What It Takes To Be an RA at Bussey Hall: a First-Person Perspective
So, before I even get into this post, I would like to mention that I am an RA. I have been an RA for 2 semesters in 2 different dorms. I first started at Greene. I then worked for Bussey to help them with their move-out process last year and became a permanent part of their staff this year. I love my residents, and I love the dorm itself. I wanted this final project to be different, and I really wanted to provide an insider scoop of what it takes to be an RA at Bussey.
Let me outline the different tasks that an RA has to do. First of all, we have to have a duty night. This duty night is once a week, and it requires us to stay in our dorm from 6 pm to 6 am the next day. Currently, my duty nights are Wednesdays. On our duty nights, we have to make rounds. Rounds require us to walk the entire residence hall and record everything happening on each floor. For example, if I walk by a group of people cooking in the kitchen, if there is a piece of trash on the floor, or if we see someone sneaking a guest in without signing in - then we have to record it with a time stamp. Other things that we have to do are actives, passives, and contact logs. An active is an activity that brings your residents altogether. My active for November was making hand turkeys in the lobby. This can also help add to your monthly contact log, which I will mention a bit later. A passive is something motivational or informational that we hang on our walls.
This could be having your residents write cute sayings during finals to help boost morale on post-it notes, or this could be you hanging covid 19 information on the bulletin boards. Speaking of bulletin boards, we also have to hang bulletin boards with our contact information. We also hang door decorations based on our semester dorm theme (ours was arcade). These door decorations have our residents' names on them. This helps us to look at their door and know exactly who lives where, without having to go in the office to search for their room number or name. Another thing that we do, is something that I already briefly mentioned, but this is our contact log. 
On our contact log, we write a detailed account of talking to our residents and when we did so. We have to have messaged or spoken to each resident at least 3 times each month, and then we record it and turn it in. If you are a new RA, you will be required to take an RA class. This provides 1 credit hour and requires you to meet once a week. We also are the ones that keep up with all of the paperwork required to move residents into the halls. We keep up with the keys, keycards, and RCF's.
We don't only help people move in, but we help them move out as well. If there are any issues in the dorm, ranging from guests staying past hours, guests not signing in, overall cleanliness, or noise complaints- RA's handle this. RA's are also required to work 5 hours each week as part of our contract and our room and board being covered. Any hours that you work past the 5, you will be paid minimum wage for.
On our contact log, we write a detailed account of talking to our residents and when we did so. We have to have messaged or spoken to each resident at least 3 times each month, and then we record it and turn it in. If you are a new RA, you will be required to take an RA class. This provides 1 credit hour and requires you to meet once a week. We also are the ones that keep up with all of the paperwork required to move residents into the halls. We keep up with the keys, keycards, and RCF's.
We don't only help people move in, but we help them move out as well. If there are any issues in the dorm, ranging from guests staying past hours, guests not signing in, overall cleanliness, or noise complaints- RA's handle this. RA's are also required to work 5 hours each week as part of our contract and our room and board being covered. Any hours that you work past the 5, you will be paid minimum wage for.
This job takes a lot of dedication and time. You really have to love the residents and the overall job. I am pretty extroverted and love to chat. I love to learn about people's stories and I really care about them. Because of that, I think that this skill of mine really helps me with my job. It is quite difficult to do this job without love. This isn't a typical 9-5 job. You work where you live.
Even though we do have duty nights, our residents usually just contact whoever they see or have numbers of. We do have our numbers posted on our bulletin boards in the lobby, but still- Often, I may get other RA's residents contacting me about random things, like their AC, their roommate locked them out, or any other issues. I will get texts during class, or even when I go back home on my non-duty weekends. Usually, when this happens, I will just send them to another RA. It gets frustrating at times, but I really enjoy my job. If anyone reading this, ever gets the chance to become an RA, and you think you have what it takes, I recommend you do it!!
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