Resident Advisors

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Resident Advisor (RA) is a paraprofessional staff member who lives in a residence hall and oversees a floor of 10 - 30 students; they assist, support, and develop living/learning communities through various programmatic initiatives. RAs provide administrative support for the department and the SUNY Oneonta community. They facilitate policies and procedures, floor meetings, conduct peer counseling, attend hall government meetings, and provide on-call duty coverage during the semester. RAs are required to plan programs, attend training workshops, in-service sessions, and weekly staff meetings.

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Must maintain a minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA
  • Must be in and maintain good judicial standing
  • Must have an interest in gaining leadership and role modeling skills
  • Must have lived on campus at SUNY Oneonta

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • The Resident Advisor is a member of the Student Affairs staff who has specific responsibilities assigned in one of the SUNY Oneonta residence halls. In addition, he or she will assume general, and in some cases, specific additional responsibilities for student concerns

RESPONSIBILITIES TO SUNY ONEONTA:

  • Be a role model
  • Be a liaison between students and faculty/staff
  • Take part in all departmental operations
  • Develop community on your floor and within your building

RESPONSIBILITIES TO OTHER STUDENTS:

  • Meet and get to know ALL the students on your floor
  • Assist students to make their OWN decisions
  • Have an open door policy so you can make others feel welcome
  • Support ALL campus programs and encourage students to attend
  • Know your skill limits and make referrals to professional staff
  • Appreciate differences in each other

RESPONSIBILITIES TO YOUR RESIDENCE DIRECTOR:

  • Listen, observe and share student concerns with your RD
  • Keep your RD informed of potential problem situations and all emergencies
  • Support and assist Hall Government by attending their programs
  • Schedule one-on-one's with your RD to improve your skills

RESPONSIBILITIES TO YOURSELF:

  • REMEMBER: you are a student first
  • Try to keep yourself healthy and mentally fit. You need to take good care of yourself!
  • Select your Quadmate/Suitemates carefully so that incompatibility will not be an additional burden

RESPONSIBILITIES TO OTHER RESIDENT ADVISORS:

  • Share responsibilities
  • Share ideas and approaches to situations
  • Understand that the "team" approach will be the most effective
  • Appreciate differences in each other
  • Promote constant discussion of approaches, differences and attitudes with each other
  • Be honest and fair with all fellow staff members, and worthy of their trust

Being an RA gave me a chance to gain new leadership skills and help other students in their success. I learned how to handle conflict, became a resource to my peers and had fun planning social programs for my floor. -second year RA

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