RHA elects president, vice president for next year

By Grace Meiners

Published Feb. 26, 2008

Senior Bobby Wood and junior Nate Ballance were announced as next year’s president and vice president of the Residence Halls Association on Friday at the Residence Hall Ball.

Wood said that as RHA secretary and a Missouri Students Association senator, he feels that his relationships within RHA and MSA will allow greater communication between student organizations and therefore allow more productivity in cooperative efforts.

Ballance, who is currently RHA vice president, was elected into a second term.

RHA, MSA and the Legion of Black Collegians have signed articles of cooperation, which Wood said encourages the communication among them.

“Sometimes we might have similar ideas, and we work on them in our own organizations,” Wood said. “By getting everyone on the same page, we are able to see what someone has already done.”

An initiative to place condom dispensers in residence halls is one that requires cooperation and involvement from RHA and MSA. Ballance emphasized the importance of the relationship between RHA and MSA in order to accomplish such initiatives.

Ballance cited both his and Wood’s experience as important qualifications for their new positions.

“Bobby and I have both been on the executive board,” Ballance said. “And we have a good working relationship.”

This is both Wood’s and Ballance’s second year on the executive board.

Wood said his and Ballance’s experience would allow them to begin their terms productively and not waste any time.

“We basically want to hit the ground running,” he said.

Ballance and Wood both said they would like to increase participation and attendance at RHA activities and meetings.

Wood said he has seen a slight increase in attendance during his years in RHA, he would like to see more students attend meetings and events. He said he would also like to see greater participation among those already present.

Wood said he wants to reintroduce a parliamentarian position to RHA, who would serve as an assistant for the RHA speaker of Congress and bring more order to meetings.

On Feb. 19, before the Thursday vote, both slates gave their positions and responded to questions submitted by RHA members.

Wood and Ballance, along with freshmen Chris Gonzales and Tim Franklin, who opposed them in the election, discussed their ideas. The forum was the first one held outside of an RHA Congress meeting.

Gonzales and Franklin offered their slate as one with new perspectives.

Gonzales said he felt that students were not getting their money’s worth of residence hall activities. He would like to see activities happen inside individual residence halls, he said.

One of the questions submitted regarded RHA’s importance in the state of Missouri and other colleges in the nation.

Wood said he has contacted the Department of Residential Life about bringing a regional conference to MU.

Ballance said he has attended three regional conferences in his college career and stressed the importance of talking with other colleges and universities about ideas and obtaining different perspectives.

“They really build a regional connection among colleges,” he said.

Wood and Ballance will be officially sworn in during the last RHA Congress meeting of the year in May.