Acronyms | RA | Resident Assistant
These are upperclassmen who work to manage sanity in the dormitories. Usually, there is at least one RA "on call" every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night in case something crazy happens at a party. They are, in a sense, your guardians who are supposed to take care of you if you find yourself in danger. Most RAs also have cars to help pick you up if you are injured or intoxicated. In addition, they are in charge of planning dorm activities like beach outings, etc.
| | RF | Resident Fellow
These are often members of the Stanford faculty who choose to live in a residence located right next to their respective dormitories, and are in charge of managing the residence with the assistance of the RAs.
| | FA | Focus Assistant
Focus assistants help the resident fellows fulfill their goals of running a focus house. This often involves running focus activities, discussions, etc. The exact responsibilities depend on the requests posed by the RFs that run the focus dorms. Each focus requires something different. A writing focus dorm might have discussions, while a performing arts focus dorm might have live performances.
| | PHE | Peer Health Educator
These are upperclasssmen who are trained to deal with common health concerns in the dorms--alcohol consumption, and sexual activities. They are associated with the Stanford Vaden Clinic that offers health care to all Stanford students. They are usually stocked with commonly requested items, such as Advil, cough syrup, condoms, and the like.
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Commonly Used Words draw
| The lottery-based system used to assign housing to undergraduate students in as fair a manner as possible.
| | lounge | A public area in most dorms where residents can hang out and do homework, hold meetings, etc.
| | library | Some dormitories are equipped with a separate room stocked with books intended as a study room. The kinds of books difffer from dorm to dorm, but most students use the room as a pseudo-library environment to study without having to go all the way to Green or Meyer Library.
| | kitchenette | Most residences have at least one kitchenette, or a mini-kitchen equipped with a stove, oven, microwave, fridge, freezer, and a sink. This is true even for smaller dorms, such as Wilbur and Stern. It is no uncommon for students to bake cakes or cookies on weekends.
| guaranteed year
| Stanford University guarantees four years of housing for every single undergraduate student. A "guaranteed year" refers to a year for which students uses one of those four guaranteed years to guarantee themselves housing for the next academic year. Students have this choice every year of whether or not to use a guaranteed year in order to guarantee themselves housing.
| | preassignment | A way in which students are assigned to a residence before even entering the draw. This is for special "focus" houses, where the resident fellows can "preassign" a few select students into their residences. To participate in presassignment, students must submit an application that reflect their interest in the focus of the particular residence they are applying to be in.
| gender neutral housing
| Housing where two students of opposite gender are allowed to be roommates
| row house
| A residence located on the Row. This refers to Mayfield Avenue, and all the houses on either sides of it.
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