Resident Assistant applications are due tomorrow!

Any student who has expressed interest in becoming a Resident Assistant for the 2018-2019 academic year should submit their application and resume by tomorrow, Friday, January 26th by 12 noon.

E-mail invites to Group Process will be sent no later than Monday, January 29th.  Group Process will take place on Friday, February 9th from 5 pm to 8 pm.

Students who perform well in Group Process will be invited to sign up for an interview the week of February 12th for an interview held the week of February 19th.

All candidates should check their Seton Hall E-mail periodically for updates, including any changes in scheduling due to inclement weather.

Good luck to all out interested students!

Some resources for students and parents as we approach Winter Break!

With the halls closing for Winter Break on December 20th at 10 AM, Housing and Residence Life wants to provide some resources to our parents and students who will be experiencing the first long break of the academic year.

Students and their families have changed and grown since Move-In Day in August and it’s important to recognize that expectations may have changed.

Here are some useful articles to help our Pirates and Pirate families navigate Winter Break –

When college students come home, stress and tension can mount

Winter break means adjusting to life back home

College Students Returning Home for the Holidays

Holiday Survival Guide for College Students and Parents

5 Ways to Adjust to Winter Break

 

Meet Teresa and Ryan, November’s Featured RA’s!

Monthly, Housing and Residence Life is taking the time to get to know some of the Resident Assistants (RA’s) on staff and share these profiles with you.  RA’s are student leaders who live in the residence halls to build community, offer programs, serve as a resource to students, and address any issues students experience.

 

This month, we meet Teresa Holl, a  Sophomore “Jersey Girl” from Jackson who works as an RA in Ora Manor, our University-owned apartment complex on Valley Street.  Teresa’s path to being a Resident Assistant wasn’t always clear, as she had considered transferring after a short while at Seton Hall.  However, she credits her freshman year RA, Heather Kwityn, for connecting her to SHU and motivating Teresa to pursue a position with Housing and Residence Life.  A Nursing major, Teresa saw the RA position as a chance to continue her leadership experience from high school.  Teresa loves bringing her organizational skills to her small staff and works to fight the stigma associated with being an RA off campus.  She values having her own living space and the ability to build more mature relationships with her residents and co-workers.  Teresa speaks happily about integrating her Filipino culture into her community, hosting a program where her aunt and uncle provided Filipino food from their restaurant.  If you’re interested in becoming an RA, Teresa encourages you to go for it and be yourself!

Next up is Ryan Johnson, a first-year RA from the first floor in Boland Hall.  An undecided Sophomore business major, Ryan prides himself on his involvement with the Martin Luther King Student Association and the Multicultural Advisory Committee.  If you ever need to find Ryan, he says he is most likely hanging out in the Boland Lobby getting to know a new resident he hasn’t met before.  Ryan recalls wanting to be an RA as early as his Junior year of high school when he was brainstorming with his aunt about ways he could afford college.  Although Ryan appreciates the financial benefits of the position, he believes the bigger payout is the leadership experience and the community he gets to be a part of in Boland Hall.  Originally placed on the alternate roster, Ryan encourages anyone who is placed as an alternate to accept the position because you never know what could happen.  Ryan’s tips for interested in becoming a Resident Assistant?  Like Teresa, he says to be yourself throughout the entire selection process.  He also wants to make sure that his future colleagues know what they are signing up for, so understand all the job entails and make sure you can be 100% committed to all aspects of the position.

Housing and Residence Life is hosting four more information sessions throughout December and January for students interested in learning more about the RA position!  Check out our previous blog post about RA selection to get those dates.

Submitting a work order has never been easier!

This year, campus-wide, all resident students are able to submit work order requests through text message.  If you are encountering a non-urgent issue in your room that needs attention by our Facilities Management department, you can send your request through your cell phone!

Here’s what a resident needs to know before using this convenient reporting system –

  • The work order number should ONLY be used for non-urgent facilities issues in your room (a drippy faucet, a burnt out light, etc…)
  • Although you can submit a work order any time of day, the Residence Hall Director of the building only accesses the submitted work orders between 8:45 am and 4:45 pm, Monday through Friday.  Our staff make every effort to check this report at least twice a day, when they first report to the office and in the afternoon.
  • Do not use the work order number in the event of a serious facilities emergency (any time where the safety of the student or a structure is in danger).  Any facilities emergencies should be reported to your front desk staff immediately, who will report it to the appropriate Housing and Residence Life, Facilities Management and/or Public Safety staff.
  • In Ora and Turrell Manor, between 9 am and 5 pm, Facilities emergencies should be reported to RHD Katelyn Conroy at 973-761-9020.  After 5 PM, students should call Public Safety at 973-761-9300.  After 8 PM, they can report the emergency to the RA on duty.

The HRL staff member will receive your message, submit a formal work order to Facilities Management, who then dispatch their staff to address your work order.

Any other questions, comments or concerns regarding your experience in our residence halls should be discussed, in person, with the Residence Hall Director or Residence Coordinator of your building, available in their offices between 8:45 am and 4:45 pm on weekdays.  You can also speak to the Resident Assistant on your floor or the Resident Assistants on duty, who are available starting at 8 pm every night until 9 am the next morning, Monday through Friday, and 24 hours during the weekend.

Work orders should be submitted to the number associated with your residence hall –

Aquinas- 973-996-8192

Boland- 973-913-5832

Complex- 973.913.4511

Turrell and Ora Manors- 973-913-5281

Xavier – 973-657-2146

In the text message, include your name, room number and a specific description of the issue.

We remind you that this number will not put you in direct contact with a member of Housing and Residence Life staff.  Do not call this number.  Do not submit a text message to this number if it is a serious facilities emergency that needs an immediate resolution.  Do not submit a text message to this number if you are experiencing a noise complaint, roommate conflict, or other issue associated with your residential experience.  We want you to discuss these things in person with a member of HRL staff.

 

Live Chat with HRL on our NEW website!

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new, mobile-friendly, responsive website! You’ll find that information is better organized, easier to find, and much more plain and simple to navigate. 

 

Our website features an overview of department information which will be supplemented by blog posts from this blog for further, date-specific information.

But we’re even more excited that our website provides us another way to connect with YOU! We’ve added a chat feature to our website that is staffed during business hours (9am-5pm) by a real life HRL professional!  While we still enjoy your emails, you’ll find our chat will get you real-time information when you’re looking for it.  To find our chat, just look for the “Let’s talk” box at the bottom right hand corner of your screen – yup it’s even there on this blog page!  If it says online, there’s a HRL professional there waiting to talk to you! If it’s after hours and it says offline, you can leave us a message and we’ll get back to you when we’re back in the office. We’re so excited to chat with you that we will give the 1st, 10th, 20th, and 56th person to chat with us through the website their very own Seton Hall t-shirt! 

If there’s anything you’d like to see on our website that could enhance your user experience, please let us know. (Sounds like a great way to try out the chat feature!)

 

Letter to Families about Room Selection 2012-2013

To the Families of our Seton Hall University Resident Students:

Happy New Year from the Department of Housing and Residence Life at Seton Hall University! We will begin the 2012-2013 Room Selection process on February 1st, 2012. That is the first day on which students, who wish to return to housing, may submit their $325 non-refundable room reservation deposit and apply for housing. This is the first step in the process of applying for University housing. Students must meet all deadlines and complete all necessary steps in the process to be eligible to participate in room selection which begins the week of March 30th, 2012.

This is an exciting time for your student and we hope by sending information home to family members, you can become a partner in preparing them for this process. Spaces are limited and demand for housing has been greater in the last several years. Should demand for 2012-2013 exceed available spaces, students who deposit and apply on time will be placed on the Housing Wait List in lottery number order and placed before students who deposit late. Any student who deposits after the deadline (February 17th, 2012) will be placed on the Wait List and be assigned as spaces become available. Wait lists assignments are based on distance of home address from campus and date of application received.

Below is a brief informational checklist for Room Selection 2012-2013. We have also included a handy quick reference checklist for your refrigerator. We will send more information directly to students after the start of the spring semester and highlight Room Selection in our next episode of Hall Housing Happenings (if you wish to sign up to receive this parent video blog, please email us at SHUHOUSING@SHU.EDU.)

 RESOLVE BALANCE – Prior to February 1st: Make sure all balances are cleared and there are no holds on the student’s account. If there is a balance on the account, the student will not be permitted to apply for housing. Students can check their hold status on Banner Self-Service.
 SUBMIT $325 ROOM RESERVATION DEPOSIT – February 1st-17th: A room deposit of $325 is required and may be paid online 24 hours a day or in person in the Bursar’s office in Bayley Hall during business hours. Students who wish to be a part of the Room Selection process must submit their room reservation deposit no later than 11:59pm on February 17th, 2012. Please note: All credit card and electronic check payments must be made online through the “Pay Your Housing Deposit” link on the Housing & Residence Life website (http://www.shu.edu/offices/housing-residence-life/forms.cfm). Seton Hall University will accept Visa, MasterCard, or American Express for the housing deposit only. Also, beginning in 2012-2013, the housing deposit will no longer be refundable.
o Students who submit a room deposit on time will be able to complete a housing application, have their Priority Points calculated and be given a lottery number (Priority Points is the values-based system that Housing & Residence Life uses to determine lottery order for the room selection process.)
o Students who submit a room deposit late (after 11:59pm on February, 17th, 2012) will not have Priority Points calculated, will be ineligible to participate in the Room Selection process and will be depositing to our Housing Wait List.
 COMPLETE HOUSING APPLICATION – February 1st-17th: After submitting the Room Reservation Deposit, students complete the Housing Application online. Students who apply during this time frame will have their Priority Points calculated and be eligible to participate in the Room Selection process. As noted above, students who apply for housing after 11:59pm on February 17th, will not have Priority Points calculated, will be placed on the Housing Wait List and will be assigned when a room becomes available based on distance of home address from campus and date of application received. Please note: students who have a balance or registration hold on their account will not be permitted to complete a housing application until their account is cleared.
o Submission of the Housing Application means the student acknowledges and agrees to abide by the terms and conditions listed in the Housing License Agreement. This year’s License can be viewed on http://www.shu.edu/offices/housing-residence-life/forms.cfm.
 SELECT ROOM ASSIGNMENT – Beginning March 30th: Students will participate in an Online Room Selection process to select their rooms for the 2012-2013 academic year. We will send more information directly to eligible students on how the process moves forward, including specific dates for living learning communities like Sophomore Discovery Program and Turrell Manor Servant Leadership, after the start of the spring semester.
After students submit their Housing Applications, we are encouraging them to begin conversations with their peers about potential roommates and housing arrangements. We believe families are also an important part of this conversation. Different residence halls offer different living experiences and you can help your student to make good decisions that will enhance their experience at Seton Hall. Choice of roommates is also important to assure a good match in terms of living style and study habits. Your student may also wish to apply for one of our specialized living-learning communities which require a supplemental application in addition to the housing deposit and standard housing application. For more information on our residence halls and these communities, please visit www.shu.edu/go/housing.
It is our hope that this process will run smoothly for your student and that, with your help, your student will find a place to call Home at the Hall. If you or your student have any questions about the information contained in this letter, please call us at (973)761-9172 or email SHUHOUSING@SHU.EDU. You may also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SetonHallHRL.
Sincerely,

Cheryl Lynn Janus
Assistant Director – Housing Operations & Marketing