Members of the Residence Hall Association have a busy semester ahead of them, with plans for various conferences, elections and a week devoted to social justice in the works.

RHA is the association that governs issues pertaining to Eastern’s residence halls.

“We try to build a connection between all residence halls, so we put on events for all of the halls,” said Mallory Winkeler, a junior communication studies major and the national communication conductor for RHA.

She said each individual hall has a council with a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.

Each hall also has representatives who come to each of the RHA meetings. These representatives talk about what’s going on in their halls and collectively make decisions for all of the halls.

“(RHA) serves as a liaison between the halls, and everything going on between the halls,” Winkeler said.

They are also responsible for knowing “everything that is going on campus,” she said.

The events planned by RHA for the fall include ROCfest, a week long event in the fall, while the spring will include an as-yet unannounced event, along with Social Justice and Diversity week this coming March.

RHA will also participate in a Relay for Life event.

Along with these events, the RHA also has conferences planned, including the Inter-Residence Hall Association, or IRHA, and GLACURH, a Great Lakes regional conference.

The group also has a regional conference called “No-Frills” where residence hall associations from Michigan, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana gather.

At No-Frills, they go over legislation and decide on where GLACURH is going to be held that year.

Winkeler said the conferences will be a nice addition to a leadership retreat RHA members went to last fall called Camp New Hope.

“We got really close. There are a lot of little cabins and we all go,” Winkeler said.

One of Winkeler’s responsibilities this semester will be to recruit people.

“We do a lot more than people think we do,” she said. “When people first get in, they can get overwhelmed.”

Winkler is also concentrating on spring conferences and holding elections.

A typical RHA meeting consists of going through the different areas each executive board member is in charge of, making plans for recruiting, and giving reports on each hall is doing. This semester, the group is also planning on having elections to decide on the new executive board.

Members also have icebreakers at each meeting.

“The icebreakers are fun, and lighten the mood.” Winkeler said.

The first RHA meeting of the semester will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in the lobby of Stevenson Hall.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].