While the Bechtel International Center frequently helps international graduate students with practical issues such as obtaining visas and completing employment training, the center has struggled to offer those students an equally important aspect of the Stanford experience: a sense of community.
Salaries for student housing positions do not reflect the training and responsibility required for each position, according to many housing staff members, coordinators and Health Promotion Services (HPS).
Following the death of sophomore student-athlete Sam Wopat on March 25 and reports of several attempted suicides on campus this year, The Daily has undertaken a survey of existing campus resources and culture surrounding mental health.
Starting in the 2012-13 academic year, all new resident assistants (RAs) will be required to take a class in order to be qualified to work for Residential Education (ResEd).
There has been a low buzz this year about the Stanford alcohol policy in freshmen dorms, a conversation that is most relevant as Resident Assistant (RA) candidates for freshmen dorms finish their interviews and Resident Fellows (RFs) make their selections. For years, Stanford has had a liberal alcohol policy, dedicated to the idea of informed personal responsibility. But conversations we hear today fundamentally question this ideal. If these talks become anything more, then students needs to be fighting the change tooth and nail, and freshmen RAs should be leading the fight.
Stanford students hoping to be resident assistants (RAs) must now apply during fall quarter instead of spring; meanwhile, resident fellows and Row student staff will have more time to interview prospective RAs, marking significant changes for the staffing timeline.
During RA training this summer, there was a great deal of rhetoric from the ResEd staff reminding us of how integral we were to the success of ResEd as a whole. It is the RAs, after all, who live and work in the residences to build the desired intellectual and educational living communities on this campus. That said, in efforts to hire the best staff, I find it disappointing that, to my knowledge, no current RA or student staff member was consulted or even made aware of these drastic hiring changes—until now…
As a freshman resident assistant (RA), I have the honor of taking part in people’s emotional development—watching them learn and grow, experiencing the first triumphs and disappointments, cheering with them, mourning with them…