Applications for resident adviser positions on campus are up this year, according to Residence Life.
This year 479 applications were received for the RA and academic support positions on campus.
Lisa Lampe, central campus area coordinator, says the reasons for this high number are the economy and a change in the application format.
“One [reason] for a lot of people [is] the financial situation,” Lampe said. “This is one leadership opportunity on campus where you do have a place to live on campus and are paid. The other reason is that over the last two years we developed an online application so the application is easier to access.”
Lampe also says that changing the deadline to the later date of Jan. 15 has shown an increase in applicants.
The current number of student staff positions open is 181. Sixteen of these spots go to senior RAs, a position not available to first-time applicants. Fifty percent of the RAs are re-hired, so the total number of first-time applicant positions available is 88.
Max Ricker, 18, a freshman evolutionary biology and journalism double-major, applied for an RA position because he said he loves the community in Arnett Hall where he lives now.
“Mainly I want to live in Arnett again next year,” Ricker said of his reasoning behind applying. “I would have just lived [in Arnett] next year again, but the only way I can afford it is to be an RA.”
While the economy may have played some part, many of the RA applicants say that they would have applied anyway.
“No matter what [the economy is like], I still would have wanted to apply,” said Liz Boyle, 19, a freshman open-option major.
Boyle said she was drawn to the RA position because she enjoys the sense of community the dorms offer.
“I applied to be an RA because I wanted the leadership position and [to] promote a sense of community,” Boyle said. “I think the bonding you can develop with residents and being there for them on any kind of level is what appealed to me.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Emily Zarka at Emily.zarka@colorado.edu.
