Page 6
October 18, 1988
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OutRAgeous!!! That’s what it can mean to be a Resident Assistant, according to
the Department of University Housing. In fact, they’ve chosen that dynamic adjec
tive as their current RA recruitment theme.
For students interested in mid-year positions, applications are available now at
Carr Building and are due November 7. RA Awareness Day will kick off October
26 in the Pit from 10 a.m. until noon. Current RAs and other housing officials will
be on hand to answer questions — and give out free balloons. Applications for the
1989-90 academic year will be available there as well as at various informational
gatherings in the residence areas. After Awareness Day, applications can be pick
ed up at Carr Building or in area offices. Applications for the 1989-90 academic
year are due no later than December 20 at 5 p.m. in Carr Building.
Being a resident assistant at UNC is a job of multi-faceted responsibilities. The
peer counselors, in addition to their student advising role, are educators, ad
ministrators, regulators of conflict, resource persons, and planners of social,
cultural and educational programming for residents of college residence halls.
Upperclass standing is required of applicants, although second-semester
sophomores will be considered for mid-year selection. A 2.3 grade point average
is mandatory as proof of a solid academic foundation due to the demands of the
job. All RAs must also be full-time students, with a minimum course load of 12
hours per semester, and should possess sensitivity, flexibility, diversity and
awareness of the residence hall living environment.
RAs say that the best thing about the job is not only gaining new friends, but
learning valuable insights about themselves, including increased independence,
creativity, responsibility, and communication and leadership skills. And perhaps
one former RA summed it up best when he said, “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever
love.”
Audreye Johnson Uses Her Education as
Tool in Black Community
by Yvonne Extine
Dr. Audreye Johnson has a cause
that’s constantly reaffirmed. Every
day the associate professor of social
work at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill meets people
who have much to learn about the black
community.
At a recent discussion at the Colum
bia Street Bakery that Johnson attend
ed, for example, a white participant said
his world didn’t need to know blacks.
“His statement was not one of
hostility, it was one of reality,”
Johnson says. “I told him that was true
— he may not need to know black peo
ple, but that his world is diminished by
not knowing them. Fortunately, he
wishes to know black people. Many
people don’t want that privilege.”
An outspoken advocate for better
health care, education and general
welfare for blacks, Johnson strives to
make a difference.
“My hope has been and always will
be that society’s respect for, acceptance
of, and interaction with black people be
more than superficial,” she says. “I
want people to know that African-
Americans are competent, and that
we’re not here for affirmative action
reasons.”
That’s what Johnson was pushing for
in 1968 when she helped found the Na
tional Association of Black Social
Workers.
“1968 was an extremely volatile time,
with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the
assassination of Martin Luther King all
around us,” she recalls. “Black social
workers were not receiving adequate
recognition in their professional
organizations, and the needs of black
clients were not being met.”
The National Association of Black
Social Workers grew out of a meeting
of the National Association of Social
Workers in a Washington, D.C., park
ing garage in April 1968. Black social
workers from Chicago, New York and
other U.S. cities came together to fight
racism, which they said was America’s
top mental health problem.
“It was so evident then that Civil
Rights legislation and the hope everyone
was talking about hadn’t been acted
upon in many areas,” Johnson says.
Johnson has organized association
chapters in Chicago, Nashville, Denver
and the Triangle as well as the N.C.
State Association of Black Social
Workers. “Social work is a product of
the society in which it operates,” she
says. “Maybe the chapters that I have
helped to set up will promote the kind
of equality social work needs.”
Johnson frequently travels across the
United States to speak to social
workers, black advocate groups, college
students, faculty members and others.
She also works on special projects such
as her current study about the impact of
AIDS on blacks, especially women.
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