An update from Dr. Mark Kerins, Faculty in Residence (FiR) for the Morrison-McGinnis Residential Community:
Prep for next year continues, and the pace is now picking up as the launch date for the RCs gets closer. Last Friday I met with the usual MoMac team (RCLC members Michael, Alexis, and Olivia, and RCD Liz Rader) to prep for the housing expo next month, where returning students can find info about the various RCs and decide where they want to live. Obviously, MoMac will be the place to be, but it still took some serious discussion about the best way to convey that on a trifold board. We usually meet in a conference room, but given the nice weather we decided to head outside and get some inspiration by working in the shadow of MoMac instead as we figured out the board.
That evening, the big event was RA signing day. Each RC had a table set up to welcome the new RAs when they found out where they had been assigned.
Our two returning RAs, Carmen and Greg, had already been announced so they were able to help Liz set up some decorations at our table for the event.
As you can see in the lower left corner of the last pic, the fam came with me to signing day to help welcome the new RAs – the kids even helped me bake and decorate some cupcakes the night before (my plan was to put the MoMac dual-M logo on each, but they decided dumping prodigious amounts of sprinkles on top was a better idea)! What we didn’t know, though, was that the event was going to start with a half-hour walk-through of the RA contracts, guidelines, etc. The kids were excited at the start – they got to put on nametag stickers and wave mustang flags:
…but as the intro lecture went on they lost their patience and we had to let them break into the cupcakes to keep them under control.
Of course, that led to a sugar high and insanity (see video here) so Jess and I took them out of the room for a bit while they settled down. When we got back we found they had finished announcing all the RAs so we congratulated the new MoMac-ers (from left: Candace, Alexis (who I already knew from the RCLC), Carmen (returner), Greg (new), and Joe). (not pictured but equally welcomed: Niki and Greg (returner) who had to leave before we took the picture))
Excited to have what looks to be a fun and enthusiastic crew to work with – I’m looking forward to getting to know them as we continue our planning. These RAs will join our leadership/planning team immediately as we continue prepping for housing selection, our spring welcome event, and then of course our full slate of programming in the fall.
Hard to believe less than six months from now we’ll all be in the newly renovated MoMac (with a whole new crop of first-years added to the returning upper-class students) and the fall semester will already be under way. Faraway so close…
