New student leadership positions are being implemented after the merger of the Residence Life Office and the Student Activities and Leadership Offices, now known as Campus Activities and Residential Engagement. These positions create a wider variety of options for students who want to participate in student leadership.
“We’re trying to create a choose-your-own-adventure for student leaders,” said Maverick Cummings, director of CARE, describing the new roles. The new student leadership positions include first-year mentors, senior community assistants and suite managers. “I wanted to create an opportunity for anyone to get involved,” said Cummings.
Cummings stressed that these new positions create an opportunity for everyone to get involved in student leadership. “I hear all the time, you know, particularly like STEM majors, being like, well, I want to be a CA, or I want to be a student leader, but I don’t have time to do all that work,” said Cummings. This is where the new first-year mentor position comes in.
The mentor will start as an orientation leader, but after the first-year cup, they will continue their job living in first-year communities as student leaders and help with extended orientation. They will be taking students to campus events and other orientations to help continue their transition into the community. “You kind of get like a similar vibe. It’s less work, less of the time commitment,” said Cummings.
“I’ve always wanted to be a CA,” said Ngure Ndiritu ’27. Although Ndiritu is only a first-year, he has been planning on being a CA for a while and has even attended one of the recruitment rallies. He said that after going to the rally, he wishes he could combine the position of
CA and first-year mentor for himself. “I think it’s a really good idea to just have more ways for upperclassmen to interact with freshmen in leadership positions,” said Ndiritu. “We’ll kind of see how it fares in fall, but I think it’s going to become really popular once people get the hang of it,” he said.
Student leadership roles are a great way to get involved with the campus and help others, and there are even more new positions. “These positions are some of the best positions that you can hold as a college student. Like, any future employer that has a college background is going to know what a CA is,” said Cummings. The senior CA position will consist of three seniors whose role will be to assist the Residential Coordinators with planning staff meetings and advising CAs, OLs, and first-year mentors. The other role, suite manager, will be open to returning student leaders. Due to the similar living experiences that the suites and townhouses have, CARE decided suite managers would be in a similar position to the current townhouse managers.
“I think the most exciting part is that anyone new coming into it can sort of look and be like, okay, this is the vision I have for myself,” said Cummings. Applications for CAs, OLs and new positions are due Friday, March 1, 2024, at 5 p.m. The application link has been sent out through email and can also be found on Involve. If you are looking for more information on becoming a student leader, there are two more Recruitment Rallies to attend, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Center Winston Room.