The Res­i­dence Hall Asso­ci­a­tion is There to Help

BY EMILY ENNIS ’10

From left: Megan Varga, Amber Bell, Tan­ner Polce, RHA Advi­sor Kevin Hans­bury ’00, Ladonna De’Souza, Bryan Zarou, Devon Reynolds and Jes­sica Barranco.

For an incom­ing fresh­man, adjust­ing to dorm life can be a scary expe­ri­ence. The toi­let is over­flow­ing. Now what? My room­mate is a bully. Who can help me? Luck­ily, the newly instated Res­i­dence Hall Asso­ci­a­tion (RHA) exists to help with these prob­lems and other issues that stu­dents com­monly face when learn­ing to live away from home. The RHA serves all res­i­dents at the Col­lege, pro­vid­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion and pro­gram­ming oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents liv­ing in Wesley’s var­i­ous res­i­dence halls, includ­ing the Joseph S. Bellmeyer Hon­ors House.

The RHA has been approved by the Stu­dent Gov­ern­ment Asso­ci­a­tion to become an offi­cial stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion in the fall, and it will be com­posed of a campus-wide exec­u­tive board with an exec­u­tive direc­tor, exec­u­tive busi­ness man­ager, spe­cial pro­grams chair and exec­u­tive sec­re­tary. The exec­u­tive board was elected this spring and each res­i­dence hall will hold elec­tions in the fall for its indi­vid­ual hall coun­cil, con­sist­ing of a pres­i­dent, vice pres­i­dent, trea­surer, pro­gram coor­di­na­tor and sec­re­tary. “The RHA is there to rep­re­sent the voices of the stu­dents,” said Direc­tor of Res­i­dence Life Kevin Hans­bury ’00. He explained how the Res­i­den­tial Liv­ing  can address any con­cerns or sug­ges­tions the res­i­dents might have to improve stu­dent life and the res­i­den­tial atmosphere.

Although the orga­ni­za­tion was not offi­cially approved until recently, the RHA has already devel­oped a fol­low­ing and has begun to make its mark on the College’s cam­pus. Since com­mu­nity ser­vice is a pri­or­ity for the RHA, the group has already helped with food dri­ves and other char­ity causes such as the Giv­ing Tree pro­gram this past Decem­ber. As part of this pro­gram, the mem­bers pur­chased Christ­mas gifts for fos­ter chil­dren and held an event on cam­pus in which they gave each child a bag of gifts and pro­vided din­ner and activ­i­ties for the par­tic­i­pants. The night con­cluded with a visit from Santa Claus. The RHA also has donated cloth­ing and food for the Haiti relief efforts.

The RHA looks for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with other stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions for com­mu­nity projects. “The RHA is a great way for stu­dents who live on cam­pus to get involved with the local and greater com­mu­ni­ties, and quickly engage with other stu­dents. Stu­dents know that their inter­ests arerep­re­sented through RHA,” said Hansbury.

Involve­ment in the RHA not only enhances the liv­ing expe­ri­ences for the stu­dents but also those of fel­low local res­i­dents. Stu­dents can become famil­iar with their new Dover home by vol­un­teer­ing and help­ing to shape their cam­pus and the com­mu­nity into an even bet­ter place. The pro­gram cur­rently has 14 mem­bers, but with a new semes­ter this fall and a new incom­ing class, the group expects its mem­ber­ship to grow significantly.

“RHA is a great tool, for first-year stu­dents in par­tic­u­lar, to have an easy entry to engage­ment at Wes­ley,” said Hans­bury. It is a wel­come addi­tion among Wes­ley stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions and one that will fur­ther strengthen res­i­dence life at the Col­lege and make Wes­ley even more community-oriented.