RLS Staff Applications
Written By Danielle Lorenz
The time has come for you to start considering what you will be doing next year. Will you be living off campus, or on campus? If you are choosing to live on campus, have you considered taking a leadership position within Residence Life Staff? Specifically, this means becoming a Community Advisor (CA), or a House Programming Advisor (HPA). Unless you have already been an RLS staff, you are not able to apply to be an HCA, so I don’t exactly recommend attempting to apply for the position.
Do you want to know more information on becoming RLS staff? There are some mandatory information sessions (mandatory in that if you do not attend you will not be considered for the position) in the new year. They are Wednesday January 9th from 10:30pm-11:30pm, Friday January 11th from 3:30pm-4:30pm, and Monday January 14th from 10:15pm-11:15pm. All of the sessions are in Council Chambers, which is Gilmour Hall Room 111. In addition, you can also check out the
RLS Information Package.
If you have lived in residence, you know what a CA is: an upper-year student who is a role model for first year students, and whose responsibility is to aid them through various issues that may occur – be they academic, social, or personal. They conduct floor meetings and tell you about the goings-on within the residence, as well as the greater McMaster community. In addition, they create programming in order to entertain, de-stress, or create a feeling of belonging. As well, they make sure students must follow the Residence Code of conduct, and must discipline those who do not accordingly.
The primary responsibility of the HPA is to plan Welcome Week for their respective residence. This is a long and detailed process (seriously, it’s a LOT of work to get Welcome Week to run smoothly!), with the planning taking place before the academic year ends and continuing throughout the summer. Throughout the remainder of the year, the HPA works with other RLS staff, and IRC to develop further programming for the building. Subsequently, they have some of the same job details as a CA, such as going on coverage a few times a week.
There are many pros and cons to each position. As such, I am going to do my best to list several of each for you to consider. Over the years, I have come to know many who have been involved in RLS, and what I am going to list are examples of what they have told me about their jobs.
Pros:
- Your residence fees are partially paid for
- Getting to meet a ton of people and develop new friendships
- Being seen as a role model by both staff and students
- The convenience of living on campus
- Developing networking skills and again getting to know a lot of people
- Improving your life skills – you will learn things such as stress management, how to deal with different kinds of people with varying needs, crisis management, increasing your communication skills, learning to adapt, and strengthening your time management skills, to name a few
- Working while in school looks good on a resume
Cons
- This takes up a lot of your time. Coverage can last until 3:30AM, and it is done at least once a week, if not more. There are also regular meetings and training sessions.
- Paperwork
- Lack of sleep, developing a love for caffeinated beverages
- Paperwork
- Change in your relationships – partner, family friends – are all affected to some degree
- Paperwork
- Sometimes it is hard to balance your responsibilities with school and your relationships
- Paperwork (there is LOTS of it)
I would like to reiterate that none of these pros and cons has to do with what I have experienced. They are related to things I have overheard from friends, as well as what I have witnessed first-hand. The best people for you to ask are likely your own RLS staff. But of course, attending an info session is also a good idea, as you will get more information on the process than what I have given. I must admit, I have only given a brief overview, and want you to reach your own conclusions.
Furthermore, you can obtain more information from the Housing and Conference Services website: http://housing.mcmaster.ca/<!-- / message --> <!-- sig -->
