By Bryan Brunette
“Please turn down your stereo.” “You can’t have that beer here.” “We have a floor meeting this evening at 7 p.m.” As a resident assistant (RA) at Seattle University in the mid-1980s, this was pretty much the extent of my duties. How times have changed.
The job stress faced by student leaders in our residential communities today is greater than ever. Specifically, mental health challenges faced by residents and the peer leaders who attempt to help them navigate those have become even more acute. The isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these challenges, and those impacts continue today. Recently collected data indicate that today’s college and university students are struggling. According to the Healthy Minds 2023-24 Survey, nearly two out of five students nationally have reported severe or moderate depressive symptoms, and a full third experienced moderate or severe anxiety.
This is what led my husband and me to join fellow RA friends in establishing the Housing and Residence Life Student Leadership Fund at Seattle University. This is an effort by alumni who worked in residence halls nearly four decades ago to give back to today’s student leaders who are front desk coordinators, desk assistants, resident assistants, and housing office service assistants. Our group of founders comprises about 15 RA alums who, to this day, hold an annual reunion in Seattle. It was at one of these reunions a few years back that this idea came about. This fund, administered by the housing and residence life staff, is designed to provide support to student leaders through additional training, stress-relieving activities, and identity-building items (such as pullovers) that identify these student leaders to the greater campus.
The fund started organically, but recently received a boost as we were able to endow the fund with a legacy gift and a five-year committed pledge from two members of our group. Plans for further outreach include identifying former RAs and urging them to support this important endeavor. We are actively seeking an alum who would want to provide significant support to solidify the endowed fund’s future.
What does this mean to me? After I left Seattle U, I went on to obtain my master’s degree in college student personnel at Miami University in Ohio. I worked in student housing for five years and continued to marvel at the impact RAs had on their peers. I’m still on college campuses this many years later as an NCAA women’s basketball official, and I see firsthand the challenges faced.
To me, student leaders in residential facilities are the backbone of creating community and providing support to their peer residents. On top of their own commitments to their education, they sign on to assist their fellow students in what is truly a 24/7 job. They truly are the first line and the glue that holds any successful housing and residence life program together.
Providing additional support through this fund is a way I can give back to a university that gave me so much when I was hired as a sophomore RA and then spent the following three years learning critical life skills and developing some of the most important relationships of my lifetime. We hope we’ve created a blueprint for other housing and residence life programs to reach out to their alumni and garner this same kind of support.
Residence life literally changed the trajectory of my college career. I’m grateful for the many professionals who took an interest in my future, and I’m incredibly proud to be able to join my friends in supporting the mental welfare of the next generation of Seattle U alums as they impact our world’s future.
It’s not just about the stereo anymore!
Bryan Brunette is a NCAA women's basketball official and an alum of Seattle University in Washington.
