Residence Halls Association holds general assembly

The Residence Halls Association met Wednesday night to discuss election campaigns and report on committee activity.

Planning and programming for RHA’s Welcome Week Concert is now
underway.

Brett Bassock, a Union Board representative, spoke on changes they hoped to make to the event this year.

These changes include selling tickets instead of having a free concert, having no re-entry and, most notably, making the event more of a festival rather than just a concert, he said.

“We would like to bring in carnival games, student organization booths and food trucks to make the concert more of a festival to keep students interested,” Kevin Kenes, Union Board Director of Fun and Adventure, said.

Other guests included the Singing Hoosiers, Jessica Albright of Relay for Life and Desiree Dixon, who is responsible for organizing the Little 50 running race.

RHA President Claire Houterman said it’s important for guests to come speak at RHA general assembly about their respective organization’s upcoming events.

“It’s a way for RHA members to know what’s happening on campus and be aware of all possible opportunities that our residents may enjoy or benefit from attending,” she said.

“It’s our job to usher those events to our residents, to offer them the opportunity to take part in them, so it is important that we have outside speakers come to GA to share with us.”

Aside from the guests, each RHA committee reported to the group, executive directors gave reports, as well as the student government representatives from each residence hall.

RHA members ran for next year’s executive board positions: President, Vice President
of Internal Affairs, Vice President of Student Affairs and Vice President of
programming.

Election day is coming up on March 4.

Houterman said that although RHA general assembly is primarily used to collaborate internally and discuss future goals, they made a couple important decisions during the meeting.

“We did finalize the artists that RHA feels would be best for the Welcome Week Concert,” she said.

“We also chatted with the executive director of RPS about meal plan changes, and we will be voting on those changes next time.”

This past year was the first time RPS instituted the “Hoosier Bucks” program, which
allowed students to buy a meal plan with points that could be spent at any RPS dining hall as well as in the Indiana Memorial Union and the Wells Library Cyber Café.

After only selling 50 percent of what they anticipated, RPS has decided to stop selling Hoosier Bucks plans on March 1.

Pat Connor, executive director of RPS, said they plan to bring back two Crimson Plans.

One would be an 18-month plan, not tied into the academic semester, costing $250.

The second would be a $500 plan, meant to last a full academic year.

Connor said he wants student input, so a decision from RHA will be made by the next general assembly.

Houterman said there is currently a lot going on at the center and director level.

She is working with Culture of Care representatives to plan Culture of Care Week events.

In addition, Houterman and Emily Francisco, vice president of internal affairs, are working on distribution of the Counseling and Psychological Services sessions the health center offers students.

“We’re seeing if there is a way for us to make it an option for students to “donate” their unused CAPS sessions to those students who may need more than the two allotted free sessions,” Houterman said.

“We feel this is a great way to build a strong sense of community, wellbeing and appreciation and respect for fellow IU students, and we’re excited to see what progress we can make with it.”