By Josh Luby
With the year half over, the Resident Student Association (RSA) has put on a variety of programs, and members have said they are looking forward to next semester and new opportunities to sponsor student events.
Since the start of the semester, RSA has hosted several activities including “First Friday,” a September celebration that attracted over 300 people. In October, they also joined forces with the Student Government Association (SGA), WRBB radio and the Council for University Programs (CUP) to co-sponsor the Battle of the Bands, held at afterHOURS.
As the semester continued, RSA hosted more events, including “Can I Kiss You,” and “The O.C.” season premier party. Although some of the programs were successful, others brought in disappointing numbers, said Smith Anderson, RSA’s vice president for programming.
“There are so many opportunities to go out and do great things around town,” Anderson said. “It is hard for us to persuade students into staying on campus for programs. I look at it as an opportunity to prepare better for future events.”
For the spring semester, RSA is at work on their annual “Sex Week,” which will include a Condom Casino where students will be able to gamble using condoms instead of money, Loveline at afterHOURS and 10,000 free condoms.
They will also be persuing cable TV, a campus clean-up day and collecting thoughts on campus advertising for student groups, said Margaret Horton, RSA’s president.
Next semester, RSA will also be working on the organization’s internal structure, Horton said.
“With three new residence halls this year and breaking ground on West Village F, a higher percentage of students are moving to campus each year and it is essential that we make sure that our organization is flexible enough to grow at the same rate,” she said.
Despite RSA’s efforts during the fall semester, some students said they were not aware of the organization or any of its programs.
“I am not really familiar with RSA and I have not seen any ads [for any programming],” said Imani Dupree, a sophomore behavioral neuroscience major. “The last time I heard about RSA was from orientation.”
Other students said although they have noticed the group’s presence on campus, they do not choose to participate.
“There are enough ads and events, they do really well with it,” said Rebecca Spivack, a junior nursing major, “but I have never gone. I’m just not really interested in anything they have.”
While Spivack has not been drawn into RSA, dozens of other students have joined Hall Council, the branch of RSA responsible for individual residence halls, to work on programming this year.
Loftman Hall Council Treasurer Arlene Pimentel said throughout the semester, her building used their allotted funds for student activities.
“[We] planned events, held little get-togethers, outings, basketball games, food and movie rentals for the hall,” Pimentel said.
Although Hall Councils put on different types of programming, students said they should be made more aware of the events.
“There is a fair amount of advertising, but there could be more,” said Kim Tooker, a middler chemical engineering major. “I went to the pumpkin carving contest, but nothing else.”
– Correspondent Elizabeth deLemos contributed to this report.
