RHA by Beth Scally, Associate Director of Education and Outreach

Do you like to travel to conferences, work with governance and learn the ins and outs of programming? Advising the Residence Hall Association (RHA) allows you an opportunity to do just that, and more. RHA is the governing body of the residence halls on SIUCs campus. They work with the Director and Associate Directors of University Housing to establish rates, identify any student issues and assist with the design of new buildings or renovations. They are also a major programming body for the residence halls, producing large scale programs, such as Humans vs Zombies, http://humansvszombies.org/, Black Out (an alcohol awareness dance), Outdoor Movie Nights, Casino Nights, Enough is Enough (domestic violence awareness) and many more. From educational programming to just plain fun, the students learn how to plan, organize, budget, and delegate.

The students put it best when they developed the RHA mission statement, “As RHA is a part of housing, we strive to uphold housing’s mission by being student leaders who help shape the leaders of tomorrow by getting students involved and active on campus while emphasizing the importance of studies for success in the future.”

We start in the spring, shortly after they are elected, with a weekend retreat with our other leaders from the Black Togetherness Organization and the National Residence Hall Honorary. During this weekend, we work on team concepts, learn/review Robert’s Rules of Order, and discover what skills they are bringing to the group; we, also, go to the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) conference where they receive programming ideas and participate in leadership training and team building activities.

What amazes me the most about being an advisor is how much I learn every year, especially the challenges of how to motivate the different students, and work out the contracts and mini crises that arise. As I write this blog, we just averted a major crisis for a program tomorrow, half the contracts for a program, even though they were with the same company, had the wrong date. After a conversation with the company, they were coming on two different days. Thankfully, after communicating and sweating we were able to get it pulled together. But, it was a great reminder about how to never assume anything.

SIU has excellent staff members that are friendly and willing to work with you to help you grow, learn, and develop into the professional you would like to become. I hope that you would consider advising RHA as a part of your professional development.