GUEST ASSISTANTS ON THE JOB

UH Residential Life & Housing (RLH) is expecting approximately 5,500 guests to cycle through Cougar Village for summer conferences over nearly a three-month period. All of these people will be tended to by Guest Assistants (GAs), Conference Assistants (CAs) and Senior Guest Assistants (SRGAs); student employees who serve as UH liaisons to our visitors. These positions are front-line, live-in jobs, so guests will have assistance 24 hours a day.

GAs and CAs do a variety of tasks for guests. They are responsible for inspecting the rooms to ensure that everything is clean and ready. They check guests in and out, provide information about the university and the city, help guests with maintenance and housekeeping issues, provide excellent customer service and staff the desks. While CAs work set shifts, GAs live on the floors to which guests are assigned, are always available to guests, and participate in on-call rotation.

In the event of a hurricane or other crisis, the CAs and GAs are responsible for making sure that everyone gets evacuated or shelters are in place, as the case may be. That may include going door-to-door and checking each room personally. During Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, the electricity went out, so that meant checking each room in Moody Towers in the dark and without elevators. GAs must be prepared for anything and everything.

SRGAs have usually had prior experience as GAs. They help to supervise the GAs and CAs, do scheduling, oversee time sheets and answer directly to the Area Coordinators.

This year, 14 CAs, 10 GAs and 7 SRGAs were hired after an extensive application and interview process, including group and individual interviews. They must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and be enrolled in at least one summer class. They receive two days of intensive training on goals and expectations; procedures; room inspection; safety, security and crisis management; on call duties and customer service.

GAs, CAs and SRGA�s are compensated by receiving a single room. Some also receive monthly stipends. Additional incentives include the opportunity of improving their leadership, critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills. Furthermore, they have the chance to display their abilities to Area Coordinators as an informal audition to possibly become Resident Assistants at some time in the future.

SRGAs, GAs and CAs are important parts of the summer conference team. Habiba Milan is the Area Coordinator overseeing summer conferences. Milan said, �It is rare to find a group of students that can balance a summer job with summer school and an on-campus job, but we�ve been fortunate enough to find a group that can balance it all and offer our conference groups the best customer service available.� RLH couldn�t do summer conferences without them.

For more information about Residential Life & Housing or summer conference resources, go to their website.