Let's Try again...hehe
Have you and your roommate had problems? Have you ever just wanted to talk to someone of authority, but could not? Who do you talk to….your RA? Yeah right. Let’s get real; the people who are monitoring over us in the dorms are less than a year older than us. How do they possibly know how to handle our problems when they do not have that much more life experience than we do? It is nice to think that RA’s are watching over us, but are they really? From both our experiences we have found that the RA’s are basically getting paid to live with a bunch of freshman.
Most of the RA’s we have encountered are sophomores at Xavier. It is true that RA’s can help, but wouldn’t they be able to help more if they were juniors or seniors? The RA’s are always posting up signs and making our halls look pretty, but rarely have we encountered an RA with good advice regarding the real problems. Whether it is noisy neighbors or horrible roommates the RA’s do not seem to bother with these issues until they have to.
I guess when it is all said and done the real issue is: do we want older more experienced RA’s watching our backs or young RA’s who act like our friends, but don’t know how to help us when we really need help? Well, from our experiences and in talking with others it would be better to have the more experienced, knowledgeable RA.
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6 comments:
One of the things that struck me the first week at Xavier was how well-adjusted every non-freshman seemed, even the sophmores. I am not convince that juniors or seniors could do a better job than the sophmores. Sophmores have (presumeably)gone through having a roommate and various other dorm problems, and would have had experiences and knowledge that they can draw on to help us. I like having an RA that I can talk to. If I want to speak with someone more mature, I know that I can speak to my hall director.
I do believe that RAs can help incoming freshmen with adjustments, but only to a certain extent. When questions about restaurants, grocery stores, and fun places arise, they're the perfect people to ask. However, I will not be one to approach my RA with a problem I may be having with one of my roommates. I don't know this person on a personal level and I don't feel comfortable talking personally to a person I don't trust. As far as I'm concerned we're all adults here, or at least we should be acting like them, so we should all be able to handle any confrontation.
Yes, RAs do get paid to live in the dorms, but not to "live like freshmen." They have duties, rounds, and jobs to do. Don't forget about that. Plus, for me it's just nice to know that I have someone older living on the floor who has gone through a year of college and knows how to handle the majority of freshmen problems. Plus, the RAs are a big link to other helpful resources around campus, whether it's your hall director, teachers, or extracurriculars. Of course, how your RA behaves can vary from person to person, but generally they seem to be good, helpful people.
The RAs seem more to be there to keep general order in the halls and to provide answers to questions on places to go in Cincinnati and other things like that. The RAs do not seem to be a good person to go to if you are having a serious problem with a roommate.
Although my RA is not someone I would consider a close friend, I have gotten to know her very well because she often comes into my room when the door is open and stays for a while just to talk and see whats going on. I would feel comfortable talking to her about a serious roommate issue that the two of us couldn’t solve. But this is the only benefit of having an RA. I really don’t think they do enough to deserve their room and board to be paid for. Mine has made friends with many of the freshmen in the hall and so she is being paid to live in a dorm with her friends. I’m not saying that RAs don’t do anything because they do have to plan a few events, but they just don’t do enough for the benefits they receive.
I don't feel very comfortable with talking to my RA about my problems, and he is a senior. I usually don't share my problems, felling, etc. When i have a problem, I just talk to whoever I have the problem with. For example, my roommate could quite possibly have the worst play list of all time. His music is full of NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Hannah Montana, and other artists 8 year old girls seem to like. The first night we spent in the dorms, I discovered that he likes to listen to this while he sleeps. I told him I would let him do it for the first night to see if it bothers me. It did. I told him that he can't play it while I'm in the room unless its so soft I can't hear it. We solved the problem quickly, easily, and without anyone's interference.
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