Author: Nona Gronert
Occidental College’s Residence Hall Association (RHA), which has in past years played a large role in campus life, is currently in a transitional stage due to the turnover in Residence Life staff and possible overlap with the ASOC Senate. Although the final outcome of this metamorphosis is unclear, RHA will continue to advocate for students on campus.
“While I was President, we did our best to fulfill that agenda through organizing and running several big dances (Back to School Dance, Halloween Dance and Winter Formal with PB), funding dozens of smaller events and relaying to the administration changes that students would like to see in the residence halls,” said last year’s RHA President Reed Nixon (senior) in an e-mail interview.
This year, however, RHA has few events planned. According to Assistant Dean for Residence Life and Housing Services Tim Chang, ResLife e-mailed the RHA executive board, Charles Bennett (junior), “Mack” Schoen (sophomore), Chelsea Kellogg (sophomore) and Lindsey Schwartz (sophomore) over the summer in order to begin organizing and planning for the 2009-2010 school year, especially the Back to School Dance. When ResLife received no response from RHA, they put on the Back to School Dance themselves. Schoen said, “Tim Chang took it [RHA’s summer disorganization] as a chance to kill RHA.”
Chang said that RHA has a hard time functioning because students who are busy, attempting to do their schoolwork and other activities, run RHA. Chang has spoken with ASOC President Andrew DeBlock (senior), and the two feel that RHA and ASOC have some overlapping roles on campus.
There is a possibility that RHA could become a committee of ASOC. Whether this will happen or not depends on DeBlock’s meeting with the RHA E-Board in the following weeks.
Bennett, interim President of RHA, said that RHA is attempting to redefine its purpose to better meet student needs. “RHA is more likely to succeed with student support, and deriding RHA will not help it get off the ground at all,” he said. Schwartz also argued for the need to improve RHA. “We need to recruit other people on campus who have the passion to do something,” she said.
“We just need to have a group that represents students and [has] that viewpoint,” Chang said in reference to RHA and its function within ResLife. “We are open to ideas.”
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