Residential Life Student Leader (Resident Assistant, Program Assistant, and Lead Desk Assistant) - Academic Year 2023-2024

Residential Life | San Francisco State University  

Student Leader (SL) Application 2023-2024 

 

We are seeking SL's for the 2023-2024 Academic Year! 

 

About Residential Life:  

Residential Life at San Francisco State University is a department within the purview of the Dean of Students cabinet area of the division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. Residential Life provides comfortable and equitable living accommodations and out-of-the-classroom learning experiences for nearly 4,000 students each academic year. 

 

General Position Requirements: 

 

 

Timeline 

Applications Open: Friday, November 18th, 2022 

Applications Close: Friday, January 27th, 2023 at 11:59PM 

Application Review/Grade Checks/Conduct Checks: Thursday, February 2nd, 2023 - Monday, February 20th, 2023  

Interviews: Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 - Friday, March 10th, 2023 

Student Leader Offers: Friday, March 24th, 2023  

Student Leader Orientation: Wednesday, April 19th, 2023, 4-6pm LOCATION TBD 

 

*Please Note: This timeline may be subject to change to accommodate University and/or department needs. However, candidates will be updated immediately if changes occur 

 

Description of Student Leader Opportunities:  

Throughout the academic year, Residential Life offers live-in leadership opportunities to approximately 120 Student Leaders. Resident Assistants (RA), Lead Desk Assistants (LDA), and Program Assistants (PA) serve within their communities to facilitate growth, development, and support for residential students across five unique residential living communities. 

 

New applicants (students who are not currently one of these 3 roles) are eligible to apply for the RA and PA Roles. 

 

Resident Assistant (RA)  

Resident Assistants are directly responsible for a floor, wing or specific blocks of residential students within the community you are assigned. RAs serve to support, mentor, peer-lead, their floor, wing, or block of residents. They are responsible for creating an open, supporting, and inclusive community, managing and mediating conflict between residents, intentionally interacting and building relationship with residents, tracking and reporting of intentional interactions, offering resources to students who are struggling, upholding and enforcing the Student Code of Conduct and Community Living Standards, and assisting in crisis and emergency situations. 

 

The Resident Assistant role is an average 20 hour a week commitment. This time shall be distributed between a combination of weekly interactions with residents in their community, on-duty/on-call task, and administrative responsibilities. A reasonable schedule would include a combination of patterns of time including weekly commitments (i.e., meetings with individual residents, advising students, etc.) and on-duty/on-call commitments (being available to residents at varying intervals during the day and night, duty rotations, responding to emergencies and crisis situations). The RA role is not easily translated into an hourly basis or reduced to specific duties so this description is a sample of what a typical week might look like. 

 

Program Assistant (PA) 

Program Assistants are directly responsible for community-wide programs and initiatives for the areas they are assigned. PAs serve to support residential students through mentorship, peer-lead a community of residents through the lens of Academic Success and Wellness. They are responsible for creating experiences that are open, supporting, and inclusive. 

 

The Program Assistant role is an average 20 hour a week commitment. This time shall be distributed between a combination of weekly interactions with their community team, residential needs assessments, program/event marketing and implementation, and administrative responsibilities (Office Hours, report/form submissions, etc.). Program Assistants also serve on-duty/on-call commitments (being available to residents at varying intervals during the day and night, duty rotations, responding to emergencies and crisis situations). The Program Assistant role is not easily translated into an hourly basis or reduced to specific duties so this description is a sample of what a typical week might look like. 

 

Lead Desk Assistant (LDA) 

LDAs are driven by the desire to promote an efficient and friendly community desk program. As a LDA, you are the guiding force of customer service in Residential Life by handling valuable procedures related to desk schedules, keys, and mail. LDAs directly assist the Residential Coordinators of the Community Desks in advising a staff of up to 30 student staff assistants who operate the community front desk, and assist in running front and back end operations. LDAs are administrative managers in the making! 

 

The Lead Desk assistant is an average 20 hour a week commitment. This time shall be distributed in supporting the administrative functions of the community you are assigned during a set office hours and a separate LDA Duty Rotation. A reasonable schedule would include office hours tasks such as move-in preparation, key auditing, passive programing for residential engagement, preparing for desk staff meetings, and supporting a mail operation. 

 

NOTE: In order to apply for the LDA Role, candidates must meet one of the following criteria: having prior experience working as a Student Leader, having prior experience working as a Desk Assistant, or be enrolled in a graduate school program for the upcoming 23-24 academic year. 

 

All Student Leaders (RAs, PAs, and LDAs) must be available to residents and staff during evening hours and weekends, on a regular basis. This position will require on-call weekend duty. This includes providing coverage during vacation and holiday periods, which includes, but is not limited to Thanksgiving, Winter Break and Spring Break. Break coverage is split up amongst all Student Leaders in each community so while you won’t be required to provide coverage during all breaks, you will be required to provide coverage during some portion of breaks. The break coverage is determined in your assigned Residential Community area and the number of days you are assigned varies based on team size. 

 

Benefits 

Since Student Leaders serve in on-call rotation, all live-in student leaders are provided credit that covers housing for the full academic year (Fall 2023 - Spring 2024), as well as a 7-day continuous meal plan for all effective dates of the license agreement. Live-in student leaders are also given priority registration--this is to be used to keep Wednesdays from 4PM-6PM available for weekly team meetings. 

 

Application Process 

New student leaders will be asked to fill out an application (link below) and participate in an interview. Candidates will be invited to interview for the position based on the quality of their application responses. We encourage all applicants to practice the STAR Method of Interviewing and to seek support from SFSU Career Services and Leadership Development https://csld.sfsu.edu/ throughout this process. 

 

Ready to apply? 

If you are ready to apply, please submit your application in this link provided: https://sfsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8BsDgTRlotpv0jA 

(If you are a current Residential Life student leader, do not use the link above. The department will contact you via email with a different application link). 

 

Applications will only be accepted through the Qualtrics link provided above and will expire on 11:45PM PST on Friday, January 27th, 2023. 

 

Questions / Concerns 

Please direct any inquires about the Student Leader Selection process to Residential Life via email at reslife@sfsu.edu