Community Assistant

A Community Assistant (CA), otherwise known as a Resident Assistant (RA), is one of the most hardworking yet underpaid workers in state universities and colleges. Usually assigned to a particular wing or floor of a residence hall, CA's are responsible for maintaining their group of residents (usually first and second year students), doing endless paperwork, planning activities with a tiny budget, and enforcing residence hall policies. CA's are usually "on duty" with another CA every few days. Although many people dislike CA's and see them only as authority figures, good CA's care about their residents and want to help them. CA's put up with a lot of bullshit from programming requirements, drunk people, residents with behavioral and emotional problems, and the stress of balancing homework with the job. However, the CA position looks great on a resumé if you can survive it.