Halloween is right around the corner and every RA staff on campus is preparing an awesome Halloween program for all students on campus. The RA staffs put together one group event, called a large-scale program, every month. Unfortunately, every staff has problems getting people to attend their large scales.

Watts Hall had their large-scale program, “HogWatts: Don’t Drink and Fly,” on October 18th, which was incredibly well put together to say the least. They originally planned to have it on October 25th, but to prevent having to compete with another staff’s large-scale, they moved it back a week. Despite the time-crunch, they put together an incredibly creative program. Unfortunately, they were only able to get about 65 people, which is not bad, but when there is a campus of 1,000-plus students at our disposal, we know we could get more people.

Park Hall had their large scale on October 19th, which was also an incredibly entertaining program, and their numbers were a little higher at 85. Each building generally expects to get 100 residents at the least for their large scales. As an RA, I know how disappointing it feels when a great program isn’t able to attract 100 students.

I know that we RAs sometimes come up with the corniest names for our programs, but you really miss out on some fun when you skip a program to watch Neflix in bed. I am not saying this just because I am an RA. I attend other staff’s large scales regularly and have fun at each and every one of them. We don’t organize large scales just because we have to, we do it for the student body to give everyone something fun to do for a few minutes.

Park and Watts may have gotten their large scales out of the way for the month, but there are still a few staffs who have theirs coming up this week. On Monday, October 24th, Farber Hall is “Making Farber Pink” with a breast cancer awareness program that features a chocolate fountain. At the same time, Shove Hall is putting on “Spooks and Spirits,” which I hear will have Mario Kart with drunk goggles. Last, but certainly not least, is “Hubbard Horror Story,” the annual haunted hallway put on by the Hubbard and Village Housing RA staffs. The haunted hallway has been extended this year and will feature students from the Drama Club on campus. Tours start at 9:15 on Tuesday, October 25th.

All of these programs are going to be great, and here are some reasons why you should always attend RA large scales, as well as all RA programs in general.

1. Free food. Duh.

As much as I hear college students complain about how broke they are, I am surprised when I see those same students pass over an RA program that features free food.

2. Other free stuff. Again, duh.

Free stuff is never a bad thing. RA staffs commonly spend a large chunk of their large-scale budget on prizes and gift cards, which you earn a chance to win just by showing up. I have seen $50-dollar gift cards to Cheesecake Factory before. Remember when I said free food?

3. You get to meet some new people.

If you are freshman, it is dire that you go to RA programs. Trust me, when I was a freshman I barely went to any of the ones in my building. Now that I organize them regularly, I really regret not going and meeting new people. It will always benefit you to check them out. You might meet someone!

4. RA staffs put a lot of money into them.

Where do you think the money is coming from? Remember that activity fee you pay every year? Yeah, it goes to student life. You’re basically wasting your own money when you skip RA programs.

5. You get to make your RAs happy!

I know some reading this article are asking yourselves, “who cares if they are happy?” Well, you should. Residents really make our day when they show up to our programs. It feels great when our programs attract people and really make us happy. A happy RA is a happy hallway. We won’t be as miserable when we are up until 1 a.m. running around the building like a crazy person.

6. There are usually really cool activities.

Who honestly thinks that Mario Kart and drunk goggles don’t sound like fun? We get really creative with our programs, and sometimes we produce the best games and activities that are really memorable.

7. A lot of work goes towards them.

When designing a large scale, the RAs don’t just throw it together on the spot. We have a staff meeting once a week, and we spend about three staff meetings planning large scales per month. We take our personal time to put advertising together, design cool information handouts, shop for food and prizes, and spend hours setting up and cleaning up for each event. It is a lot of work sometimes, but it always makes it worth it when we can easily beat our goal of 100 residents in attendance.

8. You find out that us RAs are really cool.

Maybe not cool, some of us are dorks. My point is that many people focus on the part of our job where we have to enforce college policies, making us the bad guy on more than one occasion. However, there are many other things that we are responsible for, and there are many reasons why we do what we do. Writing people up is not one of them.

If you come to our programs, you can learn more about us. You will find out that every RA on this campus is concerned with making people happy, giving people free food, and most of all, giving people help to whoever needs it.