The Residence Halls Association should be your friend.
And with its new e-mail system Helpdesk, it is now easier to develop a useful relationship.
RHA introduced the e-mail system at the beginning of the semester as a place for students to send comments, questions and concerns about MSU-related issues.
Helpdesk is meant to create a more personal connection with the student body and provide information about RHA and MSU to help students understand who they are and what they do.
What movies are playing at Campus Center Cinemas and what concerts are coming to MSU might be the most popular questions sent to Helpdesk now, but the system has potential to assist confused students in more significant ways.
And often times the equally confused freshmen.
Moving to a new city, starting at a new school, living in the dorms and exploring a huge campus can be intense. But not knowing how to find the information to answer your questions can be even more overwhelming.
Helpdesk is the perfect partner for helping new students to gain information and become quickly acquainted with MSU.
If Kathryn Cross, the RHA official who answers all Helpdesk e-mails, can't provide an answer to a student's inquiry, she directs the student toward a person or place who hopefully can.
It's small, helpful projects like these that are important for RHA to be involved in. The undertaking of such systems can really benefit and affect students immediately.
But before gaining anything from these types of resources, students have to know about them first.
Helpdesk has received only about 75 e-mails since its creation. That's fewer than the obscene or unwanted junk e-mails that some people get in just a week.
This means one of two things; either students don't have very much to ask or say about MSU, or they don't know about the system. The limited number of e-mails probably means students are unaware of where to direct questions, comments and concerns about the MSU community.
RHA connecting with students is important, but to make that connection as strong as possible students need to know it's there for them to use.
Students can reach the Helpdesk by e-mail at helpdesk@rha.msu.edu.
