E-mail from Associate Director of Housing and Residence Life Deborah Newman to Lance Steiger, September 22, 2005

From: Newman, Deborah L.

Sent: Thu 9/22/2005 10:38 AM

To: Steiger, Lance Lee

Cc: [REDACTED]

Subject: RE: Question for you

I would prefer that RAs not lead Bible studies in the hall in general, and here is the reason. As a state employee, you and I have a responsibility to make sure we are providing an environment that does not put undue pressure on any member of our halls in terms of religion, political parties, etc. As an RA you need to be available to your residents both in reality and from their perspective. As a "leader" of a Bible study, one of the roles is to gather and encourage people to attend. These two roles have a strong possibility to conflict in your hall. I have shared with other RAs who have asked this question, that as an RA we also want you to encourage other students to develop leadership skills, and one of the ways you can do that is to encourage other students in your hall to actually lead the Bible study. I also want to clarify that you can certainly attend Bible studies in your hall. I just want to make sure we don't put ourselves in a position where we fail to meet the needs of all of our students, either on purpose or by accident! Please feel free to come in and speak with me about this if you would like.

Deb