Student Leader Roles

Residence Life Student Staff Overview

The Residence Life Staff is made up of three primary roles: Junior Advisors, Community Advisors, and Team Leaders. At their core, these three positions are quite similar. Each role supports and lives in a designated residential area with the students they support. Where these roles diverge is in their fundamental relationships with the residents they support.

ResLife Student Staff

Junior Advisors (JAs) live in a First-Year Center (FYC) and support first-year students only. JAs are supported in fostering intentional relationships with their first-year cohort, averaging between 10 and 20 residents. The primary goals of the JA are to help ease a first-year student’s transition to communal living, adapt to more rigorous academic requirements, and find balance experiences that are competing for time.

  • Support the students that make up your First-Year Center (FYC)
  • Be available to your first-year residents as a peer advisor
  • Connect residents with campus resources and extracurricular opportunities
  • Foster socially just and inclusive living environments
  • Facilitate residential programs and other engagement opportunities
  • Mediate residential conflicts with humility and empathy
  • Uphold College-wide community standards and rules
  • Uphold community standards unique to your FYC
  • Act as a steward of the physical spaces of your FYC
  • Serve as liaison between your FYC and administrative offices
  • Maintain collaborative relationships with Custodial Services, Campus Safety, and Environmental Health & Safety to address instances of residential damage and/or community disruption
  • Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  • Attend all pre-term training(s) and onboarding sessions
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Attend all required training sessions, including:
    • Pre-orientation staff training in August
    • Pre-winter semester training in January
  3. Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  4. Meet regularly with JA Team and JA Team Leader
  5. Meet regularly with Area Director
  • Must be a rising sophomore, rising junior, or rising senior
  • No prior residential or work experience required
Link to Full Description (PDF)

Community Advisors (CAs) on the other hand live in houses and halls with either no First-Year residents or a mixed population of class years. CAs do a great deal of community advising, peer mentoring, and resource referral through more informal relationships with their residents.

  • Support the residents of one or more halls or houses
  • Be available to residents as an informal peer advisor
  • Connect residents with campus resources
  • Foster socially just and inclusive living environments
  • Facilitate residential programs and other engagement opportunities
  • Manage and mediate residential conflicts with humility and empathy
  • Uphold College-wide community standards and rules
  • Uphold community standards unique to your residential community
  • Act as a steward of the physical spaces of your residential community
  • Maintain collaborative relationships with Custodial Services, Campus Safety, and Environmental Health & Safety to address instances of residential damage and/or community disruption
  • Serve as liaison between your residential community and administrative offices
  • Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  • Attend all pre-term training(s) and onboarding sessions
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Attend all required training sessions, including:
    • Pre-orientation fall staff training in August
    • Pre-winter semester training in January
  3. Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  4. Meet regularly with CA Community and/or CA Team Leader
  5. Meet regularly with Area Director

Must have experience living in an upper-division residence

Link to Full Description (PDF)

Team Leaders (TLs) are the final role of the Residence Life Staff. In addition to performing the duties of a CA, Team Leaders also support and mentor a small group of either Junior Advisors or Community Advisors. The Junior Advisor teams are typically divided into buildings, while the Community Advisor teams are usually grouped into halls and houses. The charge of Team Leaders is to foster a professional community of practice where staff members can collaborate, problem solve, share resources, and find comradery in the highs and lows of their work.

Position Description

TLs are responsible for fostering a collegial and supportive work environment among fellow staff and students, for encouraging the formation of a professional community, and are required to be visible and accessible in support of members of their residential community.

Duties and Responsibilities (Abridged)

  • Assist in facilitating staff training modules
  • Hold regular team meetings (weekly or bi-weekly)
  • Check-in regularly with individual team members (JAs/CAs) and other residents
  • Be available to provide professional support to JAs/CAs
  • Offer thoughtful professional feedback to JAs/CAs
  • Meet regularly with Area Director

Prerequisite

  • Must have at least 1 year of experience as a Junior Advisor or Community Advisor
Link to Full Description (PDF)

What Makes a Good JA or CA?

There is no such thing as a model JA or CA and no one right way to live out these roles. There are many approaches to building community, fostering relationships, and supporting one’s peers; and, there are countless personality types, interests, skills, experiences, and dimensions of identity that are valuable to this work. Rather than asking yourself if you are qualified to be a JA or CA, instead, ask yourself how you would embody your chosen role in a way that is authentic and meaningful to you. Ask yourself what it is about Residence Life work that interests you, and what values would you bring to your role.