Brown begins new search for replacement RAs

By Jocelyn Wright     1/28/10 6:00pm

With Resident Associates Kevin MacKenzie and Corina Rogge preparing for their departure from Brown College at the end of this semester, the search for a replacement has begun. MacKenzie, a biochemistry and cell biology professor, and Rogge, a chemistry instructor, have been RAs at Brown for eight years.

Rogge said being an RA was one of the best opportunities of her life.

"Every year brings an opportunity to meet more people," she said. "Then you get four years to watch them transform, to become who they're going to be, to grow up, which is really a privilege."

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Rogge and MacKenzie were originally supposed to leave Brown last year after finishing their traditional seven-year-term. But since former RA Laura Villafranca's term was also finishing that year, Brown petitioned Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman to let them stay on an extra year in order to ease the transition for Brown.

While the college was searching for a new RA to replace Villafranca, an associate director for admissions, Rogge said the committee found two couples to whom they wanted to offer the position. Jenny and Joe Rozelle replaced Villafranca last fall, and the college promised the vacancy created by MacKenzie and Rogge to a couple who members of Brown declined to identify.

"To both make the members of the committee happy and to convince these people that Brown really did want them ... they asked [the unnamed couple] to wait a year and then come in as we left," Rogge said.

In the fall, though, the replacement RAs said they would no longer be able to commit to the position.

"I think that being an RA is a big decision and that your own personal life can change within that year period," Rogge said. "I think that both of those things came into play, and they are not at the point personally that they were one year ago."

Mary Chapman, the head of the RA search committee, said no hard feelings remained.

"Last year we picked two sets with the understanding that it would be awesome if it worked out and we ended up with both sets, but if something happened, we were willing to take the risk," Chapman, a senior, said.

The RA search committee consists of one student from each class, a representative from Brown's college government, Brown master Laura Cox and college coordinator Nancy Henry. The committee is holding a reception today from 4-6 p.m. at the Brown College masters' house for candidates interested in the position.

Chapman said the committee is looking for people who will fit well with the present personality of RAs, masters and college coordinators.

"We're looking for people who will be dedicated to Brown and willing to embrace us in all our quirkiness," Chapman said.

Brown President Jackie Ammons said the college was also looking for someone who was familiar with Rice.

"We're looking for someone who's familiar with the residential college system and who can really connect to students on a personal level," Ammons, a senior, said.

Rogge said the most important thing is that the new RA see Brown as part of a family.

"Brown is our family, and families sometimes do stupid things and get annoying," Rogge said. "But you still love them and if you don't love them you're just going to be annoyed all the time, which doesn't work so well. You have to see them as your family, which is not hard.

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