Research shows that in a traditional college setting, resident assistants (RA) have access to and influence over students in several different ways. RAs are often utilized as academic and campus resources, counselors, problem solvers, and more. RAs have a unique access to students that no other administrator, faculty, or staff member does. Most…

Institutions of higher education, and more specifically residence halls within colleges and universities, pride themselves in offering and embracing a diverse community of students. A growing number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are attending college and choosing to live on campus. While many are able to do so successfully, some…

Resident assistants (RAs) can serve as important suicide prevention gatekeepers. The purpose of the study was to determine if training improved RAs' crisis communications skills and suicide-related knowledge and to determine if the knowledge elements predicted crisis communications skills. New RAs showed significant improvement in all areas from…

The "Talking Stick" is published bimonthly, six times a year in January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, and November/December by the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International. Each issue is divided into three sections: Features, Columns, and Departments. These sections contain…

The purpose of this study is to examine if residence hall roommate placement of traditional freshman students at MSOE affects their satisfaction with the residence halls. The idea behind this study is that if residence hall roommate placement is done purposefully, with the participation of incoming freshmen through appropriate placement…

This study described mental health and substance use referral practices of resident assistants (RAs). Interviews were conducted with 48 RAs at three campuses. RAs generally had positive attitudes toward helping residents, and believed that existing norms supported their referral actions. However, many perceived referring residents to be…

Concern for students with eating disorders and concern for the environment served as the catalyst for the development of a procedure for responding to eating disorders. The procedure, which relies heavily on residence hall staff, is presented here, with emphasis on training, prevention, and issues in implementation. (Author)

Study surveyed 369 universities to determine how widespread resident assistant training courses are and how they are typically structured. Results suggest consistency in some course elements, like required enrollment, course text and lectures, but a lack of consensus in other components, such as topics, grading policies, and goals. (Author/RJM)