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The University of FloridaSchool of the Year 2011

Table of ContentsHeroes of the Halls: Our Basic StructureWhere We Get the Green: IRHA’s BudgetIRHAteer ALerts: IRHA’s Goals for the YearEvery Hero Needs a Sidekick: Co-programmingWith Our Powers Combined: Diversity

New Heroes in the Halls: Development of IRHA MembersPowers for ALl: COmmiees anbd DIrectorshipsPowers for ALl: COmmiees anbd DIrectorships

Going Green with Captain IRHATo Be Connued: Residence Hall Week

Heroes Go Big or Go HOme: Large Scale Diversity EventsStrengthening Our Powers: Leadership Opportunies

Captain IRHA on the Silver Screen: ResTVCaptain IRHA Makes the World a Beer Place: Community Service

Honoring our Heroes: Naonal Residence Hall HonoraryHonoring our Heroes: Naonal Residence Hall HonoraryGe ng the Key to the City: Recognion

Captain IRHA Saving the City: IRHA and the UniversityWorking with the Authories: IRHA And the Department of Housing and

Residence EducaonCaptain IRHA Neds to Eat, Too: IRHA and Gator Dining Services

Heroes Unite: IRHA at SAACURHCaptain IRHA Bids for Program of the YearCaptain IRHA Bids for Program of the YearCommunicaon with Member SchoolsLeadership Posions on the Regional LevelCaptain IRHA is FARH Out: State InvolvementCaptain IRHA Makes a STATEment: FARH AwardsLeadership Posions on the Naonal Level

Quotes from IRHAteersLeers of SupportLeers of Support

Every campus needs a hero in the halls and Captain IRHA is ours. He stands for all that the Inter Resi-dence Hall Association (IRHA) works to accomplish: building community, leadership development and serving the residents. With his tight spandex shirt and bright red boots, Captain IRHA struts his stuff throughout the halls. From Lakeside in the West to Beaty Towers in the East, Captain IRHA and his values traverse the campus, spreading the word about IRHA. His majestic blue figure adorns the T-shirts worn by every IRHA member to remind us “The Community is Yours!”

Heroes of the Halls: Our Basic Structure The Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) is the second largest organization on campus at the Univer-sity of Florida. With over 7,500 undergraduate students housed in our residence halls, it is a goal of the Depart-

ment of Housing and Residence Education at UF to build community in the halls. IRHA itself aims to give the residents a true college experi-ence filled with new experiences, friends, expo-sure to diversity and education and, of course, a lot of fun.

There are twenty-four halls on campus sepa-rated into twelve residence areas, each repre-sented by an Area Government (AG). Each AG consists of six executive board positions includ-ing President, Vice President, Treasurer, Busi-

ness Manager, Secretary and Publicity Directors. Additionally, AGs have included the newly-created position of RA liaison. IRHA is the umbrella organization of all the area governments. The IRHA Executive Board consists of a President, Vice President, Auditor, Business Manager, Secretary and NCC.

Every Monday at 6:15 p.m., we gather in the same room for the same building for the famed IRHA meet-ings. We debate, we pro, we con. We play by Robert’s Rules. But, at the end of even the longest meetings we all know that IRHA has helped us make our best memories, our best friends, and the best college experience we could possibly have. Housing may seem like a strange obsession to those on the outside, but to those of us who make thousands of snow cones, flip hundreds of pancakes and ride, ride, ride that pony off into the sunset, every second of our time spent with IRHA is worth it.

Where we get the Green: IRHA’s Budget IRHA receives funding from the Department of Housing and Residence Education and our school’s Student Government. We also earn money through the sale of linens, care packages and the computer back-up system through On Campus Marketing. This fundraising money is placed in an Outside Revenue account which also profits from a coupon book that we distribute to the residents in our annual “Welcome Bags” that we work with the RAs to have placed in the bed of each resident before they move into the halls. AG members are permitted to move into the halls early in order to set up tables to sell activity cards to every resident as they enter the halls. Activity Card sales are used to fund events and programs throughout the areas. At ten dollars each, the sales help our area governments tremendously. During Welcome Week, AG members turned on the charm and sponsored programs each night all in an effort to fill up their AG’s bank account to pay for programs for the rest of the year. The IRHA Auditor, Munir Valiani, hosted a competition this year. He of-fered a prize of $75.00 to spend however desired to the AG who sold the most activity cards. This set off a spark of friendly competition among the AGs.

Finally, IRHA is funded by a scholarship provided by Gator Dining Service (GDS), IRHA works very closely with GDS to ensure that their most loyal customers- the on-campus residents- are being served in a way that is most beneficial to the residents. GDS shows their support for IRHA by giving $10,000.00 to be used in

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catering orders. The secretaries of the Area Governments are responsible for how this money is used. Purchase Orders (POs) are presented to the secretaries in their meetings and must be approved just as POs are approved in IRHA’s general body meetings.

AGs are permitted to submit POs for evaluation by the IRHA body when they are sponsoring larger programs that require additional funding. The PO must be presented before the IRHA body and then passed in two separate reading with a 2/3 vote of the body or with one reading and a 4/5 vote. IRHA members can be very critical about POs and work to make sure that we are spending responsibly- not wastefully. The debate that has ensued over POs this year has demonstrated our members’ dedication to their residents and the organization. It takes bravery to go in front of your peers asking for a large quantity of money- especially when every aspect of your expenditure is examined. It also takes courage to say no to a PO. We follow Robert’s Rules and debate re-spectfully, addressing all comments to the chair. This year in particular, the ideas and suggestions for changes to the POs have been outstanding. IRHA members have researched prices while in the meeting to help improve fel-low members’ purchase orders. They offer friendly advice on how to accomplish goals in more cost effective way.

For example, when a PO for a hypnotist was presented, IRHA members cracked open their laptops and began to research the performer. One member found a record of his past performances when he was paid less for the same act and then shared this with the program organizers. IRHA members have taken advantage of the system of checks and balances put in place within our organization.

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IRHAteer Alerts: IRHA’s Goals for this Year Every year, the IRHA board begins their term by developing a list of goals for the upcoming year. Every board member has a say in what they want to see from the organization. The board works as a team to think of ways to improve from the previous year, new tasks to undertake and how to solve current problems and over-come certain obstacles that will face IRHA in the upcoming year.

AG Computers One of the priorities this year was to provide each AG with a computer for their office. The Executive Board worked closely with the Director of Finance and IT in the Department of Housing and Residence Edu-cation and was able to acquire these computers for offices. Unique logins and passwords were created for each member of AG executive boards. This allows AG members to save information on to a shared drive where it will be accessible electronically to future Area Governments. Program reports, budgets and other helpful documents can be put on the shared drive for future reference. We are currently working on an online activity card log that would keep track of every resident who has purchased an activity card in every area on campus. This would help the residents if they happened to forget to bring their activity card to a program. It will also help us keep records more efficiently and in a more eco-friendly manner. We have recently worked with the Department of Housing’s technology services in order to have Adobe Photoshop installed on every AG computer in order to help the pub-licity directors create more professional advertisements for their area’s programs.

Socials Another goal was to help the residents involved in IRHA into a more cohesive team. A family-like atmo-sphere is what we have been striving for. Our Secretary, Severin Walstad, took it upon himself to drastically alter the way we looked at socials. Instead of the usual one or two food-driven socials that were held for IRHA mem-bers each semester, Severin led the secretaries of IRHA in planning one social per week in the beginning of the academic year. From taking advantage of Gator Nights, a weekly program held in the student union, to orga-nizing a Halloween themed trips, every Friday night was filled with IRHA bonding. As the year marched on we decided to cut down on the number of socials in order to encourage involvement in other organizations. We now have two socials a month which are planned by a pair of secretaries from AGs allowing for more diverse and fun social activities.

Our members keep coming back for more socials because each social is unique. We have gone tubing down the Ichetucknee River during the summer semester, run through haunted corn mazes near and had meet and greets with IRHA Alumni and staff from the Department of Housing and Residence Education.

The AG secretaries worked as a team to plan out every detail of each event. Responsibilities were assigned and deadlines were made to keep them on track. All 12 secretaries remained actively involved in planning each social. They came up with creative ideas to make the socials more attractive to the IRHA body. For example, the secretaries played off of the competitive spirit that already existed among the AGs between east campus and west campus and turned that rivalry into a positive and well-attended capture the flag event. The secretaries planned socials that encouraged people to stay involved in IRHA. The “Old and New IRHA Exec” Social brought in mem-bers of past IRHA executive boards to speak with IRHA members who were interested in being on the board in the upcoming academic year. We all enjoyed talking with and hearing stories from the beloved IRHA alumni. Hearing about how IRHA helped influence their lives and career choices inspired our members to stick with the

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organization.

With each social, it is easy to see the members devel-oping stronger relationships. Whether we playing capture the or talking about a Mudfest of the past with housing staff, IRHA members have become a more tight knit com-munity thanks to the vast array of socials held this year.

Every Hero Needs a Sidekick: Co-programming Wanting to reach out to the UF community, IRHA began to co-program with other organizations and events. Organizations on our campus host carnivals and other

events on the lawn in front of our student union in order to publicize their organization or cause or kick off a month’s worth of activities. Our machines can help these organizations attract students to their events. At least once a month, IRHA has been co-programming with a different student organization, especially organizations with a diversity focus.

This year, IRHA has worked with the Asian American Student Union, Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month just to name a few. For the first time ever, IRHA got involved with Islam On Campus- a student organization dedicated to spreading awareness about the Muslim religion and representing the students who practice Islam. We went beyond carnivals while programming as well. Black History Month, in conjunction with IRHA, held events in one of our largest and most socially active resi-dence halls, Broward Hall.

By being a part of these events, IRHA opened up communica-tion with a variety of other student organizations. The executive board was able to interact with other organizations to exchange ideas about how each organization is run. This was not the only benefit though, when IRHA co-programs, it encourages our own members and students in the halls to come out to the events. Our focus on diversity organizations and event co-programming has allowed us to give IRHA a more educational flair. When we worked with Islam on Campus, IRHA members flocked to the colonnade to experience the culture being showcased through food, henna, and traditional clothing.

With Our Powers Combined: Diversity I am proud to say that IRHA itself is a diverse organization. Students from all walks of life are passionate about serving the residents. This year, we have expressed our appreciation of our diverse population of residents through co-programming. The future is filled with opportunities for more co-programming. More and more emails come flooding in asking to work with us. Other organizations have started serving the on campus resi-dents through IRHA and we are excited to be a part of that. Our next cultural experience will be working with the Florida Invitational Step Show. As this is traditionally a Greek-dominated event, IRHA preparing to socialize, fraternize and reach out to the Greek community through our involvement with the show.

New Heroes in the Halls: Development of IRHA Members For our Fall and Spring Retreats, the IRHA board decided that members should be more involved in their own development as leaders. Many leaders in IRHA stay involved for multiple years and attend multiple retreats. They often are presented with the same information over and over again. Cash box training, the structure of IRHA, and how to do a PO can become less than exciting if you are learning it for the fourth time. This year, the board de-cided that the more experienced IRHA members should become the teachers for the newest additions to the family.

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Fall Leadership is a five day extravaganza of intense IRHA training. Like boot camp, Fall Leadership packs a whole lot of punch into a few short days. This year, Fall Leadership took residence hall education to a whole new level.

At our Fall Leadership program, the board strove to make it a fun and upbeat environment. This year’s Fall Leadership was very different from previous years when it came to keeping a high interest level. The financial officers threw candy into the crowd to encourage participation in their presentation. The long days of fall leadership were

infused with snack times, games and hours for socialization. Most importantly, our NCC taught every member of IRHA how to Ride That Pony.

It was also a goal to help AGs develop as teams. It is for that reason that this year the Assistant Direc-tor of East Campus Housing was asked to present a program called True Colors. Once participants determined their color based on a variety of assessments, they split off into different groups based on color. Members learned their own strengths and weaknesses and (equally as important) learned the strengths and weaknesses of those they would be working with for the rest of the academic year. True Colors remained a point of conversation that everyone could relate to for the rest of the week. To this day, IRHA members jokingly refer to traits of their peers as being “so gold.”

Another important aspect of Fall Leadership this year was recognition. Every attendee of Fall Leadership received a paper plate award made for them by a member of the executive board. The sleepless nights filled with watercolors and glitter glue were worth it when the whole body laughed as the “IRHA’s Best Danc-er” award was handed out to the Vice President of an Area Gov-ernment.

Lindsey Wuest, our NCC, had to idea to make our Spring Retreat into a smaller version of a conference. Every area govern-ment made up a delegation. Composed of six to eight people each, the AG delegations were very similar to the average conference delegation. Aside from being a delegation, each area government was also responsible for submitting one program proposal to present at Spring Retreat. Program evaluations were used to gauge the interest in and effectiveness of each program presented. Just like at conferences, an award was given to the highest rated program of the day. Also, Sakina Sackaloo, Vice President, added a spirit competition to the mock-conference. There was a spirit globe to represent out year-long Captain Planet theme that was passed around from AG to AG, recognizing excitement and dedication to learn-ing.

The new structure of Spring Retreat worked out very well! Every AG submitted a unique program that showed off their strengths and shared the ways they were able to reach success. There were four programming sessions that each outlined a dif-ferent aspect of serving the residents in the halls. For example, the Lakeside Area Residents’ Council has a board made up of 28 people. They decided to present on how to manage large boards. All of the reviews from their program were excellent. The Jen-

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nings Area Government chose to present about their most creative and successful program of the year- their 4-D movie. The area governments put much more effort and enthusiasm into their programs than was required. The result was an interactive learning experience that benefitted each area government according to what they want-ed to gain.

Powers for All: Committees and Directorships In the past, the IRHA body felt disconnected to projects that IRHA sponsored because they never saw Di-rectors at general body meetings and they never received full updates regarding the projects. This year, it became mandatory for event directors and committee chairs to give presentations once per semester to the IRHA body sharing information and updates.

For the first time, the IRHA body felt that they fully understood the budget and logistical details behind the Writing on the Wall Project. Since this project typically attracts directors from outside of the voting members of IRHA, it can be difficult for members to feel like the project is directly related to them. The detailed presentations in meetings made everything much clearer for the body.Academics

One area that IRHA wanted to focus on improving was academic affairs. For this reason, the Executive Board decided to create an Academic Affairs Director. The purpose of this directorship is to come up with ways to reach out to the student body and promote academic success. The Direc-tor, Eboni Finley’s, responsibilities are to provide residents with helpful tips, programs, and resources to enhance their academics. Eboni is in charge of promoting academic affairs to those stu-dents inside and outside of IRHA. She has made it her own personal goal to do an academic program every week and to visit al of the twelve Area Governments at least once. The programs encourage area governments to promote academic success within their areas. There are a number of students on campus, who are unaware of the resources available to them. The Career Resource Center has co-programmed with our Academic Affairs Director multiple times in order to present programs like Smart Study Skills and How to Get Into Grad School & More. Grad school focused programs have helped us reach out to the upperclassmen population in the halls.

Going Green with Captain IRHA The Eco-challenge is an educational environmental challenge among the twenty-four residence halls on the University of Florida campus. It is a challenge to each individual UF student/resident as well as an on-campus community challenge among the different halls. In addition, off campus students are also encouraged to partici-pate in challenging themselves to save water, energy, and reduce their waste by such methods as reducing, reus-ing, and recycling. The Eco-Challenge occurs during the spring semester where the month of January focuses on water conservation, February focuses on energy conservation, and throughout both months reduction of waste is encouraged. The Eco-challenge was developed in order to address three important environmental topics within our community and our world: water, energy, and waste. The focus is to engage and encourage students to rou-tinely develop positive decisions regarding conservation of energy, water and waste. Some of the environmental educational topics relate to daily routines, from simple choices such as recycling as much as possible and not just throw everything away, to larger scale practices such as turning lights off when you leave a room and cutting down shower time to reduce water usage.

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The IRHA Director of Environmental Concerns, Britany Ziems, is responsible for choosing at least one to two, depending on the size of the residence hall, Eco-Representatives for each of the twelve IRHA Area Gov-ernments on campus. Eco-reps are responsible for promoting sustainable, environmentally conscious practices among the residents, in their respective area governments. They are also responsible for programming with their area governments and RA’s to have “mini” eco-awareness events. For example, movie nights where residents are encouraged to bring their own mug and containers for coca and popcorn, having a sign in sheet for Eco-Pledge Day, “Unplugging electronics and recharging well-being” to celebrate Earth Hour, recycling game challenges/races, and recycling materials to make in to jewelry, crafts, etc.

IRHA has been working with Housing, Gator Dining Services and the UF Office of Sustainability with developing events that can be counted as “eco-points” for the residents so they are able to acquire these points towards their residence hall in the competition due to their participation in certain environmental events. Exam-ples include “Meatless Mondays” by Gator Dining Services which promotes reducing meat consumption at least every Monday during the week in an effort to reduce food waste and reduce intensive resource consumptions, UF Office of Sustainability’s Campus Guest Speaker Lynn Scarlett (former deputy secretary and chief operat-ing officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior), Gator Dinning Services’ Reusable-to-go-box program, Gator Dining Services’ Zero Food Waste event, UF Office of Sustainability’s “Chomp Down On Energy”, UF Office of Sustainability sponsored UF Campus Clean-up to restore the beauty of our university campus, and using the IRHA Eco-Reps as “green police” throughout both months to give out free t-shirts that state “You’ve Been Caught Green-Handed.”

Eco-Challenge events include “IRHA-Cycle” which will feature two guest speakers from the University of Florida, Dale Morris (UF Recycling/Solid Waste Coordinator at Physical Plant) and Joseph Floyd (UF Office of Sustainability Zero-waste Coordinator). They discussed the importance and how to’s of recycling as well as the importance of reducing the amount of waste we produce on an individual basis in order to save landfill space and reduce pollution.

Whichever residence hall can conserve the most water, energy, and reduce the most waste output during the months of January and February wins a permanent improvement prize such as easy refillable tap dispens-ers on the water fountains, heat sensor lights, and possibly even solar panels in future Eco-Challenges. Through special programs such as the Eco-Challenge, IRHA hopes to be a part of the movement towards making the University of Florida and our society as a whole more sustainable and establish the importance of motivating the residents on campus as well as the community to become more environmentally conscious.

“The purpose of the IRHA Eco-Challenge: Battle of the Halls is to encourage awareness of lifestyle chang-es that can save resources as well as save money,” said Britany Ziems, Director of IRHA Environmental Concerns. “These choices positively impact our environment and provide lifelong benefits to the University of Florida stu-dents.”

How Captain IRHA Serves the Residents There have been over 220 Area Government programs so far this year with plenty more to come. That included annual haunted houses, traditional Thanksgiving programs and all of the new and innovative programs brought to our halls by new members. This year AGs have become more creative with their programming. They have diverged from the beaten path of ice cream socials and movie nights and took the road less traveled- a road lined with hypnotists, power showers and speed dating.In October over 3500 residents attended IRHA and AG programs across campus. Our haunted houses made the newspapers and large

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photos of IRHA members dressed as zombie princesses graced the pages of the most popular newspaper on campus. In November over 2500 residents attended programs. The IRHA calendar that lists every event from each AG gets over 400 hits per month. Large Scale Programs

At the beginning of the Fall semester, IRHA took over the North Lawn of the student union to put on Welcome Bash. Water slopped over the side of a dunk tank as Graduate Hall Directors, RAs and UF’s student body president plunged into the water. A red and blue bungee run graced the lawn and passersby stopped for free snow cones and cotton candy courtesy

of IRHA. The goal of Welcome Bash was to introduce students to IRHA in a way that was fun and food-filled.

This year, IRHA continued its tradition of holding “world’s largest” events. In the past it had been water balloon fights, but this year we had a brand new idea. IRHA’s World’s Largest Dodgeball Fight was our orga-nization’s third attempt at breaking a world record. Seeing that the two previous attempts did not break the record, the project was not going to be continued, but two of our active body members, Jacob Speedy and Adam Lindsley, did not have the same thing in mind. The approached

our executive board with the concept at the end of the spring 2010 term and we encouraged them to submit a formal proposal, and sure enough they did. They submitted a formal proposal and met with us in May 2010, and after a convincing presentation, we approved the project.

The first task for the overall directors was to assemble a director board. Applica-tions were sent out immediately after the proposal meeting and the remaining directors (Live Marketing, Advertising, Setup, and Philanthropy) were selected before the beginning of the fall semester. The next task was to finalize a date and location for the event, which unfortunately was the first of many major bumps in the road. The overall directors had planned out the event for three different locations and at two different dates. The issue was that the current record was 450 people, but two of the three potential locations could only accommodate 1500 people. By the end of summer, the record had already been unoffi-cially broken with 750 people. This posed the directors with a tough decision on whether to risk using an indoor location that would limit attendance or use the outdoor location that would allow for essentially unlimited attendance, but also puts the event at risk for bad weather conditions. The directors waited a little too long in making this decision, but eventually decided to go with the outdoor location because the caught wind of another world record that would be happening that semester. As for the date of the event, there were only two feasible options: the weekend of UF’s Homecoming or November 7th. The directors’ first choice was the weekend of Homecoming because the campus would be packed with students, family, and alumni. They did their best to add the event into the sched-ule of Homecoming events, but the Homecoming Committee was unwilling to co-program. By default the date was set for November 7th.

Now that the date and location was set, the next step was to acquire the dodgeballs for a reasonable price. The directors had done a lot of research over summer and found multiple options that were within the price range. They ran into a large issue, though, because they only planned on using 400 dodgeballs and they later decided that they need-ed 600 to ensure the record would be legitimate. That 50% increase in cost put all of their potential balls out of the price range. They reacted

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well to this change though and immediately started offering sponsorships to all of the dodgeball suppliers in hopes that one would reduce the costs of the balls. Through their hard work, they found a company that was willing to give them a 40% discount on the balls, putting the event back within the budget. Planning continued as scheduled for the directors after that; independent witnesses were contacted, local authorities were notified and booked, and surrounding media outlets were informed.

As the Fall semester got underway, the direc-tors began searching for sponsorships other than the

dodgeball price reduction. The directors visited numerous local businesses and finally landed to big-name sponsorships with Home Depot and Tutoring Zone. These funds were used to help supplement the cost of the event and reduce the amount needed from the IRHA budget. At this point, most of the major to-do’s for this project had been tackled; the only major ones remaining were picking a philanthropy, assembling a staff, and creating a marketing plan.

Unfortunately, the overall directors hit another rough patch at this point in the process. Both the Live Marketing Director and Advertising Director dropped at the beginning of the fall semester. This posed another large problem for the directors, especially that late in the process. Fortunately they were able to recruit a new Live Marketing

Director and one of our Executive Board Members took over the task of creating ad-vertisement. Once the board was reassembled, a staff was selected and the planning process continued. The process continued to run smoothly until about three weeks before the event when the directors encountered their final dilemma. The dodge-balls that were ordered months in advance from a certain supplier were mysteriously no longer available and the company also backed out of their sponsorship. This put the directors in a huge bind because without the balls, the event wouldn’t happen. They worked tirelessly contacting other suppliers, sharing their story and eventually found a company that sympathized with their situation. They could not get the same amount of dodgeballs as originally planned, but they did acquire enough to still hold the event.

The day of the event drew out over 550 residents and they raised over $600 for the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County. The unused dodgeballs were donated to both the Boys and Girls Club and surrounding elementary schools. Overall, the

event was a success because all the attendees enjoyed the event and gained a memory that they will never forget. Winter Ball is an annual dance held by IRHA. This year it was infused with a fiery (and icy) theme and community service. As the Winter Ball Director, Courtney Read worked with IRHA, Housing, and GDS to orga-nize this year’s Winter Ball. In IRHA meetings, Courtney worked to make sure the IRHA body knew what plans were going to be put in place, especially the purchases the staff wanted to make. The staff wanted everyone in IRHA, all of the RAs and every resident to know that they were welcome to participate in Winter Ball and repeatedly asked for suggestions and input. The ultimate goal of the Winter Ball staff was to create a fun end-of-the-year celebration which all UF students were welcome to attend. The “Fire and Ice” theme en-gulfed attendees from the second they entered the location for a night of dancing, fun, friends and plenty of food. We also created a philanthropy which encouraged a competition throughout the residence halls to collect new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots and blankets for a local women’s

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shelter, Peaceful Paths. Overall, this past IRHA’s Winter Ball was a success thanks to everyone who participated and showed what IRHA is all about, lending a helping hand and building community.

To Be Continued: Residence Hall Week Residence Hall Week (RHW) is IRHA’s largest program of the year. This ten-day-long event consists of a different event each day with each event having its own staff and director. The theme will be IRHAound the World. RHW takes month and months to plan. Bi-weekly meetings begin in the Summer semester and continue throughout the year. RHW will consist of:• LeadershipReception-openingceremoniesforalloftheRHW volunteers• Kick-off-amechanicalbull,culturalorganizationfairandinflatables on the North Lawn of the student union• MoviesontheLawn-LionKingwillbeshownontheNorthLawn of the student union• GrillFest-anoutdoorbarbecueeventfeaturingfoodfromaroundtheworld• IRHApalooza-alargescaleconcertwithAmericanIdolwinnerLeeDewyze• TheMisterandMissIRHAPageant-acompetitiontofindtheshiningstarsintheresidencehalls• MardiGras-aNewOrleansthemedevenfeaturingjugglers,atarotcardreader,acaricatureartistandtons of food• DiversityDanceShowcase-aliveperformancefeaturingdiversitydancegroupsfromculturalorganiza-tions across campus• EveningofComedy-NancyPelosiandSarahPalinimpersonatorswillbattleitoutinahumorousmockdebate• Tie‘N’Tails-asemi-formaldancethatactsastheclosingceremoniestoRHWAll of these events will take place between March 24th and April 2nd. Overall attendance is expected to reach into the thousands.

Heroes Go Big or Go Home: Large Scale Diversity Events This past year especially, IRHA has focused on diversity programs. We introduced a new program to UF, the Tunnel of Oppression, and improved upon our traditional diversity programs. UF’s first-ever Tunnel of Oppression was held this November by IRHA. Jimmy McClellan, the director for the event led a staff of 10 students to make the vision a reality. For about 3 years, IRHA had wanted to bring Tunnel of Oppression to our campus and this year with an excellent director and dedicated staff we were able to make it

happen. Tunnel of Oppression is a diversity event which attempts to break down the barrier between people who do not know about op-pression and those who live in it every day. This year IRHA was excited to create a Tunnel at the University of Florida. The staff began by brainstorming what types of oppression the UF community may be dealing with on a daily basis. It was determined that the five main issues were immigration (for the many immigrants that come to Florida and to UF), religion (because UF has large Jew-ish, Catholic and Muslim communities), racism (for the many races represented on campus), sexual orientation (for the LGBT community) and self-image (for the hidden side of oppression that many people deal with). The staff also thought of creating two rooms in the Tunnel that would tie aspects of oppression together and show what oppres-

sion can lead to if it is not ended; those rooms were slavery and genocide.The Tunnel was meant to be a thought provoking and intense event. For example, in the immigration room (the

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first room in the Tunnel) participants were greeted as if they were entering Ellis Island, in other words they were greeted harshly. As they entered the basement, they met a Polish guard and officer. These actors only spoke in Polish and yelled at the participants because they could not understand them. They then proceeded through the religion and racism rooms where they views graphic images of people and hateful words written on the walls and a video was shown. When the guests entered the sexual orientation room they were in for a surprise. An actor mingled in with the group as they viewed the room, then suddenly protestors came out form a hidden spot in the room and approached the actor while screaming degrading words at her regarding her sexual orientation. They then began to pour “gasoline” on her and continued yelling. The tour guide would then hurry the group out of the room. These are just some of the overwhelming experiences the groups faced in the Tunnel.For six months the staff worked on everything from publicity to logistics. They were determined to make this a precedent for following Tunnels, and the only way to do that was to make it unforgettable. The staff chose to put the Tunnel in a central location on campus, in one of the most heavily populated residence halls on campus, Broward Hall.

On November 4th the Tunnel of Oppression came to life in the basement of Broward Hall. For the five hours that the Tunnel was open, 315 people walked through the seven rooms. They wrote about their experienc-es on large banners at the end of the tunnel and talked about their experience with the Counseling and Wellness Center counselors in the processing room. The counselors led group discussions concerning oppression and the way each individual was impacted by the things shown in the tunnel.

Throughout the semester the staff stayed in touch with the Uni-versity of North Florida (UNF), because they planned on doing their own Tunnel in the spring semester. Six delegates from UNF drove about two hours from Jacksonville to Gainesville to experience IRHA’s Tunnel. They gave great feedback on the event and even used some of the ideas they saw here in their Tunnel in February.

Many housing professional staff members came to the event and walked through the tunnel alongside residents. It made a huge impres-sion on them. They asked if the Tunnel would be returning the next academic year, wrote comments on the banners provided and praised the hard work of the staff.

The Writing on the Wall Project has been a staple tradition at the University of Florida for the past nine years. The project brings together all different types of individuals, including students, faculty and community members. Individuals had the opportunity to paint cinderblocks with various negative words or phrases that have impacted their lives. After the bricks were painted, a forty-foot by eight-foot cinderblock wall was con-structed in the Plaza of Americas. By physically tearing down the wall representing oppression and inhumanity, the goal of the project is to empower the community to create positive change for the future.

Each committee worked extremely hard throughout the entire length of the project. The few weeks leading up to the project served to pull everything together and work on any last minute issues that arose. The entire staff was on top of everything this year, completing all of their individual tasks efficiently in a timely manner. The Admin-istrative Committee was in charge of keeping meeting minutes and attendance and serving as the financial liaison between the project, IRHA and Student Government. The committee served as the “right hand man” to the director of the project. The Closing Ceremonies Committee was in charge of all aspects of the closing ceremonies. They

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had to create a program, find a guest speaker, musical performance and create a video presentation. With one week left until the wall was constructed, they encountered a last minute problem that was beyond anyone’s control. The original guest speaker contacted the committee and informed them of the unfortunateness of not being able to speak. He started feeling ill and decided that it was in his best interest not to speak. With only days to find a new guest speaker, the committee worked hard in searching around campus and the community for a new speaker and they were ultimately successful.

Starting on January 18th, 2011 individuals were able to start painting bricks. The brick painting lasted for four days in two different locations. In past years, people had five days to paint bricks, but because of Martin LutherKingJr.Daythestaffonlyhadfourdaystogetalltwohundredandsixtybrickspainted.Thestaffknewitwas going to be a challenge working with less amount of time, but they never gave up and worked even harder than past staffs to get the job done. At the end of the four days, all bricks were painted! The wall was constructed in the early morning on Monday January 24th and remained standing late in the afternoon on Friday January 28th, the Closing Ceremonies commenced. With over two hundred students, faculty and community members present the wall was physically torn down. Everyone that was in attendance was able to take part in tearing down the wall. Through this entire experience, individuals were able to learn about diversity and take part in stopping intolerance and discrimination in the future. The University of Florida Inter-Residence Hall Association’s Writ-ing on the Wall Project 2010-2011 was extremely successful and one of the best of this campus has seen.

Strengthening our Powers: Leadership Opportunities One of the most important things that IRHA has been dedicated to over the past year is leadership de-velopment. We love to offer the members of IRHA s many leadership opportunities as possible. We have over 20 directorships that residents can take advantage of. IRHA has a directorship or leadership position to suit anyone’s interest. We haves director for sports, art galleries, technology, environmental concerns, community service, RA relations, and even a director in charge of creating a history book about IRHA. Our diverse body and directors have proven the involvement in the halls s for everyone- not just those interested in student affairs. This year, we have introduced two new directorships in order to focus on the mission of our organization and our school. We now have an Academic Affairs Director and two Health Promotions Co-Directors. These positions were created by members of IRHA and approved by the executive board.

Captain IRHA on the Silver Screen: ResTV IRHA also serves every resident on campus by providing them with ResTV, a channel run by IRHA and the Department of Housing and Residence Education. ResTV, channel 8, is known as the movie channel. Every month the residents have the opportunity to vote for the movies that will be played on ResTV in the upcoming month.IRHAworkswithSWANKandResidenceLifeCinematoplaymovies-oldandnew,classicandindie,horror and comedy- on a rotating schedule. This year IRHA’s ResTV director Liz McNeill, worked hard to in-crease viewership of ResTV. She created professionally printed posters to be placed on each floor to advertise ResTV. She also worked to co-program with AGs to hold ResTV-sponsored events that focused on watching a movie played on ResTV and informing the attendees about how to vote for the next month’s movies.

According to a recent survey, more than half of the residents in the halls utilize ResTV. It is easy to see that the residents are actively engaged in voting. The movie poll gets well over 2,000 votes per month.Representing the Residents

We address issues every day on UF’s campus. We do this in the residence halls in several ways. Our RHA’s Environmental Concerns Director, Britany Ziems, sits on Housing’s “Green Team”, which is a campus wide hous-

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ing committee that deals with making our residence halls greener. She has been instrumental in planning and coordinating this year’s “Eco-Challenge” which is a competition that pits residence hall against residence hall in efforts to save energy and water. This year, Britany spent time adding new and innovative sustainability efforts, creating a point system with the dining halls that rewarded residents for using reusable containers whenever they dined.

We also have the privilege of sitting on other housing committees, such as the Cable Advisory Board and the Budget Committees. Both committees allow our RHA to give feedback about how our rent is spent. The Cable Advisory Board makes sure that our $600,000 contract with Cox Cable is used effectively and the channels the students want most are being shown. The Budget Committees, one for East Campus and West Campus, are used by the Directors of Housing to best determine the best special projects for the next fiscal year. RHA rep-resentation in the committees ensured that what the residents want was always in the forefront of our housing department’s minds.

Outside of Housing, our President, Sean Johnson, also sits on several University Committees. He sits on the Parking and Transportation Committee, the Food Service Advisory Committee, the Campus Student Housing Committee, the Campus Lighting Committee, and the Reitz Union Facilities Program Committee. The Parking and Transportation Committee reviews and recommends programs to meet and enhance the park-ing and transportation on the campus and recommends site locations for new parking facilities and parking lot enhancements on the campus. The RHA’s role on the committee is to make sure that residents’ parking is al-ways well-represented as the only group of parkers that are always on campus. The Campus Student Housing Committee’s job is to oversee and review the Depart-ment of Housing’s 40 million dollar budget. The RHA is already responsible for reviewing this budget, but the president’s role on the committee is to follow the budget creation from start to finish. The Food Service Advisory Committee gives our RHA a say in the formation and price of meal plans and give our residents a voice in the matter. We are also given the ability to make recommen-dations in long range planning on renovations and new food service facilities. The Campus Lighting Committee is a group of students and administrators who walk around campus surveying and making recommendations about the streetlights around campus. The streetlights and safety have been big concerns for residents this year, so our president was there to look at all of the issues that residents have brought up this year. One notable differ-ence he made was highlighting the faulty “blue light” phones we have around campus that connect directly to the police department. Though not in the main purview of the committee, the president took the time to make the committee realize the importance these working lights make to the safety of our residents.

Lastly, the president sits on a newly formed special committee known as the Reitz Union Facilities Pro-gram Committee. This committee is composed of six student leaders and several administrators from around campus with the sole purpose of creating a program plan for a newly renovated student union. Our student union has been in dire need for repair for years and this committee’s task is to finally create a plan based on the needs and wants of students of now and the future. Our president has been influential in voicing what residents would need in a new student union while also focusing on cutting back on what is would be unnecessary for students to pay for.

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This year, our RHA has fought hard on issues affecting our residents, even outside of the committees we sit on. We also worked to change things with parking around the residence halls. One of residence halls is direct-ly next to one of our recreational fields, meaning that the residents of this area are constantly forced to compete for parking when there are intramural games going on. Our RHA worked with the Transportation and Parking Department to revise the parking restrictions in the area so that only residents can park there 24/7. This change has been instrumental in cutting down in the congestion our residents face with parking.One of the biggest issues to come up this year was our Housing Department’s new social networking site known as “GatorSpace.” This system was designed to be a new tool to help create community amongst our residents, but, like many social networking sites, after the launch, our RHA saw many problems with privacy that made it impossible for us to endorse the product to our residents. Usually, it can be difficult for RHAs to stand up to their housing department on difficult issues, but our RHA held firm. This led to many changes in the system to ensure that our residents were protected. The department listened and met with our president several times until all of the concerns were addressed. A privacy statement was created and a report abuse button was created for the web-site after recommendations by our RHA.

Captain IRHA Makes the World a Better Place: Community Service IRHA’s community service efforts throughout the year have varied greatly in terms of the groups we have served and the means by which we have helped those groups. The community service efforts for the year began with a month-long campus school supplies and children’s book drive. The community service director, Jasmine McKenzie,providedboxesforeveryRAoncampusonarotatingbasis.Thedriveshowcasedthewonderfulsup-port of our RAs for placing the boxes and advertising the drive on their floor. This also highlighted the charitable spirit of all of our residents because we were able to contribute a substantial number of boxes to the Alachua County library system and also raised a sizable contribution to the “Stuff the Bus” organization. Service at Fall Leadership Fall Leadership takes place in the end of summer, right before the beginning of the new school year so it is consider-ably hot and humid out. Even still, IRHA went to do garden-ing and landscaping at a Wilmot Gardens. Wilmot Gardens is a garden at our hospital, Shands, for patients, children and families to come and visit. It was left to disrepair a few years ago and is only now recovering with the help of volunteers like IRHA. We had a total of 60 volunteers come out for 4 hours in the morning till the afternoon and help clear the brush, plant new plants, and so many other things. The reactions for the members were mixed during the day considering the heat and exhaustion after participating in the project, but everyone agreed afterward it was a fun time and we were happy to make an impact somewhere on our campus that affects so many people. The head Director of Wilmot Gardens was so appreciative of our help and has asked for us to come back because of everyone’s hard work ethic and what a fun group we were.

IRHA also participated in a community cleanup effort when IRHA members volunteered there Sunday morning to go pick up trash of the side of the road for Gainesville’s “Adopt-A-Street” program. We worked in conjunction with the March of Dimes when IRHA members participated in the March for Babies during the fall semester.IRHAmembersraisedhundredsofdollarsforthephilanthropythroughaJail‘N’Bail-acompetitionduring IRHA meetings where members are able to place other members in “jail” for fifteen minutes at a time. While in jail, the member is not allowed to speak and must sit on the ground, while guarded by the ruthless IRHA adviser, Christine Winget.

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We also have volunteered as a group for the Ronald McDonald House, which supports the families of pa-tients at Shands, the local hospital. During the volunteer excursion IRHA members of all types came out to cook dinner for the Ronald McDonald house families. We had a variety of members, from Area Government officers to RAs to non-AG members. They come out to work together and work for the benefit of those in need.

The strength of the charitable spirit in IRHA is also apparent through how supportive the other directors are toward community service efforts. For instance, the Environmental Concerns Director and the Eco-Reps had a substantial presence at our last Adopt-A-Street cleanup. Also, both of the Health Promotions Directors were present and assisted in the cooking for Ronald McDonald House. IRHA has also worked with outside organizations like Day of Difference. Day of Difference is a program where college students teach first and second grade classes for a full school day. The volunteers prepare a lesson plan to teach the children about simple business principles, jobs and communities. IRHA had so many volunteers come from its body that it was assigned its own elementary school.

Though IRHA has done a substantial amount of charity work, we are not done. In the near future, IRHA will also be participating in Project Makeover. This project will involve IRHA members going to a local public school and helping to renovate it. We are also planning on working with the local chapter of Habitat for Hu-manityinordertobuildahouseforalocalfamily.InApril,wewillbeworkingwith“GiveKidstheWorld”-anorganization that gives terminally ill children the chance to stay in a safe and clean environment while they visit Orlando theme parks.

Honoring our Heroes: National Residence Hall Honorary Leadership, Service and Scholastics The James C. Grimm Chapter of NRHH has taken a huge leap in the past year. NRHH has gone from being a very laid-back honor society to an active and engaging organization that encourages its members to uphold the four pillars. The diversity of this years’ NRHH board is part of what has made it successful. Thus semester, the board has two RAs, an AG vice president and a Graduate Hall Director. The different viewpoints represented by the board have assisted NRH in reaching out to diverse members of the NRHH body. An NRHH member is always in attendance at weekly IRHA meetings to keep in touch with AG members and NRHH President Connie Lee attends RA staff meetings in order to spread the word about NRHH membership. NRHH also reviewed and revised their entire constitution this year. One of the most drastic changes was the addition of service requirements to remain in good standing with NRHH. This was done in order to promote attendance at meetings, strengthen the loyalty of the body and encourage writing and voting for OTMs. One of the major pushes this year to use NRHH as a means to serve the public. Last year, there were only two service events all year, but this year there were several, larger-scale events. Focus was put on the environment, children, and service with IRHA.

NRHH participated in campus clean-ups held on campus, going along with IRHA’s Eco-Challenge and the Department of Housing and Residence Education’s goals of creating a cleaner, healthier, greener campus en-vironment for the residents. NRHH also worked to serve the residents in Graduate and Family Housing. Mem-bers helped to organize and participated in the Spring Fling- a carnival held for the children of students who reside in Graduate and Family Housing.

The NRHH board also served as the Philanthropy Directors for Residence Hall Week. RHW is not just something aimed to build community, but the programs are used as a venue to raise money and collect dona-tions for philanthropy. NRHH is the philanthropy director for this year’s RHW. This means that the charities that we donate to and all donations are coordinated by NRHH. This was an in-depth project, involving attending

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weekly meetings from mid-fall through late-spring, attending every program during RHW, and regular conversa-tions with each of the directors of all of the programs.

NRHH also hosted NRHH Study Café in early spring, an event that gave residents the chance to take ad-vantage of tutoring services provided free of charge by Tutoring Zone, the Broward Teaching Center on campus and members of NRHH who specialize in certain subject areas.

Getting the Key to the City: Recognition The University of Florida National Residence Hall Honorary has shown outstanding growth in the area of recognition programs, services and awards. The crux of this growth is seen in the Of-the-Month (OTM) Awards campus level process. We evaluated our previous OTM method and developed a game plan for the year, focusing on four critical concepts:• Increasingeducationandnominatorinvolvement• Betteringthequalityofnominations• EncouragingrecognitionoftheentireHousingcommunity• Recognizingexcellenceinapublicdomain

The first thing NRHH focused on was spreading the word about OTMs. They opted for a different approach than previous years, creating a fun, humorous presentation entitled “You Better Recognize!” that was featured at RA training as well as at our RHA’s general body meeting. Continu-ing with the idea of serious-awards-with-a-fun-flair, the Vice President of Recognition tailored e-mails to catch readers’attentionwithquirkysubjectlinessuchas“BREAKINGNEWS:Monstersontheprowl”;thebodyofthee-mail delivered the somber news that monsters-under-the-bed were on the loose and would not be subdued un-less OTMs were written. Through creative and innovative approaches, she explained the background and mission of recognition and OTMs, instructed on how and who to nominate and gave incentive for involvement—the UF Of-the-Month Cup quickly became a coveted prize. The OTM Cup concept was first adopted at the regional level by SAACURH and has been used at UF for several years; however, the competition was generally dominated by one area due to a need for increased awareness and education. This year NRHH strongly pushed the OTM Cup competition through presentations and monthly reports on standings, resulting in more nominations, better nominations and an excited buzz in the Housing community. The excitement is visible in the numbers: during the 2009-2010 NACURH year, UF hosted a total of 172 nominations; this year (NACURH 2010 to January 2011) there has been a 54.07% increase in total nominations, with 265 submitted recognitions to date.

But NRHH wanted more than big numbers. NRHH wanted better nominations. The members of the officer board made themselves available by e-mail and during office hours to help nominators with their cre-ations. Nominators received a bonus in their area’s OTM Cup total as NRHH’s way of saying “thanks for taking the time to do a great job on your nomination.” We also encouraged advanced vocabulary and thorough writing by challenging nominators to incorporate the “word of the month” and by awarding a bonus to those who met 75% of their OTM’s word maximum. In addition to working with nominators, we empowered NRHH members to become more involved in OTM selections by transitioning to the online voting system offered on the NRHH Database, bringing in a 220% voter turnout increase from last year. As a result, there was a staggering 185.75% increase in regional winners (20), and NRHH has already matched last year’s 4 national winners with still an-other four months to go until NACURH 2011. As it stands, the University of Florida is in the lead for the SAA-CURH OTM Cup.

The third goal was to encourage recognition of the entire Housing community. This was accomplished by expanding the competitive categories for nominations to include individuals whose contributions often go unsung: Custodial/Maintenance, Desk Attendant, Faculty/Staff, and Graduate Assistant. The Spotlight category encompasses many of these individuals and was available in previous years, but it was identified that having

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distinct categories would perhaps spark greater recognition in these under-represented areas. Intuition proved correct, as we have received 15 nominations that may have been overlooked with only the Spotlight category available. The most prestigious awards given out by NRHH are the Recogni-tion of Outstanding Employees (ROSE) and Recognition of Out-standing (ROV) awards. There are four categories for the ROSE award including:• ResidentAssistants/ResidentialCollegeAdvisers/PeerMentors• GraduateStaffworkinginSingle-StudentHousing• StudentstaffmemberinGraduateandFamilyHousing• Otherstudentstaff.The ROV award is divided into two categories:• Single-studentHousing• GraduateandFamilyHousing.Anyone involved in housing, not just NRHH members, are given a month to nominate individuals that have shown the highest level of excellence and involvement in the residence halls. A committee made up of active NRHH members meeting to discuss the nominations and determine the most deserving person from each cat-egory. Winners are recognized at the Spring Inductions and Awards Ceremony.

Captain IRHA Saving the City: IRHA and the University IRHA has an extremely close relationship with the Department of Housing and Residence Education and the Resident Assistants. Though recognized as a student organization, IRHA is given respect from the Depart-ment of Housing as a competent and capable group that provides a service to the residents truly benefits them- building community, making the halls fun and providing leadership opportunities to residents.

Working with the Authorities: IRHA and the Department of Housing and Residence Education We have built up a very good relationship with the professional staff of housing during the past year. Every area government has made it a priority to work closely with their Residence Life Coordinator or Residence Director in their area to make decisions and improve their area. Better relationships with the professional staff this year has led to our volunteers being able to serve the residents in a more effective manner. For example, when the commons of the oldest residence area on campus was up for renovation, the Murphree Area Council was included in the planning of how the space would be expanded and how the new space would be used. The council members gave their input about the need for more programming space and therefore the decision was made to expand the commons further than they had previously planned.

Captain IRHA Needs to Eat, Too: IRHA and Gator Dining Services IRHA also has a unique relationship with Gator Dining Services. Our halls are home to two- soon to be three- GDS-owned convenience stores. Therefore, IRHA works hard to help improve Gator Dining Services for the residents. This year, steps have been taken to improve the way we work with Gator Dining Services. Severin Walstad, the IRHA secretary took the initiative to work with GDS’s marketing department to create multiple co-sponsored events in the halls and in the dining halls. Severin has worked very closely with the management of GDS to create names, publicity, activities and prizes to go along with the events held at each GDS location. The area governments in the area that the event is held also have a hand in getting the residents out. The GDS events mean food samples for the residents, music, coupons to use on campus and fun inflatable games to play. Regional Involvement

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Heroes Unite: IRHA at SAACURH IRHA was very fortunate to be able to send a large delega-tion to SAACURH this past year. We piled a sixteen-member delegation into three vans and drove up to UGA with the intent of bidding for Program of the Year. Our delegations are always chosen through a blind ap-plication process. The NCC, Lindsey Wuest, is responsible for handling the application process from the creation of the appli-cation to the review of applications. Lindsey formed an applica-tionreviewteam,includingSean,theIRHApresident,andKatieO’Brien, the Graduate Adviser of IRHA. All applications were scored on the same rubric and those with the highest totals were given the opportunity to attend SAACURH.

This year, a change was made to the make-up of the delegation. In years previous, it was traditional for all of the executive board to attend every conference. Lindsey was interested in having less executive board mem-bers attend each conference and giving their spots to members of the IRHA body who had never before had the opportunity to attend conferences. After discussions and meetings, the decision was made to bring half of the executive board to FARH and SAACURH. This was seen as a very important decision and was praised by the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of Housing and Residence Education, Norb Dunkel.

At SAACURH, our delegation was packed with first-time conference attendees. It was an exciting experience for everyone involved. Lindsey en-couraged every delegation member to submit a program. Two programs were accepted as passive programs. First year Vicki Powell presented on how to ef-ficiently use a small space to make a haunted house that packs a big punch. Her “Spooky Springs” board dripped with spray paint blood and colorful photos of her event that happened just a few days before SAACURH! Janine Monfries, an RA, and Samantha Dean worked together to create a passive program about spreading Jamaican Culture through a Reggae Program that was a success in their hall. Another first year student, Ashley Florestal, was given the opportunity to present an active program.Shenamedit“KeepingYourShipAfloat”andsheusedhersessiontoteachotherswhatshehadlearnedin her short time at UF: don’t get over-involved! She used personal examples and experiences to teach others of the perils of accepting too many responsibilities too quickly. She shared tips on time management and organiza-tion.

The delegation was directed to spread out among the programs be-ing presented. Every member of our group went to a different pre-sentation as arranged the night before Day 2 of the conference. While they attended programs, the delegates took notes on the information being resented and brought their notes back to IRHA. The notes were typed up and posted to the IRHA Web site in order to give everyone access to the information and ideas brought home from SAACURH. Also, upon returning to UF, every delegation members was respon-sible for creating a PowerPoint slide featuring information from their favorite program they attended at SAACURH. Lindsey, the NCC, shows these slides before IRHA meetings as the members come in and take their seats. This collection of information is done at the end of every conference.

Also, a survey was sent out to IRHA’s SAACURH attendees in order to get feedback from them. Sean and Lindsey worked together to create multiple questions evaluating the experience of the delegates. Questions

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included:• Whatwasyourfavoritepartoftheconference?• Whatwasyourleastfavoritepartoftheconference?• Whatwentwell?• Whatcouldhavegonebetter?The feedback was compiled into a document and used by Lindsey to help make the next conference, FARH, a more organized and fun experience for those in attendance.

Captain IRHA Bids for Program of the Year The greatest endeavor pursued at SAACURH 2010 for the University of Florida was our bid for Program of the Year. The Tri-Y Tournament was an extremely successful and inexpensive program held in the Reid-Yulee-Mallory Area on campus. Our bid was presented by members of our delegation who eagerly volunteered to represent UF in the boardroom. The presentation was prepared and practiced in advance. Lines were memo-

rized, costumes were made and the presenting team brainstormed ways to engage the audience in the boardroom. Although we did not win Program of the Year, bidding for the award gave the board experience with writing bids and it gave the presenters a unique experience.InanotetotheNCC,KaytlynnKissinger,afirstyearand first time delegate, said, “I am so happy I got the chance to present Program of the Year! I can honestly say that was the best part of the whole conference.”

Communication with Member Schools UF and IRHA have been able to build friendships with other member schools of SAACURH, especially the University of North Florida (UNF) and the University of Central Florida.

Sean Johnson, IRHA president coordinated with the URSA board at UCF to plan a surprise executive board retreat at their campus. The IRHA executive board retreat is traditionally coordinated by the president as a chance for the IRHA board to focus strictly on planning out every day or every month for the rest of the year, setting goals for each board member and hopefully having fun at the end of the day. UCF’s URSA definitely made our retreat an enjoyable one. They gave us rooms in their residence halls and even bought pizzas for us to share with them when we ate dinner together. The URSA board gave us a tour of their campus and all of their residence halls. We marveled at their dishwashers in the towers and thanked them for their generosity.

Our first connection with UNF came when we were named “Pond Pals” in FARH’s Pond Pal program. In this program each affiliated school in Florida is matched with another affiliated school with which they are supposed to build a relationship with. At mini FARH, a small business-like conference for FARH, we presented our pond pals with IRHA’s Welcome Bags.

Welcome Bags are sports backpacks that have IRHA’s logo printed on the front of them. This year, we chose to use a material similar to reusable bags made for groceries. Also included in the bag was a pair of IRHA sunglasses, an few pads of IRHA sticky notes, a thermos with the Gators logo, football schedule and all of the area government names on it, an IRHA pen, a highlighter and an IRHA lanyard. Every resident on campus walks into their rooms to see an IRHA bag waiting for them, so we made sure that our pond pals walked into the conference with welcome bags waiting for them, too. Our relationship with UNF became even better when we learned that a two-year IRHA president, E.J. Walicki,

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had become the RHA Co-Adviser and a professional staff member at UNF. We were very excited to hear the news about E.J.’s new job and new RHA family.UNF was also gracious enough to host our retreat for the Residence Hall Week (RHW) Staff of fourteen plus one adviser. They not only offered a place to stay, but gave the staff a tour, had dinner with them and even opened up their lazy river to us. The staff was very impressed by the halls at UNF and loved learning about the way their RHA worked.

This year, UNF, UCF and UF have become much better friends thanks to their hospitality and support!

Leadership Positions on the Regional Level On the regional level, the University of Florida is proud to be home to Sakina Sackaloo, the SAACURH parlia-mentarian. Sakina has been involved in the halls for all four of her years in college. She is a former NCC who still has a passion for our state organization, FARH, and SAACURH. Sakina’s professionalism and training as a parliamentarian do not only serve the SAACURH region, but they also help our own RHA meetings run smoothly. This year Sakina is serving as vice president of IRHA. In this position she acts as parliamentarian during our weekly Monday night meetings which are run by Robert’s Rules.

One of our most dedicated IRHA members, Raksha Ravikumar, serves SAACURH as a member of the team that votes on Regional OTM winners. Raksha has been working as a member of IRHA for three years and has always served as an enthusiastic supporter of recognition in all forms. This year, Raksha is NRHH Vice President of Recognition. She has inspired AGs, RAs, Graduate Hall Directors, professional staff members and even off-campus students to write OTMS.

So far this year we have had 265 nominations written at our school. Raksha has encouraged participation through stirring up some positive competition for IRHA’s very own OTM Cup. We have been honored to win 20 Regional OTMS and 4 National OTMs so far this year.

Captain IRHA is FARH out: State Involvement The Florida Association of Residence Halls (FARH) holds and annual conference that UF always attends. UF is af-filiated with not only NACURH, but also FARH.

This year, IRHA was able to bring ten delegates and two advisers to FARH. Six of the delegates were members of the IRHA body from AGs all over campus and even one event director who plans to move back on campus after a year of off-campus life. Four of the six delegates were first time conference attendees. Everyone submitted programs for the conference and all of them were accepted. Again, many delegates chose to work in pairs to present their programs. The programs accepted represented a wide range of residence hall activities. Joseph Wasser, a member of the Lakeside Area Residents’ Council, presented about how to put on a Hip Hop Showcase event in the halls. Severin Walstad put on a program about time management and organization. Jimmy Mc-

Clellan and James Suridis teamed up to present “Death at the Speakeasy”- a program describing how to put on a murder mystery dinner for the residents.

FARH offered a laid-back environment in which our delegation felt comfortable fully expressing their school pride. As always, Gator tails adorned their backsides and costumes were a must-have. The theme, “Hopping through the De-cades” inspired our delegation to turn roll call into a musical masterpiece. A perfectly choreographed routine was created and the words to “Summer Nights” became residence hall themed. The audience and our delegation enjoyed the perfor-mance. The delegation even made special 50s themed Gator pins with bedazzled tails.

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Captain IRHA Makes a STATEment: FARH Awards FARH offers a variety of awards, just as SAACURH and NACURH give schools the opportunity to bid for awards. At this year’s FARH conference, the University of Florida and IRHA were honored to receive two awards. The first President of the Pond, an award given to an RHA President in Florida who has demonstrated outstanding commitment and achievement in the resi-dence and on the state, regional and national levels. As shown in his Toy Story themed bid, our president Sean Johnson always “reached for the sky.”The second award was presented to James “Jimmy” McClellan. He was the re-cipient of the FARH Scholarship. Jimmy was given this prestigious scholarship for his dedication to the halls paired with academic achievement. Captain IRHA Acrosss the Nation: Involvement in NACURHNACURH Conference

Our RHA was represented in the board room by our NCC, NCCIT, NRHH representative and our president, act-ing as co-NCC. Through the hours of debate, the representatives remained actively engaged. The University of Florida was respectfully vocal about their opinion in the NAACURH boardroom in California. Just as important, delegates from UF were excited about attending and presenting programs. We were able to bring our six executive board members and three delegates from the IRHA body to NACURH along with two advisers and our NRHH representative. Everyone in our delegation submitted a program by themselves or as part of a team and five were accepted.

Sakina Sackaloo presented a diversity program dealing with LGBTQ affairs. Two first-time delegates, Jacob Speedy and Liz McNeill presented a program about how to put on their extremely successful Harry Potter Day. President, Sean Johnson and NCC, Lindsey Wuest, presented the “UnDating Game”- a mock game show where contes-tants prove that stereotypes can be demeaning, incorrect and just plain hurtful. Sean and Lindsey went on to present their program as a part of the Top 50 later on in conference. At NACURH the delegation made a great effort to participate in all of the activities provided. Late night hunts for Sun God Babies turned into bonding experiences for our delegates. In the dark of night and in the first morning light, we were searching for Sun God Babies. A competition was created by our advisers to encourage our delegation to socialize with other schools in order to meet a new person from each state and country represented at NACURH. We wore our Gator tails, cheered with pride and traded like never before when it came to swap shop.

Leadership Positions on the National Level Outside of the NACURH conference, IRHA boats a few national committee members. Sean Johnson, our presi-dent, serves on the Strategic Planning Committee. With his business background and experience working with our student government and student union, Sean was chosen to sit on the committee. Also,KaytlynnKissinger,afirstyearstudentwaschosentoserveontheCorporateStructureCommittee.ShecametotheUniversity of Florida and fell in love with serving as a volunteer in the residence halls. So, when our NCC shared with the IRHAbodythattheyhadthechancetobeapartofNationalCommittees,Kaytlynnwasquicktorespond.Afterheratten-danceatSAACURH,KaytlynnwasveryexcitedtofurtherherinvolvementinNACURH.

By our powers combined… In this past year, a sense of pride in our work has developed among the body members. When a new flat screen TV is installed in the lounge, the Area Government Business Manager can smile, knowing that they helped provide it. When hundreds of residents gather on the sidelines of the world’s largest outdoor dodgeball court, the directors could look upon the masses and fell at peace, knowing that their event was a success. Finally, when a first year student speaks about how IRHA has become their family, all of IRHA can feel fulfilled knowing that they truly have made a difference in people’s lives.

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I joined IRHA summer B of this year as a

freshman and it has been one of my best

decisions! As a student at one of the largest

schools in the nation, it can be hard to find can be hard to find one’s footing and

niche. I have found that in IRHA! IRHA has

given me the opportunity to grow not only as a leader, but also as a person. but also as a person.

IRHA has also become a part of my on

campus family due to all the great members

who are very welcoming of new and

incoming members.incoming members.-Vicki Powell

I believe IRHA is a door opening opportunity at the University of Florida. It’s the perfect way to begin your leadership. You can start

small with a simple area government position or jump into a director role, and there is a task for everyone and every passion. My

favorite aspect of IRHA is that it is practically an endless opportunity. There isn’t an end. It keeps you ‘trapped’ in with the various aspects of it and different roles you can take at different

levels. If you’re feeling blue or your planner is looking a little empty, levels. If you’re feeling blue or your planner is looking a little empty, IRHA is that piece of sunshine to light it up. The people, the

programs, and the experiences are all great things that anyone can connect to and enjoy.

-Aimee Dolan

My experiences with IRHA within my first 7 months of being at UF have been phenomenal. Students are encouraged to share their thoughts and it provides a true venue for the residents at UF to take ownership over their community. They do some great things through programming and taking concerns of the students to higher officials. I have been very impressed with the organization of it and the members who are in charge with their professionalism and care. IRHA is a wonderful thing at UF and it is a true voice for the students.voice for the students.-Matt Scruggs

IRHA has given me purpose. My freshman year I was uninvolved and did not make new friends.

Becoming a part of IRHA was the best thing that could have happened to me. Not only did I make

friends that I know I will have for the rest of my life, but it made me a leader. Three years ago, I would have never been able to organize an event, run a meeting, or speak in front of people, but IRHA has meeting, or speak in front of people, but IRHA has given me those skills. I now have a confidence in

myself that I once did not have.I honestly do not know what I would be doing if I

wasn’t involved in IRHA. I ask myself that question all the time and I cannot picture my life without IRHA. I would probably be in a club or two, not

nearly as involved in on-campus life like I am now. College life would definitely not be as enjoyable as

it is now.-Eleonora Meliksetova-Eleonora Meliksetova 22

I have never felt more accepted as

an unique individual than

during my time in IRHA and at UF. It

is great to be a Florida Gator.Florida Gator.

-Tabitha Gorman

IRHA hasn’t impacted my college experience- impacted my college experience- it has made my college experience. It has introduced me to a group of people that I call my friends. When I look around in an IRHA meeting, I realize that all of the people sitting in the room with me are people that I room with me are people that I love. -Vinnie Pierino

Although, GHDs and AG Advisers are requested to

attend at least two general body meetings as part of their

Res Life experience at UF, I feel that I am such a valued

part of the IRHA body that I’m inclined to attend as many inclined to attend as many meetings as my schedule

permits. It’s not really just to meet with the fun people on

the IRHA Exec Board or support my AG during the meetings, but also to learn about the dynamics of the about the dynamics of the

group and how I can become a great RHA Adviser in the

future.-Steven Sweat

IRHA has showed me how large organizations operate. by seeing who leads what, and how

voices are heard, i can understand the importance of an RHA in a large university such as UF. I’ve met a lot of cool people, and going to

FARH has shown me how big IRHA is and how important RHA’s are to schools

-Joseph Wasser-Joseph Wasser

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The Foundation for The Gator Nation An Equal Opportunity Institution

Division of Student Affairs PO Box 112100 Housing and Residence Education Gainesville, FL 32611-2100 352-392-2161 352-392-6819 Fax houinfo@housing.ufl.edu February 21, 2011

Dear SAACURH National Communications Coordinators and SEC Members:

It is with great honor and respect that I write this letter of support and recommendation for the University of Florida’s Inter-Residence Hall Association’s (IRHA) bid for School of the Year. This is my third year serving as their adviser and I have been impressed by their programming, leadership, innovation, and teamwork.

The Inter-Residence Hall Association is active during the entire year including the summer. This past summer, the Executive Board planned many events to welcome students back to or to campus for the first time. Since NACURH took place during our Summer B Welcome Week, it became necessary for the Executive Board to organize the programs and then leave the leadership and implementation to the student leaders left on campus. The success was amazing and I have no doubt it was because of the leadership of the executive board and the dedication of the Area Government leaders across campus who stepped in to organize programs, set up events, encourage attendance, and sell activity cards to new students.

In the fall semester, IRHA took on two new events planned only days apart. The first event was the World’s Largest Dodgeball Fight and the second was the Tunnel of Oppression. Both events took lots of hard work, new ideas, resources, and teamwork to make happen. With over 550 people attending the Dodgeball Fight, all had fun despite not breaking the world record, and raised money for The Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County. Days later, IRHA hosted the Tunnel of Oppression. Students worked tirelessly to make this event a success. Over 300 students attended the event and many students learned something new during this experience. IRHA also hosted annual events in the fall including Welcome Bash and Winter Ball.

Although the spring semester is just underway, it is clear that it will be another successful semester for IRHA. During January, the Executive Board put together the most successful Spring Retreat for the Area Governments that I have seen in three years. Area Government leaders across campus were given the opportunity to present programs to their fellow students. This allowed them to gain leadership and presentation skills, and resulted in students that were more invested in the one-day leadership retreat. The Eco-Challenge, a collaborative effort between IRHA, the Department of Housing and Residence Education and the Office of Sustainability has been incredibly successful and continues throughout the month of February. The Annual Writing on the Wall Project was extremely successful at the end of January and at this point plans are well underway for Residence Hall Week occurring in late March.

I am very proud of all of the things that the Inter-Residence Hall Association has accomplished this year. They are an eager bunch of excellent students who truly care about life in the residence halls. I consider myself very lucky to be called their adviser. I have no doubt that they are very deserving of the honor of School of the Year for the 2010-2011 academic year. Their energy, programming, and leadership development have been beyond anyone’s expectations.

Sincerely,

Christine G. Winget Assistant Director of Housing for Residence Education

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The Foundation for The Gator Nation An Equal Opportunity Institution

Division of Student Affairs PO Box 112100 Housing and Residence Education Gainesville, FL 32611-2100 352-392-2161 352-392-6819 Fax houinfo@housing.ufl.edu February 22, 2011 SAACURH School of the Year Selection Committee Members Dear Colleagues: I am pleased to provide you with this letter of support and recommendation. Our Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) has submitted a bid for School of the Year and I could not be more pleased. I have worked with and met with the leaders of our IRHA over this past year. They have continued to impress me with their high level of involvement and student participation. You will certainly read material detailing IRHA’s accomplishments and involvements from this past year. I would like to highlight just a few areas that are important to our work. First, the number and quality of programs, events, and activities sponsored and organized by IRHA this past year has been exceptional. The students have developed a strong schedule of these activities that provided an opportunity for every student to become involved or participate. These activities ranged from programs rich in our tradition to new, innovation ideas. There was always something that students could attend and enjoy. Second, in these times of tighter budgets, the students have spent their funds wisely. They have budgeted with the full year in mind and they have been entrepreneurial in their approach to co-sponsorship. Third, the student leaders have established a wonderful working relationship with the Housing and Residence Education professional staff. This relationship has led them to possess a better understanding of one another’s time commitments and schedules. Finally, the students have attracted a large number of students to leadership opportunities. These opportunities have fostered their positive college experience. The future of IRHA is in very good hands with these highly motivated and energetic new students. I highly recommend the Inter-Residence Hall Association and University of Florida to you as School of the Year. They have had a remarkable year. Sincerely,

Norbert W. Dunkel Assistant Vice President and Director of Housing and Residence Education University of Florida

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