[nabs-l] Becoming an RA

Sun Feb 26 00:14:38 UTC 2017

Hi Sami,
I believe it is absolutely possible for a blind student to be an RA. It just depends on how comfortable you are with your own skills in completing this job. There's no way of knowing if your residence director will immediately discard your application because you are blind until this should happen, but if you are not accepted to the position, I think it's absolutely reasonable to ask if they can tell you why you were not accepted. They may not wish to disclose this information, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
Secondly, it depends on your school, but usually RAs receive training at the beginning of the year or end of the previous year to help guide them on how to deal with specific situations on your floor. I think in the case of a broken shower head, the RA would help the student contact facilities/maintenance, rather than actually fixing the shower head themselves. In my experience, you would mostly be dealing with conflict issues on your floor, enforcing community standards, providing information for students who need to contact other members of campus staff, and being there as a general resource for your floor. But again, this may depend on your college.
Thirdly, RAs are usually accepted on a year-by-year basis, so you could be one next year, and then study abroad the year after that and not apply to be an RA. Additionally, it depends on the extent of your student life staff weather or not you would be able to go home on weekends. Generally, you would probably want to be on campus most weekends to be involved with the students on your floor, but I'm sure you could leave some of the weekends during the semester – I think it again depends on the policies of your college. Sometimes over weekends the RAs take turns being the member of staff on duty during that time for the whole dorm. I'm sure you can reach out to your residence director with some of these questions as well, as they are questions that any student might ask.
Hope that helps, and best wishes for your application if you decide to apply!

~Katelyn MacIntyre
www.katelynmac.com
www.facebook.com/KatelynMacMusic
@KatelynMacMusic
Vice President, National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division

> On Feb 25, 2017, at 4:41 PM, chelsea peahl via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Sami,
> In my opinion, being a RA means that you would need to be there on weekends and such for problems that arise then. The same goes for studying abroad. I believe that RA positions are typically a year and you can continue to apply every year.
> 
> Chelsea Peahl
> 
>> On Feb 23, 2017, at 10:03 PM, Sami Osborne via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> 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
>> 
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