It’s not a dorm, it’s a residence hall.
Here at Northeastern, the students living on campus all live in residence halls, not dorms. A dormitory is place in which you sleep for the night. At Northeastern, our West Villages, Stetsons and new International Village are much more than just that. The on-campus building you live in becomes a residential community the second you move in. When you enter each building, you see flyers for upcoming events on campus, the location of the Resident Assistant (RA) office, and where you can go to troubleshoot your computer problems here. Step into a dormitory and these functions no longer exist.
The Resident Student Association (RSA) is improving that community in each residence hall year after year. Our organization is made up of the members of that community and represent the resident community’s entire population. This fall, we have already established elected hall councils in each building to bring to their residents the programs and changes they want to see. By working with the RAs in each building, they provide the residents with trips to Bruins games, pizza parties, and a replenished stock of DVDs for your movie nights. Reach out to these hall councils and tell them what programs you want to go on and what NU can offer you to improve the community you live in.
RSA just had its first on-campus training conference for residents to learn how to be a leader in their community and interact with more of its residents. Our last three general meetings had an average of 115 Northeastern residential community members, who are eager to improve campus life here at Northeastern attend. A dormitory could never put on a Husky Hunt for its residents and would not celebrate Northeastern’s birthday at a Founder’s Day program ‘- like we have coming up this fall. RSA also has a Vice President for Housing Services, Matthew Soleyn, whose responsibility is to advocate for what the residents want to see and work with organizations like the Student Government Association to bring better food to the cafeterias, allow residents to have wireless routers, and develop gender-neutral housing.
RAs newly elected Vice President for Collaboration, Julie Rizzado, will strive to increase student group collaboration on campus. This on-campus collaboration can provide us all with higher quality programs to attend that are both diverse and unique. RSA has already seen the benefits of collaborating with different schools at a regional and national level. Our National Communications Coordinator, Jillian Butler, brings a delegation of residents to different schools across the country to learn how we can improve our campus by hearing what great things they are doing for their community.
RSA encourages you all to take advantage of the many programs that the hall councils and RA’s are putting on for you in your hall. However, don’t let it end there. Your dorm becomes a ResHall even further when you cheer on the Huskies at a basketball game, attend a comedy show put on by an Northeastern fraternity, or compete with a dance team through one of Barkada’s many programs. Each of these and many more student groups all function to develop this campus into a community and enable you to find your place within it.
When you ask your friend what dorm they live in, think again and replace the word dorm with ResHall. There are many students and faculty who work hard each day to build it into that community and allow us all to live in great ResHalls. So enjoy your residence hall, get involved in what it can offer, and be glad we don’t all live in dorms!

‘- Sean Naegeli is a junior industrial engineering major and president of the Resident Student Association.