The Residence Hall Association (RHA) is elected from the resident-student population & charged with serving as the voice for the residents of UC Merced. Their primary responsibilities are but not limited to:

-Serve as a bridge between student residents and professional staff in the Housing Department at UC Merced.
-Create exciting activities that all residents can participate in.
-Draft, review, and confirm provisions specifically intended to improve the overall well-being of UC Merced’s Housing Community.
-Represent the Housing Community accurately and effectively at all times.
-Fund organized groups on campus for events primarily targeted at housing residents.
-Improve UC Merced’s retention rate.

Community Councils (CC) are essentially branches that stem from RHA, they each act independently, occasionally collaborate on programs, but ultimately are still apart of RHA. Each community has a council made up of residents who live in that community to govern the territory. The community council has a similar structure to RHA as it has a President, a Director of Operations, Director of Communications and a Director of Activities. Each council also has 3 RHA Representatives that represent the community as a whole at RHA meetings. The community councils plan regular educational and social programs for the community to enjoy.

The role of the president in community council is to set and carry out the agenda for each weekly meeting. Also serve as the chief liaison between councils and RHA. They must reach out to their community to understand its wishes and concerns and bring those up to the council to make a change.

The role of Director of Operations is to maintain the budget and update the community on all purchases carried out by the community council.

The role of Director of Communications is to market all programs and activities taking place in the community. They are responsible for keeping track of all social media, creating flyers and banners to keep the community updated.

The role of Director of Activities is to create and plan programs for the community to enjoy. The programs can be educational, they can be fun, or they can be both!

Elected by the council, the role of the RHA representative is to represent the community’s thoughts and opinions at RHA meetings. RHA representatives update their own respective councils on actions taken place RHA, while also updating the RHA general body of actions take place by the community council.

VP of Advocacy: The Vice President of Advocacy is primarily responsible for leading all advocacy based projects alongside the President that stem from community council and RHA based on what the residents want. They are responsible for serving on the auxiliary board alongside the President in addition to the final person who campaigned for the position. This will be effective 2020-2021. They conduct biweekly community reports to RHA, these reports are intended to truly give the community a voice. Therefore no such thing as “no updates” from community’s is allowed. They actually go within the community’s and conduct surveys, VP of advocacy can ask for assistance from both RHA and CC to help advertise survives to the community. The VP of Advocacy is responsible for representing RHA at other school-wide events, as long as funding is available and approved by RHA. Upon its return it has two weeks to present a powerpoint to RHA on what it learn or outcomes of the events. All details subject to change at any time by RHA general body.

 The Vice President of Sustainability is responsible for working alongside Eco-Reps to push sustainable living in the housing community. Educate RHA about sustainable practices that need to be taken place in order for the school to reach its zero waste initiative. Give monthly reports provided by the Recycling Center on how much trash, compost, and recyclable items is being received.All details subject to change at any time by RHA general body.

The Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion works with the VP of Programming to work on programs and help events be more inclusive to everyone in the housing community. They also work alongside the VP of Advocacy to represent RHA at school wide events if funding permits. They are responsible for reaching out to the different groups in the housing community and the clubs/organizations at the school. They are also responsible for inviting those organizations to the programs to show RHA's commitment to helping the different communities on campus and their interest to the things that happen in UC Merced. All details subject to change at any time by RHA general body.