RHA Building Block of the Year Award Coming Together, but Never Tumbling Down Eastern Illinois University GLACURH No Frills 2016 Ball State University
Table of Contents Members of Executive Board 2 RHA Advisors 3 RHA Representatives 3 Campus Involvement 4-5 Campus Involvement Upcoming Events 5-6 Last Year 8 This Year s Improvements 9 Goals and Objectives 10 RHA Creed 11 RHA Structure and Structure Benefits 12 Addressing Challenging Issues 13 Committees 14-15 Regional Involvement (GLACURH) 16 National Involvement (NACUHR) 17 NRHH 18 Letter of Support 19 1
Members of the Executive Board Even though the Executive Board for Eastern Illinois University s Residence Hall Association has seen a lot of change with its members this year, that has not stopped anyone from being involved with RHA. Everyone kept powering through and working together to strengthen the team. Even when someone decides to take their block away and make the foundation weaker, RHA bonds together to fill the open spot and compensate for the lack of one individual's support making it impossible for RHA to topple over. Current Executive Board Members President: Rachael Johnson Vice President of Community Engagement: Jacob Gulso National/ Illinois Communication Coordinator: Morgan Blackmore Vice President of Administration and Finances: Neiv Hans Executive Board Members from this Year Vice President: Mackenzie Fruend and Rachel Gower Secretary: Kevin Lux Treasurer: Kyle Anderson 2
RHA Advisors Liz Wenger Area Director for Lincoln, Stevenson Becca Lynn and Douglas Halls Associate Resident Director and Safety Megan Corder and Special Events Coordinator Associate Resident Director and Marketing Specialist RHA Representatives Each hall is required to have three RHA representatives or students who attend RHA meetings. RHA representatives are the primary contact between the RHA Executive Board and each hall. RHA representatives are key to the success of RHA because without them the events that the RHA Executive Board puts on would not have nearly as much participation. The majority of RHA participants are the representatives and they are the ones holding most of the weight of our tumbling towers and keeping the organization from falling down. Instead, they build us up. 3
Campus Involvement This Year ROCFest Last Year ROCFest SJD week NRHH Leadership Conference Camp New Hope SJD week NRHH Leadership Conference Camp New Hope Hall Council Training Spring Event Eastern Illinois University s Residence Hall Association is really involved with the residence on campus. At the beginning of the year RHA hosts a Hall Council Training session for all the halls executive board members. Hall Council Training gives each person a chance to learn about the executive board position that they hold along with a chance to meet people from other halls with the same position. The RHA Executive Board also goes through training so they are more prepared for the year. Every year RHA hosts a week long program called Residents On Campus Fest. ROCFest is designed to bring out the residence to get them engaged while they try to beat out other halls in competition for a trophy and year round bragging rights. After ROCFest, RHA hosts a weekend leadership camping retreat to Camp New Hope. Camp New Hope is a bonding experience for RHA and NRHH because they work together to present programs to help teach other residence about leadership and teamwork. 4
Campus Involvement RHA has weekly meetings where RHA representatives meet with the executive board of RHA and all the advisors to discuss events on campus and programs in individual halls. The meeting place moves each week to different halls on campus so then each hall has a chance to showcase the residence hall they are a part of. There is generally an activity or game for each week s meeting where everyone participates. RHA assists NRHH with their leadership I love being involved with RHA. I have met so many amazing people and learned about how to be a better leader. I have also learned quite a bit about myself as well. I look forward to RHA s events this semester because I had so much fun at the ones from earlier this year. -Marissa Damore, RHA representative conference. NRHH hosts a daylong leadership conference for residence to learn something new about leadership by participating in programs and attending discussion sessions. RHA helps out by attending the conference and presenting programs. This year, residence hall leaders from across campus went to the retreat and learned about conflict management, careers in student affairs, and many more topics. 5
Campus Involvement Upcoming Events One of the larger events RHA plans is Social Justice and Diversity Week. SJD Week is dedicated to raising awareness about social issues. RHA wants everyone to know it is not okay to discriminate, be prejudiced, or be biased towards someone. RHA does not want this to happen to anyone and that is why RHA hosts SJD Week. SJD week brings attention to other social issues like racism, sexism, and the LGBT+ by partnering with the Housing and Dining Department. RHA hosts events and panels during the week that residents are encouraged to attend. RHA always hosts the Wall of Hate during SJD week. The Wall of Hate is meant to symbolize people working together to tear down offensive words to show their support of not using these words to hurt people. Anyone on campus can stop by EIU s library quad and paint a brick with a word they find offensive then at the end of the week all the bricks are built into a wall and people work together to tear the wall down with ropes. 6
Campus Involvement Upcoming Events Another popular even RHA is planning is the Spring event. This even is new and RHA is hoping to make the Spring event a tradition. The Spring event is to kick-off the beginning of Spring in hopes to help everyone get out of the Winter blues. The Spring event is going to help residents step out of their hall for the new season in hopes to energize everyone for the rest of the semester. At the end of the year NRHH and RHA works together to host a banquet. This banquet is used to bring all the residence halls, their executive boards, resident assistants, and many other student leaders together for recognition of their hard work throughout the year. At this banquet, all awards from RHA are given out and NRHH hands out the Of The Year awards. As the year comes to an end, this banquet also recognizes the RHA and NRHH members stepping out of their Executive Board position and allowing the new electives to be sworn into office. 7
Last Year RHA Executive Board 2014-2015 Camp New Hope Retreat 2014 IRHA Delegation 2015 8
This Year s Improvements The most popular RHA event is the week long competition between halls known as ROCFest. Members from different halls work in small teams to try and win the most points in one week so they can be recognized as the fastest hall, the hall with the most spirit, and the hall with the most participation. ROCFest this year was an amazing achievement because it was unlike any ROCFest done before. The executive board pulled out all the stops to make the 90 s throwback theme bigger and better than any theme has been before. The executive board planned amazing activities like radical roller skating, funky fresh game night, and even boo-yah bingo. This year s ROCFest was bigger and better than all prior ROCFest, it truly was re-vamped. The executive board did an amazing job planning ROCFest with only three of its original five position filled. This semester, the executive board (with permission) decided to change the structure of the executive board by combining two positions and changing the duties of some positions. RHA executive board used to have five positions: President, Vice President, National/ Illinois Communications Coordinator, Secretary, and Treasurer; now the executive board has only four positions: president, vice president of community engagement, National/ Illinois Communications Coordinator, and the vice president of administrations and finances which as so conveniently been nicknamed as treasurtary. All of RHA wants to test run these new positions with the new structure by establishing it in the Spring constitution revision of 2016; RHA has established a Constitution Review Committee that will be proposing changes this spring semester. 9
Goals and Objectives 10
RHA Creed This year, to provide direction for the organization and board, RHA created a creed. This helps RHA understand the purpose of the organization. RHA Creed Created August 2015 The Residence Hall Association is the voice of students on campus. RHA has a strong foundation in Community, Student Growth and Advocacy. Through Community, RHA creates programs that engage students, challenge perceptions, and strengthen relationships. Through Student Growth, RHA exposes students to new opportunities and experiences, furthering their development. Through Advocacy, RHA speaks on behalf of campus residents. RHA voices community needs, shares concerns, and influences change for these students. As an organization on campus with a large student population to serve, RHA believes in this foundation to truly personalize the residential experience for every student that crosses our path. We are not just another student organization. Together, we reach for a common goal and bring students together by investing in them. We are the heart of our communities. We are their leaders, followers, visions, and passions. The residential experience is not simply mine or yours, together, it is ours. 11
RHA Structure and Benefits This year RHA started with a stable beginning and as members joined and our tower grew, we had to work together to keep the spirit alive all RHA members had to work together to keep the spirit alive. The path to newer and greater heights awaits and it takes everyone working together to make sure that if someone stumbles the structure is still strong enough to grow taller. RHA strives to serve the residence hall students first. RHA does this with hall councils and encouraging student leaders to be their best and give back to their communities. RHA Executive Board Hall Council Executive Boards Halls: Andrews, Weller, Ford, Carmen, Douglas, Lawson, Lincoln, McKinney, Pemberton, Stevenson, Taylor, and Thomas Hall Council Boards Include, but are not limited to: President, Vice President, Secretary, Public Relations Chair, Community Engagement Chair, Spirit Chair, and RHA Representatives. Halls may have more positions based on their hall needs. Residence Hall Students 12
Addressing Challenging Issues The largest challenge RHA had this year was having dedicated Executive Board members. RHA Executive Board members swear in at the end of the year banquet. At the end of Spring semester 2015, five people swore into office filling all open positions and since then only two have been consistent. RHA Executive Board lost four members throughout the course of the year but RHA persevered as a whole. Now there are only four Executive Board positions and all four are filled. Even with the struggle of holding interest, RHA held together and each individual member understood the struggle. When RHA had to address an open position, the Executive Board would discuss with the advisors an appropriate plan of action to take. After a decision was made, the plans were shared at the next general assembly meeting. Even though RHA had trouble this year finding a full board, there are now four dedicated members on the Executive Board and they work together to support RHA so it can stand tall. 13
Committees The RHA of Eastern Illinois University has four amazing committees each with one of the executive members in charge of it. The president is in charge of the Dining Committee, which provides excellent feedback to the various dining halls from students and faculty to help improve the living experience in the residence halls. Almost every student on campus has a meal plan and with the feedback provided from students gathered from the dining committee helps make improvements, group gatherings, and living on campus better as whole. The Social Justice and Diversity committee, headed by the vice president of community engagement, plans for a week long of events put on during diversity week on campus. This committee is a huge part of the success of Eastern having a successful diversity week on campus, by finding what to do, who will be there, and the entire structure of the week. By the end of the week, all of the students that have attended have learned something about diversity and be more comfortable with the topic as a whole. 14
Committees The programming committee, headed by Vice President of Administrations and Finances, plans all of the ice breakers that are done during the general assembly meetings. By doing this, the general assembly gains connections with members of the other halls to plan future events. Another huge task for the programming committee is to plan the spring program for all of residence hall students to attend planning the event, budget, publicity, more. The spring program would not be possible without this committee. The last committee is community service, headed by the NCC/ICC, is responsible for providing small community service events for the general assembly, informing the general assembly all of the community services activities happening around campus, and staying in touch with the community service office. Not only that, they have planned a friendly competition for the philanthropy for IRHA and publicize Relay for Life to donate as much products and money as possible. All of these committees are important for the RHA of EIU to be able to make a significant difference on the overall improvement of residence hall life. RHA established a special committee for reviewing the constitution this upcoming Spring semester. Many members of RHA want to help re-visit the Constitution and everyone is working together to find meeting times. 15
Regional Involvement This year, RHA was involved with the GLACURH region in the following ways: GLACURH Conference, Saginaw Valley State University, November 2015 EIU took 8 delegates and two advisors EIU delegates presented the following programs: Cultural Improvement, A Rainbow of Things Healthy Lifestyles on Campus Full House: Attracting Attendees with Program Advertisements EIU submitted three bids Program of the Year Advisor of the Year NRHH Outstanding Chapter of the Year EIU also participated in spirit point activities by submitting a banner, display, and creating a roll call EIU is also actively involved in the Illinois Residence Hall Association, IRHA. EIU has attended the Semis and Annual Conference at the University of St. Francis. At this conference, EIU brought 15 students and two advisors. EIU RHA submitted two bids to IRHA and EIU NRHH submitted a bid. Overall, EIU is actively involved in the GLACURH region, but also very involved in representing EIU in the state of Illinois. 16
National Involvement This past summer, EIU traveled to the University of North Dakota with 6 students and two advisors. At this conference, EIU participated in the following: Spirit points and activities by creating a banner and display EIU showed GLACURH pride and spirit by attending boardroom, social activities, and other events EIU traded their famous bell clothespins and met many delegates from all over NACURH EU attended programs and went to different sessions to learn how to improve RHA Each year, the incoming executive board attends NACURH with the Director of the Housing and Dining Department, Mark Hudson. This gives the students a chance to spend time with a former MACURH Advisor and NACURH Chairperson. With this time, the board learned about different events, activities, ways to improve RHA. The board also was able to learn about how RHA has changed throughout the years and how RHA can find more ways to improve in the future. 17
NRHH The Louis V. Hencken Chapter of NRHH is an organization dedicated to improving the residence hall experience for leaders at EIU. NRHH at EIU is a very historic organization with many years of experience. NRHH is also very proud to host events like Breast Cancer Awareness Week, which raises money for a local charity. NRHH also puts on leadership events for students that live in the residence halls. RHA works with NRHH to bring leaders to these events, develop programs, and promote the values of NRHH on EIU s campus. NRHH prides itself on sustainability, scholastics, service, recognition, diversity, leadership, and advocacy. RHA and NRHH have a close relationship which can be demonstrated in the following ways: Leadership Training Hall Council Training: NRHH helped RHA present programs, share ideas, and prepare incoming executive boards NRHH Leadership Conference: RHA members and hall leaders attended the leadership conference where RHA and NRHH members presented Meeting Collaboration Each week, NRHH members come to RHA to give a report to RHA Representatives. NRHH members serve on RHA committees Of the Months RHA writes OTMs to nominate and recognize campus leaders who went above and beyond. NRHH announces OTMs each month at RHA and students are recognized for their hall accomplishments 18
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