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Resident Assistant (or RA) is a term commonly used for American college students tasked with supervising less-senior students living in a dorm or in residency. Various schools have different terminology for this position.
Commonly RAs are the most direct liasons between a school's administration and its student body. Benefits of the RA position usually involve having a better dorm room, parking permits, financial compensation and/or significant discounts on room and board. Typically RAs are assigned "duty" nights during which they must patrol a dorm or campus area to ensure that all is well and that no policies are being broken. A good RA is also expected to be a bastion of moral support for students encountering issues such as roommate conflicts, depression, and drug abuse on a day-to-day basis.
RAs are often stereotyped as "goody-goodies," "killjoys," or "sellouts," among other things, as they are generally required to enforce unpopular policies, especially those involving alcohol, and abstain from breaking these policies themselves. (see drinking culture) However, this is not always the case and many are simply average students who have different lifestyle habits from the majority of the student body.
RAs have been known to abuse their positions, either using their powers to cause unnecessary grief to their fellow students out of spite, or, in contrast, to use the perks of the position to increase the ease of participating in illicit activity for him/herself or others. However, the abuse varies from institution to institution, dependent upon the selection methods used by the hiring body. In general, RAs fill a vital role in the culture of higher education.
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