In this episode of Roompact’s RA*Chat, we we are joined by Marcus Zacarias (UC Berkeley) to solve the puzzle of low attendance and low energy. The secret? It doesn’t require a massive budget or hours of planning. We dive deep into the art of micro-programming and intentional conversations. Discover how RAs and student staff members can maintain community momentum even during the busiest times of the year by focusing on low-effort, high-reward interactions that meet residents exactly where they are.
Guest: Marcus Zacarias (he/him), Resident Director, University of California – Berkeley
Host: Anthony Martinez
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Show Notes:
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Anthony Martinez:
Welcome back to the podcast, y’all. My name is Anthony Martinez. And today we’re talking about something every RA experiences, but not enough people name, the mid-semester slump. I am joined today by a very special guest I am happy to have here as well and we’re going to unpack what meaningful engagement and activities look like when attendance is low and energy is fading in both RAs and residents and feeling tired, but the importance of still engaging within our communities. And again, I have a special guest with me today.
So, Marcus, if you can go on ahead and introduce yourself? The audience would love to hear from you.
Marcus Zacarias:
Perfect. Thank you for that, Anthony. As y’all heard, my name is Marcus Zacarias, I use the he/him series of pronouns. I’m currently a resident director at UC Berkeley. Right now, I’m not acting within the scope of my role, so whatever I say is the opinion of mine and mine alone.
But I would say the most interesting things about me are the people in my life. So I want to give a shout-out to my mom, my grandparents and my partner Alejandra. If you’re a medical student or a premed student out there and you’re looking for some advice, definitely check out her TikTok page PremedLatina.
Anthony Martinez:
Perfect, thank you. And thank you for the shout-out to those important to us. I think that’s a great reminder for our students as well in shouting out the individuals around them and their support system.
But, Marcus, we’re going to go on ahead and get started with our first question around this topic. So when you hear the phrase mid-semester slump, and I know you’ve been in the residence life realm for quite some time now, what immediately comes to mind for you with our RAs and student staff members in engaging in this topic?
Marcus Zacarias:
Of course. I think the very first thing that came to my mind when you said that question is the importance of intentionality. Whenever you get in that mid-semester slump, we’re talking about our energy low, we’re talking about being pulled in a hundred different directions, especially for the students out there or RAs out there. You have your responsibilities, you have your clubs and organizations, you have your school, the number one is school, but you also have your family and home life and your friends, and you’re really trying to balance all of that. So that really is what the mid-semester slump is in my opinion is competing natures for intentionality. And how do we balance our time and our energy when we don’t have as much?
The beginning of the semester is a very exciting time. We want to jump into everything, be a part of everything. But then we start getting into October, November if you’re in your fall semester, or February, March if you’re in your spring semester, and midterms are coming around, you have programs. You have friends, you have events that you’re trying to go to. And you have all of these different topics that really are trying to pull you away and what it comes down to is getting back to what do you really care about. I’m happy to have this conversation with Anthony to make sure that we’re moving in our why and being very intentional every step of the way.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, that’s great. Moving with our why, that’s perfect, and talking about intentionality. And I think people may have seen this title and thought, “Students,” but intentionality with our RAs and their engagement as well. That’s awesome.
So in your experience, how does engagement change once the semester hits these slower, heavier points, or when people are balancing this intentionality and the responsibilities that you mentioned of home, family, friends, programs, et cetera?
Marcus Zacarias:
Yeah. There we have the same issue of intentionality as well. So earlier in the semester when everyone’s excited, it might be easy for them to see programs going on and they don’t care what’s going on in their life right now, they’re just going to stop everything and go because everything is brand new and shiny. Once you start getting into that mid-semester slump, it takes a little bit more for students to want to get out of their rooms, get out of their organizations, get out of their studies to come show up and be in those spaces. So you just have to be conscious of that and making sure that when you’re asking them to do those things, they’re getting meaningful interactions out of them. And also, at the same time, that you’re not asking for too much.
I’ve worked at two very high achieving academic institutions of UC Berkeley and Florida State. So when they are coming to your program, they really are sacrificing some study time, they’re sacrificing some time with their friends. So you want to make those moments very meaningful for them and understanding that they don’t have three hours to go do an entire crafting session at an RA event night. They really want to be able to go somewhere, have it be meaningful and be able to get back to the things that demand their attention as soon as possible.
And I think that’s the really important thing, especially here at Berkeley, what I’ve realized is you’re really competing for their time. And understanding that and making sure you’re not having too big of an ask for their time, and that you’re actually providing them something interesting and meaningful that they want to spend their time doing is super important.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. Competing for their time, yes, and these students are here to get their degree. You mentioned that previously, talking about academics first and I think that is essential in mentioning here.
So with that, it brings me to my next question. Which is what’s something you’ve seen RAs do really well during this time, even if it didn’t look like traditional programming? So you are in that area right now, talking about maybe it’s not this traditional programming we see, but something else geared and catered towards our students in this maybe academic-focused area, and so on and so forth.
Marcus Zacarias:
Yeah. To me, the advice I always give is that consistency is key, not always demanding peak attendance for interactions. Some of my favorite things that I’ve seen is I had an RA in the past that would have a movie night at the same time every single week on a Thursday night. And they didn’t really know if students were going to show up or not, but at least they knew they were going to be there, the students knew that they were going to be there and if they had a lull in their time or if they had a moment to spare, they could go and enjoy the interaction with their RA. And plus, with the RA, being that they were going to be watching a movie anyway in the meantime, so they still got to make sure that their time was being used very intentionally, too. And doing something that they really care about, even if the student interaction isn’t always there for them.
Continuing on with the consistency is the key part, especially academic heavy institutions. Having that consistent office hours, study hours, whatever you want to call it for your students, just knowing where they can find you at a consistent time. And utilizing that time in your calendar as well, something that’s consistent for you.
Here at Berkeley, I have two RAs that have what they consider their officer hours where they just go sit in their building lounge. And really, what they’re doing there is studying and they’re making sure that they’re still up to the task on their academics as well, but they know that they also have that time to have a chat with a resident whether it’s about the academics that’s going on or maybe a roommate issue. Or maybe just they have some ideas that they want to see themselves.
So having that time where the students can really go in, know where you’re going to be, have that conversation. And it’s not this super-awkward moment of, “Anthony is only having this event one time this semester,” or, “Anthony’s trying to force a conversation with me in the middle of the hallway when I’m really just trying to get to the bathroom and go back to my room.” I think really helps out for both the RA to have that actually planned into their schedule and for the resident to know, “Hey, they’re available to me if I need them. If I have a moment of downtime and I have a second to go chat, that’s always an option for me.” And I think I’ve seen a lot of success with those two ideas.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. No, I love these podcasts because I myself learn things. So, Marcus, I think this is great. Consistency, like you said, just knowing someone will be there at this specific time on this date can do a lot for someone in knowing, “I know this resource is here at this time on this day.” So that’s awesome.
With that, you mention intentional conversations during this time and what this looks like. So what role do you think those conversations play during the slowdown that RAs have with these students?
Marcus Zacarias:
I think that’s a great question. And as someone that wasn’t an RA during their undergrad experience, I have a little bit of a different perspective than some of my peers and colleagues do because I think those conversations are the most important things. I would much rather my RA come to me and talk about the conversations that they’re consistently have with their residents than the events they’re putting on.
And I’m not saying that the events aren’t important, but really those conversations are everything to those students, whether they’re having a roommate issue, whether they just need someone to talk to. If you’re at a big university like UT Austin or Berkeley, how do you get involved in certain student orgs? Those conversations have such large impacts on our students’ ability to see themselves as part of our broader community here. And there’s no underestimating how important that really is for their experience. You never know when that one conversation sparks an entire interest that they go down to for the rest of their life, or if it makes them meet a friend that they never would have met otherwise. So really, just being very intentional and being very honest with those conversations.
I consider myself still young, but sometimes my RAs don’t agree with me in that mindset. So I think it’s very important for the residents to be able to see themselves in their peers and in the Ras, and see what can I do and what is possible here. So you being as transparent and honest as possible, obviously within the scope of the rule, really sets up our residents to have a transformational experience because they get to see that people just like them grow up and turn into these amazing leaders that I know our RAs are all across the campus, all across every university that I’ve ever been at and all universities that are out there. So really, just making sure you’re giving them that time and your energy to have that conversation because you never know where that’s going to go.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. No, that’s great. And if it makes you feel better, I think you’re young, Marcus.
Marcus Zacarias:
I appreciate it.
Anthony Martinez:
You’re in this area, you’re doing great. You’re hitting all the perfect points. So leading into my next question, are there specific questions or approaches you found helpful to have RAs, to have residents open up during this time? So during those intentional conversations of when things may be slow and building those relationships.
Marcus Zacarias:
Yeah. I think I’m going to have to go start at the end of the conversation, which is an interesting perspective, is know when to call a conversation and when it’s over. I think it’s super easy to have those awkward situations where you’re looking at your RA and you don’t know why are they still here and what’s the conversation going to lead to. So being able to notice when it’s starting to hit a lull and be like, “Oh, I’m about to go head to class,” or, “I’m about to go head to my room. I just really wanted to see you and say hi.” And I think that makes that a way more natural conversation when they look back on it, versus them like, “They’re obviously just doing this for their job and they don’t really care.”
So being able to know how to get out of a conversation when it’s already reached its maximum capacity and possibility I think is super important. And it’s going to make them way more comfortable reaching out to you in the future because they know they just stopped to see how I was doing and it was genuinely like, “Hey, how are you doing,” and getting out of there. And not trying to have this long, branching, what is the meaning of life conversation on a random Tuesday, but genuinely just checking in on them. So definitely my first tip, know when to get out of the conversation.
My second tip, be able to change how the questions are worded if it is something that’s tied directly to your job responsibilities. Like I said, my students think I’m old, so maybe I don’t know the lingo that’s being used, I don’t know how y’all are speaking in your day-to-day conversations. So if you’re having that conversation and you don’t know how much that question is going to land, as long as you understand the general essence of that question and how that conversation’s supposed to go, make it feel as natural as possible for you to get off in that moment. I don’t talk like Anthony, I don’t expect my RAs to talk like me. So just being able to make sure we’re still getting to the root of what we’re asking is super important.
And the final one, be you. I know that’s very corny, but you’re not for everybody. I saw a hat recently that I loved. It was like, “I’m not for everybody,” and I think that is the biggest truth. So being able to walk into a conversation and be like, “I know who I am, this is how I approach the conversation.” And if this interaction doesn’t go the best way with this specific resident, that doesn’t mean that you failed. You might just not be a general click that y’all can have a great conversation together and that’s a-okay because you’re not for everybody so live in that comfortability. Be accepting of being rejected and told, “Not right now,” because it’s not anything about you personally. You don’t know what that student is dealing with right at that moment, you don’t know how much their capacity. And sometimes, you just catch one at a bad moment in time, try again later.
Anthony Martinez:
No, that’s great. I love that you opened up with, “Know when to call the conversation.” That is great. No, great piece of advice.
I know we’ve been talking a lot about conversations and interacting with everyone, but I know some RAs are really into programming. Of course, that’s a huge part of the role. So I do want to talk a little bit about programming. But more specifically, what does micro-programming look like to you in this practice? And how have you seen it work, and does it work well, do you think, during this time? So you can do either large scale, micro-programming. But what have you seen in your experience in working with RAs there and tips you might have for them?
Marcus Zacarias:
I think micro-programming is necessary to build genuine relationships with your residents. I love the large scale programs. We put our RAs on signature teams where they’ll throw a larger program every month of the semester and they have their moments. But where those genuine relationships are built are when they have one-on-one time and can have a conversation with you.
That could be something as similar as before, as a movie night where you might be one-on-one with the resident and just having a conversation about the movie. Or it could be a grab-and-go event where you have things that they might need, especially towards the back end of the semester or midterm season. Of, “Hey, with my budget this month, I bought blue books, I bought pencils, I bought pens. Come, stop by, come grab it.”
What I always require of my RA if they’re having more of a grab-and-go event type of style is that they’re there and that they’re willing to have those conversations, and it’s not just the blue books or the pencils are put into our laundry room and it’s a free-for-all for whoever wants to grab it. Still, being in those moments and still having those conversations because that’s when they get to know you on a one-on-one basis better than those large scale events. It’s hard to have a real conversation with someone when you’re trying to operate a popcorn machine or if you’re trying to make sure that the gaming is going perfectly okay. But it’s easier to have that conversation when it is a micro-program and your attention isn’t pulled in three different directions and you really do field one of those more intentional conversations.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. No, definitely. It’s funny that you mentioned the popcorn machine. I feel like a lot of RAs can relate to that. “Oh, you’re trying to talk to me? I’m filling a bag of popcorn right now.”
Marcus Zacarias:
“There’s a line behind you, please. I’m trying to make sure this works.”
Anthony Martinez:
With that, I do want to ask what do you think are some reminders or re-frames for RAs who feel like they’re not doing enough or might be stressed? We talked about that a little bit earlier. They’re not building these intentional moments because they’re at the popcorn machine this part of the semester. So what advice would you give them for these RAs that are like, “I’m not doing enough, I don’t know where I’m at, I’m overwhelmed?” The issue is balancing.
Marcus Zacarias:
And I think one of the first things I said in this podcast episode was walking in your why and understanding your why, and I feel like my job as a supervisor in those moments is to remind you of your why. So why are you in the role, what are you looking for in this experience, and what are you trying to do for your community?
You don’t get to control whether residents show up for your events. The engagement piece sometimes can be a little bit hard, depending on the time of the semester, depending on what’s going on in the broader community, in the smaller community, whatever it may be. But while I’ll remind you as a supervisor, as long as we’re doing what is intentional of us, of are we putting out our marketing materials, are we having a marketing plan. Are we considering that students might not be here because they’re traveling home for a holiday break, or is there a big football game, or is there a chess meet? Whatever it could be of why aren’t students there and we’re addressing those aspects, and we’re actually putting in the intention and time of creating a good program. Then you’ve done what you are required to do of me and my job there is to remind you of what your why is, and it’s for that situation when you have that one resident where you get to make an impact on.
I think especially at the universities I’ve worked at where they’re so high achieving, they struggle with that because they want to have the big numbers and they want to have all of that. But I tell them all the time I’d much rather you’d have a large impact on one resident than for you to have 100 people at your event. We’re in the people business here at student affairs and in res life, so as long as we’re trying to have those moments whether they happen or not, I really think that’s a successful part on our job.
Another big part and remembering your why is not getting too tied up into the statistical proponents of the job. I think sometimes there are going to be moments where an event might not go so well, or you might be late on an admin turn in, or you might have some things that pop up academically that challenge you, but this is the perfect place to challenge you. You’re never going to find these opportunities to be as stretched and to be in these moments of growth as much as you will in the real life without some of these more severe consequences. So take advantage of that and lean into the accountability, the reflection and the growth.
I could easily have a conversation about why an event didn’t go too well and I’d much rather have that conversation than you feeling like you have to belittle yourself and you’re not meeting the moment because those are two separate things. And I always say that your worth is not tied to how you show up in your job as long as you’re putting in as much capacity as you have available into your work.
Anthony Martinez:
Perfect. No, that’s great. Thank you. We’re getting towards the end now, which is unfortunate because I’ve really appreciated everything you’ve said so far. But my next question for us is what would you want them, the RAs, to remember about engagement and connection? And you’ve said a lot of amazing things, talking about walking in your why and consistency being key and intentionality. So I know I mentioned those things, but is there anything else, or do you want to talk a little bit more on those topics?
Marcus Zacarias:
Yeah. I would say the very last thing I would want to say to everybody is that you can’t fake authenticity. You really have to walk into who you are, and what do you want to do and what do you like to care about, and that’s going to drive a lot of your interaction. I’d much rather you talk to me about an event where you’re showing off an anime series, or you’re watching the next K-Pop, or you’re watching Heated Rivalry, or you’re doing whatever and you’re getting to show that side of you that’s very excited and passionate about who you are and the things that you like to do. Versus you coming to me and being like, “Oh, yeah, I had another event, people showed up, but I didn’t really care about it too much.” I really want to push my students to pouring into their own cup and to know that they have to develop the sense of self and the sense of personality during their own time during their studies here and their time at university, and to really engage in that process as well.
I know as an RA, we ask you to care about your community to the tee and to the max as much as you can, but part of your community is yourself. So as much energy as we’re putting into everyone around us, I want you to put at least as much energy into yourself and the things that you care about and showing up as your true self so that these mid-semester slumps happen less because you have a more full cup. And you’re able to be at your full capacity because you’re taking care of yourself and you’re able to actually support your peers, your residents, your supervisor when they’re not at their best because you have more in your cup to help out.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. No, that’s great. And I know I asked you what would you want them to remember about engagement in conclusion, but do you have any final words or want to mention how people can connect with you after this episode?
Marcus Zacarias:
Of course. I’ll start with the how can you connect with me. There’s not too many Marcus Zacarias’ in the world. Trust me, I’ve googled myself. It’s a pretty unique name. My LinkedIn is going to be easy to find. My email is literally marcus.zacarias@berkeley.edu. There’s not too many ways to get me confused with other people so I’ll start there.
And I think the only other thing I would say that’s very important about me that I would want everyone to know is how much I care about the unmasking process when it comes to masculinity and I don’t think we touched too much on that in this session. But when you’re able to see some of my written work later when they finally get published, they’re coming out in the works, you’re going to see how much I care about the real analyzing of masculinity and patriarchy and the roles that it places us into. And being able to face that head-on and picking and choosing what parts of it that we like and what parts of it that we don’t like so that we’re living in our why, we’re becoming very conscious of who we are and who do we want to be. So if that also interests you beyond just what we talked about here in the mid-semester slump, I’m always down to have a conversation about masculinity, patriarchy, anything of the sense.
Anthony Martinez:
Perfect. Thank you, Marcus. And we’ll work on trying to link that information here as well to be available to everybody listening. So again, thank you so much, Marcus, for coming here today, being on the podcast with Roompact. We greatly appreciate it, and your perspective. And to everybody listening, we really appreciate you taking the time today to also listen in and to remember that engagement isn’t always just loud and visible. Sometimes, as we’ve heard today, it’s quiet, consistent and intentional. So thank you for listening and we’ll see you next time here at Roompact.
