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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Alright. Welcome back to Spartan orientation station. On this week's episode, we will be discussing all things resident assistant or RAs, intercultural aids, otherwise known as ICAs, and other residence hall staff. I am your host today. My name is Laurel McGrity.
Speaker 2:I am a current graduate assistant with the NSO office, but I also work as an assistant community director or ACD during the academic year. So I am actually the one that supervises, RAs and also provides assistant to ICAs. But I'm currently here joined with four lovely, residential student leaders as, residents education housing staff likes to, refer to RAs and ICAs. So I'm gonna have them, just quickly introduce themselves.
Speaker 3:Hi. I'm Ava. I'm an RA in ACRES. I'm also currently an orientation intern at NSO.
Speaker 4:Hi. I'm Mia, and I am currently an RA in Acres Hall.
Speaker 5:Hello. My name is Elijah, and I'm also an RA at Acres Hall.
Speaker 6:Hi. My name is Timon, and I'm currently an RA at the apartments, but I was an ICA in South Neighborhood last year.
Speaker 2:Alright. Thank you all so much for introducing yourselves. So we're just gonna go ahead and get started with our first question. Would one or several of you like to define what an ICA or intercultural aid is?
Speaker 6:Well, so the ICA, as you said, stands for intercultural aid. It's part of the MREL, ICA program and MOSAIC, the Multicultural Unity Center. Ideally, what an ICA does is kind of support an RA in building an environment on their floors and dorms, which promotes learning and learning through differences amongst people. We have different events that we conduct on campus to kind of bring people together and essentially also be friends to people who really have trouble finding their purpose on campus. So that's kind of what an ICA does.
Speaker 6:We work with various campus partners to ensure that we build that environment properly and in time for everybody else.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much, Daman. Would somebody else like to speak to what an RA is or resident assistant?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I can talk about that. An RA is someone that is in your dorm hall and on your floor, and this is someone that's a resource to you. They're in charge of your wing of the floor. And basically, they're there to help you if you have maybe roommate conflicts or if you have an issue in the dorm, if you have any questions about campus.
Speaker 4:They have a lot of resources, especially at MSU. We have so many resources that you can use, depending on what issues you may be having or any questions that you have. And it's just someone there to support you. But it's also important to remember that as an RA, we're also humans and students first. So to give us grace as we give you grace as well as we're learning throughout the year would be great.
Speaker 3:I think something else an RA does is we hold a lot of events. I think we hold pretty much monthly events Yeah. On our floor or sometimes in tandem with other floors, maybe even with our whole building, where we're just trying to do some community building, try to give everyone an opportunity to get to know each other on the floor. I remember as a freshman at MSU, I was able to, like, gather a lot of friends from those events. I met so many different people.
Speaker 3:Definitely a lot of fun with those events.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Certainly. I can back that up by adding to the fact that they're they hold these events, and it's a very great place to find new friends as especially in your freshman year, you're typically placed into a building that is housed by also a bunch of other freshmen. And so these are people that are also looking for communities who don't have cliques yet, and it's a wonderful place because I remember that one time I already had a basketball event. I mean and that one was something that a bunch of friends just met up, and then we went to play basketball and then exchanged numbers, and we became good friends.
Speaker 5:And we're still friends to this day. And so it is certainly a good place to go visit your RA events because they put a lot of work into that.
Speaker 3:Very true.
Speaker 2:Yeah. As somebody who supervises RAs, I can definitely say a lot of thought and intentionality goes behind these programs. And, like, it's fun. You can sometimes get free food or, like, free, like, crafting items to, like, decorate your dorm with. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just, a really awesome opportunity to do some community building.
Speaker 6:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So I guess, if one or two of you could speak to what is unique about the ICA role, and maybe how does it differ a bit from the RA role?
Speaker 6:So I think something to start off, that is unique about the ICA role is that most people don't know what it stands for. I think what sets it apart is the idea of having different engaged learning opportunities. These engaged learning opportunities can stand for various various things. One of the pillars of our program is our weekly roundtable discussions where we often host students to come by and have these dialogues on relevant social issues or even just, you know, dialogues on navigating Carl's life because it gets really difficult sometimes. We don't like to be an educator.
Speaker 6:We like being someone who facilitates conversation, more like, you know, asking the right questions and expecting other people or participants to be the ones who answer those questions. Something else that we also like to do is purposeful interactions where we try and check up on residents. So we just knock on to their doors and introduce ourselves, tell them that we live in the same floor as you, we share a space with the RA, we work with them, and we are here for you and kind of check-in again and do all of those lovely things with them. A lot of times I've made some really good friends doing those purposeful interactions where we sometimes even grab lunch or dinner or just go and play basketball outside as Izzy was saying. We also try and support RAs with events because as we all know, RAs put a lot of work in these events, and they always appreciate the support.
Speaker 6:And it's good to always work together with them. So that's something that I believe of stands out and makes us unique.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. And then I think something else to kind of, like, note about the difference between an RA and an ICA, and this will kind of tie perfectly into the next question. But RAs, serve in, like, an on call or duty capacity. So if something is happening between the hours of 7PM and 7AM, They're there to support you.
Speaker 2:Whereas an ICA, like, they aren't they don't serve in that duty capacity. But speaking of duty, how do residents contact RAs in emergency after hour situations?
Speaker 3:So we actually have a special duty phone that we pick up every night just before seven. Make sure to turn it on at 7PM. And we're available until 7AM for those emergency situations. Those phone numbers are always posted in the dorm halls, pretty much at the beginning and at least in ACRES. It's definitely, right by the elevator doors pretty much.
Speaker 3:And they have those posted throughout.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And the number should also be in your RA's door on a little sign. So you can always look there.
Speaker 2:And then kind of thinking about, like, duty response. And I think someone had mentioned it earlier that RA's will help support residents as they may be navigating conflict. So can any of you maybe speak to how you handle conflicts between residents, or between like roommates?
Speaker 5:Yeah. So resident assistants, as our host wonderfully stated, are assistants that help the residents. And so you are a resident on our floor and therefore we are there to mediate any difficulties that you may be facing between whether it's you, a roommate, or just something campus wide that you're struggling to deal with or a friend. And so, for example, should you find yourself at odds with your roommate such as, oh, my my roommate is not clean and I'm very clean and they bring people over late at night and I'm trying to go to bed. These are all situations that you would want to contact your RA for.
Speaker 5:So you don't need to panic. We are very friendly, and, our goal is to make sure that you feel secure that we are going to handle your situation well enough. And so the first step typically is just to call the duty phone or if you're you could just walk up to your RA's door and just give a knock, have a conversation with them, and they'll be they'll be welcoming or they'll book an appointment with you like, hey. I'm free this time. What time works best for you?
Speaker 5:And then you have a sit down to communicate about what you want to do about your situation. If, should this situation be something that you cannot mediate between yourselves, but the other party needs to be present, it's something that we can just pull you guys together into our office or into, like, the RA's room or somewhere quiet that we decided to have together. And then we just converse about how best to sort differences out because our goal is to make sure that everyone here is, like, they feel belonged and having an inclusive environment such such that everybody's able to thrive at MSU. And so our goal firsthand is to make sure that your your time at MSU is very fruitful in the dorms and that you're able to feel at peace in your own home.
Speaker 3:I think something else to note is that we also do roommate agreement contracts with one another. Those are something that are it's mutually done between roommates. Everyone is in attendance, and the RA is somewhat of like a mediator in that situation. Just kind of double checking with everyone how they're feeling about living together, what the expectations are. I think my biggest recommendation as an RA speaking with residents is take it seriously, maybe talk through some of those points with each other before you have that roommate agreement meeting.
Speaker 3:And it should potentially help prevent some of those silly little conflicts that happen maybe about cleaning, all of that stuff, just those expectations. Yeah.
Speaker 5:And those roommate agreements is probably one of the best places to make document as much as you can because typically we might be like, oh, we've been buddies since we were kindergarten even. Some people go that way back. But then we have this preconception that they were always this cool. But one thing that's worth noting is the fact that you haven't lived with that person. And so you don't know how they are in their rooms.
Speaker 5:And these situations should be well documented between you, your RA, and your roommate so that no surprises come up, you guys are very well aware of your responsibilities and the things that you've set within yourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think all those are really great points. Like, I think as residential, like, education, housing, and service services staff, we're all very aware that, like, this is a very major, like, transition period for students. And so, yeah, just kind of, like, navigating, like, the messiness that is sometimes, like, living with somebody either that you know or you don't know. So I thank you all for, like, speaking to that.
Speaker 2:So our next question, what do you love most about being an RA or an ICA?
Speaker 5:Yeah. I really enjoyed the connections that you get to build with your residents, such as the especially through the, floor events. I had this floor event during the Lions game, and if you were watching that, that was that was quite the commotion. But the you got to meet these really passionate people who are very into some of the things that you're into. And then you see each other in the hallway and end up like, hey, easy or this and then this.
Speaker 5:Did you know that I just passed my my calc quiz? And I was like, alright. Great, bro. And then we, like, we even had conversations about the games that we were playing. And sometimes we even like, we we plan to even have events where they would come to my room and then we play video games.
Speaker 5:And and just these little things, like, you you make friends, and those are pockets of joy in the job that really, really make it worthwhile.
Speaker 4:Yeah. That's great. And I kind of agree with what Izzy was saying. Being an RA and getting to meet so many residents and being able to help them throughout the year is probably the best part of the job. Giving them resources when they're struggling or just being someone that will listen to them and help them, give them advice, especially working in a first year freshman dorm.
Speaker 4:A lot of these experience are first for them. And as someone who's gonna be a senior this year, I've already gone through them and I can give them great advice and send them to who can help them the most. And just being able to meet so many people and be that resource for them has been really great.
Speaker 3:I think something that I've really enjoyed post my first year of being an RA was hearing from residents after the fact. I've gotten a couple emails here and there just from residents that I've had, and they just have, like, thanked me for all the work I've done. And, like, they noticed that I did events even if they didn't attend them. I just I love my residents. I'm very grateful to have met so many wonderful people in this role.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thank you all so much for sharing. I think kind of like a common theme that ties all of you together is just this, like, willingness to connect, whether it's with knowledge or people, kind of like a a little bit of both. And then I know this is something that we touched on a little bit earlier when we were talking about what an RA is, but let's, like, delve a little bit more into, like, what types of programming and events, do you throw in the hall?
Speaker 4:We do a lot of different events. It kinda depends on the time of year. The most basic ones is, basic community building. We can do things like game nights, movie nights. We've done craft nights.
Speaker 4:We've done we've done hall wide events where we'll pretend that the rooms are carnivals, we'll blow up games, that we give out free food, a lot of free merch. We have campus organizations come on and give out things to all of our residents. So those are the big ones. But when you do ones with just your floor or just your side of the floor, you know, a little more intimate, you have a coloring party. I've done a potting party with little, succulents, which was a really big hit.
Speaker 4:Little things like that just to get you to, you know, know who your RA is so I know I can get to know you. And also learn who's on your floor and have fun and do something besides just sitting in your room or going to the dining hall. You get a new experience.
Speaker 6:A couple of times each semester, the ICA program kind of, takes people for, a community service nearby. So there are these urban farms in Detroit and the Greater Lansing area that we try and go to. And, yeah, those are pretty nice events to kind of build community and obviously also respect the people who really, you know, who spend so much time in cultivating these crops nearby. So that's what we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think it's just, like, so amazing to see the different type of programming that happens. And also just, like, in different halls, different neighborhoods, different communities, there's really kind of, like, no limit to, like, what what we're able to do, which is really exciting. And I also think I can also speak to the side of programming from a professional staff side. They're usually, pro staff will also organize kind of like neighborhood wide events.
Speaker 2:I know South has had, like, their South Carnival, in the spring semester. And I work in Brody neighborhood. We have I'm not allowed to, announce the theme yet, but we have a very exciting neighborhood wide Brody event for students to engage in, during, kinda like that fall welcome weekend, like, before classes start. So, yeah, it's just really a time to, like, engage, get connected with resources, learn, have fun. And I think that's, yeah, just like a really cool thing as a supervisor to see all of you do.
Speaker 2:So then kind of tying into this, like, idea of fostering a sense of community in the residence hall, how do you do that?
Speaker 4:I think a really important thing is just to note that a lot of people are coming into MSU not knowing what college is, especially being freshmen. You know, they're like I said, there's a lot of firsts happening this year. So trying to make them feel as welcome possible, as we've all said, doing these events has been really helpful, think. Getting them out of their rooms, learning who's on their floor, making friends, telling them about what events will be happening throughout campus, being just someone who will smile to them in the hall, ask how their day is going, just making them feel comfortable in this new place until this new place feels like home and just giving them a sense of what MSU kinda has to offer.
Speaker 3:I think another thing that, RAs do at least, I'm not a % sure on ICAs, but we have our doors open for those first couple of weeks for I don't remember how many hours, but we try to have our doors open if we're studying, hanging out, just so our residents can kinda see that we're here for them, and, you know, if they feel like maybe they can come say hi.
Speaker 6:I think, with my experiences in ICA or even watching other RAs do their thing, I've often learned the idea of being a good listener is so important. I think if I were to particularly highlight a trait that I've seen really helps build our communities to, of course, be outgoing and be willing to make that first step with those residents because I feel a lot of times the residents who are new to college will often be hesitant to go out of their room and make those friendships. So we don't really have these events where we keep our doors open. I think we more like we just directly go and start knocking on people's doors. A lot of times people don't take it very well, but the ones who do end up becoming real friends and then once again I think that's kind of where we learn how to listen more than talk and kind of just show them that we are there for them.
Speaker 6:And of course, as Mia was saying, we always like to have a smile on our face and tell them that, you know, we're not here to reprimand you in any way. We're not like a leader or an educator or anything. We're just people like you and we want you to succeed and we want you to be a part of your successes. And if you ever feel like you're not doing a good job, always know that you can talk to us and we can connect you with the infinite resources that MSU has to offer for everyone going through anything.
Speaker 5:Yeah. And just to add to what Damon was saying, there's a fact that, like, just we make it a point. It's not just to check off a box or anything. We generally want to make sure that you feel like you belong. And so sometimes we do go around knocking on doors just to say, like, hey.
Speaker 5:How are doing? Just check up on you. And some some some residents, like, I I'm good. Alright. Can you get out of here?
Speaker 5:Sure. But some sometimes, you meet you meet a student that's actually really looking forward to just talking to you, and they'll say, and then they'll tell you about the day and then how classes are going. And, hey, can you I actually had a a resident one time ask me about, can I help them with their next quiz for calc and stuff like that? So they give an update and it's just like or sometimes they just share some news with you that they they're trying to tell somebody, but they don't have somebody to tell to. And it's like, okay.
Speaker 5:I'm I'm excited for you and celebrate with you. So all things just said is truly, truly true that we're students just like you. We have no desire to reprimand you or put you down. We're we aim to help you be successful at MSU. So in whatever way and capacity that looks like, let us know.
Speaker 5:We try to help you with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think that was an amazing note to end on. I think all of you, like, are fantastic community builders. And it's so cool to see, like, what, like, different take aways and approaches to that are. Again, as somebody who supervises residential student leaders, it's my favorite part to see different people's different approach.
Speaker 2:So again, I want to thank all of you for joining us today on the NSO podcast to discuss, your experience working in the residence halls. And it's kind of, like, bonkers to think we're about, what, three weeks out from move in? So we're all very excited to have students moving in very soon. We're excited to have you become Spartans and welcome you to the community. So, again, just wanna thank you for joining us, on this episode of the Spartan orientation station.
Speaker 2:While this is the last episode of the summer, we hope to see you in August for our very exciting fall welcome program. And always remember, go green.
Speaker 4:Go white. Thank
Speaker 1:you for listening to this episode of the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM. Us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.