While students are busy trying to adjust back into the grind of higher education, a few are setting time aside to work towards a goal for next school year; becoming a Resident Assistant.

Last week, Residence Life faculty hosted their annual application kickoff Tuesday, Jan. 23, to help those students attain their goals.

At the application kickoff event, around 40 interested students were given a link to an application form.

The form can be found in the residence life tab on MyConnect.

It requires a cover letter, a resume and essay questions. New applicants will submit four essays, while returning applicants only have to submit two.

Candidates must also submit a personal reference to back up their character.

If everything looks good on paper, they will be interviewed by all Resident Directors of the same gender and possibly a Resident Assistant from the previous year.

Chris Hardie, assistant dean of Student Services, said that all these types of submissions give him and the staff the ability to see the character of a candidate in multiple ways.

“We kind of look at the applications holistically,” said Hardie, “how well that application came in and what kind of potential that person would have.”

While paperwork overview is the main purpose of the application event, an important objective was to answer the questions that students have about being a Resident Assistant.

Hardie and the Resident Directors led a presentation about the position and what it entails.

Faculty then turned the microphone over to students, answering any questions that the candidates had.

After the session, multiple students who had more questions communicated with the faculty.

Hardie said that the group session and the private questions give the students the ability to figure out their personal needs as future RA’s.

“The majority of the questions come in one-on-one with me at the end,” said Hardie. “It gives them a chance to talk through their situation.”

To ensure that students are being looked after by the right people, Waynesburg University has requirements for RA applicants.

Students must have a GPA of over 2.5, be a fulltime student and have little to no disciplinary record.

There is a rule that says students must have resided on campus at least one semester, but that rule has been relaxed over the past couple of years.

Hardie explains that there are some upsides to having a Resident Assistant that is a commuter.

“This current RD staff feels that there is a skill set that a commuter can bring that a residence student can’t,” said Hardie. “So sometimes we think that is important too.”

While the university has some set guidelines for RAs, most of the decision making comes from discernment of the residence life faculty.

Looking for maturity, responsibility, problem solving skills and other human traits are never something that can be discerned by looking over applications, hence why personal references and interviews are essential to the application process.

Another aspect is that the RA group is a team, working together to build the hall community and to keep the peace on their floors.

Matt Pioch, resident director of Thayer Hall and director of housing, says that while someone might make a good RA, they might not work well with the rest of the staff.

“While personal ability plays a fairly high role, we also evaluate things on how does this work as a team, how does this chemistry look,” said Pioch, “because everybody needs to be on the same page.”

The RA staff list will be released the week of Feb. 19.