The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 2 - 31

Resident Assistant Mattering: Do Placement and Community Size Matter?

al., 2003). RAs also serve as a critical resource
for residents' intercultural growth and understanding, as the residential experience is often
the first opportunity for students to live with
people from a variety of cultural backgrounds
(Johnson & Thompson, 2011). Additionally,
RAs are valuable resources in referring students to mental health resources (Reingle,
Thombs, Osborn, Saffian, & Oltersdorf, 2010;
Westefeld, Button, Haley, Jr., Kettmann, Macconnell, Sandil, & Tallman, 2006).

CHALLENGES FACING RESIDENT
ASSISTANTS
The wide array of responsibilities associated
with the RA position is often accompanied by
challenges and stress (Fuehrer & McGonagle,
1988). One such challenge is managing worklife balance, which stems from RAs living
and working in the communal environment,
making it difficult to differentiate between
work and personal time (Hetherington,
Phelps, & Oliver, 1989). In such settings, RAs
often experience difficulty with the blurred
lines of their role (Deluga & Winters, 1991).
For example, they are charged with enforcing
policy yet are expected to build positive relationships with those same residents. RAs are
also challenged by constant interruptions and
feeling as if there is always more to be done in
their communities (Hetherington et al., 1989).
Finally, the RAs' academic performance may
suffer because their course work can become
less of a priority as the demands of the job increases (Blimling, 1998). Although most RAs
are motivated, it is clear the challenges accompanying these responsibilities make the RA
position difficult to perform well (Roussel &
Elleven, 2009).

RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY SIZE
Residential community size is an important
component of the RA working environment
and often presents challenges. Unfortunately,
within the literature there is no generally accepted understanding of what constitutes a
large or a small community size. Community
sizes have been differentiated by architecture;
that is, traditional corridor-based communities with a shared bathroom are considered
"large" while suite-style residence halls are
classified as "small" facilities (Valins & Baum,
1973). An alternative to defining community
size by architecture is by overall occupancy:
Small-sized halls house fewer than 48 residents, medium-sized halls between 48 and 81
residents, and large-sized halls more than 81
residents. (Devlin, Donovan, Nicolov, Nold, &
Zandan, 2008) Intuitively, these size parameters seem small by contemporary standards;
however, it does reinforce the lack of uniformity in community size definitions within the
housing profession. Overall, "community size
varies greatly depending on the structure of the
building, demographics of the student population, and the responsibilities of the position"
(Horvath & Stack, 2013, p. 10). Summarizing
the results of all responding member institutions, the 2012 Association of College and
University Housing Officers-International
(ACUHO-I) Operational Survey Executive
Summary (2013) reported the average community size (resident to RA ratio) in all on-campus
housing was 37 residents per RA, In traditional
residence halls, that ratio dropped to 33 residents per RA, and in apartments, it rose to 54
residents per RA (p. 17).

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 2

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