When Issues Arise in the Res Hall

It's October, and that means that school has been in session for about 4 weeks. Now, this is about the time when the honeymoon phase wears out, and residents begin to realize that maybe they actually hate their roommates, or maybe they aren't actually thrilled about their majors, or maybe they don't want to live in your building anymore.

So, what do you do, as an RA? How can you fix these issues and help your residents?

There is no easy formula to solve the problem here. All issues will be different, depending on who your residents are, your relationship with them, and so on. For example, right now I'm dealing with residents who find it funny to draw a penis on every available whiteboard in the building. And, I don't know which resident is doing it, do it makes it hard to blame one person.

And, of course, there's also the spoon-stealing, the food-eating, and the mess-making that occurs in my kitchen, as if young children were living there instead of eighteen year olds.

See? My connection that first year residents are like children occurs literally everywhere. I expect my third graders to act like this, but I don't expect my eighteen years old to have the same behavior.

Not only am I their RA, now it appears I'm their mom as well.

When issues begin to sprout, it's important to nip them in the bud. Have hall meetings immediately. Keep your supervisor informed, and even invite them to talk to your residents as well. Explaining to them what is and isn't correct behavior is important, especially when the issues sprout up. Waiting for them to go away won't work, and won't help.

You're the role model for your residents. Showing them that you aren't invested in the hall and what is happening teaches them that they can continue the bad behavior. And, we as RA's really don't want that. So, have those hall meetings. Have those tough conversations where you have to literally tell a resident that maybe they should shower more. Mediate conversations between roommates so that issues can be resolved.

This job isn't easy. And it involves never turning a blind eye to the problems we probably don't want to solve. I, for one, hate mediating conversations between roommates when they can't get along, but it's something we all have to do. Especially if we care about our residents, and how they're dealing with their freshman year at college. We all want them to look back and remember how much they loved college, not hate it.

And as much as I'd love to turn a blind eye to the penis drawings, I unfortunately have to sit down my 50-something residents and remind them that being eighteen and drawing dicks everywhere probably isn't as funny as they think it is.