Office of Residential Life offers Panthers a place to stay during Spring Break

Ceylin Arias/Staff Writer

Spring break is than a week away and most Panthers are getting ready to spend the week-long break with family and friends.

For students already living on campus, however, the Office of Residential Life is more than happy to offer Panthers a place to stay during the break.

Furthermore, the office of Housing and Residential Life guarantees students both a safe and supporting environment that prioritizes student’s accommodations.

Andrew Naylor, associate director for housing at the Office of Residential Life, assures that their office is comprehensive when it comes to students needing to spend breaks on campus for any particular reason.

“One thing to understand is that we, as whole, take into serious consideration that many students often time need to stay in the Miami area to work or for whatever reason. That is why we make sure students have a place to live during the break period,” said Naylor.

Naylor prioritizes students’ housing accommodations in case they find themselves having nowhere else to go.

“The Office of Housing and Residential Life doesn’t believe in kicking students out just because the university is out for breaks,” said Naylor. “We make sure to be open and accessible throughout all breaks, not counting summer vacation.”

No program activities are scheduled during spring break, Naylor says, because students either decide to go back home or take the opportunity to travel elsewhere, this will not affect housing.

Students already living on campus are welcome to stay.

Throughout the rest of March, Naylor shares that the Office of Residential Life offers a variety of program activities with goals of helping and allowing the engagement of students with others in order to learn about time management and other social issues.

The Dean’s List Gala is one of the many activities that usually take place on March, but according to Kristen Smith, associate brand manager of the Office of Housing and Residential Life, the event came earlier this year.

“We actually had our Dean’s List Gala in February this year. It honors any undergraduate degree-seeking residential student who earns an FIU cumulative GPA of 3.5 or more on the basis of nine or more credit hours earned during any semester,” said Smith.

Program activities such as RHA Royals Pageant and the Drag Ball will be taken place during its usual schedule in March.

Formally known as the Mr. & Ms. Res Life,  the RHA Royals Pageant, allows residential students to compete for the Title of Mr. & Ms. Res Life, said Smith. The event will be taking place on Thursday, March 23.

The pageant contains five sections including: Introduction, FIU trivia questions, talent portion, FIU Spirit and the famous question:” Why do you deserve to be the next Mr./Ms. Res Life”, according to the Office of Housing and Residential Life website.

A second event known as the Drag Ball will take place on Thursday, March 30. The event provides students the opportunity to be exposed to the LGBTQA culture because it gives students the opportunity to express themselves artistically while doing so in a “friendly and non-judgmental environment,” according to the website.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons