Residential Assistant Hiring

The 2019-2020 Crown Residential Assistant Position: Application period will open December 14, 2018.

Thank you for your interest in applying to be a Crown Residential Assistant (RA)!  We hope you find the application process beneficial to your development and look forward to your application. We are currently seeking applicants to serve as RAs between August/September 2019 through June 2020.

Residential Assistants (RAs) are responsible live-in student staff who are committed, invested, and active members of the community. RAs serve in a unique position as peer leaders in the college residence halls and apartments. They provide a vital link between the Crown College staff and Crown's student body by utilizing their leadership, peer counseling, crisis intervention, cross-cultural communication, and activities planning skills. RAs are responsible for developing and maintaining community, providing social and educational programming opportunities, working on a staff team, enforcing policy, addressing safety and security issues, and fulfilling administrative responsibilities. In a nutshell, RAs partner with students to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities for lifelong engagement in caring and socially just communities!

Job Description & Position Qualifications

Please review the entire Crown RA Job Description.  Please be sure that you are aware of what the position entails before you apply. Please bring questions to the optional Q & A information session or ask a Residential Assistant (RA) or Coordinator for Residential Education (CRE).

You’ll especially want to note the required qualifications for students to serve as RAs. RAs ultimately serve communities made up of people from all walks of life. Ideally, the RA staff will be as diverse as our college. In addition to embracing diverse backgrounds, there are some basic qualifications that must be met to be considered a candidate. You can find an exhaustive list of qualifications in the job description linked above, but here are some of the important ones to start with:

• Must be full time student for the entire year of hire
• Must maintain a 2.5 cumulative GPA from the time of application throughout employment
• Must be in good student conduct standing (Good student conduct standing is defined as anything below probation, and after submitting an application, candidates must not be found responsible for any campus policy violation)
• Must have completed one year of college prior to start of position

In addition to the minimum qualifications listed above, some skills are particularly useful for RAs to have. Strong communication skills are key, as well as the ability to manage your time and commitments. Successful RAs often have experience facilitating group living (sports camp, music camp, etc), but such experience is not required. Sometimes RAs are imagined to all be the bubbly, happy, crafty types. In reality, many different personalities are good fits for the RA team. Some RAs are boisterous, others are quiet. Some RAs enjoy large groups, others prefer one on one interactions. Some RAs are extraordinarily crafty, while others are more analytical. If you plan to apply for an RA role - just be yourself! We want to see who you are, and what your natural strengths are!

Hiring Timeline

Question & Answer Information Session (Optional):

• Tuesday, January 8 at 6 pm | Merrill Baobab Lounge
• Wednesday, January 9 at 6 pm | Merrill Baobab Lounge
• Thursday, January 10 at 8 pm | Crown/Merrill Apartment Community Room
• Monday, January 14 at 9 pm | Crown/Merrill Apartment Community Room

Come prepared by having already read the job description so that you can ask more in-depth questions about the RA life on the job, our goals regarding community building and residential education, and anything else you want to know! This will be a casual way for you to connect with current RAs and CREs. While participation at our Q&A night is not required, it will be a good time to get to meet current staff and gather wisdom from their experiences if you have questions.

The following must be completed by Wednesday January 16, 2019 at 12:00pm: (Note Applications Open Up December 14, 2018)

Deadline Extended to January 18, 2019 at 11:59pm

• Complete the UCSC Career Center Application for the CHES Resident Assistant (ER number 10162).
• Complete the 2019-2020 CHES Student Leader Application

Reserve February 13 and 14, 2019 for Group Interview process.

All candidates who submit completed application materials must attend this group interview. There will be a series of questions and activities to help evaluators assess how candidates interact as part of a group, and how they deal with topics and challenges that are pertinent to the leadership positions.

Individual Interviews will occur between February 18-22, 2019.

Candidates will be selected for an individual interview based upon their application, group interview performance, overall qualifications, and eligibility requirements. Applicants selected for an individual interview will via notified by email (UCSC email account) on or before February 6, 2018.  

Offer letters will be distributed at 5:00pm on Friday, March 8, 2019 and will need to be accepted by Wednesday, March 14, 2018, no later than 9:00am.

Successful candidates who will become 2019-2020 RAs will be expected to:

• Enroll in and take the "Leadership for Social Change" course in Spring 2019. Hired applicants may choose from 1 of 2 sections (class days, times, and numbers will be announced soon).
• Complete a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Training on one of the bulleted dates below (all trainings run from from 8:15am-5:00pm). Hired candidates with MHFA certificates valid through June 2020 are exempt. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an 8 hour class. Participants learn a five-step action plan to help loved ones, colleagues, neighbors and others to cope with mental health problems. Participants that complete the class receive a three-year certification in MHFA. Similar to traditional First Aid and CPR, Mental Health First Aid is help provided to a person developing a mental health problem or experiencing a crisis until professional treatment is obtained or the crisis resolves.Mental Health First Aid is an empirically-backed public education and prevention tool - it improves the public's knowledge of mental health problems and connects people with care for their mental health problems
  • Dates for Spring 2019 to be announced.
• Maintain communication with the CREs to be on the lookout for any emails regarding other hiring/onboarding tasks such as fingerprinting and account setups.
• Engage in RA Fall training (approximately three weeks prior to student move-in)

Studying abroad currently, but still interested in applying for the role?

So long as you will be present at UCSC from the end of August 2019 - mid to late June 2020, you can still apply! Email us at the email addresses listed below to hear about our options for students abroad and unable to attend the Group Interview Night.

Questions? Contact the Coordinators for Residential Education

Chris Flores: cflore14@ucsc.edu, 831-459-5233

Sarma Williams: sarma@ucsc.edu, 831-459-4742

Rachel Stice: rstice@ucsc.edu, 831-459-5230