The Residence Halls Association held an open house on Monday to encourage students, especially new freshmen, to become involved in residence halls.
RHA will hold “leadership nights” this week to allow students to run for positions as residence hall representatives.
“We want to make sure people are excited about RHA,” RHA vice president Brooke Wiggins said. “We want it to be something that people are striving to be in.”
As representatives, students will be involved with the legislative branch of RHA in the Advocacy, Operations, Residential Living or Programming committees. Representatives act as a voice for their fellow hall residents.
This year, RHA is heavily focusing on the involvement of passionate students.
One event that aims to create this excitement is “Paint it Pink Week,” starting in early October. The primary focus of the event is to raise money and awareness for breast cancer prevention.
The event includes several activities, including the opportunity for students to decorate their own T-shirt.
Another event hosted by RHA is RHA Week, which occurs during the spring semester. The week’s goal is to spread the word about RHA’s mission on campus and ends with the RHA Ball.
As the second-largest organization on campus, RHA also hopes to improve its efficiency and stability on campus.
RHA is looking to “clean things up” this year, RHA president Steven Chaffin said.
Since the incoming freshman representatives will eventually become the next RHA executive board, Chaffin said he wishes to make the turnover as easy as possible for them.
“When it is time to transition to the next president, whomever he or she is, I want to make sure I can explain everything and justify everything so it’s easy for them to pick up and go,” Chaffin said.
RHA is also looking for more involvement both regionally and nationally among college campuses.
The organization already attends national conventions, but wants to push to the next level: being recognized and even honored at such events.
Chaffin and the rest of RHA said they will be working hard to make this happen.
“We want to make RHA the organization that we know it can be,” Chaffin said.
