University of Evansville Makin Waves 2018 RHA Building Block of the Year 2018 GLACURH Regional Business Conference: Eastern Michigan University
Mapping Out Our Path 1 1. Mapping Out Our Path: Table of Contents 2. Finding Direction: Goals and Objectives 3. Visualizing the Route: Achieving Goals 4-6. Plotting Course: RHA Structure 7. All Hands on Deck: Fostering Collaboration 8-9. Setting Sail: Growing Involvement 10-11. Smooth Sailing: Growth from Past 12. High Tide: Challenging Issues Faced 13. Maintaining Balance: Regional/National Involvement Benefits 14. Riding the Wave: Involvement Growth 15. Making Waves: Use of Regional Services 16-17. Making Waves: National Involvement 18. Rising Waters: Letter from Director of Residence Life 19. A Talk of the Journey: Letter from Advisor 20. Calm at Sea: Letter from Current RHA President
Finding Direction: 2 Goals and Objectives Goal: To completely rewrite the constitution and restructure the entire organization to meet our objectives. Objectives: 1. Improve communication between the residence halls and RSA Executive Board 2. Cater to the needs of halls, particularly those with low attendance 3. Centralize our budget, improve recordkeeping and distribution of funds 4. Change the programming model to increase flexibility and collaboration 5. Improve the visibility of RSA on campus since few people knew what we did or that we existed 2
Visualizing the Route: 3 Achieving Goals Forming Ideas: Using conferences such as GLACURH and NACURH to our advantage, we learned about the structures at other universities and determined how we could adapt their ideas to our university. Student Opinion: Questions of wants and needs for the organization were asked of students around campus, and their input was taken into consideration for the restructure. Restructure Constitution: Structural requirements for each hall committee, RSA and hall budgeting, and programming requirements were all changed through terminating the old constitution and putting together an open committee for writing a new one. 3
Plotting the Course: 4 RSA Structure Hall Committees Old Structure: It was required to have a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, student government (SGA) representative, two RSA representatives, and various involvement chairs of the hall s choosing. These requirements put a lot of stress on the halls, and often went unmet. New Structure: Each hall now only needs an SGA rep. and two chairs: One for programming and one for improvements. These chairs serve as the RSA representatives, removing the communication barrier between the RSA executive board and each hall. The chairs hold their own committee within the hall. The internal hall structure is now able to be adapted to each hall s culture, needs, and interests.
Plotting the Course: 5 RSA Structure RSA/Hall Budget Old Structure: Each hall was allocated $800-2,000 out of an $11,000 distributed budget to spend throughout the year and reported the amount spent to the RSA executive board. However, there was a discrepancy on how much each hall would need for budgeting and miscommunication on how much was being spent, which lead to a decrease in funding from SGA. New Structure: The budget is now centralized, increasing accountability of each hall. Now programming funds up to $250 can be approved by the vice president of area community programming (VPACP), with larger requests needing to be presented to the RSA general assembly (GA). Improvement funds up to $100 can be approved by the director of housing improvement (DHI), with larger requests needing to be presented to GA. Receipts and budget tracking of each hall is now done solely through the RSA treasurer, allowing for fast updates.
Plotting the Course: 6 RHA Structure Programming Old Structure: Each hall was required to put on one social event, one educational event, one social responsibility event, one wellness event, and one team building event per year. RSA executive board put on one campus wide program per semester. New Structure: Modeling after our mascot, our programming took a deck of cards theme. The goal is to expand RSA to more of campus, giving more involvement. Events Required per hall: Three Club events: individual hall events that may be either social or educational. This includes holiday parties or cookouts. Two Spade events: the hall collaborates with another university organization. Examples are a Murder Mystery or a festival. Two Heart events: multiple halls collaborate together. One Diamond Event put on for the entire university such as a bake-off. An optional Joker event to boost moral of a hall such as game nights or passing out or making Valentines Day cards.
All Hands on Deck: 7 Fostering Collaboration Collaboration: Much of the restructure had collaboration in mind. For example, requiring committee chairs to attend General Assembly meetings has led to face-to-face discussions about collaborative events. Similarly, the VP of Special Events and VP of Area Committee Programming have been rewritten to work more cooperatively with the individual hall committee chairs. Additionally task forces were formed. Task forces consisting of committee chairs were implemented to address specific values of RSA including sustainability promotion and recognition. The halls now collaborate with RSA in planning programs and budgeting instead of working by themselves.
Setting Sail: 8 Growing Involvement Rebranding: RSA created a new logo, which represents RSA s new programming model (playing cards) and the seven residential areas. RSA distributed frisbees, lanyards, pens, magnets, and decks of cards across campus to promote the organization. RSA tote bags were hung on every resident s door before move-in containing flyers about UE events and organizations. Student Voice: RSA sponsored a summer conference for student feedback. Here a delegation of campus students identified issues they saw in residential halls, campus, and leadership. Together they brainstormed ways to address current issues, including the first student chosen ResLife theme Purple and Proud: Make UE Your Home. Many ideas from this conference were brought back to RSA, discussed, and implemented. Extra Benefits: RSA invested in purchasing AceCinema (about $1000 per month), a website consisting of movies picked by students. This provides supplemental activity for students during their time on campus. An average of 3000+ movies are watched each month.
Setting Sail: 9 Growing Involvement Participation: RSA hosted a booth during the allcampus homecoming tailgate, participated in Musical Madness (entertainment for prospective students), participated in UE s Student Leadership Conference 2018, and participated in the Big Man On Campus philanthropy pageant for breast cancer awareness. Collaborative Events: Residential areas now put on events with other organizations on campus. This gets more of campus involved. A collaboration with the Game Player s Society led to a 12-hour multi-phase game night. An environmental murder mystery was put on as well, with the Environmental Concerns Organization. Members have also collaborated with International Club to highlight different cultures on campus with an International Bazaar.
Smooth Sailing: 10 Growth from Past Constitutional Unity: Each hall used to have their own building constitutions within the overarching RSA constitution. This lead to organization and communication issues. Now all halls are united under one RSA constitution, allowing for more clarity and structure. Hall Improvements: Since the constitutional rewrite, the Director of Housing Improvements (DHI) has streamlined the process for requesting and acquiring improvements. This ensures that residents have their needs met in a timely fashion. Now items such as speakers, irons, TVs, vacuums, whiteboards, air fresheners, ice scoop, pool equipment have been requested.
Smooth Sailing: 11 Growth from Past Programming: Past: The record keeping for past events was essentially nonexistent. The attendance at these events averaged around 8 people. Two campus wide events, Winter Whispers (100 people; $3500) and Halloween Bash (90 people; $1500) happened each year Now: RSA put on a campus event, Tacos and Tie-Dye (154 people; $1000), the first week of school. T-Shirts with RSA s logo to be tie-dyed were given out and tacos were provided to welcome students back to campus. The Great Ace Bake-Off (37 people; $50) was the first campus wide program put on by an individual hall. Creative ingredients were provided to make desserts to be judged by ResLife. RSA, as a hall sponsored program, put on the campus s first ever comic con ($150). There were 10 tables, competitions, and prizes. Other all campus events that are currently planned include a Superbowl Showdown ($750) and a Build-a-Bear Event with over a hundred bears for residents to build. One of our halls had 5 events in one semester with at least half their hall in attendance of each of their events. Other halls averaged 3-4 events per semester with an attendance of 20+ people.
High Tide: 12 Challenging Issues Faced Adopt-a-Hall Program: Our all male dorm struggled to form a committee, despite the lower amount of people needed to run a committee. This issue was partially due to fraternity recruitment early in the semester, causing many to leave the building or not be involved is residence life due to their large commitment to their fraternities. To solve this issue, the adopt-a-hall program was put in place to provide the hall with programming and improvements until the hall is able to coordinate these on their own. Hall Closed: One of our halls was closed to provide offices to staff during the remodeling of an academic building. Residents of this hall were integrated into others and allowed to collaborate with their new hall committees, which was easier to transition with the new programming model.
Maintaining Balance: 13 Regional/NACURH Involvement Benefits Networking: Networking with other universities occurred as well, including group chats on Facebook. These group chats include conversations about programming and leadership between students involved in ResLife from across the continent. Communication with other universities has helped us figure out that we needed to undergo a restructure. We have returned the favor by helping multiple institutions within GLACURH by sharing our experiences. Programming: Programming ideas for stress relief and leadership were brought back from conferences to help residence on campus. Bigger Picture: Our increasing involvement on the regional/nacurh level has helped us to see the importance of RSA and strive to create a vibrant and memorable experience for all residents.
Riding the Waves: 14 Regional Involvement Programs: Historically, only one presentation had been given by members of RSA at conferences. As of GLACURH RLC 2017, six programs were presented. These include one on diversity, two on recognition, and three on creative programming. Delegates: Number sent increased by 50% Information Brought Back: Stress relief techniques, how to be an effective leader on campus, RSA structure approaches, effective budgeting, approaches for getting to know different members and making them feel valued, and promotion techniques. Conferences Attended: GLACURH RBC 2016 GLACURH RLC 2016: 6 delegates GLACURH RBC 2017 NACURH 2017: 9 delegates GLACURH RLC 2017: 9 delegates
Making Waves: 15 Use of Regional Services Conferences Hosted: GLACURH RLC 1996 Bids Submitted: First Year Experience OTY 2017 NCC OTY 2017 Advisor OTY 2017 Student OTY 2017 Finalist: Student Staff Member OTY 2017 RHA President OTY 2017 Communication with other Schools: Our RSA has been in communication with the nearby University of Southern Indiana. We have been exchanging ideas on how to improve both our RSA and their RHA.
Making Waves: 16 NACURH Involvement OTMS: The campus went from submitting one OTM within the last 10 years to submitting 10-20 per month. Use of this service allows for recognition of students and organizations and getting more people on campus involved with RSA. Communication across NACURH: President Tyler has begun to attend regional President roundtables. We are also actively working to encourage members to join GLACURH and NACURH task forces and committees. NRHH: We are in the process of looking into getting an NRHH. However, due to the small size of campus, there is currently no NRHH implemented.
Making Waves: 17 NACURH Involvement Programs: UE increased the number of programs presented from 0 to 5 with topics including active listening, restructure, stress management, building trust, and sustainability, including one Top 50 Program at NACURH 2017. Spirit: With a flag and clothespins for exchanging in hand, we shared our school spirit with other universities. Our intangible spirit was demonstrated through CC positively representing UE in boardroom and delegates getting involved in as many breakout sessions, philanthropy events, entertainment options, and social opportunities as possible. Delegates: UE is a very small school with limited financial and staffing resources, and therefore cannot attend every NACURH conference. However, due to the proximity of Purdue and increased dedication to worldwide networking and idea sharing, UE was able to send 9 delegates to NACURH 2017.
Rising Waters 18
A Tale of the Journey 19
Calm at Sea 20
Images Cited: AlexZaitsev. Blue Ocean Wave. Creative Market, creativemarket.com/alexzaitsev/528041-blue- Ocean-Wave. Ater FX0306: Underwater ocean waves ripple and flow with light rays. Storyblocks, www.videoblocks.com/video/water-fx0306- underwater-ocean-waves-ripple-and-flow-with-lightrays-loop-8je11y7. Beautiful big wave - the sun is wet. Wallpapermania.eu, www.wallpapermania.eu/wallpaper/beautiful-bigwave-the-sun-is-wet. Ocean Blue Background: The Big. Wallpaperset, wallpaperset.com/ocean-blue-background. All images containing people and the RSA logo are property of UE s RSA