Inauguration

Welcome to the new and official blog of the University of Maryland Residence Hall Association! We are happy that you've found us and taken the time to visit.

It is the belief of the current RHA Executive Board that it is always important to set out the goals of any new endeavor, to explain the principle by which decisions are made and opinions held. In light of this view, I will begin by setting forth the goals of this new blog.

First, this blog will become a portal through which resident students can peer into the current activities, thoughts, feelings, opinions, and otherwise of current RHA members. That is, a goal of this blog is to promote transparency.

Second, this blog will serve to relay official news from the RHA. While our website undergoes renovation and a transfer of servers, it is important that the RHA maintains a way to communicate important news items with its constituents.

Third, it is the opinion of the current RHA Executive Board that "student leader" has become, to a greater or lesser degree, a nebulous term and that students that are supposedly our peers can too often feel more like unreachable administrators than students who act directly on our behalf. Thus, a goal of this blog is to help to shrink, and hopefully eliminate, this sense of distance, lack of definition, and potential mistrust. In that vein, I refer you to the disclaimer found on this blog, and repeat a sentiment found there: the postings on this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of the RHA as a whole organization, but only those opinions of the poster, unless otherwise stated. Official RHA releases will be noted as such. Blogs have many unique benefits. One of the best, in our opinion, is its property of a mixture of a journal/diary and official correspondence. Thus, connectedness and commentary are goals of this blog.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, we hope that this blog will continually contribute to and further conversations being had on campus. Hopefully the comments found on this blog will help to illuminate important perspectives and points and serve to improve life and culture here at the University of Maryland.

As for goals, those are the major ones. Others will certainly be filled along the way.

We thank you very much for visiting our new blog.

Posted by: Sumner Handy, President