Residence Life

The mission of Residence Life is to foster and sustain inclusive and accessible residential communities where all students can have meaningful relationships, develop skills for collegiate and life-long success, and engage in the essential work of self discovery. With support and mentorship from Junior Advisors and Community Advisors, we aim to empower students to explore the intersection of identity and experience and to engage in meaningful dialogue around community norms and values.

Bates Residence Life staff members work to support student residents as peer advisors, advocates, and mediators. Every on-campus residential space has a designated Junior Advisor or Community Advisor who, with the support of a diverse professional team, is responsible for empowering residents to solve problems, mediating issues that need additional support, and for elevating ongoing or acute challenges to the appropriate department.

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Student Leader Roles

The Residence Life Student Staff is made up of three primary roles: Junior Advisors, Community Advisors, and Team Leaders. At their core, these three positions are quite similar. Each student staff member lives in a designated residential area with the students they support. Please review the below positions to learn their differences.

Junior Advisors (JAs) live in a First-Year Center (FYC) and support only first-year students. There are multiple JAs in every building that houses first-years. JAs foster intentional relationships with their first-year cohort, averaging between 10 and 20 residents. The primary goals of the JA are to help ease a first-year student’s transition to communal living, adapt to more rigorous academic requirements, and find balance among experiences that are competing for time.

  • Support the students that make up your First-Year Center (FYC)
  • Be available to your first-year residents as a peer advisor
  • Connect residents with campus resources and extracurricular opportunities
  • Foster socially just and inclusive living environments
  • Facilitate residential programs and other engagement opportunities
  • Mediate residential conflicts with humility and empathy
  • Uphold college-wide community standards and rules
  • Uphold community standards unique to your FYC
  • Act as a steward of the physical spaces of your FYC
  • Serve as liaison between your FYC and administrative offices
  • Maintain collaborative relationships with Custodial Services, Campus Safety, and Environmental Health & Safety to address instances of residential damage and/or community disruption
  • Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  • Attend all pre-term training(s) and onboarding sessions
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Attend all required training sessions, including:
    • Pre-orientation staff training in August
    • Pre-winter semester training in January
  3. Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  4. Meet regularly with JA Team and JA Team Leader
  5. Meet regularly with Area Director
  • Must be a rising sophomore, rising junior, or rising senior
  • No prior residential or work experience required
Link to Full Description (PDF)

Community Advisors (CAs) live in houses and halls with a population of mixed class years and support upperclass year students. There is one CA per mixed class year building, with some CAs overseeing multiple houses. CAs do a great deal of community advising, peer mentoring, and resource referral through more informal relationships with their residents.

  • Support the residents of one or more halls or houses
  • Be available to residents as an informal peer advisor
  • Connect residents with campus resources
  • Foster socially just and inclusive living environments
  • Facilitate residential programs and other engagement opportunities
  • Manage and mediate residential conflicts with humility and empathy
  • Uphold college-wide community standards and rules
  • Uphold community standards unique to your residential community
  • Act as a steward of the physical spaces of your residential community
  • Maintain collaborative relationships with Custodial Services, Campus Safety, and Environmental Health & Safety to address instances of residential damage and/or community disruption
  • Serve as liaison between your residential community and administrative offices
  • Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  • Attend all pre-term training(s) and onboarding sessions
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Attend all required training sessions, including:
    • Pre-orientation fall staff training in August
    • Pre-winter semester training in January
  3. Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  4. Meet regularly with CA Community and/or CA Team Leader
  5. Meet regularly with Area Director
  • Must be a rising sophomore, rising junior, or rising senior
  • No prior residential or work experience required
  • It helps to have experience living in an upperclass year residence
Link to Full Description (PDF)

Team Leaders (TLs) support and mentor a small team of either Junior Advisors or Community Advisors, while also serving as a CA for their house or hall. There is one TL per team: the Junior Advisor teams are divided by building, while the Community Advisor teams are grouped by building type (houses or halls). The charge of TLs is to foster a professional community of practice where staff members can collaborate, problem solve, share resources, and find camaraderie in the highs and lows of their work.

  • Assist in facilitating staff training modules
  • Hold regular team meetings (weekly or bi-weekly)
  • Check-in regularly with individual team members (JAs/CAs) and other residents
  • Be available to provide professional support to JAs/CAs
  • Offer thoughtful professional feedback to JAs/CAs
  • Meet regularly with Area Director
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Attend all required training sessions, including:
    • Pre-orientation fall staff training in August
    • Pre-winter semester training in January
  3. Attend weekly All-Staff Meetings
  4. Meet regularly with JA or CA team
  5. Meet regularly with Area Director
  • Must have at least 1 year of experience as a Junior Advisor or Community Advisor
Link to Full Description (PDF)

The three roles above are employed by our office throughout the academic year. We do not retain any student staff for Short Term, but we hire 1-2 Summer Community Advisors to support our student body that remains on-campus through the summertime.

Summer Community Advisors (CAs) live in residential buildings open for student housing through the summer. The primary functions of a Summer CA are to foster a respectful community that support student well-being during a lower stakes time of year in addition to program planning, helping summer residents navigate and balance their responsibilities, and supporting Residence Life with various projects.

  • Support a residential community of approximately 150 students, helping to establish and maintain healthy community norms and shared values
  • Maintain a socially just and inclusive residential environment by facilitating honest conversations around community norms and expectations
  • Live within the designated summer residential community(s) and spend meaningful time in common spaces when available to do so
  • Support Residence Life by promoting evidence-based, identity-informed, health and wellness practices and concepts
  • Manage potential conflict with an inclusive and empathetic approach
  • Facilitate residential programs and other engagement opportunities
  • With guidance from the Coordinator for Residence Life, identify and schedule 5 hours per week to work in the Office of Residence Life and assist with summer projects and initiatives
  1. Submit employment forms in a timely manner
  2. Facilitate four (4) programs. Two (2) in June, one (1) in July, and one (1) in August
  3. Complete all necessary Program Proposal Forms and funding forms associated with intended programs, via Bates Engage
  4. Conduct one (1) building walk-through per week to assess the environment and submit any necessary Work Orders
  5. With guidance from the Coordinator of Residence Life, identify and schedule 5 hours per week to work in the Office of Residence Life and assist with summer projects and initiatives
  6. Meet with the Coordinator of Residence Life once per week for 30 minutes to tend to building issues/concerns, gain support for program planning, and check in about ongoing projects
  7. Complete (1) Summer Reflection Form in August
  • Must be a rising junior, rising senior, or current senior who has previously been on the ResLife Staff
Link to Full Description (PDF)

Application Timeline

Academic Year 2025-2026: The application process for Academic Year 2025-2026 has now closed!

Alternates Pool: If you are interested in being considered as an “alternate” should a position become available at any time throughout the academic year, please click on the button below to submit an Alternate Application. If a position on the ResLife Student Staff team becomes vacant, the Office of Residence Life will interview select students from the alternates pool.

Alternate Application

Step 1 – Learn about the roles: Read the position descriptions carefully. Talk with your Junior Advisor or Community Advisor. Consider attending a winter info session to learn more before applying.

Step 2 – Engage in self-reflection: Identify the aspects of Residence Life work that interest you, the intersection of values, and the impact you hope to have.

Step 3 – Identify your 2 (two) references: Ask 1 (one) Bates community member to serve as a reference. This can be a current or former member of the student Residence Life Staff or a professional faculty or staff member. Identify 1 (one) additional reference. Your second reference can be provided by a member of the Bates community or from another position you’ve held outside of Bates. The important thing is to make sure they know they’re your reference and be sure to get their preferred email addresses.

Step 4 – Edit your cover letter and resume: The application requires a simple resume and cover letter. These are weighted significantly less than your interview and do not need to be a source of stress. However, we recommend that applicants check out the Center for Purposeful Work’s online resources or schedule a meeting to get a professional eye on their application materials.

Step 5 – Complete the Application: Be sure to complete and submit the Google Form Application by the deadline. You will need to upload your cover letter and resume and provide the names and contact information for references as part of the application process.

Step 6 – Provide your interview availability: Once we receive your application, we will send a follow-up form where you can provide your interview availability. We will use the information collected through that form to schedule interviews.

Dates: Interview dates for applicants will be finalized and communicated the week before interviews begin. Interviews for the 2025-2026 Academic Year are now in session. Alternate application interviews occur on a rolling basis, as needed.

Location: Interviews will be facilitated via Zoom, making it possible for students who are studying remotely or off-campus to participate in the process.

Length: Each interview will last approximately 20 minutes.

Interviewers: Interviews will be facilitated by a committee made up of current Residence Life Student Staff members, professionals in the Office of Residence Life, and other Bates faculty and/or staff members.

Structure: Committees will ask 5-7 questions, depending on time, and will leave a few minutes at the end of the interview for applicants to ask questions of their own. See below for examples of interview questions:

  • Sample Question #1: What interests you about [position], and what experiences or values would you draw upon for this role?
  • Sample Question #2: One of your residents comes to you complaining about another resident making a mess and not cleaning up after themselves. How might you address concerns raised by one member of your community about another?
  • Sample Question #3: As a JA or CA, how would you approach your role to foster communities that are reflective of the value of sense of belonging?
  • Sample Question #4: What kind of supervisor support would help you to thrive?

What makes a “good” JA or CA?

There is no such thing as a model JA or CA and no one right way to live out these roles. There are many approaches to building community, fostering relationships, and supporting one’s peers; and, there are countless personality types, interests, skills, experiences, and dimensions of identity that are valuable to this work. Rather than asking yourself if you are qualified to be a JA or CA, instead, ask yourself how you would embody your chosen role in a way that is authentic and meaningful to you. Ask yourself what it is about Residence Life work that interests you, and what values would you bring to your role.

Is this a paid position?

Yes, all three positions are paid a stipend for the duration of the academic year following the Bi-Weekly Staff/Student Payroll Calendar. To learn more about compensation, please reach out to us directly at housing@bates.edu.

How can I learn more about the role(s)?

To learn more about any or all of the Residence Life student staff positions, we encourage students to either talk to their JA or CA to ask questions or attend one of our info sessions! We typically offer three or four 45-minute info sessions between November and January diving a bit deeper into the role(s), commitments, logistics, etc. You can also reach out to us directly at housing@bates.edu.