On behalf of the office of Student Life, welcome to Maine College of Art and to the residence halls!
We hope you will find our residence halls to be a comfortable living environment and a place of learning and camaraderie during your time here. Maine College of Art is a vibrant learning community, and the residence halls have been designed to help you embrace the many social, intellectual, and personal opportunities available to you as a student artist.
We certainly hope the residence halls will become a part of your personal and artistic growth. Throughout the year, you will find there to be social, recreational and educational opportunities for you within the residence halls and your days filled with chances for impromptu social gatherings. We invite you, as a member of our community, to take an active role in shaping the programming and activities offered by Student Life. If you have ideas or suggestions for activities or programs, we would love to hear them.
The following pages will help you understand what you can expect from the Office of Student Life as well as what our expectations are for you. By working together to help shape and maintain community values, we can ensure the residence halls are places that embrace respect and diversity as community foundations. We hope that living and learning in the residence halls at Maine College of Art will allow you to build friendships and create memories, which will last a lifetime!
Sincerely,
The Live-In Staff of Student Life
studentlife@meca.edu
Who Lives & Works in the Residence Halls?
The Assistant Director of Student Life is a full-time professional staff person who lives in the residence halls and has the primary responsibility of overseeing the community within the halls and their day-to-day operations. This includes establishing and administering community standards, supporting community programming and supervising the Resident Assistants.
Some reasons you might seek out the Assistant Director include:
- You would like more information about campus resources;
- There is an issue you would like to speak to a staff person about or that you do not feel comfortable talking to one of the RAs about;
- You need to discuss a room change;
- There is a maintenance issue that has to be addressed immediately;
- You were involved in an incident in the residence hall;
- You are sick and need assistance in seeking medical treatment;
- There is a question, comment, or concern you would like addressed.
Resident Assistant
The Resident Assistant (RA) role is an undergraduate paraprofessional position. RAs are assigned a specific floor and/or building and are available to residents as needed. Some reasons you might seek out an RA include:
- You need to talk to someone;
- Something in your room needs fixing;
- You are having a conflict with your roommate;
- There is an activity you want to suggest or help organize;
- There is a question, comment, or concern you would like addressed.
Some of the many hats RAs wear include; role models, teachers, administrators, mentors, upholders of policies, student leaders, event planners, and community builders. In short, their job is to serve the needs of residents while ensuring a vibrant and safe community. RAs are also part of a rotating duty schedule which ensures one RA is available from 9:30 PM –8:00 AM Monday through Thursday and all day Saturday and Sunday.
