The Resident Assistant (RA) is a part-time, student staff position with the Department of Housing & Residential Education. An RA is responsible for actively working with a group of residents to develop a sense of community through individual relationship building, connecting students with one another, connecting students with resources, and encouraging involvement with the campus community. The RA develops and executes activities that contribute to Housing & Residential Education’s Residential Curriculum to meet the learning goals and learning outcomes. RAs models an enthusiastic commitment to creating an environment that promotes personal growth and inclusion.
RAs fulfill a broad, generalist role for the department. Much of the work is autonomous and does not necessarily have a set time-structure; residents may call on RAs at odd hours. The RA is expected to work an average of 20 hours per week; however, due to the nature of the position, some weeks may require more or less hours.
This position requires RAs to utilize their training to the fullest, recognize their limitations and, when necessary, seek the assistance of other staff members. A description of common responsibilities is listed below, but the department reserves the right to alter, change, or assign new responsibilities as needed.
Job Responsibilities:
Residential Curriculum – Execute educational strategies from the residential curriculum, which include:
- Engaging in individual, intentional conversations with each resident 2-3 times each semester
- Creating educational bulletin boards each semester
- Facilitating floor meetings at the start and end of each semester
- Facilitating educational events multiple times throughout the semester
- Assisting residents in the completion of Roommate Agreements at the start of the year and as residents move into new spaces
- Support Residential Community Program and Living-Learning Community partners’ community engagements
Community Development – Actively working to develop a close-knit, welcoming, inclusive community by:
- Building positive relationships with residents
- Hosting social, community events multiple times throughout the semester
- Creating hall decorations and door tags if you wish (optional)
- Supporting Hall Council and/or the Residence Hall Association (RHA)
- Consistently showing a genuine respect and appreciation for community diversity
Student Referrals – Assist residents in a variety of personal and academic needs by:
- Providing campus resources to residents based on their expressed needs
- Assisting residents in accessing campus resources when they have difficulty doing so
- Referring students to the Student Outreach and Support (SOS) office as necessary
- Serving as a Responsible Employee who are required to report incidents of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct or gender discrimination
Residence Hall Duty/On-Call – support residence hall safety & security by:
- Serving in the RA Duty/on-call rotation, providing response coverage for security, facility issues, behavioral concerns, resident needs, and crisis response for all residence halls outside of business hours, including holidays when the university is closed
- Conducting rounds during duty/on-call shifts by walking through communities and doing visual inspections
- Responding to emergency and crisis situations, including facility issues, student crisis, and weather events
- Addressing behavioral concerns that violate housing and university policy and documenting such incidents
- Submitting timely reports related to duty, including incident response and post-duty shift summaries
- Housing & Residential Education has a need for RA duty coverage while there are students living on-campus during holidays and break periods. RA’s will be required to assist in duty coverage during these time periods.
Administrative Tasks – support the administrative needs of the department by:
- Submitting logs, forms, and reports promptly and thoroughly
- Performing Health and Safety Inspections once per semester during a specific time frame
- Submitting work orders for maintenance needs and assisting residents in submitting work orders
- Assisting with evacuation drills for the residence halls once a semester
- Working a weekly shift at the main office’s front desk assisting customers with their needs, answering calls that come into the main office phone line, assisting with mail and packages, and other projects as assigned
Meetings – Attend a variety of meetings that help the department to maintain high levels of communication and efficiency including:
- Staff meetings that occur weekly for approximately 2 hours
- One-on-one meetings with your supervisor that occur weekly from thirty minutes to an hour
- Required trainings that occur at the start of each Fall and Spring semester
Other Duties as assigned
Eligibility Requirements
- RA’s must be full-time degree-seeking enrolled USF Students
- Staff must be registered for a minimum of 12 credit hours, not exceeding 17 credit hours per semester without approval from their supervisor or the Assistant Director of Residential Education
- In the event that a staff member does not meet the full time course load requirement to graduate, the Assistant Director of Residential Education will review the information on a case-by-case basis
- RA’s must have earned at least 30 credit hours or attended USF as a full-time student for 2 or more semesters by the first day of employment
- RA’s must be in good academic standing with the University during their employment. RA’s must have a minimum GPA of 2.5 at time of hire.
- RA’s must be in good standing with Student Conduct & Ethical Development. If an applicant is currently involved in a conduct case with a pending decision or becomes involved in a conduct violation, their employment will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- RA’s must be able to attend all mandatory trainings
- Fall Onboarding: training is approximately 2 weeks prior to fall move-in
- Spring Onboarding: training is approximately 1 week before spring move-in
- RAs are required to remain on-campus and available through 12:00pm on the Sunday after Finals Week of each semester to assist in building closing and transition.
- RAs must abide by USF Student Code of Conduct and Housing & Residential Education policies found in the Resident Handbook
- RAs must have flexibility in their course and personal schedule to accommodate regularly scheduled staff meetings, one-on-one meetings and duty.
- RAs are not permitted to have more than 9 hours of work at other on campus jobs and should limit hours at off-
- campus jobs because of their 20 hours of RA work responsibilities per week
Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- Skilled at starting and maintaining conversation with others
- Skills at managing time and multiple, competing priorities
- Ability to work effectively as a member of a team
- Ability to support people of identities and backgrounds different than your own
- Understanding of basic college student needs
- Ability to confront behavioral concerns while maintaining a positive relationship
- Knowledge of campus resources and how they can help students
- Experience developing positive relationships with others and maintaining healthy boundaries
- Preferred: Customer service experience, experience planning events, have resided in St. Petersburg residence halls for at least one semester
Compensation
- Includes a furnished, on-campus residence hall space for the academic year and a meal plan selected by the department
- Pelican Apartments: RA will be assigned to a 4-person suite and will be allowed to select three suitemates, if possible
- Osprey Suites: RA will be assigned a single room with no roommates
- Ibis Hall: RA will be assigned a single room with no roommates
- Staff are selected to work for Housing & Residential Education; not a specific area, building, or space. The department reserves the right to change a position assignment at any time to meet department needs
- Applicants are advised to directly connect with the Office of Financial Aid to determine how their financial aid package may be influenced by employment as an RA. All compensation is reported to the Office of Financial Aid
- For the 2024-2025 year, compensation amount is estimated to be $14,852
- This position is classified with Human Resources as 20 hours per week. Students are allowed to work up to an additional 9 hours per week in on-campus positions according to Human Resources policy. International students are not permitted to work additional hours at an on-campus job.