The University of Florida Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) is a student organization of the University of Florida that acts as an association of on-campus undergraduate residents and represents them to the university housing department.[1][2][3] IRHA is a residence hall association (RHA) and is the exclusive such organization for University of Florida undergraduates (except for undergraduates who are married/parents living in the five graduate/family villages, who are represented by Mayors' Council, the graduate student equivalent organization to IRHA).[1][4] IRHA is one of the largest student organizations on campus and, historically, one of the most influential on university policy.[5][6][7]
IRHA's headquarters are provided by the university's housing department and are located on campus at Rawlings Hall.[citation needed]
The first residence hall association on campus was proposed at a meeting of resident assistants at Fletcher Hall in 1949. At the meeting, led by residence hall director, Claude Hawkins, several committees were formed that would cover different fields of service to residents. Those committees included an orientation committee (responsible for new student's orientation), policy committee (responsible for advocacy to the housing department regarding policy), student government committee (responsible for negotiating for a more formal organization), and social committee (responsible for event programming for residents).[9] By and large, these are the same purposes that later successor organizations would have as well.[1][10] The organization that grew out of this meeting came to be known as the Residence Hall Association, broken up by gender between a men's and women's organization.[11][12]
The individual organizations, now part of IRHA, that represent different residence hall areas are known as area governments (abbreviated as "AGs"). AGs have existed since at least 1958, with Murphree Area Council and Tolbert Area Council being mentioned in The Florida Alligator around this time.[13][14] AGs existed prior to this in the form of "hall councils" that represented individual halls rather than residence hall areas.[15] Hall Councils were nominally considered a direct part of student government during this time frame.[16][non-primary source needed]
The President's Council had replaced the Men's Residence Hall Association in 1962.[17][18] Some AGs were independent of the President's Councils, with Murphree Area Council being listed as a separate organization on campus event lists during this time.[19] The President's Council floundered in accomplishing its goals and was soon replaced with the longer lasting Interhall Council.[20] The Interhall Council had existed at different points in the past, acting as an intermediary of the AGs.[21]
The Interhall Council is the immediate predecessor organization to IRHA, and was established and operating in 1965.[22][23] Like its predecessors, the Interhall Council was made up of two different organizations segregated by gender.[11][23][24] The organizations merged in 1973, after the only remaining female only residence halls, the Broward/Rawlings Area, and the last male only area, Murphree Area, were made co-ed.[25][26]
The Inter-Residence Hall Association in 1978.[citation needed] The Interhall Council continued for a few years, at least until 1980, with AGs having representation in both.[27] IRHA assumed the responsibilities and operations of the Interhall Council sometime soon after.
20th Century
Since its founding, IRHA has been heavily involved in student involvement and runs programming and events for residents and students in-general.[28][29][30] AGs lead the majority of events and operate event programming at the residence hall area level, while IRHA runs events campus-wide.[13][28][30] IRHA's largest series of events, Residence Hall Week, is held at the beginning of the academic year and acts as a welcome week to new and returning students.[31][32]
In the early days of the organization, IRHA established and backed its own political party in the university's student government, called the Inter-Residence Hall Association Party.[33] The party changed its name soon after its establishment, being renamed the Independent Students Alliance.[34] The party eventually changed its name once more to the Student Alliance Party and operated until around 2010, though largely detached from IRHA by the time of its disbanding.[35] While the two organizations are independent of each other, some members of IRHA occasionally participate in both student government and IRHA.[36][additional citation(s) needed]
IRHA has supported efforts to prevent sexual assault on the university's campus. In 1984, the organizations made efforts to establish working committees to prevent such crimes.[37][38] IRHA funded on-campus buses and shuttles operating at night (now known as the SNAP shuttles and Later Gator program).[39] IRHA continued to fund it into sometime in the 21st century when student government took over funding and operations.[40]
Until 1985, IRHA and IRHA-affiliated AGs were allowed to serve alcohol at events.[41] In 1990, IRHA additionally voted to support rule changes limiting alcohol in residence halls.[4] Including this occasion, until at least the mid-1990s, certain rules regarding resident safety and housing operations were put up to votes of the IRHA general body.[4][42]
IRHA has, previously, led a number of public service campaigns. In 1986, IRHA led the University of Florida's branch of a widely publicized statewide campaign to limit drunk driving and excessive alcohol consumption over the winter break of the academic year.[43][44] IRHA led a largely successful voter registration drive in 1988.[45]
IRHA has written guides for new students coming to the University of Florida, which they have done since at least 1987.[46]
Since at least 1991, AGs have arranged for "permanent improvements", physical improvements to the amenities and facilities of their residence hall area.[47]
21st Century
UF IRHA has been running its signature "Writing on the Wall" event since 2002. Writing on the Wall is an event program where participants are encouraged to write the disparaging words spoken to them throughout the years on a temporary wall. The words are used to change the conversation at a closing ceremony. The wall is then publicly changed to make the words into positive versions.[48] The event has received both local and national coverage and has inspired a number of similar events held in other universities in the United States.[49][50][51][52]
In 2006, IRHA and the housing department sponsored a campus-wide challenge to limit the waste of energy and bettering the eco-friendliness of residence hall buildings and campus facilities.[53]
In 2016, the senior director of the university housing department that typically oversees IRHA was charged for embezzling money from the university using an account that had been earmarked for the organization's funding. The scandal involved the dismissal of seven employees of the department and two criminal charges.[54][55] Despite IRHA not actually being involved in the scandal, financial restrictions, funding limitations, and operations restrictions were placed by the new housing administration on the organization and the AGs, which as of 2023, still remain in place. Before this time, AGs had the capability to cash checks for residents and sell membership cards to help boost funding, capabilities no longer given to the area governments.[32][additional citation(s) needed] IRHA's leadership and the AGs have, additionally, since had difficulty working with other departments of the university operationally.[56]
IRHA's advocacy operations were slowed in the after-math of the COVID-19 pandemic, only beginning to return in 2023.[citation needed]
A new AG joined in 2023 with the partial opening of the Honors Village at UF, designated to serve UF's honors program.[citation needed]
Organization
Leadership
IRHA's headquarters at Rawlings Hall
The organization is made up of a general body and an executive board. The general body is made up of the members of the area governments' executive boards, members-at-large who apply to join and are accepted by vote of the general body, and directors appointed by the president of the organization.[57][non-primary source needed]
The executive board is made up of the top leadership of the organization and is elected for the next academic year by the members of the general body. There are six positions on the executive board: President, Vice President, Auditor, Parliamentarian, Operations Manager, and Communications Coordinator-NCC.[57][non-primary source needed]
A staff member of the housing department (usually a residence director) is tasked with being the staff advisor of the organization and a graduate student is tasked with being the graduate advisor of the organization.[57][58]
Area Governments
IRHA acts as a central organization where a number of smaller organizations representing residents from individual residence hall areas take part in.[59] Many AGs have traditional events held annually or near annually, such as Haunted Thomas held by Murphree Area Council.[60] Each area government has its own office near its respective area desk office. As of Fall 2023, there are 12 AGs representing individual collections of undergraduate residence halls on campus:[1]
Area Governments occasionally merge or change names. Hume Area Council (HAC), for example, originated as the Student Honor Organization (SHO) and Broward-Rawlings Area Government (BRAG) previously operated as Rawlings Area Council.[64][76]
The Area Governments are also used within the student government structure at UF to allocate seats for their Student Senate.
National Residence Hall Honorary
UF IRHA co-operates and shares offices with the University of Florida's chapter (the James C. Grimm Chapter) of the National Residence Hall Honorary.[77]
