ACADEMIC RESIDENT ASSISTANTS

Academic Resident Assistants--ARAs for short--are veteran SMU students who live alongside first-year students in the residence halls. The ARAs have been chosen because of their proven academic ability and extensive extracurricular accomplishments and their commitment to the residential experience. The ARAs concentrate on students who are new to SMU. They are here to provide academic support and assistance, to connect students with useful campus resources, and to help foster an academic environment in the residence halls. Each ARA will be actively engaged with the academic needs of students living in his or her area. The ARAs will work with their Area Director, Hall Directors, and other Resident Assistants (RAs) to facilitate academic programming in the halls and help individual students with study skills, test preparation, and time management. ARAs may also work with the Learning Enhancement Center's programs of academic skills development and course-specific tutoring.

The ARA program is a cooperative venture of the Department of Residence Life and Student Housing and the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center. We hope that the ARAs will serve as a community-building bridge connecting the academic and residential sides of your life at SMU. They have the experience and "savvy" needed to help you establish your priorities, come to grips with your academic predicaments, and devise strategies for meeting your academic goals. In short, your ARA can be your "academic consultant" to help you negotiate the often abrupt transition into the academic world of SMU.

These are the ARAs for the academic year 2011 – 2012:

• Fred Leach for Boaz Hall;
• Reed Bohannon for Cockrell-McIntosh;
• Adam Jordan for Mary Hay/Peyton;
• Andrew DeTrempe for McElvaney;
• Michael Davis for Hawk, Martin & Moore;
• Parminder Deofor Morrison-McGinnis;
• Kyra McCarty for Perkins & Smith;
• Brittany Cox for Shuttles;
• Carissa Grisham for Virginia-Snider.