Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

photo Courtesy recX

New Res. Life Staff Settles In

By patrick shahayda

mpshahayda@vwc.edu

Many changes have been afoot for Residence Life, or Res Life, in recent months. The traditional system that was in place last year has been terminated out with the old and in with the new. In its place is a streamlined mechanism, scaled down to be more effective.

The biggest change is that the position of  Village Assistant no longer exists.

As Rebecca McBride, Village I Coordinator, said,  The Village Assistants were students, usually a junior or a senior who had had RA experience.

But why was the system changed? Essentially, it had to do with scheduling conflicts.

 There was too much stuff going on in the office, said McBride.  Village Assistants and students had more to do in the day, and Village Coordinators usually had night classes.

The new system eliminates the middle man. Without Village Assistants, students can now go directly to the Village Coordinators for assistance. The number of Village Coordinators has been doubled, from three to six. That means that there are now two Coordinators to a village. Each village is split between the two Coordinators.

McBride, for example, is in charge of half of Village I, specifically the halls of Rose and Kellam.

 I directly deal with those RA s says McBride.  But we also tag team.

If a problem were to arise that required the work of two Village Coordinators, or if another Coordinator simply needs assistance, the two can work together to jointly solve just about any crisis.

 We break up the work more so there s more individual attention says McBride.  Someone is always around.

All of the staff is new as well. A few Coordinators are former VWC grads. Now the staff is comprised entirely of Old Dominon University grad students, and includes Brooke Lambert and Nadine Carr, who oversee Village II; Matt Lloyd and Celia Taylor, who oversee Village III; and Joe Durso oversees the other half of Village I alongside McBride.

So while the outer face of the system has changed, its basic function, and how it does things, will essentially remain the same. As McBride sums up -  It s not that different than last year, it s like taking the Village Assistant position and elevating it to the graduate level.