RA Summer Newsletter

Hello, Resident Assistant team!! This is your final summer newsletter!

You should read the entire newsletter with your full attention!

In addition to these newsletters, you may also receive emails from Raina or Amanda with information regarding Fall Training and other RA information as we get closer to Fall term.

Training, Orientation, Move-In

Meals During Training/Modified Quarantine

Behind Closed Doors - Calling Returning RAs!

Move-In Assistance and Storage

Slack Reminder

You are the Role Models

Lofting Beds

We Will Give You the Stuffs

RA Recipe Book - Virtual Event Ideas

Your RA Door Dec

Meet the Staff: Missy Kratz

Ask Us!

• Begins August 31st at 1 PM for new RAs (or alternates)
• Begins September 1st at 1 PM for ALL RAs (including alternates)
• Ends on September 8th, with the expectation that RAs also assist with some orientation and move-in tasks the 9th-13th
• Will be completely virtual

DO NOT PLAN TO ATTEND OTHER EVENTS OR TRAINING SESSIONS DURING RA TRAINING, ORIENTATION, OR MOVE-IN!

I will send out more information about training, the links, etc. in the next couple of days. Training will be from about 9 AM to 3:30 PM CT with a one hour lunch break and some brain breaks scattered in there as well. Prepare yourself however you need to do be able to focus for a 3 and 2 hour chunk of time on training each day! For those of you who are in a different time zone, we also hope to record the sessions so that you can watch them at a reasonable hour. For everyone in Galesburg, though, we expect attendance at all sessions every day.

You will also have a variety of storage, move-in, and orientation responsibilities along with preparing your door decs and community decor during the evenings and from the 9th-13th.

Reminder of how Move-In works this year for new and returning students (and you):

• Arrive on their assigned day and time at the CFA Circle first, to get tested and move through our process to get important information and keys
• Have about 1 hour to move items into their rooms, with 1 move-in helper - this helper must be the same person the entire time, no one else should be going into the building
• Students whom we know have items stored should have already received a storage appointment, and if they did not but know they need to access storage, they should reach out to Raina (rjohnson@knox.edu)
• Students then quarantine in their room until a negative test result is received, about 4 days or so, only going out to use the bathroom and pickup meals from outside
• Students then all participate in modified quarantine through the 21st, where you can hang out outside together (with masks and following all guidelines) but cannot enter any buildings on campus except your own residence space

Meals will be distributed outside, behind Seymour either on the loading dock or under the tent. Please wear a mask and maintain at least six feet of physical distance wherever you are outside of your room. You can start picking up meals on Saturday.

If you get up for breakfast, just ring the dining service bell on the dock.

• Breakfast pick-up is 7:00am-8:00am
• Lunch pick-up is 11:00am-1:00pm
• Dinner pick-up is 5:00pm-6:00pm

Returning RAs - if you would like to volunteer to be a BCD actor, please let me know in a reply to this newsletter! We are still going to be doing BCD scenarios, but we will have to do them outside in small groups as opposed to inside. We will talk more about BCDs in training, but returning RAs we will need help having the scenarios acted out as usual so let me know if you are willing! I need to know by this Friday (tomorrow) (short notice, I know).

RAs on campus will be assisting with storage/testing and move-in this year. We are assigning you each to storage and testing time slots, so just be prepared to have to dedicate some hours to doing that. We will share the full schedule with you once we have finalized it!

Be sure to join the SLACK group and turn on your notifications! There is a mobile app and a computer app. You can use it to ask us questions, talk to each other, share memes, etc.!

Slack is the ONLY group platform for RA discussions. Please DO NOT create any chats outside of our Slack group for RAs, unless it is solely for the purpose of socializing. No information relating to the RA role, residents, etc. should ever be posted in any other place.

Another reminder that this year it is so important, perhaps more important than any other year, that you all are good role models for your peers. That entails following all COVID policies, wearing your mask, holding others accountable, making responsible decisions about where you are going to hang out, with who, when, and doing what, etc. Your residents and peers will be looking at you, even when you are just hanging with friends and doing nothing RA related. We must rely heavily on all of you to follow and uphold Knox policies and values about health and safety but also all other policies, such as the code of conduct and community living standards. We are also relying on you to let us know if there is something concerning happening on campus that could impact the health and safety of the students or the community. Remember how important and valuable you all are, and that you are always living in a fish bowl as a student leader!

If you or your residents want your beds lofted, un-lofted, lowered, bunked, etc., you should submit those requests with the work order email, workorder@knox.edu. Know that facilities might not come into rooms to complete those requests until after the quarantine period is over. You or your residents can also submit those requests before arriving to campus if you or you/they know how you want the bed to be.

We will be providing each RA with a craft kit, to include glue, paper, scissors, tape, and other crafty things that you may use to decorate your suite/make door decs with. If there is something in the kit that you won't use, share it with another RA who might need more of that specific thing! Trade (safely) and make cute living spaces! :D We hope to have other craft supplies available for you all to use in a safe way when the term begins, but that is TBD.

As usual, we will also have RA shirts for the full-time RA staff. We will coordinate a way for you all to pick those up after you are on campus.

Caitlin and I pulled together some ideas for virtual events or programs that you can do with your assigned students! Please add your own ideas and tips to this "RA Recipe Book" as well. You will all be able to access it now, and it will live in the RA team drive that you will get access to when training begins.

We have some cute door decs up for you all for this year, brought to you by Caitlin! See below for an example of what they look like. Underneath your name, you should write your contact number (after move-in is over so parents don't get your number too) and for what space you are the RA. In the blank note space on the left, write a note to your residents, draw something, put important phone numbers, whatever you'd like! :)

I've been helping out in the Campus Life Office as the Administrative Assistant for almost five years now! Time really does fly by and it's hard to believe that I have been working in different capacities at Knox for a total of 24 years! In addition to helping and supporting the staff in the Campus Life Office, I also help with budget spending and monitoring for student organizations, RA funding requests, and training our front desk assistants.

A little more about me...I grew up in a fairly large family (I have 4 brothers and 1 sister) on a farm about half an hour from Knox College. My husband Mike and I met in college and have been married for almost 30 years. We have a 25-year-old son (Nick) and a 23-year-old daughter (Brittani), and just this summer our family grew to include a daughter-in-law (Braley)! We also have quite a few feline and canine family members :). In my spare time, I enjoy golfing with my husband, gardening, and spending time with family and friends.

I look forward to getting to know each of you and helping you in any way possible!

See you soon!

If at any point you have questions, concerns, or areas of confusion please let us know!! Email Amanda or Raina at any time or pop a question in the Slack chat. If you have friends who have questions, ask us those too! Now is a great time to learn to ask when you don't know the answer to something or bring up a concern you have. We are open to respectful challenge and push back and want to be as transparent as we can be.

Training, Orientation, Move-In

Meals

Behind Closed Doors

Move-In Assistance and Storage

Slack

You are the Role Models

Lofting Beds

Stuffs

RA Recipe Book

RA Door Dec

Meet the Staff: Missy Kratz

Ask Us!