Freshmen find immediate friends, allies in resident assistants L eaving home for the first time, your stomach cramp revealed your apprehension, but your excitement overwhelmed your fear. You could not contain your thrill at discovering where McDonald's was and you ran up and down the musty pale green halls of the dorm shouting for joy. This was the only time in your college career that you could stay up til 2:00 a.m. talking and make it to your 8:00 a.m. class without feeling even a hint of fatigue. This was the magic of being a freshman. As a freshman, probably the first person you met was your resident assistant (RA). Thinking back you gratefully remember the colorful construction paper heart nameplates and the housekeeping pink slips your RA gave you to help you adjust to college. RA's are still helping freshmen adjust to college life. Homesickness, roommate problems and self-discipline continued to plague freshmen. Mike Valentine, an Armstrong RA, said, "Most freshmen are glad to get away from home but there are a few who get homesick." Lisa Reynolds, a Kendall RA, said, "I had one girl last semester who stayed in her room all day and cried. Even talks with Mrs. Cooper, Kendall Resident Hall Manager, and Maribeth Downing, Associate Dean of Students, did not help and she ended up going home." Andrea Teasley, a Kendall RA, said, " I spend time with them the first day or night they are here. If they don't get attention they are ready to leave." In order to provide extra attention to freshmen, RA's arrive about a week before school starts. The extra time to make friends is especially important because, Reynolds said, "making friends is the cure fo r homesickness." To help freshmen get acquainted and make friends, RA's planned curfew wing meetings, weekly devotionals and occasional pizza parties that resulted in some good times and possibly lifelong friends. In addition to curing homesickness RA 's often found themselves caught in the crossfire of a roommate feud. Valentine said, "Half the time I'm keeping order and half the time I'm separating roommates. I've stayed up half the night telling someone that their roommate is not that bad." Teasley said, "Sometimes a northern girl and a southern girl will end up in a room together and one will come to me complaining that she can't stand the way her roommate talks." Getting along with others was only part of much needed self-discipline. Valentine said, "Freshmen need a sense of order. They need discipline and we are it. After they become juniors or seniors they often come back and say we appreciate the way you took care of things." But freshmen soon learned to take care of things themselves. Valentine said, "one guy hadn't done his laundry for two weeks and he came and asked me when the maid service came around." Self-discipline included obeying rules. Teasley said the question freshmen ask most often is "Are we serious about this curfew stuff?" Reynolds said they ask, "Do we really have to clean our rooms?" MEETING TIME. RA's had meetings almost weekly to discuss problems that might arise during the week. Attendance was required. -Photo by Jeff Montgomery. Learning to follow rules simultaneously taught selfdiscipline , but forming good study habits did not come easy. Teasley said, "Freshmen are more interested in making friends." Though with maturity, little by little you painfully began extracting yourself from your friends telling them you must go back to your room an hour before curfew to start on a speech you must present the next day. Later, you started going to the library a whole week before a paper was due. Then one morning after pulling an allnighter , you thought you heard the buzz of your alarm clock. You wearily opened one eye to discover that it was 11:00 a.m. and you had slept through your earth science test. Slowly, the realization crept over you, you were older 3.nd perhaps wiser, but you were no longer a freshman. -Rachel Garrison SIGN IN. Mike Foster, junior, signs in at the desk while Jeff Vannatta, junior, works. RA's were required to work desk in the dorms. -Photo by Jeff Montgomery. 299
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