In this episode of Roompact’s RA*Chat, join Da Zhané Sinclair for advice when everything goes wrong in the middle of the night, and how you respond. This episode dives into the high-pressure reality of on-call life, unpacking how to make quick, confident, and policy-aligned decisions when it matters most for students! From managing emergencies to navigating resident conflict, we explore strategies to stay calm, think clearly, and lead effectively even at 2 AM.
Guest: Da Zhané Sinclair (she/her), Residence Life Coordinator
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 Roompact Podcast. I’m Anthony, your host with Roompact. And today’s episode is called Crisis at 20 AM: Decision Making When It Counts. And this one is to all of our students there who are listening. Again, this one’s for you. If you’ve ever been on duty, on call, dedication, you know the feeling. It’s quiet, you’re studying, and you’re finally asleep and you hear that phone ringing. Today we’re going to talk about those high pressure moments, the ones where residents, safety and policy and your leadership all collide at once.
I’m joined today by a very special guest, Da Zhané, a full-time housing professional who has supervised countless duty rotations and supported RAs through emergencies, conflicts, and crises. Da Zhané, if you would like to introduce yourself, I’m very excited to hear from you.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Hi, Anthony. I’m glad to be here. Hi, y’all. My name is Da Zhané Sinclair. I currently serve as a Residence Life Coordinator here at the University of South Carolina. Prior to this, I’ve been in your shoes. I served as an RA for three years before deciding I was going to stay as an RA for the rest of my life. And so, that’s where I ended up here at South Carolina. So, glad to chat with you guys about this.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes. I’m so excited to have you here. So, excited to have someone with some experience that can relate to our students listening. We’re going to go ahead and get started right away with our first question. And so, what I want you all to think about, and specifically our interviewee to give us some advice today on, is when you think about RAs responding to a 2:00 AM crisis, what is the biggest mistake you see and what do strong RAs do differently?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. Looking back at my experience, but also some of the experience of the RAs that I supervise, I think the biggest mistake or challenge that RAs tend to have is not taking a second to just breathe. That first phone call is a lot. It truly is, especially if it’s waking you up out of your sleep. And then instantly having to jump into crisis mode is one of the biggest challenge. So, just breathe, take a step, really evaluate the situation that you’re running into. You’ve been trained on different things, but at two o’clock in the morning, that’s not going to be the first thing that pops in your head. So, take a second, figure out a game plan, breathe, and then go into the situation.
You’re probably the first person, but you’re not going to be the last person to respond. So, just take a second, breathe, get organized, and then go into those.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes. Breathing is definitely important. I’m sick right now, and so it’s hard for me to breathe, and I wish I could, but taking a second before you respond, very important. And you kind of talked about going into crisis mode, which leads me into my next question, which is when the phone rings, we all feel our adrenaline spike, even full-time professionals. We’re like, “Oh no, the phone’s ringing.” And so, from your perspective, what do you think should be going through an RA’s mind in those first five minutes? And then how do they balance this urgency and clarity? And I’ll probably have a follow-up after that.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. The first few minutes, it’s important that when that first call comes is that you’re getting the 5Ws, so that who, what, when, where, how, and possibly why. Because when you’re able to get those informations, you’re able to speed up your process and getting the information you need over to your pro staff on call. And so, slow down, get that information and then proceed. So, again, your adrenaline’s going to be going, but if you can get the who, what, when, where, why and how on that first call, the first time you will be in a good place.
Anthony Martinez:
And then what does it mean to slow down to speed up in a crisis response?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Oh, yeah. Oftentimes, we feel like we need to get there instantly. And while yes, we do need to get there instantly or as quick as we can. But I think slowing down and getting all of the information the first time allows you to make sure that the correct information is with you the first time so that you don’t have to spend more time figuring out that information that you lost or that you may not have gotten during the first call, if that makes sense.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, no, for sure. And so, now you’ve gotten us through the phone call situation and everything that we encounter and students encounter. My next question is, how can RAs ground themselves physically and mentally before walking into a situation? I know you said breathe, which is, again, very important and something that we do on the daily, but you may forget it in the moment.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. Yeah. I like to take a step back, evaluate the situation before I do the knock or before I come into the space. And so, figuring out that game plan before you even knock, because your adrenaline’s already going to go again, soon as you knock, will help calm you down a little bit and help ground you. So, figure out the game plan. You’re already breathing, yes. You may need to take a few more deep breaths, but truly, truly, truly figure out a game plan. If this happens, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to knock the first time if they don’t respond, I’m going to do this. As you’re walking to the situation, if you have a backup RA, go ahead and call them. Go ahead and call the pro staff on call.
Even if you don’t know if you’re going to need them, if you let them know ahead of time like, “Hey, I might need you. I’ll call you back or I’ll send you a text message as soon as I do.” As soon as I will give you a call back or send you a text message as soon as I figure out a little bit more information. But figuring out that game plan a little bit before you go in and having some things in place already will help ground you a little bit more and help you build up your confidence as you go into the situation.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. No, for sure. Using the people around you, your resources, that is great advice. And that is exactly what our students should be thinking about who are listening right now. We’re there for you. There’s a reason why you have a backup RA and another pro staff member on call with you. So, be sure to utilize that. And so, now that we’re at the room, what habits do you think can help RAs stay calm instead of escalating the energy in a room? And so, I know sometimes maybe they might be encountering a party scenario pretty early and there’s already high energy in there. How can an RA, do we want to match that energy? Do we not want to? So, what advice do you have there to our students listening?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
I always tell my RAs, what would Da Zhané do in this situation? And so, insert, what would your supervisor do in this situation? And so, if your supervisor’s professional would step back or would take a step back and allow someone else to jump in, do that, but always remain professional. Don’t mimic that energy because negative energy and negative energy will not result to anything effective. And so, if you need to take a step back from the situation and let another RA jump in, go ahead and do that. If the situation is getting to a point where you can’t control it, that’s when you call in your coordinator or your pro staff on call to come help with the situation.
So, those would be my tips to grounding yourself when things are starting to escalate a little bit. Yeah.
Anthony Martinez:
No, that’s great. Always remain professional is a huge one, especially in these situations. So, love that. And so, in a crisis situation, going on to our next couple of questions, RAs sometimes feel the pressure to make the right decision instantly. And so, from your lens as a supervisor to the students, what does policy aligned decision making look like in real time and how can RAs avoid improvising outside of their role when making decisions?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. Ooh, that’s a good one. I, again, always tell my RAs to make it make sense.
Anthony Martinez:
Mm-hmm. Make it make sense. Yeah.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
You’ve been trained to do the job, and I don’t expect you to know the policy word for word or to a T, but if the number one priority is making sure that everyone’s safe, the policy isn’t going to tell you to take a step back. The policy isn’t going to tell you to put this here. But if it makes sense in terms of how you’re doing your job and it’s still in the line with your job, make it make sense. Like I tell my RAs, as long as you’re able to make it make sense and explain it to me, we will have your backs. But that also includes making sure you’re calling your coordinator on call if things escalate or if it don’t know an answer to something.
Anthony Martinez:
No, I love that. Make it make sense. Make those defendable decisions. Make sure we know why you’re doing what you’re doing. No, that’s great. And then so what do you think is the risk with students trying to solve everything themselves? So, like you said, they don’t escalate up.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah, I think the biggest risk is overall safety, safety of yourself and your staff, safety of the students involved or the entire community. So, I think the biggest risk is safety overall. So, we have policies in place for a reason. It’s to protect you physically, mentally, emotionally. And the only way we do that is if you put your safety and everyone else’s safety first. So, I think that’s the biggest risk.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Thank you. And so, with that, we run into sometimes RAs having hesitation and calling their hall director at 2:00 AM. They’re like, “Oh, I’m scared. It’s 2:00 AM. They’re asleep. We are asleep. We are sleeping.” And so, they have that in their heads. And so, what do you wish RAs understood about professional staff expectations during a crisis?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. For me specifically, and USC specifically, we serve on call for seven days out of the week, but a lot of those calls don’t come until after hours. We’re waiting for you to call. We’re there to support you. We actually pick these jobs because we want to support you. So, please do call. I promise you, we can go back to sleep, but your safety is our number one priority. We don’t get as many calls as the RAs do. And when they do come about, they’re a little bit more severe. And if we need to pull someone in, we definitely can. Please do call me. Please do call your coordinator. They aren’t going to be mad. We will go back to sleep. I promise you, we will get our rest.
So, the same self-care skills and things that we tell you guys to have in place, we have those in place. Call us. Call us. We won’t be mad. I promise you we won’t be mad.
Anthony Martinez:
Agreed. Yes, exactly. And for our students listening, some good reflection is, do you wait too long to call because you want to prove you can handle it? Are you scared? And these are good conversation topics to have with your supervisor to figure out, this is how I’m feeling before I call you and what strategies can you build with your supervisor to maybe address a couple of those things. But Da Zhané, that was great. So, thank you. I appreciate that. We’re going to move on to our next question, which is kind of around confidence at 2:00 AM and how sometimes it just doesn’t magically appear, as I’ve alluded to. And so, it’s built beforehand and you talked about that. Students are trained.
We train you, we have these trainings. And so, from your perspective, how can RAs prepare for a crisis situation proactively? So, before they pick up the phone, before they have to respond, what does that look like for our students listening?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. I always recommend that my RAs prepare for duty before they’re on duty. So, make sure you have your snacks, make sure you have your pajamas that you can wear as soon as you get that 2:00 AM call right off or closest to your bed. I have my pajamas laid out. If this situation happens, my supervisor already understands that I’m going to call and I might need a little bit more time or I might need to cancel my one-on-one. And so, create a game plan for duty before you’re on duty before the crisis happen.
And so, game plan that with your supervisor, plan that with your RA on duty buddy, but really get organized because you never know when a crisis is going to happen and it doesn’t make the most sense to prepare after the fact. And so, prepare early, get your snacks, get your pajamas, get you a fidget toy that you might need to put in your duty bag in case you run into a situation, but be prepared. Be prepared.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes. No, I love that. I love having conversation with your supervisors and what does that look like? So, that’s awesome because it’s different for everyone, so that’s good to know. And with that, these RAs, they have situations come up. How does reflection after these incidents, do you think, in your opinion, strengthen their future decision-making and on call? So, having that reflection after they respond at 2:00 AM.
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. Some of the times some of the staff that are a little bit larger may not have a one-on-one that week, but I promise you, your coordinator does have time in place for you to sit down and have a conversation. Send them a text message just saying, “Hey, can we wrap up or can we chat about last night’s duty?” Just to make sure that if you felt like some things didn’t go correct, you have that time to talk through it and figure out the game plan for next time. Or if you just need to vent and take care of you as a person, send that message to your supervisor to set up a time to chat about that, but reach out to them because they may not think that you need to follow up.
Some supervisors will automatically follow up with you guys, but it’s also your responsibility to reach out to us and let us know what you need. So, yeah, just reach out.
Anthony Martinez:
Oh, that’s perfect. I was going to ask you next, once the situation is resolved and the building is quiet again, what should the RAs do next? But I feel like you touched on a lot of those points on the importance of follow-up and all of that and documentation. And so, if you could give one or every RA one mindset shift to have before their next duty shift, what would it be?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
I would say remember you were hired for this. We would never throw you in a situation we don’t think you’re prepared for, and so hype yourself up. I say that I am the baddest. My RAs know that I am the baddest. And so, when they go, they say, “Oh, I’m the baddest.” They may say that, right? But they also have their different hype situation. So, wrap yourself up. That builds your confidence. And remember that you’re not in this alone. You were never thrown into a situation. If you feel like you were thrown into a situation, go have that conversation so that you are prepared for when the situation does happen.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah. That’s great. Thank you. Yeah. And for our listeners, everyone listening, it’s important to know, do I trust myself with policy, how I feel comfortable with policy or following up with my supervisor and escalation, your supervisors are there to support you. And so, be sure to reach out to them. As Da Zhané has mentioned, they are a resource. We are resources to you. So, use us. That’s what we are there for. And so, Da Zhané, I do want to ask, do you have any last minute advice or anything you want to say to our students listening, maybe your students that will hopefully listen on crisis response at 2:00 AM and decision making?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah. Hype yourself up. Hype each other. Continue being each other’s support systems because you guys know what your peers go through and you guys are probably the only people that understand that. And then call your professional staff member. Do not be afraid to call for backup. If you don’t have a backup RA on duty, call a coordinator. We will come out. We are prepared to come out. We mentally prepare for these things. And so, do, do, do, do call us. But remember, you got this. We hired you for a reason. Want to see you succeed. And so, if you need anything, reach out to your coordinator.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, exactly. I like to think that crisis doesn’t always create leadership. I think that’s what people think, but I think it reveals it. And so, you’ve done wonderfully talking about, we’ve prepared you for this. And so, show your leadership, hype yourself up like you’ve been saying, you are a baddie. So, that’s awesome. That’s great. I did want to say before we wrap up, is there any socials or LinkedIn that students can connect you with if they want to follow up after the podcast?
Da Zhané Sinclair:
Yeah, I can be found on Instagram at Dazhané.sinclair or on LinkedIn at DaZhanéSinclair. Those are my two professional networks that we can connect on.
Anthony Martinez:
Yay. Thank you, Da Zhané. And thank you to everyone that is listening. We really appreciate your insights. And then again, to our RAs listening, you don’t have to be fearless to handle a crisis well. Just breathe, as we’ve mentioned, and you just need to be prepared, grounded, and remember to hype yourself up. And at 2:00 AM, your calmness and that calm that you have is contagious. And so, just remember that your professionalism builds trust and we’ll see you next time here on the Roompact Podcast.
