Experienced resident adviser knows how to take a joke
Mark Price | Knight Ridder Newspapers
Issue date: 9/14/05 Section: News
One group of last year's freshmen ended up appearing before a campus judicial officer after they got caught using a two-story lobby in Moore Hall for a trampoline. They had a pile of mattresses on the lobby floor and were leaping onto it from an interior balcony.
It also was last year that some male students got into trouble after shutting off the water to a floor of women in Moore Hall.
"We figured it out the next morning ... after an entire floor of women went to their sessions without showers," said Nicole Kelly, assistant dean of students for new student programs.
"I think there is an expectation that, when you live in the residence hall, there have to be practical jokes ... They have to keep coming up with stuff no one is expecting ... Most of the time, they are innocent, but as administrators we are concerned about safety."
Surprisingly, RAs do not discourage innocent pranks, assuming teens focused on harmless jokes are focused away from drugs and alcohol. It is indicative that the students are bonding into a community, since good pranks call for planning and coordination.
One of the best was pulled off in the 1998-99 school year, when a group of freshmen got up at 2 a.m. and spent four hours covering the common areas of their floor in Moore Hall with dried black-eyed peas.
"It was a major undertaking," recalls UNCC graduate James Davis, who was their RA. "I woke up and found every square inch of the floor was covered. It was the funniest thing. I'd guess there were millions of black-eyed peas.
"They knew they had to clean it up, of course. But no rules were broken and nobody got hurt. It was just a lot of energy put into a simple activity that wouldn't result in anything but laughter."
Why black-eyed peas?
"I have no clue, other than they were cheap and they were sold at the convenience store on campus."
Daniel Beason asked for this job his sophomore year, mostly because he did not have the money to pay his way through school. Born the younger of two boys, he was raised on the modest income of a mechanic and a teacher's assistant in Raeford, N.C., two hours east of Charlotte.
It also was last year that some male students got into trouble after shutting off the water to a floor of women in Moore Hall.
"We figured it out the next morning ... after an entire floor of women went to their sessions without showers," said Nicole Kelly, assistant dean of students for new student programs.
"I think there is an expectation that, when you live in the residence hall, there have to be practical jokes ... They have to keep coming up with stuff no one is expecting ... Most of the time, they are innocent, but as administrators we are concerned about safety."
Surprisingly, RAs do not discourage innocent pranks, assuming teens focused on harmless jokes are focused away from drugs and alcohol. It is indicative that the students are bonding into a community, since good pranks call for planning and coordination.
One of the best was pulled off in the 1998-99 school year, when a group of freshmen got up at 2 a.m. and spent four hours covering the common areas of their floor in Moore Hall with dried black-eyed peas.
"It was a major undertaking," recalls UNCC graduate James Davis, who was their RA. "I woke up and found every square inch of the floor was covered. It was the funniest thing. I'd guess there were millions of black-eyed peas.
"They knew they had to clean it up, of course. But no rules were broken and nobody got hurt. It was just a lot of energy put into a simple activity that wouldn't result in anything but laughter."
Why black-eyed peas?
"I have no clue, other than they were cheap and they were sold at the convenience store on campus."
Daniel Beason asked for this job his sophomore year, mostly because he did not have the money to pay his way through school. Born the younger of two boys, he was raised on the modest income of a mechanic and a teacher's assistant in Raeford, N.C., two hours east of Charlotte.
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