Residence Director
Listed on 2026-08-03
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Social Work
Youth Development
Join our community and experience Emerson College!
Job Description Summary
The Residence Director (RD) is responsible for the overall management of a residential community housing between 250-500 first-year or upper-class students. This unique position requires the RD to live on campus in order to fulfill frequent evening and weekend responsibilities (including, but not limited to advising students, facilitating and participating in programming efforts, as well as assisting with special campus events).
Additionally, this role serves in an on-call capacity to respond to both emergency and non-crisis situations. This position also oversees aspects of the community and individual development that occurs in the Residence Halls including RA training, RA programming/community development, and Learning/Themed/Specialty Community support. This position operates outside of the standard business hours of the institution and requires work on evenings and weekends.
JOB DUTIES
- Hire, train and supervise Resident Assistant staff.
- Review applications, conduct candidate interviews, and participate in staff selection meetings.
- Lead sessions and create instructional documents for staff training.
- Conduct weekly staff meetings and weekly individual supervision meetings.
- Provide feedback and encouragement to staff members.
- Hold staff accountable and provide ongoing opportunities for growth.
- Maintain an active presence within their residential area both by regularly scheduled office hours and attending programs and events within the building and campus communities.
- There will periodically be a need for work to be completed outside the traditional business hours of the College based on the needs of the community and processes occurring.
- Meet with individual students to discuss problems and concerns, provide assistance and/or appropriate referrals, follow-up on community related concerns, and provide challenges and opportunities for learning and student development.
- Respond to psychological, behavioral, medical, Title IX and maintenance emergencies by acting within established protocol.
- Adjudicate policy violations and update software associated with each documented violation.
- Serve as a primary hearing officer for violations in assigned areas and conduct meaningful discussions with students about the decisions they are making.
- Serve on conduct boards as assigned.
- Address facilities concerns in a timely manner.
- Make sure that housing facilities are maintained in a clean and safe manner.
- Address any concerns raised by students and ensure that problems are fixed in a timely manner.
- Make sure that residents are maintaining appropriate levels of cleanliness in facilities.
- Manage and track keys and lock inventory in the building.
- Facilitate roommate conflict resolution by training student staff in conflict resolution, facilitating the completion of roommate and suitemate agreements, regular following up on reported student conflict and meeting personally with students in a timely manner.
- Oversee RA programming and community development.
- Approve proposals for active and passive programs.
- Coordinate efforts in order to address educational and social needs of residents.
- Assist with logistical matters related to program completion.
- Manage budget for all hall events.
- Ensure that appropriate documentation has been submitted.
- Oversee building initiatives through EmConnect.
- Serve as a facilitator for Emersion, Emerson College's First Year Experience course each academic year.
- Advise Learning Community(ies)/themed housing/ specialty housing, including RA and student programming efforts.
- Supervise the Welcome Desk, including Welcome Desk Coordinator and Welcome Desk Assistants.
- Manage Hall Opening/Closing and maintain accurate records of residents in the building.
- Coordinate all closing and opening procedures for the residence hall at semester and holiday breaks.
- Maintain accurate records of students residing in the building.
- Prepare and follow up on systems and reports, including occupancy reports, statistics, incident reports, maintenance reports, evaluation, hall opening/ closing, and mid-year and annual reports by maintaining accurate records, utilizing management tools, documenting incidents, concerns and recommendations, checking office email and physical mail daily, and writing evaluative reports.
- Serve on departmental and institutional committees; attend departmental and area staff meetings and training.
- Work up to 5 hours a week (depending on the events and time of the year) on an assigned collateral assignment with other offices. Some areas considered are:
Orientation Program Planning, Class Council, Late Night/Weekend programming, Leadership Development/Engagement, and Care and Concern. - Actively serve in on-campus duty rotation, ensuring the professional staff are able to respond to any emergency or non-emergency situations that arise anytime students are on-campus.
- Examples of duty responsibilities include responding to emergencies impacting student physical or…
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