Posted: 05/02/07

Love your R.A.'s
Residence Life has a recognition committee for staff efforts

Kyla Waldron |contributing writer
kwaldron@smcvt.edu

The life of an average student can be hectic enough, but resident assistants have to look out for an entire floor of students. But their efforts aren't going unnoticed, as Residence life has organized a recognition committee to reward them for their work.

Residence Life at Saint Michael’s College started the recognition committee five years ago to recognize the efforts of its staff, says Brian Lee, Assistant Director of Residence Life and Judicial Coordinator. Each year it changes its focus and members, Lee says. The committee is made up of assistant directors of Residence Life and resident directors.

Perks of the job

Senior and North Campus R.A. Parker Manis is one of the various R.A.s who have benefitted from the Residence Life recognition committee. (Izabela Socha, photo)

The committee nominates a Resident Assistant and an Apartment Community Advisor each month to be awarded “Outstanding Staff Member of the Month” throughout the whole year, Lee says.

“Most of the activities we do are small and informal,” Lee says. “But we hope that regardless of size, they are meaningful to the student staff.”

The committee will continue its efforts each year with new members, who bring new ideas to the table, Lee says.

“Although we have not determined committees for next year, I would hope that it does continue as I think it is an important part of Residence Life,” Lee says.

The committee’s main goal is to help make staff members feel welcome and appreciated on a regular basis, Lee says.

This year, the amount of R.A. and ACA applicants was very high, and it may have had something to do with the recognition committee’s efforts, he says.

“We didn’t do anything specifically to attract applicants,” Lee says. “Although it is possible that through the work of the recognition committee, it made current staff enjoy the position more, and they in turn could have either re-applied themselves or encouraged others to apply.”

RA recognition

This is an outstanding staff member certificate that was given to Manis in February. (Izabela Socha, photo)

The recognition committee has staff members nominate fellow staff members. Each month, one R.A. ends up being recognized as the “outstanding staff member of the month”, senior and North Campus RA Parker Manis says.

Manis says he has been an R.A. for three years now, and this year he received two “outstanding staff member” awards.

“It’s cool,” he says. “I received a certificate with my name and the month in which I received the award, as well as a pin.”

He says having the awards are great, as they give the staff something to look forward to every month. Having someone praise you for your hard work and energy is fulfilling, Manis says.

“Sometimes you know why you received the awards and other times it’s a surprise,” Manis says. “For example, we threw a Hamel Prom this year as a social. It was great, a ton of people dressed up. When I received the award later that month, I knew it was for that one social.”

At the end of this year, a staff-wide dinner is being held and awards will be handed out, Manis says. An e-mail was sent out asking the staff to nominate someone and write a description of why that person should be nominated, and the winners would be recognized at the dinner, Manis says.

The categories are “Community Builder of the Year,” “Team Player of the Year,” “Educational Program of the Year,” “Social Program of the Year” and “Passive Program of the Year,” Manis says.

Positive incident reports

The recognition committee not only has staff member awards, but also positive incident reports for students in the residential buildings, sophomore Emelina Spinelli says.

Spinelli says she received a positive incident report last semester for her work with Turtle Underground.

“I didn’t know that the award existed, but I was excited to get one," Spinelli says. "Its always nice to be recognized for your hard work.”

The staff members got together to write out positive incident reports for students in their areas that they feel deserve one, Manis says.

“We really enjoy the energy that the Turtle Underground brings to North Campus, and we wanted to recognize them for that,” Manis says.

The incident reports are written in a similar fashion to negative reports, but they contain positive remarks instead, Manis says. Each staff member writes one or two reports, and then the committee looks at them and chooses which reports will get recognized. The incident reports that do get recognized are hung on the walls in Alliot, Manis says.

“It’s a great way to not only recognize the students receiving the awards, but also getting other students to see what their peers are doing,” Manis says.