The Residence Hall Association’s focus this year is on student advocacy, RHA president Anne-Therese Ryan said.
The goal of the organization is to provide advocacy and leadership opportunities for students.
However, in the past few years, RHA hasn’t put as much emphasis on advocacy as Ryan said she hopes to this year.
Serving as a vice president on the executive board last year, Ryan said she and another member of the board spent most of the year thinking about ways to restructure the association to be better for students.
“We really want to keep growing stronger as an organization and have a stronger presence on campus,” Ryan said.
One way Ryan said she plans to do this is by creating new positions and programs focusing on research and policy writing.
A new program Ryan said she is most excited about is a new internship experience for first-year students. First-year students can now serve as interns for the RHA Executive Board.
Most of RHA’s constituency are first-year students, so RHA wanted to find a better way to serve them, Ryan said. Giving freshmen a chance to observe what happens on the executive level seemed like a good way to get them involved early on.
These interns can see how different areas of RHA, such as marketing, research or policy-making, work.
“We’re hoping it provides professional development and helps make students into good leaders,” Ryan said.
The freshman internship callouts are 5 p.m. Sept. 6 in Teter F206 and at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 in Wilkie C11. For more information, students can visit the RHA Facebook page.
Throughout the year, RHA passes policies through their general assembly.
One policy currently being looked at is allowing C-Stores to sell condoms. Ryan and her peers also look at numerous proposals for new living learning communities.
Ryan became a part of the association her freshman year when she was elected by her floor in Foster to represent them in Foster’s student government.
The next semester, she became the Foster president, a position she kept throughout her sophomore year.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Ryan said. “But there was so much support in the program.”
From there she served as a vice president and now as president.
Ryan said one of the best parts about RHA is the amount of support each student receives. They really want to inspire students to become leaders.
It’s also important that students know they have a resource in RHA, Ryan said. When there are problems in their dorms, most students just go to the residence assistant, but some of the problems can only be fixed through RHA.
“We want to make students’ time here better,” Ryan said. “We want to make sure they have the most successful experience in our housing as possible.”
