Housing and Residential Life at Northeastern transforms itself over the summer. When there are so many fewer students on campus, what happens to all those empty residence halls? Of course, many closed residence halls undergo scheduled maintenance and renovations, including replacing carpets, tiles and appliances, painting, rewiring and thorough cleaning. But some stay open, flooded with unfamiliar faces; International Village, Speare Hall and West Village E all see new residents. Who are all of these strange new people on campus and what are they doing here?
Students living in open summer housing buildings will still find their familiar Resident Assistant (RA) staff members. Requirements for RAs are generally relaxed over the summer, but you should still be on the lookout for hall programming and events. Encourage your RA to plan a hall trip to volunteer at AIDS Walk Boston June 5 at the Hatch Shell or to the Revere Beach Sandcastle Contest July 14-17. Just don’t expect to see them at the proctor station — it’s not required for summer RAs.
Orientation leaders (OL) and incoming freshmen alike will work with orientation housing assistants (OHA), who are the RAs designated specifically for orientation sessions. They will also assist with materials and preparation for orientees and act as the RAs for orientations. West Village E will typically house parents who accompany their incoming student to orientation, and Speare Hall will likely host the hordes of orientation attendees as they look forward to lots of icebreakers on the quads, picking classes and the infamous AfterHOURS dance party.
Remember seeing big groups of kids on campus last summer, or those large groups of people wearing the same red jackets? Northeastern will host hundreds of guests from dozens of organizations around Boston and the country again this summer. The Conference Housing Department has become a growing source of revenue for the university and provides increased visibility and exposure at a national level.
Northeastern offers bed space to a wide range of people, from individuals who have summer internships at companies in the Boston area, to huge groups of young students and their chaperones participating in pre-college enrichment and research programs for youth.
Conference Assistants (CA) are also RAs who perform a hospitality role when Northeastern welcomes these visitors. Some conferences, like last year’s City Year Summer Academy conference, were very visible on campus, and yes, the national service group will be back again this year. International Village, West Village A, White Hall and 153 Hemenway are the major hubs of conference activity, but you may also see a few smaller groups come and go from other closed buildings.
Please be aware of these summertime guests to our campus and be friendly. Whether they are a new crop of orientees and their parents, future college students or an adult visitor, we want to leave them with a good impression of Northeastern. Just steer clear when City Year takes over the dining hall.
– Quinn Bott is a fifth-year pharmacy major and summer conference assistant.
