The Taylor Place Residence Hall Association will hold its annual elections April 23 through April 28 under the guidance of new leadership that has aimed to reinvigorate the role RHA plays in students’ day-to-day lives.
Current RHA president Alexandra Flamini said in an e-mail that she and the current board have had to work especially hard on establishing the organization on campus because of how little a role it played last year.
“When I took office, the organization was bare bones,” Flamini said. “Now we’ve created a vision for the organization. Going along with that vision, we’ve created a model for this year’s elections that is different (than) last year’s and we also have an idea of what we would like next year’s election process to look like as well.”
RHA advisor Bryan Custer said in an e-mail that this is the RHA’s first year of being recognized by regional and national RHA organizations.
The RHA Board “has worked hard to bring quality social programs to the students of Taylor Place and … they will continue to grow as an organization that has the ability to impact the residential students of ASU Downtown,” Custer said.
This year, Flamini said a big emphasis has been placed on returning members running again during an election that is much more crowded than last year’s.
“Last year, I was the only person to run for an office, and this year we already have multiple letters of intent for each position, so we’ve grown and we’ve done a better job to get the word out,” Flamini said.
Custer said in an e-mail the election process aimed to get awareness out about the elections via Taylor Place and on-campus ASU events.
“This year’s RHA assisted in advertising and handing out intent to run packets at events such as 411 and Pitchforking,” Custer said. “There have also been ads placed on the digiboards, e-news as well as announcements and discussion at RHA general body meetings.”
Flamini said the voting process has been made much simpler and that all students need to do is stop in at the service desk, show their ID and cast their ballots.
Custer and Flamini both said that awareness is a big issue within Taylor Place, explaining that most students do not understand the impact the RHA has on their lives.
“Most students would know RHA for the events that they have put on this year — pumpkin carving, gingerbread making, chocoholics — but I don’t think they know that they were a driving force behind the creation of the kitchen, as well as being a key voice during discussions about improvements to Taylor Place,” Custer said.
Flamini also said that turnout at events is still not where they would like it to be, but said there was definitely a marked improvement this year.
“This year we had a tremendous increase in resident attendance at events. We’re growing, and I think once we reach a certain size people will know about us,” Flamini said.
Carlyn Shepp, a new member of the RHA board who is running for vice president, said that her involvement with the board stemmed from her desire to become more engaged in student life.
“I wanted to be more involved with campus life and be more involved within Taylor Place,” Shepp said.
Flamini said that one of the biggest aspects of her being on the RHA board was expanding the role RHA has played over the past year.
“Each year we have plans to get a little bit bigger and with each step we take the better we can serve Taylor Place,” Flamini said.
Contact the reporter at vburnton@asu.edu
