Hey guys! I am a new RA at my uni starting my junior year and have always thought of myself as fairly extroverted... at times. HEAVY on "at times". Ever since move in day, my social battery has been at an all time low. Now that my residents have moved in, I'm finding it difficult to talk to them or even say hi.

It's honestly unlike me. I'm usually the loudest one in the room, but for some reason, I'm having a LOT of trouble even getting a simple hi out of my mouth. During my opening meeting, the other ra's and I introduced ourselves. Being stared down by 60 of sophomores really intimidated me, and I began to stumble through my words. For now, I've just been smiling at my residents, and I've only talked to one, who introduced himself to me. I hate being this introverted. The last time I was this shy was during covid, but I just find it really difficult to greet my residents. Maybe its the fact they're coed or older and more sure of themselves than freshmen.

I feel like not making myself known has tarnished my name as dramatic as that sounds, and they're never going to talk to me💔 I pray this gets better, especially since we're required to talk to all of them and log what we've talked about. This seems like an impossible task since I have 50 residents. I'm just looking for some encouragement and advise on how to get rid of this feeling and just approach my residents without fear!

New to this sub so sorry if this is a little long. I’m about to start my first year as an RA and my best friend is going to start his first year at the same university. He was assigned to the same dorm hall as me so I emailed my supervisor to inform him of our prior relationship and asked if we could be on separate floors. He said he would do what he can and that was that. Fast forward until now my friend got his room assignment and he’s on my floor. I’m not really sure what to do because I’m moving in tomorrow, so can’t really change floors. I don’t know if i should email my supervisor again because I don’t want to undermine he’s decision. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Is having your best friend as a resident a big concern? Or am I just overthinking it.

TLDR: Best friend assigned to my dorm floor. Could that turn into a problem?

Should I do a marvel or y2k theme for an all girls floor?

I’m curious to know how much yall get paid as RAs? Please include state as well and if they pay for your housing or meal plan. Also how many hours they have you working roughly, whether it be desk duty, On call, or whatever. Im convinced my school is underpaying us severely

Hello everyone, a little bit of background about me I am currently working full time at a boarding school as a prefect/resident life coordinator (that’s what the job title is on my contract) I’m hitting my 2nd year working here and while this job is great (room and board for the win) I’m looking for future opportunities to move up to working in a similar position at the University or College Level (and put myself in an excellent position to go back to college). Would my experience right now help me stand out? I would appreciate any and all advice on this and I hope whoever is reading this that you have a nice day :)

can you guys please help me with some ideas. i have got this huge bulletin board and i dont know what to do. i also need help to select the best paper to print out room decors like is it better to get them laminated or print them on a hard solid paper… any ideas and suggestions guys!!!

Basically what the title says. I'm an RA for the first time and I'm not really sure how to go about decorating. I really want to decorate my floor well and am struggling to think of enough ideas. Help me brainstorm :)

Hi res hall directors

Were you allowed to leave for an occasional weekend if you planned in advance? It's a huge concern for me.

Additionally, did any of your jobs pay a relocation fee for you to move there?

Hi everyone, i lack a little in the arts and crafts department and im wanting to do the weird little hamsters (hamster in pic) as a door dec. they are a bit plain so how do i spruce them up a bit? any tips helps!!

I was an RA for two years, never considered sticking with ResLife at all after graduating, and a year later I’ve been slapped in the face by a friend with the realization that being an RD would actually be a great match for my skillset, past experience, and desire to serve in a guiding/mentorship role in my career. I honestly loved my RA years, but I’ve certainly heard horror stories about what its like as an RD. Can anyone advise?

hi! i’m a first year ra, and i’m trying to think of ideas for my welcome board. i had the idea to do a disney channel theme, where its based on the intro. so “ hi, my names violet and you’re watching…” but im not sure how to put it together exactly. i’m going to be on the 4th floor and the building is called huber hall. any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Moving into my first Residence Director apartment in the near future! Very excited, but I’m a little nervous about the lack of transparency for my living situation. I have no idea what the apartment looks like. I didn’t even know that my office would be attached to my apartment until I asked about my office location: I have never seen this at any school I’ve been an RA for / any schools my friends have been RAs for. I’m chalking it up to a small school thing, even though my undergrad was also small.

I asked for pictures and/or a floor plan if possible, and was told that nobody had that available for me to view.

Is this a red flag, or is it common to not really know what your apartment looks like until move-in? Obviously I’ll be living there regardless and I’ll have to see what I’m working with when I arrive, but I’m travelling a distance that isn’t too far but isn’t too close either. I would like to keep my buying / bringing of excess things to a minimum if I can help it.

I have a second interview and it's a 6 hour day. It's my first time applying for a higher ed position. The role is Assistant Director of Operations. What can I expect?

UPDATE: I got the job!!!! Thanks for the insight!

So I'm going into my third year as an RA and I’m more burnt out than I’ve ever been.. I worked full-time all summer and now I’m going straight into RA training with basically no break before classes start. I’m sleeping like 9 hours a night but still wake up exhausted every day. I feel mentally drained before the year has even begun and dreading RA training doesn't help the situation lmao.

My problem I have is that quitting really isn’t an option. I rely on the housing and stipend to afford school. My family isn’t in a position to help and I can’t realistically take on thousands more in housing costs.

To make things harder my RD assigned me to a room and hall I specifically asked not to be placed in, especially my senior year. My floor is almost entirely single rooms, which I’ve never worked with before, and I’m already anxious about how I’m going to build a community when so many residents have their own space as I work in a second year building. Generally speaking I like my job but hate the housing higher ups have a severe case of burnout and senioritis going on.

To add, last year I've also been told that expectations are going to be really high this year and received feedback that I complained too much and brought negative energy to the staff? Has anybody experienced something like this , and if so is there any helpful advice that you can give me?

Thanks

Hi everyone, i’m going to be a graduate resident assistant for this next year! I’ve never been an RA so i don’t know how the training is. If y’all could give me any tips or just any insights on how training is, it will be greatly appreciated!

Hi all! I plan on doing a theme for my hall, and I know about Rasterbator, but does anyone know where I can get high-quality pictures to print? Also, if anyone has any advice for a first-time RA, I would appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

Hey all! My RA room is weird in that it had two mini bulletin boards, one on my door and one of the wall next to my door. One of them will be for my "where is your RA?" sign. Any ideas for how to use the other one? I was thinking about maybe doing a "what is (name) listening to/watching?" and having movie/books/music recs, but idk if that's too teacher-y.

Hello! I’m a first-time RA, and I have no idea where to start with my door decorations. I’ve found some ideas on Pinterest, but I’m not sure what the typical process is.
Do most people hand-make everything with cardstock? My school isn’t really providing us with supplies, so we’re expected to have everything ready before we arrive. I’m also not sure where people usually print on cardstock or get things laminated.
I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, so any advice or tips on where to start would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Anyone know where we can purchase bulletin board trim in bulk? I’ve checked Amazon and staples and the prices seem crazy. Normally we just pay it, but if there’s somewhere else we could get a better deal that would be fantastic.

preface: this upcoming august I will be starting a new job as a greenie resident hall director, overseeing around 6 staff and a dorm of some-odd 300 students. I meet with staff once or twice a week, and generally keep office hours for residents to stop by and chat.

I want to set my public office space up for success, being considerate of myself, my staff, and my residents.

Without much set in stone, my basic ideas were around comfort (comfy chairs, fidgets when meeting, candy bowls, hygiene products) as well as general aesthetic (conversation pieces, ambient lighting,

I know there's some nuances and subtleties I'm missing so anything helps :)

Any icebreakers that have been successful with your residents? I didn't do one at my floor meeting last year because I thought "everyone just wants to be done with the meeting as soon as possible", which is probably true. However, I'd like to try one this year as I have sophomores again, and I've found it can be hard to build community in the hall because they've already found their group as freshmen, if that makes sense.

Hey ResLife community,

With turn season and housing prep underway, I wanted to open a discussion on institutional mattress durability tracking.

I see a lot of university housing departments struggle with premature core breakdown or fluid ingress because the initial specifications weren't robust enough for high-turn student environments.

This educational guide breaks down what to look for in solid foam core density, fluid-proof barrier engineering, and a plain-English explanation of 16 CFR 1632/1633 fire compliance.

I’ll drop the resource link in the comments below for anyone who wants to use the breakdown for their specs.

Would love to hear how your individual facilities handle mattress lifecycle tracking.