Let’s admit it: you love it when your residence hall does a Sundae Sunday or an Eagles watch party. But let’s also admit you might have no idea who throws these programs.
The first guess any traditional or affiliated resident would bet on is the Resident Assistants in the building. While that’s half true, there’s also a group of students who work extremely hard to put on big events and do big purchases solely for the betterment of the building. They meet once a week to plan events that cater to you.
That group is the Residence Hall Association. Every residence building, traditional, affiliated, and South Campus Apartments, has an RHA board that consists of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, programs coordinator, assistant programs coordinator, and floor representatives that work tirelessly each semester to bring residents the best programming possible.
In addition to the groups in each residence hall, there’s an RHA executive board. This board is behind every big RHA campuswide event and guides the residence hall boards to success. To complement the hall officers, the executive board consists of an executive director, executive secretary, executive business manager, and an executive special programs coordinator.
“We play a large part in building a greater community for halls,” says Sydney Treiman, the executive business manager of RHA this year. “But we do a lot more than people realize we do.”
RHA is behind some of campus’ biggest events, including Fall Fest and last year’s Campus Wars. They also co-sponsor Family Weekend, Sibling Weekend, and much more.
From planning programs in a matter of minutes to going shopping to buy food and hoping people show up – it’s a job that goes underappreciated.
Many times, when the hall is holding programs, many people believe the Resident Assistants fully credible.
“We get overlooked by the RAs,” explained Nicole Mason, RHA’s executive special programs chair. “One time someone was telling me about this awesome event that happened in their building, but it was actually an RA event. People just get confused between the programs RAs throw and RHA.” Nonetheless, RHA is something that many residents take for granted, or just don’t know it exists.
Treiman adds, “There’s a large majority of people [on campus] who don’t know what it is, which is unfortunate because it’s a great experience.”
With the new semester quickly approaching, there’s room for plenty of ideas for programs to be brought up. If you think you have ideas to boost pride for your residence hall, your building’s Residence Hall Association meets once a week, so talk your Resident Director about getting involved!
Sunny Morgan is a first-year pre-major student. She can be reached at SM848270@wcupa.edu. Her Twitter is @sunnyymorgg.