Most colleges in the United States require that freshmen or students under 21 live on campus their first two years of college.
Those students get to pay for a provided room and communal living space called a dormitory, or for short, a college dorm. More than 11,000 students that attend Colorado Mesa University (CMU) live and learn on campus in one of the many Residence Life dormitories.
Dorms are not free and each student must apply to live in the hall of their choosing via the My Housing application on MavZone. Depending on how early students apply for housing, an entire hall could be filled, placing students on a waiting list to get a room.
Students at CMU have multiple dorm options: Bunting, Garfield, Grand Mesa, Monument, Pinon, Mary Rait, Jay Tolman, Wingate, Lucero, Orchard, Walnut and Aspen.
Students can have a single room dorm where they live alone or a double room with a roommate and a kitchenette at the end of the hall with a sink, stove and a communal fridge. These are traditional dorms.
Semi-suites are differentiated from the traditional style dorm by including shared bathrooms for each suite. Students can have a single room dorm where they live alone or in a double room with a roommate. Some dorms have spaces with single rooms and a kitchenette.
Lucero, Walnut, Orchard and Aspen are all more apartment-like living situations. For example, Orchard is a three bedroom space with a full kitchen, a fridge and a shared lounge space. These halls have most of the third year students and the Aspen apartments require a certain grade point average to apply to live there.
All these places might be different on the inside, but all have something in common: the resident advisor (RA). This is a student employed by the college’s residence life department trained in the protocol and rules of dorm living. There are two per hall floor that take care of the students’ well being, physically and mentally.
They also help enforce campus rules such as a dry campus, meaning no alcohol or drugs. In exchange these people get a scholarship that pays for your housing and meal plan with Mav money included.
Cenna Conklin is a senior in Environmental Science. She is in the middle of her last year here at CMU and in her second year of being an RA. She stated that she loves being an RA because she loves to help people and wants to connect with her residents.
Conklin is passionate about helping new students transition into college life. She wants to provide a safe environment for her residents and others and keep morale up with the residents by hosting events and being there to talk.
Every month an RA is given a small budget to use on materials or supplies for a monthly activity for their floor’s residents. Conklin just hosted a “Sip n’ paint,” where residents could paint on small canvases and enjoy juice drinks.
RAs are responsible for two duty nights a week and at least two duty weekends a semester. The rules to be an RA are that you cannot be seen doing anything they do not want their residents doing, this includes off campus activities.
“Quote,” sophomore Political Science major Sam Miller said.
Miller is in her second semester as an RA, she originally got the job her freshman year, Spring 2021. Miller wanted to emphasize that being an RA does not mean you cannot have a life, she participates in many clubs across campus.
Dorm prices and rates can be found on CMU’s website under Admissions and Costs.
