UMD RHA - University of Maryland Residence Hall Association

Our Structure

Executive Board
The Executive Board oversees all of RHA’s activities in both the Senate and the Hall/Area Councils. The Executive Board is comprised of eight members. Each year a President and Vice President are elected by the Senate and they then appoint the other six positions. These positions are the Public Relations and Outreach Officer, who is responsible for promoting RHA around campus, the Student Groups and Organizations Liaison, who works with SGA and other student groups, the Finance Officer, who manages the Executive Board’s budget and helps coordinate Final Relief Kits, the Administrative Officer, who is responsible for taking minutes at RHA meetings, the Chief Information Officer, who is responsible for the website and all other technology, and the National Communications Coordinator, who works with RHAs from other universities and also serves as RHA’s historian. The Executive Board members act as mentors to other RHA members while also retaining voting rights in the RHA Senate.

Senate
The RHA Senate is the policy-making arm of the RHA. It is comprised of senators from each Hall/Area Council. Every Hall/Area Council gets a number of senators proportionate to its residents with each senator representing 250 residents. The senate also includes four At-Large Senators as well as the eight members of the Executive Board. The senate meets every other week and works by passing resolutions for or against various issues related to areas in our jurisdiction. Additionally, each RHA senator serves on one of our four standing committees. These four committees each meet every other week with a director of an on-campus department. The four committees are the Resident Life Advisory Team (ReLATe), which meets with the Director of Resident Life, the Residential Facilities Advisory Board (ReFAB) which meets with the Director of Residential Facilities, the Dining Services Advisory Board (DSAB) which meets with the Director of Dining Services, and the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) which meets with the Director of Transportation Services.

Hall/Area Councils
Each large residence hall on campus is represented by its own hall council. Smaller residence halls, such as those on North and South Hill, are represented by community-based area councils. The hall/area councils are responsible for planning and running many of the programming events for each residence hall. The councils are comprised of a president, several vice presidents, and a number of senators that represent the council in the RHA Senate. In addition to providing programming, the councils are also useful for students to air concerns about issues in their residence hall, which can then be brought before the RHA as a whole.