Each individual residence
hall elected a Resident Student Associaton (RSA) president and officers
for the executive board during Campus Resident Students Association
(CRSA) elections last week.
The general duties of each RSA president is to
run both the general and executive board meetings each week, go
to a monthly roundtable with the Vice President of Leadership for
CRSA Julie A. Glover, and delegate tasks and establish goals of
the RSA, said senior Brian A. Merritt, National Communications coordinator
of CRSA.
“The main purpose of RSA is to build a real
good community within the halls,” said Merritt. He said he would
like to see active participation from all 18 halls, for everyone to
get involved with Homecoming activities, and that buildings with geographic
proximity to each other (such as Gardner and Coltrane Halls) would
join up with one another for programs.
“I wanted to do my part to bring together the
hall. The building last year was really polarized; most people didn’t
even know people on the other side of the floor,” said Scott.
A. Beal, the incoming president of Bowie Hall and a sophomore international
politics major from Granite Falls. “I thought I could be the
man to bring everyone together.”
“Our goal is to get people to come down to the meetings without
a gimmick or a give-away, but rather just to see what is going on,”
said Joe T. Hellinger, the president of Frank Hall RSA and a junior
finance and marketing major from Winston Salem.
In recent years RSA has had trouble with turnout at the meetings,
said Merritt.
“However, every residence hall this year has had high turnout,
probably because of the ‘Appalachian Idol’ program,”
said Merritt. “We started out with the purpose to raise money
for the Miller Family, but it’s been a really awesome way to
jumpstart the year.”
The Doughton Hall RSA has a particular problem with which to contend.
Their residents will move to the new Living Learning Center after
this semester.
“I am glad we are living here first because we can get to know
people besides our suitemates and keep the hall relationship once
we move,” said Taylor L. Freeman, president of Doughton Hall
RSA and a sophomore elementary education major from Kansas City, Mo.
The RSA should be a place for people to come to and feel comfortable,
said Freeman.
“We want this to be a place where students can come and get to
know people and get involved in something besides school.”
Each hall also elects a CRSA representative, who is to act as a liaison
between RSA and CRSA. They are required to attend weekly meetings
with CRSA, where they go over what each hall is doing and receive
information from CRSA on their happenings, said Merritt.
This year, each Residence Hall will receive a “mountain,”
on which the RSA will put symbols of the programs and achievements
of that RSA over the course of the year.
At the end of the year, CRSA will use these to judge for the five
awards given out including: Social Programming Residence Hall of the
Year, Educational Programming Residence Hall of the Year, Community
Service Programming Residence Hall of the Year, Needs-Based Programming
Residence Hall of the Year, and Best Overall Programming Residence
Hall of the Year. |
