By Brian Roe, Sports Writer
Steve Sargent sleeps peacefully in his bed. The clock ticks closer to 1 a.m. when the loudest and possibly most annoying sound known to mankind will rudely awaken him. He quickly gets out of bed, dresses and runs out the door.
The fire alarm has gone off again.
Sargent is the director of McKinzie Residence Hall, and when fire alarms go off in the middle of the night, he is expected to deal with them.
Sargent and his staff gather the 100-plus students from the men’s freshman residence hall and escort them outside where it is cold, raining and it is noisy from the half-dressed freshman talking to each other.
Experiences like this are typical for a university residence hall director.
“Fire alarms go off, and I have to deal with things in the middle of the night, but what gets me is guys not getting their laundry out of the laundry room,” Sargent said. “That’s just an odd thing; I never really understood that.”
ACU currently houses students in 10 different residence halls. Each residence hall has a residence director, an assistant director, resident assistants, spiritual life assistants and desk workers. All directors and resident assistants live in the dorm with the students.
The specific duties vary between residence halls, but all directors carry certain responsibilities. The directors are expected to find a balance between being a spiritual leader to the students and being a disciplinarian to the students.
“The discipline is part of it,” said Aaron Echols, assistant director at McKinzie Hall. “We handle a lot of curfew, check-out procedures and other business formalities.”
Another important aspect of being a residence director is connecting with the students. Directors are expected to learn most of the students’ names and have an “open door” policy with all students.
Echols said the directors are responsible for the students in their residence hall in many different ways.
“We really have to make sure we maintain an environment where people can grow in a positive manner spiritually, socially and academically,” Echols said.
Directors also care for the business side of the residence halls. When something breaks, the director is expected to fix it; when a problem arises, the director is expected to solve it; and when paperwork arrives, the director is in charge of filing it.
The directors also organize regular residence hall meetings involving the resident assistants and spiritual life assistants.
The majority of residence hall staffs meet every night.
“We meet every night at 10 p.m. for 60 to 90 minutes,” said Cami Brunts, Morris Hall assistant director. “We change the format of the meetings. We will usually spend one night talking about business, one night in Bible study and one night in prayer. It just depends exactly what is going on.”
Echols said McKinzie Hall meetings always start with spiritual focus and prayer before addressing the business side of things.
“Steve does a great job of making sure we keep the first half of the meeting spiritually focused,” Echols said. “We encourage one another, pray together and then close with business items.”
One unique aspect of serving as a residence director at ACU is the spiritual expectations. Many directors cite ministry as the reason for taking the job in the first place.
Brunts said ministering to students is a vital part of being a residence director.
“As directors, we are supposed to be spiritual leaders,” she said. “We guide residents if they need it, we pray with them, we have a Bible study with them. We are expected be there if they need anything.”
Directors are also expected to connect with the students as a friend, mentor, spiritual leader or any other role a student may need.
“One of my jobs is to get to know every resident in our dorm,” Brunts said. “You can’t help them if you don’t know them, or know what they’re struggling with or what they need.”
Echols, who served as a resident assistant last year in McKinzie, said students look up to the staff whether they realize it or not.
Echols said an athlete came into his room last year and broke into tears telling Echols how he was dealing with depression.
“This was a guy I never would have expected to approach me, but he just came in one night and bawled hysterically,” Echols said. “People don’t realize the magnitude or the impact you can have on another person’s life. If someone has a problem, you are the first one to know about it, you have to be prepared to help any way you can.”
Brunts added that people don’t realize how much time, energy and prayers are dedicated to the students in a dorm.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much the staff loves the residents,” Brunts said. “We work hard to get girls involved and to make sure they are doing OK. If we don’t know them particularly well, then we make an extra effort to see them or meet them. A lot of people probably don’t see that.”
Fire alarms may not go off every night, but something is always happening in ACU residence halls, Sargent said.
“I still walk into this hall and into this apartment, and I can’t believe that God has answered my prayer at this point in my life,” Sargent said. “I’m getting paid for a job that I love to do. I don’t care about just doing a job but being amongst these guys … I love it.”
