Author: Christy Wildermuth

The Reality of Residence Life

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Ready or not, it’s time to start packing (if you haven’t already)! Move-in day is just around the corner, and as the collection of soon-to-be-transported items turns into a mountain in the corner of your house, you may begin to wonder just what it will be like.

Will I like my roommate? I hope my RA isn’t super weird. How do the laundry machines work again?

As a third-year Resident Advisor (RA) I understand your apprehension, but have no fear! Stay calm and read on as I reveal the real story behind the Residence Life rumors you may have heard.

My roommate and I were BEST friends.

While your older sibling or friend may tell you this, that doesn’t guarantee that your experience will be the same. You might hit it off with your roomies, but in most cases they may not become your new BFF. That is more than okay! You don’t have to hang out every minute and share all of your thoughts and feelings in order to be good roommates. At the end of the day, having a successful relationship with your roommate(s) is all about communication and compromise.


Sharing bathrooms is a nightmare.

I’ll admit, sharing a bathroom is not an ideal situation, but you would be surprised how it helps you to build community and feel connected to others on your floor! Community bathrooms are cleaned every weekday by the housekeeping staff, and nothing bonds you with another like brushing your teeth together in the morning!

It was so loud whenever I tried to nap or study.

Every residence hall on campus has standard quiet hours from 9 p.m .to 7 a.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. on weekends. That means that during this time, you must be quiet and respect others in your community or the RAs may document you for a noise violation. In addition, there are 24-hour courtesy hours, which means at any point in time you can ask a fellow resident to quiet down and they should be respectful of your request.

quiet hours

The RAs love to get residents in trouble.

While documentation is an important part of every RAs job, I can say from experience that very few of us enjoy finding our residents in violation of the residence hall policies. It is a common misconception that RAs are the police of the building. The real story is quite the opposite. Most RAs take their job very seriously because they care about students and their success. Your RA is likely a wonderful resource who can connect you to faculty, events and organizations on campus that will you help you grow academically and as an individual.

As you can tell, residence life is full of opportunities that will help you to enhance your Ohio State experience! While the list above highlights some of the myths you may have heard, it doesn’t scratch the surface on all of the amazing aspects of living on campus! I encourage you to take advantage of the people, programming, support and free food (yes!) offered to you throughout this year, and to approach move-in day with excitement as you begin your journey at Ohio State.

free food

Making the Most of Orientation: Evening Activities

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It’s the first day of Orientation, and you just said goodbye to your parents after dinner in the Ohio Union. Although you tried to hide your embarrassment, you are starting to see why Mom shed a few tears at the thought of leaving you for the night. You may be thinking to yourself…

What now?

sand lot

Great question. What now?

Lucky for you, there are several options known as evening activities that will help you to make the most of your overnight orientation experience. Overnight activities are a great opportunity for you to meet up with your Orientation leader (OL) and many of the students you met earlier in the day. Often, the best memories and most impactful moments of orientation happen during evening activities! If you’re thinking…

Tell me more!

…read on to hear about three fantastic ways to spend your evening at orientation!

The RPAC Challenge

The Ohio State University has one of the top Recreation and Physical Activity Centers (RPAC) in the nation. During orientation evening activities, students and their small groups come together as a team to work their way through a series of physical and mental challenges as they explore the RPAC and learn about all this facility has to offer. There truly is something for everyone at the RPAC Challenge and even fun prizes for the winning team! Don’t miss out on the chance to help your team bring home a  victory! Those bragging rights will last well into fall semester!

Orientation Night Live

Do you like to laugh? Do you enjoy comedy and improvisation? Then Orientation Night Live (ONL) is the show for you! Following the RPAC challenge, students will have the option of attending this crowd pleasing show. ONL is formatted much like the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and is facilitated by the Orientation Leaders. Watching the OLs act silly on stage is guaranteed to make you laugh harder than you can remember! As a student in the audience, you are given the chance to shout out scene and character suggestions, and are even given the opportunity to get up on stage! Orientation Night Live is a favorite memory for many orientation students, and is one activity you definitely don’t want to miss out on!

onl

Moonlight History and Traditions Tour

Darkness has fallen and campus is quiet, but evening activities are going strong with this final opportunity. Following ONL, students are given the option to go on a moonlight tour of the Oval. On the tour (led by the OLs) you will learn many fun and interesting facts about the history and traditions of the university and enjoy the unique atmosphere that is the Oval at night. This tour is the final activity for the evening, and is a great way to wrap up your day one experience!

Clearly, evening activities are a blast and will leave you with knowledge, memories and deeper friendships that will last into the school year and beyond. You can guarantee evening activities are a must in order to make the most of your orientation experience!