[nabs-l] Becoming an RA

[David Andrews]

I understand your wanting to reach out and gather info, but some of 
your questions can't be answered by us.  We don't know your school's 
rules and policies regarding RA's. We also can't know how an 
individual would react to a blind applicant. You do need to think 
ahead and consider different situations, and how you would deal with 
them as a blind person.

I could be wrong, but I would be surprised if RA's had to fix shower 
heads etc. I would guess your school has some sort of maintenance 
staff.  You might need to contact them, but wouldn't be expected to 
do the work.

Dave

At 11:01 PM 2/23/2017, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I just got an email today telling us when applications are due for 
>the students to become an RA for next year.  I think it would be 
>very interesting to become one, because it would allow me to have an 
>on-campus job as well as giving me the opportunity to meet/interact 
>more with the other students as well as being able to manage 
>whatever problems they're having with living in the dorms.  Plus, 
>the advantage of being an RA at my school is that you get to have 
>your own room, which is good in my opinion, because, (I posted about 
>this a couple months ago,) my experience living with two roommates 
>has been somewhat of a disaster this past year.  I'd just like to 
>know if you guys have become/are currently an RA on your college 
>campus.  Is it possible to be one as blind students? If so, how 
>was/is your experience so far?
>
>I also had a few concerns I wanted to address with you guys before I 
>apply for the position.  First of all, the director of Residence 
>Life knows that I'm totally blind.  In your opinion, may that cause 
>him to immediately reject my application simply because he thinks I 
>can't accomplish the job for whatever reason? If my application is 
>rejected, (either for that or any other reason,) would I be able to 
>discuss with him why it's been rejected, since I have no control in 
>his overall decision?
>Second, I know that RA's have to address every kind of problem that 
>the students living in their unit are having.  Some of these things 
>are difficult or impossible to solve.  For example, when I was 
>walking back to my dorm from class one day, I talked to one of my 
>acquaintances, (who lives next door to me,) who was waiting for our 
>RA to come back because he had some kind of problem with the shower 
>in his unit.  I honestly have no idea how I, or even most people, 
>would be able to fix something like that, especially since I have 
>absolutely no experience with this kind of thing.
>My RA actually would like to become a mechanical engineer, so I 
>guess he would have experience with that.
>Third, are RA's allowed to go home/leave campus for an extended 
>period of time, like on weekends or studying abroad? The reason I'm 
>asking is because I go home on weekends, (which is an advantage for 
>me, since I live only fifteen minutes away from campus).  One of the 
>main reasons I have to go home is because I have piano lessons every 
>week at a music school that's an hour away from my county, and I 
>usually depend on my mother to drive me there (I haven't  got any 
>mobility training in using public transit such as trains, and taking 
>a cab there would be too expensive, since it's an hour away).  I'm 
>also planning to study abroad during my junior year, and therefore, 
>if I was an RA, they would probably have to look for a replacement, 
>unless RA's are not allowed to study abroad for some reason.  Also, 
>that being said, is an RA position a temporary, one-yet-long 
>position, or is it a permanent one unless I resign/get fired?
>
>I hope to hear from you guys soon.
>
>Thanks very much and have a great night,
>
>Sami