|
|
| Students don't need to stray far from residence halls to get involved By Andy Elder, Student Affairs Writer Be they freshmen or transfers, students new to University Park are often faced with the prospects of living on their own for the first time. While that in itself can be daunting, a mixture of new faces and new places can sometimes enhance students' trepidation. Some students' natural reaction is to confine themselves to their dorm room or floor and slowly explore from there. If that exploration process proceeds too slowly, students can miss out on myriad opportunities to make important connections to university life. That's why Penn State Student Affairs, specifically Residence Life, tries to expedite that exploration. "Research shows that the first six weeks of college can make or break a student's experience," said Diane Andrews, Director of Residence Life. "Our goal is to get students to make a connection in the first two weeks. For some students, that comes naturally. For others we encourage that involvement." Student Affairs is involved in a host of activities and events which encourage students to plug in to the university. Resident assistants (RAs) help accelerate that, often from the first few minutes of move-in day. "An RA will be around during arrival. We encourage students to look them up, if they don't introduce themselves first," Andrews said. "We think it's important that parents know that there is an RA on their son or daughter's floor who is available to them in some fashion 24 hours a day. For any issues they may have, from roommate conflict to questions about how to get to class, there's always someone available. We have an on-duty, on-call system which is manned by a professional staff member." And, Andrews added, RAs have each student fill out an interest survey. RAs also conduct individual interviews. "Students receive information at their first house meeting on activities during the first few weeks which help them get to know other residents," Andrews said. "There are also activities like arts and crafts, movie nights and just times when people get together and share some pizza or other food on their floor." RAs are instrumental, too, in organizing intramural teams or informal ultimate Frisbee or volleyball games. "Students can get involved in floor or area government within each area. Students with past leadership experience can get involved with that," Andrews said. "And there are a lot of activities in the commons building. We encourage students to go to those and get involved. In Residence Life, our theme is how can we get students connected."
|
Updated August 17, 2005