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Opinion

Tell RHA about your leaky faucet

Jim McCormick
Opinion Columnist 

The other day, I noticed a particular quotation by Joel Kissell, recently elected as the Residence Halls Association president. He said, "Most residents have only a vague understanding of what RHA is and how we work to improve their on-campus experience, and that is something that we need to remedy." 

I agree with him. As an active participant in RHA, I feel at least partially qualified to talk about what RHA does and why residents should attend meetings.

RHA is the channel residents can use to easily get their opinions to "The Powers That Be" over at Residential Life and Housing, known better as Andy Blank and Sandra Coltharp. 

Usually, Coltharp is at the General Assembly meetings herself. If you have a concern that needs to be addressed, such as a week-old work order, you can bring up that complaint at the GA meetings and have it taken care of within the next day. 

If that isn't the case, Blank and Coltharp are good at keeping in touch until the problem is solved. In addition to the practical issues, RHA organizes several events throughout the school year to alleviate stress and boredom among the resident population. 

By going to GA meetings, you can voice your opinion on events you would most like to see. Frankly, I find it sad that an attendance of 25 is considered a good residential event turnout, even though that is not even one percent of the residential population. 

Having only 15 people show up at GA meetings in addition to the RHA officers is even more disgraceful, as it shows a general apathy among the residents for their living conditions. Sure, I hear lots of complaining from other residents, but I rarely see those people at RHA meetings.

RLH also uses RHA meetings to determine what to do with respect to policy decisions, such as those regarding food service, use of residential space and new residential policies. 

If you don't like the proposed plans to limit the amount of outdoor area where you can smoke, the appropriate people aren't going to know if you don't tell them. Likewise, this may sound incredibly odd to the freshmen, but the food was far worse when I got here. 

At least now, we have salad bars, all-you-care-to-eat lines and proper meals. When I arrived here, the food consisted of potato chips, sodas, the occasional individual carton of cereal and cardboard, all of it on an a la carte system -- and no free refills. 

It really wasn't cheaper, as the average dinner ran about $7, and half of it was inedible. This change was effected though residential involvement. 

Perhaps the lack of involvement in the residential policy is due to residents unaware of meeting times. 

Meetings are held in the Oberholtzer East Cafeteria at 8:30 p.m. every other Tuesday. I know people are busy, but the meetings rarely last more than 30 minutes. You might be interested that the officers started giving out door prizes such as $20 gift cards to Wal-Mart.

McCormick, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at thephotoman@gmail.com.