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Interested in joining one of UCF’s most prominent and recognizable student leadership jobs? Serving as a member of the Housing and Residence Life staff team might be an excellent opportunity for you. By browsing this page, you’ll learn more about the Resident Assistant (RA) position, as well as how to become an eligible candidate during this year’s RA selection processes.
The RA position is a live-in position, whereupon, you are responsible for facilitating a positive community among residents, promoting a safe and comfortable living environment, and serving as a departmental and university representative and role model, all while living in a department assigned unit within a DHRL community. This position description and agreement serves as an overview of the DHRL expectations of your RA position with additional community specific expectations provided by your supervisor.
The current application is for Spring 2020 vacancies and May 2020 – May 2021 positions.
The document provides an overview of the RA position, including responsibilities, qualifications, terms of employment, compensation, and important dates for the upcoming year. Please review this document, as a great deal of information contained within the Position Description is not posted on this website.
We hold the expectation that the RA position is a job and not a voluntary organization or club. Work related duties are considered mandatory unless stated otherwise. Involvement in campus clubs and other jobs are not considered as a valid excuse to miss employment duties. We encourage all candidates to review and limit responsibilities beyond the RA job as too many activities could impair success in the RA position.
Due to the responsibilities of the RA position, outside employment and/or additional commitments may only be permitted with supervisor approval. Furthermore, RAs should not hold a major campus position nor participate in activities which might constitute a conflict of interest with the Resident Assistant position. All outside activities will be limited to no more than 10 hours per week.
The following are only some examples of the expected responsibilities of resident assistants.
Residential Curriculum: As a part of living on campus, residents will become active, engaged and productive global citizens. To help get them there, residence life staff work throughout the year to follow a learning plan- a curriculum- focused on 4 key concepts: Community Engagement, Self-Awareness, Cultural Competence, and Global Impact. At the core of the Residential Curriculum will be the development of individual relationships with each student on your floor/building. The Residential Curriculum will be covered during student staff trainings. You will implement and assist with the assessment of the residential curriculum for your community. Some strategies include:
Community Development: You will be responsible for building an inclusive community on your floor/building and around your community. Listed below are general community development responsibilities:
Administrative: You are responsible for various administrative tasks throughout the year. Listed below is a snapshot of items that RAs will be responsible to complete.
Duty: Duty includes, but is not limited to, office hours, rounds – internal and external, lockouts, work orders, RA assigned tasks and incident response, etc.
Professionalism and Role Modeling:
Move-In and Move-Out: You are required to work all DHRL openings/closings of facilities during the 2020-2021 year as scheduled by your supervisor.
Academic Commitments: We make reasonable accommodations for your academic commitments, but certain responsibilities of the position are non-negotiable. Internships or classes that interfere with the responsibilities outlined in this document need to be discussed with your supervisor.
Background Check: In order to safeguard the student community, the University will request a background check for all applicants. Your hire status is always conditional upon successful verification. If verification is not successful, an employment decision will be made by the Director or their designee.
Enrollment: You must be a currently enrolled UCF or Valencia student with full-time student status, which is no less than 12 undergraduate units a semester, to maintain the RA position. Full time student status can be achieved through a combination of enrollment at UCF and Valencia or another college/university with approval from an Assistant Director. You are required to have an Assistant Director’s approval to drop below the class registration requirement. Summer class registration is not required for summer employment as a RA. Please note that if you are not enrolled during the summer semester your taxes and compensation may be impacted.
Government Approval: You must be approved to work by the U.S. government throughout the duration of your employment. Any international student hired to be a RA should consult with UCF Global to verify all pertinent materials are in order to hold the position. Please notify the Coordinator of Selection and Leadership of your international student status so they can create the required hiring documents for you.
GPA: This is a student leadership position, and demonstrating academic excellence is a departmental value. You must remain in good academic standing with the university during your employment (http://catalog.ucf.edu/policies/academi c regulations). Grade checks will be conducted by the Coordinator of Selection in Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters. Please note, taking courses during the summer is not required to remain eligible for this position, however, grades earned during the summer are calculated into employment eligibility.
You must have a minimum 2.50 overall cumulative GPA at the time of your job offer. You must maintain a 2.50 overall cumulative GPA for the duration of your employment. If your semester GPA drops below a 2.50, you will be placed on Academic Warning for the next semester of your employment. If your overall cumulative GPA drops below 2.50, you will be placed on Academic Probation for the next semester of your employment. Any repeat occurrence of dropping below an overall cumulative 2.50 GPA will result in termination of the RA contract. RAs will be given two weeks to complete grade changes. RAs placed on either Academic Warning or Academic Probation will be required to complete an Academic Improvement Plan with their supervisor.
Office of Student Conduct: As this is a student leadership position, demonstrating the ability to abide by university regulations, state and federal laws is an important expectation. You must remain in good conduct standing (as determined by the DHRL) from your offer date until the end of employment to remain qualified for the RA position. Any prior violations/cases will be reviewed during the application process and eligibility will be determined by the Staff Selection Committee. Violations of any Community Living Guide or Rules of Conduct may result in the termination of the RA position.
Operation of Department Vehicles: RAs must have a valid Florida driver’s license and car insurance to operate departmental vehicles, if needed. RAs must complete the UCF Webcourse utility cart operation prior to operating the vehicles. Vehicles include: utility carts, vans or automobiles. RAs must submit copies of driver’s license and proof of insurance to their Coordinator prior to operation of any departmental vehicle.
Outside Employment/Additional Commitments: Due to the responsibilities of the RA position, outside employment and/or additional commitments may only be permitted with supervisor approval. All outside employment/additional activities will be limited to: no more than 15 hours per week. Outside employment/additional commitments that require approval include but are not limited to academic and non-academic internships, time intensive academic commitments and student leadership commitments. Furthermore, RAs should not hold a major campus position or participate in activities which might constitute as a conflict of interest with the RA position. RAs in good standing with the department may seek supervisor approval to exceed the 15 hours.
Performance Evaluations: You will be evaluated, during the Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters and on an on-going basis by your supervisor. The use of Performance Improvement Plans will be used to improve an identified deficient skill area or behavior. You will be required to complete department surveys, peer, and supervisor evaluations by the due dates determined by the department. Resident Assistants who do not receive a satisfactory performance evaluation may not be eligible to return to the position.
Residency and Time Away: Your position requires that your assigned unit/placement is considered your primary place of residence. Additionally, you will be required to sign a housing agreement or Knights Circle lease and you are responsible for reading and understanding all terms and conditions of the agreement/lease. This means that outside of days you are on leave, you are required to live in your assigned unit. Your assignment/placement is at the sole discretion of the DHRL and may be altered based upon need.
If you resign or are released from your position, you are financially responsible for the remainder of your lease agreement with UCF. You will not be able to continue to live in your assigned RA apartment unit, nor will you be able to sublet the lease of your RA assigned unit. Depending on the terms of being released from the RA position, you may not be approved to remain in our communities.
DHRL encourages staff to take time away throughout each semester to maintain a positive work-life balance. A night away constitutes any evening in which an RA is not within the community by 3:00am and/or unable to perform their role if needed (i.e. impaired judgement). Staff should contact their supervisor to request evenings away from the community, particularly if it is more than two consecutive days in a row. This may vary based on community need. At times our communities need to be staffed by at least half the staff to ensure all safety and security procedures can be enacted if needed.
DHRL will need staff to work during break periods. Staff working over the break will be compensated for their hours worked over the break.
Staff Discipline Process
DHRL has a department wide employee discipline policy for all student staff members. The policy overviews accountability measures and procedures including: verbal warnings, written warnings, probation, suspension, and termination. The policy will be reviewed in staff training.
Status of Employment: The RA position is a one-year appointment. You are hired to the RA position one year at a time (May to May) and can apply to return the following year. Staff that resign from this position prior to the end of their RA agreement may incur a financial penalty. Graduating staff should inform their immediate supervisors of their anticipated graduation date at least 2 months prior to graduation. Graduation mid agreement is permitted but may impact placement.
Summer Employment: RAs may be required to work Summer B and/or C. If you wish to be excused from summer RA employment, you must complete the summer exemption process through the Coordinator of Selection & Leadership by the specified due date. The Staff Selection Committee will make every effort to approve summer away requests for internships, study abroad, etc. Summer work is not guaranteed.
Termination of Employment: Employees in Florida are considered at-will employees. This means the DHRL reserves the right to release an employee for disciplinary reasons, instances of occupancy capacity, staffing needs, etc. DHRL will give advance notice for anything not job action related as it is our intention to keep staff in their positions provided they continue to perform well. All job action items are addressed through the employee discipline process. You may be held accountable for any related costs if you resign or are released from your position. Staff who leave their position may incur financial responsibility for associated housing agreement/lease termination fees.
Resident Assistants for Living Learning Communities (LLC) work in collaboration with University and outside partners to meet LLC goals and learning objectives. To learn more about the Living Learning Communities at UCF, visit the website here.
Applicants are required to attend one information session on the RA position, expectations, residential communities, and the selection process.
The Information Sessions for the 2020-2021 position will be held:
Each session will last approximately 2 hours. Please make sure to sign in to the session that you attend, in order to receive credit for attending. Please contact the selection committee at ResLifeSelection@ucf.edu (by September 20th) if you cannot attend any of these sessions, and we will try to work with you to make other arrangements. Failure to attend an information session will make your application incomplete.
2: Submit RA Online Application (required for all applicants)
Open July 1, 2019 and Due by 11:59 PM on October 1, 2019
You can update the application an unlimited amount of times before you submit it for review. Once you submit it, any changes need to be made by a system administrator.
All application files will be reviewed and all candidates will be contacted by October 9th, in regards to whether or not they are offered an interview.
Not all applicants will be offered an interview. If you are selected to interview, you will receive an email and be asked to login to ucf.erezlife.com and sign up for interview. Interviews will take place October 16th – 18th with additional interviews at UnionWest (October 21st) and Rosen (October 22nd) for the residents at those locations.
Format: Interviews will consist of one individual interview (with two professional staff members) and one group interview (with multiple candidates and a few Housing staff members)
Time: Candidates should arrive 15 minutes prior to their scheduled time to check in and get prepared. If a candidate misses an interview, another one will not be offered. The location of the interview will be sent to you in your notification email.
Attire: This is a job interview so all candidates should dress appropriately and turn off their cell phones. Business casual or UCF spirit attire is encouraged. Please feel free to reach out if you have specific questions about what may be acceptable.
Spring Offers: You will be notified by November 1st, 2019 if you will be offered a job for Spring 2020 openings. If offered and accepted, you will be required to participate in Spring RA training December 16th – 20th, 2019.
Summer Offers: Everyone else (those not hired for Spring 2020) will be notified by November 22nd, 2019 if you are moving to the candidate waiting area for Summer 2020 positions or if you are being removed from the process. The candidate waiting area is where we select our May 2020 hires from. We anticipate notifying all remaining candidates of hiring decisions in late February 2020.
More details will be communicated at the information sessions and following interviews about the process.
GOOD LUCK!