Students pack up dorms, head for home

As the semester “crunch time” descends upon students, be nice to your resident assistants (RA) since they have the additional responsibility of room checkout.

Add up all the things you are doing at the end of the semester: projects due, finals, presentations, studying, making Maymester or summer plans, saying good-bye to friend, and graduation. Then add to that long list — making sure that every single residence hall student on this campus gets checked out on time with the appropriate paperwork. Now you’ve got an idea of what RAs are thinking about at this point in the year.

“The week of finals is a struggle,” said Jordon Cannon, resident assistant in Parkhurst, “and we have to balance our time. Closing will be different this year with the new building. Anything broken has to be charged to the student.”

Most RAs have an adjustment to make from last semester as the number of students they are responsible for has increased. Cannon went from having 15 students to 45 this year. He anticipates it will take longer to check them out this year.

“The big difference this year is that in the new buildings everything will show up,” said Cannon. “We’ll need to look for dents and bruises. It will take more time to inspect.”

“All students need to be checked out of their rooms by May 2 at 6 p.m.,” said John Stone, associate director for operations, of University Housing, “unless they are graduating or are involved with graduation. They need to have prior permission to stay until the next day.”

“Basically anyone involved in graduation can stay until May 3 at 9:30 a.m.” said Maleea Carnes, resident director for Bell Hall. “For example, students who are graduating, ambassadors or band students, but they will need to be checked out before graduation.”

What do students need to do to get ready to check out? According to Carnes, first you need to schedule an appointment with your RA. Look for sign up sheets posted outside the RA’s door. You will need to make sure rooms are wiped down and swept out, bathrooms cleaned, furniture moved back to its original position, trash removed and then return your key to your RA. The RA will check for damages. Any damages will be charged back to the student.

All this needs to be done quickly and efficiently to make room for summer camp participants. This year summer camps will be housed in Napier, Foundation and Parkhurst. There will be camps for cheerleading, band, football, tennis, wrestling, art, writing, adult teacher-counselor, Shakespeare, Atlanta Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet. Ages 10 to over 60 will take advantage of the various camps.

Returning students for Fall 2003 have already chosen their room for next year.

“Students who missed the signups had until April 16 to get a priority room. After that date, they will be assigned rooms along with incoming students,” said Stone. “If they are staying during Maymester, they have the option to stay in their rooms and pay request housing until May 5, and then move to Parkhurst.”

Cannon said check-out sheets are in 30-minute segments and he had some advice for residents.

“I encourage residents to sign up for a time in advance and schedule it as soon as your last exam, if possible. Signing up soon will get you the time you need and won’t conflict with the RA’s,” he said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 25 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry