I have been a Community Advisor (CA) at Georgia College for three years. I have seen my share of drama and incidents, and while it may not always be the most glamorous, I love my job. I have loved building relationships with all of my residents and will cherish the memories I have made, however, there are some things we all wish our residents understood.
1. Your CAs get here two weeks before classes start to train for the position. We learn so much information in a short period of time, all to try and better serve the residents.
2. Yes, everything happening during the Week of Welcome is mandatory. I don’t make the rules.
3. Speaking of which, mandatory meetings are the worst. We don’t like them any more than you do. We try to make them as quick as possible because, let’s be real, you’re not listening anyway.
4. Door decorations take forever to make; please don’t rip them down.
5. Your specific CA is not always on duty. There’s only one CA on duty per night, per building. Those 2 am lockouts aren’t fun even when we’re on duty and they’re especially irritating when we’re not on duty.
6. When it comes to drinking, you are so much more obvious than you realize.
7. We’re responsible for maintaining the halls while on duty. This includes cleaning up any obvious spills/ bodily fluids. So, if you are going to drink, please try to make it to your own room before getting sick everywhere. (If you puked in Napier’s lobby this year, you’re on my hit list.)
8. As most CAs will tell you, we don’t enjoy writing you up. First and foremost, we are trying to keep you and the other residents safe, and sometimes incident reports are unavoidable. We don’t want to get you in trouble and it’s the worst when it’s your own resident.
9. Most CAs plan programs based on their own interests. So I apologize for my eight crafting programs this year.
10. We do put a lot of planning and effort into our events and it stinks when residents don’t come.
11. We truly care about your success. I feel like a proud mama when one of my residents does well on a test or accomplishes one of their goals.
12. CAs are students too, so we’re often busy with our own school work and don’t have time to check in with all of our residents. Know that even if you haven’t seen your CA in awhile, they still care about you!
13. We also have social lives. While we would prefer not to run into you downtown, it happens sometimes. I’ve even heard stories that some CAs turn it into a drinking game.
14. The air vents in the residence halls connect. There is no way to discreetly smoke weed in your room. You smoke, we have to call the cops, no one wins.
15. Check out is the most stressful time of year for us. We’re trying to study/ take finals while also running around to check you out of your room. PLEASE do not change your check out time last minute.
16. We enjoy catching up with old residents. I still care about your successes and failures, even if I’m not your CA anymore.
Overall, your CA wants the best for you. We all truly care about your wellbeing. Hopefully, this has helped you see behind the curtain a little bit.