By Madelyn Stone, News Staff

A mechanical shark, a dunk tank and colorful sand art helped kick off the Resident Student Association’s (RSA) 2011-12 year at its August Summer Luau, giving a festive start to a year full of events both large and small.

RSA won Best Student Group with 14 percent of the vote, where the Progressive Student Alliance came in second place with 11 percent and the Council for University Programming received 9 percent for third.

“We’re one of the few student groups that’s active literally all year round,” RSA President Tina Sherman said. “One thing we really tried this year – we set it as one of our goals – was to do a lot more programs and to advertise them better. We really utilized social media a lot more this year to get the word out and I guess it worked.”

RSA became part of Northeastern around 1991, said Sherman, a junior behavioral neuroscience major.

“It was formed by probably less than a dozen students who just wanted to engage residential life more on campus,” Sherman said.

Since then, RSA has become an organization with a seven-member executive board, 17 hall councils with four representatives from each residence hall and a general council with more than 50 people.

“We’re a programming and advocacy body,” Sherman said. “So our whole purpose of the organization is to put on programs and to advocate for the residents.”

RSA’s annual events like Sex Week and the 24-hour Husky Hunt, which involved more than 600 participants, were accompanied by smaller events like an afterHOURS movie screening of “Bridesmaids” in September and a Pi Day celebration.

Sherman said these events received positive responses from students, but she was somewhat surprised RSA won Best Student Group.

“I don’t know, I’m shocked a little bit,” she said. “Just because there’s so many great student groups on campus doing so many good things.”