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Thursday, November 2, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
RA's work is never done Enforcer, friend roles not limited to residence hall
By Lisa Moss
Kansan staff writer
Many people who have a job just put it behind them when they walk out the door of their place of employment.
Not Halle Abram.
She can't leave her place of employment and go home because Abram's workplace is her home.
Abram, Olathe senior, is a resident assistant at Gerrit Sellarek Pearson-Corbin Pin
She is a KU student who has chosen to work in the residence hall system and dedicate hours of her time to a job.
"You're always a resident assistant."
Aamir said, "even when you're on the floor."
"This is my RA, Halle," Abram said, indicating how her residents introduced her to other people on campus.
This is Abram's second year as a resident assistant. Responsibilities of the job include working at residence hall front desks and at
academic resource centers, being a role model to residents, and educational and social programming
Abram said the job required a large time commitment.
She works five hours a week in the academic resource center and spends 10 hours of work duty in the residence hall and two hours a week in staff meetings.
"If you are busy, you don't have time to waste." Bram said.
The resident assistant has to be an enforcer, as well as a role model and a friend to the residents who live on the floor, she said.
"The best part is helping people on my floor and listening to them and being a support system for them, an adviser, not just a stranger." she said.
Abram said she made an effort to get to know all the residents on her floor during the first week of school.
"I feel more comfortable confronting people I know well," she said. "I tell them, I am not here to be a policeman, and I am not here
Ron Wasinger, resident assistant at Templin Hall, also has a job that never leaves his side.
to be your mom.'
"I feel like an RA 42 hours a day. When I am in Lawrence, on campus, off camp, I am."
Wasinger wanted to be a resident assistant because he thought that it would help him become more comfortable dealing with people and developing leadership skills, he said.
Waisinger said a difficult part of his job was upholding policies and being a member of the board.
"An RA needs to be perceived as a helpful resource-type person and not as an
resource-type person."
Wasinger said he also spent the first weeks of the year getting to know as many people as possible.
"If you don't know the residents, and you are not around, then you're a foreigner." he
Wasinger agreed with Abram about enforcing the rules.
Wasinger, left, helps Thierry Sahores, Pascal Schluraff and Nicolas Mamler pick classes.
"When you have a more personal relationship with someone it is easier to deal with them if there are problems," he said.
He said if he cooperated with the residents, then they would be more willing to cooperate with him.
"I view residents as paying customers," Wasinger said.
It's important to recognize the needs of the customers because they pay his salary, he said.
Abram said the worst part of the job was checking residents out of the hall.
"You've gone through so much with these people, and the rooms are all empty," she said.
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