Freshman Mariah Barnett always wanted to be a resident assistant.
“That was one of my goals in coming to Baker,” she said, “To be an RA for a semester just to see what it was like.”
Seventeen people compose Baker’s hall staff with RAs living in Irwin and Gessner halls and the Living and Learning Center. Horn and Markham apartments are assigned community advisers who serve the same purpose.
Graduate Assistant to Housing Daniel Easton said students receive room but not board, which means RAs living in a residence hall are required to purchase a meal plan.
Easton said the financial aspect can be helpful, which might explain why seven positions were filled at the end of last semester – three of which include freshmen.
“Traditionally, residence halls tend to look for second-year students and beyond,” Easton said.
However, Easton believes freshmen are valuable resources as RAs because they have similar experiences to their residents.
“The first-year students that we hired I thought were some of the best candidates that came in to interview, so I wasn’t going to hold that against them,” he said.
Because of privacy standards, Easton couldn’t reveal why each member of hall staff left. He said reasons usually include early graduation, time commitments and involvement in other organizations.
“It’s pretty normal for all staffs to experience some sort of turnover,” he said.
Barnett took over as an RA in Irwin and enjoys the perk of having her own room among other factors.
“The greatest part of being an RA is getting to know everybody,” she said. “You see people around campus but you don’t really know anything about them. You really start to know things about people’s lives.”
On the downside, Barnett said two new rules initiated in August sometimes hinder the experience.
Members of hall staff are only allowed 10 days each semester to go home, which they have to request in advance, and are required to be in their rooms by 3 a.m. every day.
“There’s always supposed to be someone on duty,” sophomore Jessica Sutton, who took over as an RA in Gessner, said. “I think they should be the ones that should be in there and everyone else shouldn’t have a 3 a.m. curfew.”
Sutton said she joined hall staff because her RA was fantastic her freshman year.
“I think that being on hall staff is a very good experience,” she said. “It’s taught me to be very patient with people, and it’s also taught me to be more assertive with people as well.”
However, Sutton said she probably won’t reapply for the position even though applications for the fall semester come out this month.
“I like doing what I do. It’s just very demanding and time consuming,” she said. “I’ve just realized it’s a lot of work, and I believe that it’s a little too much work for what they’re paying us, and I’m not even all about money.”
