Volume 67, Issue 3

Resident Advisor Appeals for Additional Funds; Looks to Enhance Dorm Life                           

by Jonathan Mazurek

In the hope of creating a sense of “dorm life” and floor camaraderie at Yeshiva, Amitai Blickstein is on a one-man crusade.  Amitai, the Resident Advisor (RA) for the 7th floor of the Morgenstern Residence Hall, has recently developed an agenda that would increase the funding allocated to the RAs for floor functions.  The necessity, he claims, is due to the basic lack of friendship and togetherness that should normally be felt among the members of a floor.  “A floor should be like a bunk… not a Holiday Inn,” Blickstein says. 

According to Blickstein, each floor in the Housing Program currently receives between $20-$30 to purchase what he calls “tisch food” for floor parties.  In his view, such parties are unexciting, which accounts for the low attendance at such events.  However, if the RAs received just a fraction more funding per party, they would be able to generate innovative programs that would be more inviting to floor members, encouraging greater attendance.  When asked about what types of programs he would institute with this money, he said “fun stuff, like arm wrestling contests or Rice Krispie workshops.”  He feels that RAs should receive accessible accounts from where they would be able to procure money whenever necessary.  If the money were not used, then it would simply be returned to its source. 

Blickstein claims that past events prove that the money is indeed available.  “Each Shapp event cost approximately $10,000,” Blickstein says, referring to the extravagant programs produced by former Yeshiva College Student Council President Lou Shapp.  He contends that if the student government allocated just a fraction of that money to the RAs, then the money would not be wasted, but rather would be used for creating a feeling of closeness. The problem of course is politics.  Blickstein acknowledges that the student government could easily reject his proposal, because they may perceive an infringement on their roles.  Yet, he contends that just as there are federal and local levels of government, so too the RAs are the students’ closest representatives to the general student government.  He feels that the school government representatives should welcome this opportunity because it removes a burden from their shoulders.

Executive Council President Shai Barnea has claimed in the past that he wants to have floor parties sponsored by the student council, but so far such parties have been slow in coming.  Blickstein feels that if the RAs would be able to control such events, then they would become more frequent as well as more exciting.

In order to gain support for this measure, Blickstein has been collecting signatures for what he describes as a “good natured petition.”  The point is not to stir up trouble, but rather to show that support for this plan is both present and overwhelming.  Although the petition currently only contains 35 signatures, Blickstein intends to collect over 100 such signatures, and is confident that his plan will succeed.   

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