Community in Residential Life

What is community?• As an RA at Purdue, you will be tasked with managing a floor

or living space for the entire academic year

• Here you will meet a number of residents/students that can come to you to talk or ask questions

• You are responsible for helping build and develop your floor into successful college students!!!

Building Community• You are a RESOURCE for your floor or living area

• You are also a PLANNER, and will be required to host events that build social and other skills throughout the year

• You are a LEADER, so use those skills to plan events get your floor interacting with itself or other floors to build an even greater community throughout the hall and campus

How to Build• PLAN events

• ANSWER questions

• LISTEN to ideas or concerns

• SPEAK with residents

• CREATE strong relationships in your living space

Techniques• Always greet residents when you see them

• Plan interactive and engaging events on your floor

• Post fun and informative “potty talks” (stall fliers)

• Build interesting bulletin boards once a month that attract attention

• Be available and visible as much as you can to build a positive presence in your community

Programming• One of the most important parts of the RA role is effective

programming in the hall and potentially on/off campus

• A number of resources are available to allow a broad range of programming potential

• First, however, it is important to understand the floor you are in charge of

Communities at Purdue• Purdue has 15 residence halls with some key differences

between the types of housing provided

• Different housing types include:• First year student housing• Graduate housing• Married student housing• Apartment-style housing• Single-gender housing• Learning communities

• This does not include the variance in education interests!!! (or other interests)

Analyze Your Community• Depending on what types of students are living in your area,

you need to plan and program accordingly

• Do your residents share the same major or college?• Are your residents all first year students or mostly

upperclassmen?• Are they in a co-ed hall or single-gender hall?

Design For Your Community• After analyzing the characteristics of your community, design

appropriate events that they can use to strengthen their skills, whether they are social skills, intellectual skills, or real-world skills.

• Use a COMBINATION or ideas focused on their characteristics AND focused on ideas you can gather from them directly by speaking with residents or posting sheets they can write ideas on (or other brainstorming methods).

Resources at Purdue• Purdue offers a number of resources for RAs to plan and build

their communities not limited to:• Snacks and food to be delivered to the hall from Purdue• Delivered food from outside of campus (pizza, etc.)• Professors willing to share about skills (interviewing, resumes)• Groups on campus

• Comedy groups• Wellness groups• Professional development groups

• University and hall vehicles for transport• Movie theater in Stewart Center and BTV access• Recreational sports center