Date Approved
4-24-2025
Graduate Degree Type
Project
Degree Name
Education-Higher Education (M.Ed.)
Degree Program
Education Leadership & Counseling
First Advisor
Paul Bylsma
Academic Year
2024/2025
Abstract
Resident Assistants (RAs) at institutions of higher education nationwide are responsible for creating community-building opportunities, engaging meaningfully with students, reporting and documenting concerns, generally ensuring the safety of on-campus students, and much more. RAs are expected to manage the mental, physical, and emotional needs of the students they supervise while simultaneously fulfilling other obligations they may face as students, friends, classmates, members of family units, and individuals in society. This project explores the mental and emotional toll the RA position plays on students who participate in the role. Particularly, this project investigates the needs of modern college students, the phenomena that occurs during the college-going transition period, the increasing occurrence of college students experiencing mental health-related challenges, the intersectional identities of RAs, the evolution of the RA position, and the potential for detrimental outcomes resulting from the RA role. In order to combat the potential adverse effects RAs may experience due to the content of their role, on-campus housing departments and colleges and universities more broadly must create intentional systems of support for RAs. A combination of mental health-related education, ongoing wellness check-in surveys, and subsequent RA-processing spaces will address the individual and collective needs of RAs. Together, these interrelated systems of care will create counteractive measures to reduce harm experienced by RAs.
ScholarWorks Citation
Teachout, Landyn M., "Supporting Students Who Support Students: Creating Systems of Care for Resident Assistants (RAs)" (2025). Culminating Experience Projects. 549.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gradprojects/549
