During June, our campus went through some problems with electricity. In order to fix the problem they had to turn off all electricity to the residence halls and half of the campus located on the northern side. This outage affected over 50 people, and that’s not including offices were the faculty was working. Since the electricity would be off for about a week, all of the summer residents had to move everything across campus and live there instead of their current rooms. You can imagine how horrible this must have been for them. Everyone had to move their bedding, clothes, toiletries, and the worst, fridges. This task was harder on some because they lived up 3 flights of stairs since there were so many that needed rooms. With everyone spirits down, the res life staff wanted to find a way to make it as best it could be. Each Resident Assistant volunteered their time to help move big things like fridges for their residents. With having extra help all of the residents on the north side got their stuff out of their room and into a new temporary room.

Still resident’s spirits were down, so the RAs teamed up and started making plans, big plans. Considering everyone had to move anyway, the RAs decided to have a huge campus wide sleepover in the Student Union Building. They provided food and drinks for everyone and got other organizations involved as well. Other organizations provided movies, popcorn, games and some even tents and sleeping bags! One night everyone made a room wide tent while also telling scary ghost stories to make things a little more interesting. This made everyone feel like kids again! The RAs really reached out to their residents and tried to make a bad situation a little bit better. It worked!

Not only did this team create a sleepover but they also did smaller programs within their new home on campus. They offered things like cranium, move night, and a pot luck dinner. This gave the residents a chance to try and relax during a stressful situation and give them a place to take a break. Since this was such a great idea, there was an excellent turnout of residents at each program!

When the trouble with the electricity was over and it was time to move back, the Res Life Staff stepped up one more time. Just like before the RAs helped their residents move back all of their heavy items. They also went around and took up the old keys from everyone so the residents didn’t have to take the time out of their day to turn them back in to the Student Life Office.

The Residence Life Staff is more than heroes to the summer residents, they are their friends. With all of the bad going on during June, the Res Life Staff brought good and fun! The summer residents were very grateful to their awesome team of resident assistants for their help with moving and creating a relaxing and fun environment for everyone. The Residence Life Staff deserve to have the title organization of the month for their hard work and time spent helping their summer residents during a time of need.

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