By Laura Finaldi, News Staff
Huntington News: What is RSA?
Katelyn Zahler: The Resident Student Association is a student group meant for programming and advocacy specifically for people who live on campus. That’s what we tell people, that’s our big thing. We do hall councils, we host a lot of really big events, so if you’ve ever done the Husky Hunt, stuff like that – sex week – those are our really big events and obviously they’re open to the whole school, so we really don’t specifically program. But that’s what we’re based around is programming for people who live in [residence] halls. And on the advocacy side we try and work closely with other student groups to try and make sure that things are going well in the halls, so if there are problems and issues that we’re addressing them and trying to figure out how we can make life in the halls better.
HN: What’s one of the biggest events RSA has hosted in the past?
KZ: Husky Hunt is what everyone says is our biggest thing, which we should be proud of. It won a national program of the year award in 2007. I think we should really be proud of that, I think it’s the event which most students would say they know, which is really actually awesome to say. … But I think as far as other things go I’m proud when we can get small scale programs [such as] movie nights and trivia nights. … It’s a really great way to engage students on a small scale level.
HN: Like what?
KZ: Last year, we had a “Bridesaids” screening, and afterHOURS reached capacity 30 minutes before the movie had started.
HN: What do you have planned for the upcoming year?
KZ: Well, we’re doing Husky Hunt in the fall, and we are going to be hosting a ResHall competition in the next few weeks which is going to be really fun. We’re doing it with [Sigma Phi Epsilon], which is really good, and then after that we’re planning Pumpkin Palooza which we did the past two years, which is this really big pumpkin event.
HN: What is the biggest issue facing Northeastern right now, and how does RSA help?
KZ: The thing I’ve seen in Northeastern in my time at RSA is students are so busy because of co-op. To me, students are busier here than they are at other colleges, which makes it really hard to get them engaged in student life, to get them to go to sporting events for example.
