Disconnect between students, RAs swells

The final spring semester issue of The Bona Venture means it is my turn to take the reins as editor-in-chief for the Fall 2009 semester.

I remember walking into The BV office as a freshman with two of my friends and zero prior experience writing for a newspaper. Three fast years later, I am going to be in charge.

In my time at The BV thus far, I have seen the paper undergo changes for the better. The changes have happened because of the entire staff's ability to work together and know speaking their minds will not result in anger.

That ability to work together brings me to the point of this column, and that is: why can't Residence Life and students work together to get along and form better relationships?

Let me preface this by saying I respect everything resident assistants do because it is a tough job. What I am looking for is more of a connection between all students and all resident assistants.

In last week's issue of The Bona Venture, an editor wrote a column chastising Residence Life for what she perceived to be an unfair situation for her. Friday night, while speaking with some members of Residence Life, I was informed people within that department were extremely upset.

Why be upset with a student voicing her opinion? I understand Residence Life usually has to deal with students who are drunk at 2:30 a.m., and I respect them for the hours they put in to keep us safe.

However, the system of resident assistants and residence directors is flawed at times. Yes, parties need to be broken up when happening in dormitories and underage drinking on campus cannot be tolerated.

The problems occur when all resident assistants do is break up these things and put less focus on forging relationships with and between other students.

Resident assistants are students just like everyone else living on campus, and they need to remember that. Resident assistants need to focus more time on bringing students - especially freshmen - together and building relationships.

My freshman year, my floormates and I had a good relationship with our resident assistant until a couple of write-ups occurred, and he began taking out frustrations against everyone on the floor.

Once that happened, the floor residents could care less if they upset a person who clearly lacked respect for us.

On the other hand, a good friend of mine was a resident assistant on a freshman floor last year, and the students adored him. He was strict when he had to be, but at the same time he was their friend.

If a couple kids acted out, other students on the floor would tell them to knock it off because there was respect on both sides.

Unfortunately, there are too many stories of experiences like mine as a freshman.

Instead of floor meetings once a month that last five minutes, the university needs more Residence Life activities to bring the department and students closer and create more respect between the two groups.

Freshman floor resident assistants need to be more about helping students become acclimated with the workload and the campus, and less about how many write-ups they can have in one month.

At the same time, students need to be more respectful and understand where the resident assistants are coming from. It is their job to keep the dorms and students safe, and they need to be respected for that.

As I previously stated, this is not a rant against Residence Life, instead, this is a call to all students living in dorms and all resident assistants to be more respectful of each other and understand we are all students who should be on the same side.