UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 20, Page 7
February 16, 1995
Every day is different in residence life on campus

     When you are dealing with 7,200 undergraduates who live in
University housing, no two days are alike, and every day brings new
challenges," according to Cynthia Cummings, the newly appointed
director of residence life on campus.
     With the reorganization of housing and residence life into
separate units, Cummings was named director of residence life. She
reports to the vice president for student life in the new position,
which is an expansion of the responsibilities she already had.
     "I was in charge of the in-house, day-to-day operation of
residence life. Now I'm also responsible for long-range planning and
dealing with outside agencies and parental concerns," she said.
     Cummings heads a staff of 16 professionals and 210 undergraduate
and graduate students, who act as hall directors and resident
assistants (RAs) on the East, West, Central and Laird campuses.
     "RAs and hall directors are the front line of residence life.
They are students who like people and who like working with people,
but there is a lot more to the job than that. They need human
relations and communication skills to develop a sense of community.
They are in charge of programs and are involved in student advising,
crisis management, disciplinary actions and referrals when students
need services. To prepare them for their jobs, we have extensive
training programs," Cummings said.
     Hall directors, who are primarily graduate students, have a two-
week training program, supplemented by monthly in-service training.
RAs have a one-week program, but also are required to take a one-
credit course on contemporary issues for resident assistants. Faculty
members are guest lecturers for the course, and the sessions are
reinforced by discussion groups with residence life professionals.
     Cummings' office also is in charge of programming for residence
halls and presents approximately 1,000 cultural and educational
programs annually across the campus.
     Cummings received both her bachelor's degree and master's degree
from Indiana University at Bloomington. Her graduate work was in
college student personnel administration.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure