I would like to talk about Residence Hall Government and how it helps to further First Year development.   Residence Hall Government groups are known by many names on campuses around the country such as, RHA, RHC, IRHA, RSA, RSO, IRHC and many more.   A common structure is one where hall government programs work on a campus level and with individual in-hall councils.  Hall Governments have the opportunity to work with a regional/national organization called NACURH, Inc or the National Association of College and University Residence Halls.  NACURH is an organization very similar to ACUHO-I.  NACURH is also split into 8 regions that cover the US, Mexico, and Canada.

Now how does this relate to first year experience?  I think that hall councils have the ability to be huge leadership growth tool for first year students.  The hall councils I have worked with work with students within a hall being elected to exec board and representative positions within the first couple weeks of the school year.  In a first year building this means that students are taking on this role in the first couple weeks of college.  What other organizations on a college campus recruits students to be leaders so early?  Add in the fact that the hall government programs can implement leadership and position training early on, with ongoing training throughout the year, you have the potential to see very well developed student leaders by the end of the first semester.

On my current campus we have a 65% first year population, and 5 buildings that have first year students with a hall council in each. The campus hall government body has 2 retreats a year (they call them advancements) and have a leadership topic presentation each week at their general body meetings.  We have 850 first year students on campus and 70 of them participate actively in hall council.  We do see some drop off as the year goes on and we do have some students that participate out of popularity, however overall we have had a great success with the program here in its first four years.

Some benefits we have seen from our first year hall council groups;

• Increase in number of first year RA applicants
• Increase in programming initiatives in residence halls
• Increase in hall pride
• Increase in suggested improvements from residential  students
• Decrease in residence hall damage
• Leaders branching out to participate in other campus organizations

Creating a residence hall government program can be beneficial in the creation of a successful first year residential experience program.  The key is getting student buy in.  My suggestion is to try to get your students to attend a regional or state conference.  Check out this link to find your regional information.  If that is not possible to attend a conference, connect with some advisors that are out there.  I am willing to help you or put you in contact with advisors that I know that have worked with starting a hall government program.   There are also some guidebooks here that may help in your creation journey.

I would love to hear your expereniences with Hall Government.

Please get in touch if you have any thoughts or questions!