Hayward Guenard, director of housing and residence life, is implementing a new training program with his staff for the Residence Hall Association in order to increase educational and social programs for residence life throughout Nicholls as well as improvement of facilities.

“We’re working on a lot of the fundamentals to make sure that we’re doing the best job we can,” Guenard said. “We have a great student staff, and I think that with Dawn Broussard, one of the area coordinators, we have extremely strong student leaders in the facilities.”

Guenard said that students can expect to see more programs and activities on campus as a result of the RHA. He explained that housing and residence life has allocated more of its resources to student programs so that students have more opportunities and events.

“National data shows that students who live on campus have higher grade point averages and graduate quicker,” Guenard said.

He said that he hopes that this data can prove to be accurate at Nicholls, by aiding students with their success.

“Here, you have almost 1500 peers who are going through a lot of the same things you are,” Guenard said. “We are much more than just a place to live. We can take the environment and community that we have and make it a very rich and dynamic environment because we all have the common interests.”

Guenard explained that many of the complaints received are a result of the limited staff from previous semesters.

“We have a lot of new staff,” Guenard said. “We will have a comprehensive maintenance and cleaning program implemented to ensure that our facilities are in the best condition possible.”

Guenard said that in many instances, he immediately sends housekeeping to the room if it was either missed,or unclean. In some of the older buildings, the facilities are harder to maintain.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much you clean the room. You can’t make it look brand new if it’s an older room,” Guenard said. “We remedy any problems that we possibly can, and we also have long term maintenance things that we are striving to improve.”

For example, Calecas Hall is being remodeled.

“Calecas got new windows, Ellender has new mattresses, and about one-third of the sofas in La Maison were replaced as well,” Guenard said. “So, there are many things we are doing to try to make the facilities the best we can make them.”