/CA anyway?

RAs/CAs, also known as Resident Assistants, Resident Advisors, Community Advisors, Community Assistants, Peer Mentors, etc (I will be referring to them here as RAs for the sake of continuity and because RA is the most common abbreviation for those working in residence life in this capacity pop-culture wise), are student workers whose primary job is to live and work in a dorm/residence hall, and be the first point of contact with their residents in connecting with the larger university community. RAs have a reputation in American pop culture as cops, whose only job is to enforce housing policies on students and tell on them. To some extent, this is true, but RAs also integrate with their floor community as a peer mentor and, oftentimes, friend. RAs (at most institutions) also serve a programming role - they put on programs and events for the floor/hall, and take residents to different larger-scale events across campus (think football games or welcome week activities). RAs can also act as an advocate for their residents in their times of need.

What gives RAs the reputation of being cops? What is mandatory reporting?

RAs are required BY U.S. LAW at all federally funded institutions to report Title IX (spoken "title nine") incidents everywhere as part of a condition to the institution receiving financial aid from the Department of Education. This includes (cw: heavy) sexual assault, sexual harassment, hazing, hate crimes, and discrimination among other things.

RAs are also required to report certain types of crimes on-campus as a CSA (Campus Security Authority), as part of the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990, also known as Clery or Clery Compliance. This includes all Title IX crimes, as well as vandalism, burglary/theft, murder, liquor/drug/nicotine law violations, and weapons possession, among other things.

RAs are also invested with the power to enforce university policy - but they are not invested with the power to punish those found violating university policy. They simply write the report, and their boss (at most institutions, a Residence Director/Hall Director/RD/HD, of which I will refer to them as RDs) or the Dean of Students verifies that the conduct violation in question happened, and decides the appropriate course of action taken.

For most violations of university policy, if the students of concern are compliant, they are able to handle the situations themselves. For example, seeing a bottle of alcohol - I as an RA would tell and watch the student to dump out the bottle, throw it in the dumpster, and then I would tell them that I would write a report and they should look out for a follow-up meeting.

If RAs feel out of depth, they call up to their bosses - during the day this is their RD, and at night this is an RD on-call (more about this later). For serious offenses, offenses where a student is not compliant with an RA and an RD, or offenses breaking the law (other than alcohol, as far as I know), campus PD is called.

RAs are not allowed to leave students alone when in danger of fainting or passing out e.g. alcohol poisoning or overdosing. They MUST call EMS. Not doing this is the easiest way to get fired. RAs do not simply leave a note on the door to check on the resident the next day. This is the easiest way to get fired.

That said, RAs are (typically) not out to get people (unless you're writing an extreme rule-follower or someone that is purposefully looking for trouble). Many RAs may look the other way, even when a situation is obvious, to avoid writing a report (which can, and does backfire). Most RAs I know say something along the lines of "Don't make me do my job, because I do my job well."

How do RAs make reports?

Most U.S. institutions use the Maxient software for residence life reporting. Reports can look something like this (cue Birdflash):

At 12:41 AM on Friday, August 29th, Residence Director (RD) Bruce Wayne was doing a routine round of the building when RD Wayne noticed Resident Assistant (RA) Wallace West and Resident Dick Grayson committing inappropriate conduct in Stairwell 4 of Building 1. In particular, Resident Grayson and RA West were engaging in...

If you're having a character write a report, some things my Housing and Residential Life department (HRL) requires are no pronouns, objectivity, exact time and place.

What is on-call?

RAs are not working every single night. On-call is a structure of after-hours service where one or two RAs for each hall (or group of halls, if they are small enough) has a phone each night, and respond to requests for lockouts, emergency building maintenance, questions, concerns, etc. RDs serve a similar role, though they remain on-call for a week.

RAs typically get to pick their on-calls in a free-for-all fashion, so that there are a balanced number on on-calls per RA in a hall. Thus, depending on when you picked your on-calls, you may get stuck with some dates that you might not like to work. Some RDs will make a schedule, some insitutions will pick a schedule for each RA based on their classes.

RAs are required to do rounds of the building they work in at specified times each night they are on-call. Depending on the building structure and HRL department, this may include outside round(s), bathroom round(s) (they check bathrooms to make sure everybody is alive and well, essentially), or specific checks (fire extinguishers, emergency lights, signage).

What are some fun things my character can plan as an RA, or that my resident character can attend?

RAs are typically expected to be frugally imaginative - they oftentimes only have a maximum of $50 per event, and an extreme restriction on the amount of food that can be bought using university funds. Other than that, RAs can be as imaginative with their programs as they want! Some sites for program planning ideas include Pinterest, reslife.net, and Reddit.

Do RAs have any other responsibilities?

Depending on the hall structure and HRL department, yes!

RAs typically have to construct and refresh a bulletin board on their floor once every so often. Many HRL departments require an educational component to the content on the board. Depending on the newness of their dorm/hall, they may also have a chalkboard to decorate. They can also put up various decorations on the floor to make the dorm/hall less prison-like.

RAs hold floor meetings - these can just be quick check-ins, opportunities to connect the floor, and these can also be over serious topics that affect the whole floor (cleaning issues, or a recent incident). These can happen on an emergency basis, and most HRL departments require these on a routine basis once every so often.

RAs typically have 1:1 meetings with their RD every so often (maybe for 2 hours worth every month), and weekly hall-wide staff meetings.

RAs at most institutions have some sort of required 1:1 with each resident every so often, my institution's mascot is a Bobcat, so they are aptly named Bobcat Chats. These are logged for HRL and other campus resources to refer back to them.

RAs and Information Gathering

Most HRL departments use something like StarRez or Roompact - at my institution, RAs are able to view records of any student that is currently living on-campus, and some related information, such as birthdays, majors, ID photos, identification numbers, emails, mail parcels, etc. RAs aren't supposed to use this information for "nefarious" purposes ... but many do, I'll just say that.

RAs are not supposed to share or save residents' personal phone numbers in their phone, or vice versa. Most RAs use a software called GroupMe to maintain contact with their residents - it's like Teams, or Discord, in the way that it is a messaging app with reactions, themes, etc. For larger issues, many RAs will e-mail their residents, of which they can save (or if the institution uses Outlook properly, will autofill).

RAs are bound by FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to not share information about a resident with anyone without the express written consent of the resident. RAs cannot confirm to a random person if they live there, what room they have, etc. Does this still happen? Yeah, both accidentally and intentionally.

Conclusion