There have been lots of times where people wonder what exactly that you do as an Resident Assistant. The truth is that there is a lot of things that we do behind the scenes. We do a lot of facilitating and programming that most people do see. One of my specialties that I feel I'm super effective at are bulletin boards. These bulletin boards are a great way for passive programming. Passive programming is a good subtle way to build the community within your area. If a RA feels that there is a prevalent problem that his or her community is facing, passive programming helps gives a point out that problems and some solutions to address it.
Let me tell you about my area a little bit. I live in an apartment style suite. One have one overall building that leads into a hallway. Each building has two floors. The first floor suite are generally studio and 1BD/1BR apartments. The second floor suites have an upstairs/downstairs 2BD/1BD apartments. The students here are generally 2nd year students. They already have their own niche and personal circle of friends.
For many of them, this would be the first time that they lived within apartment building. For my first bulletin board, I wanted to focus on apartment safety. As you can see, I choose to do a somewhat comical image of a fish being fried in a pan.
About every month, part of our job requirements is to redo the bulletin boards. I admit that I was at a lost of exactly what I wanted to do. It was until I was reminded of something. This year, Residence Life is strongly pushing for more involvement for the hall government of our apartment residence. The idea occurred to me that I should try to push for more students to join RHA (Residence Hall Association) or even Hall Government. The unifying theme for this bulletin board was to targets the students that weren't already involve with athletics or with Greek Life. I wanted to show that there were more than just those two to get involved with on campus.
Just in case you were wondering, our school mascot is the black bear. The idea was for the black bear to appear as though he were holding the bulletin board above his head as if a student would hold a banner or flyer above their head for attention.
I feel that bulletin boards should have a good balance of what is acceptable and fun. They should be used to express a point and catch peoples eyes. Especially when we live in a location where doors are constantly closed, I wanted something eye catching. If the board catches the eye of the residents, the chances of the resident stopping and just reading the bulletin board are much much higher.
I'm just really excited about the outcome. If any one has any tips for increasing the community or even stopping to comment about the board, feel free to send it to me a message or even as a comment!
Lots of Love
Poor College Student
