Behind the Posters: The Challenges of RA Programming
A Marist Housing event. Photo Courtesy of Marist Housing
If you walk around any residence hall on campus, you’ll see various posters for resident assistant programming scattered across entrances, bulletin boards and hallways. Each semester, Marist University RAs host dozens of events—from resume workshops to bingo nights—in an attempt to build community in the residence halls.
You’ll find that most of the RA advertising is inside freshman housing. Walk into Leo, Sheahan, Champagnat and Marian, and you won’t be able to go 10 feet without encountering the colorful posters tacked onto the walls.
In freshman housing, RA programming is essential. Incoming students are the primary targets for RA events to get them acclimated to a new college environment and introduce them to potential friends.
Liznelly Pina ‘26, an RA in Midrise who was stationed in Marian last year, sees a bulk of events held in those spaces.
“For freshmen, it’s very important,” said Pina. “You have to build that sense of community, you have to make it friendly and welcoming.”
Programming typically yields interest in freshman housing. Because of how daunting making new friends tends to be, first-year students will flock to these activities in the hopes of connecting with other people in the same boat. Moreover, some of the programming centers on helpful life skills or on-campus resources, so students will attend to help adjust to their new responsibilities.
However, over the course of their college years, students visit less and less of these events, and RA programming slowly but surely loses its pull.
As students transition from underclassmen to upperclassmen, they have less of a need for what the programming offers. Most students will have their core friend groups, understand their on-campus routine and have a decent hold of their responsibilities. Suddenly, the events where Tide Pods are given out or priority points are explained effectively become meaningless.
“You have to have food,” said RA Clara Bay ‘27. “[Upperclassmen] will not come without food.”
The community spaces available to upperclassmen compound this detachment. In Lower West, for example, the assigned “common room” is in the same space as the laundry room. In Midrise, the common rooms are behind closed doors and are difficult to locate.
Compared to freshman housing, where the common rooms are wide open, warm and cozy, easy-to-find spaces, it makes it clear that RA programming is built to be effective for first-years.
That does not mean the upperclassmen RAs are just allowed to roll over and accept that they won’t get many participants. They are still held to a certain quota of programs run, spread out in many different categories: social, passive, life skills, sustainability, multicultural, academic support, spirituality, wellness, current events and citizenship.
RAs are required to host an event pertaining to each one of these categories over the course of the year while also having to host a minimum of two programs a month.
These programs still carry on, even with limited or no attendance. RAs try to garner as much attention as they can for their programs, but in upperclassmen housing, it can be difficult to get residents involved.
Despite the challenges of low turnout in upperclassman housing, RA programming remains a crucial and underappreciated part of residential life at Marist. Whether it’s helping a student find their footing or providing a quiet moment of wellness in a busy week, these events are designed with intention.
For RAs, the effort doesn’t fade just because attendance does; they continue to try to build community wherever possible, even if it means knocking on doors or hosting another bingo night in a half-empty common room.