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Welcome to 4th North Res Hall
Class of 2026 & 2027
Hi 4North Families,
My name is Maya Harden and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I will be the Community Coordinator (CC) for 4th North this school year. A CC acts as a caregiver for the students on their hall and supports them as they grow intellectually, emotionally, and socially. I want all students to feel respected, valued, and included at NCSSM and I do this by creating opportunities for students to connect and learn from one another through hall activities and events. Our hall theme is "Total Drama Island". Over the course of the year, we will hold weekly check-ins where we can gather for snacks and discussion and participate in hall activities aimed to build community and leadership skills.
Thanks,
Maya Harden
How to Contact Me
If you need to get in touch with me, I am most reachable by email at maya.harden@ncssm.edu. I check my email often and will always respond within 24 hours. I can also be reached by call or text message at 828-347-9166.
Due to the nature of my day-to-day work schedule, I may not see a voicemail right away; however, I check my email regularly throughout the day. If you need immediate assistance and I am unavailable, contact the Residence Hall front desk at 828-347-9175 to speak with an on-duty Community Coordinator or Campus Safety & Security Officer.
What to Expect from Monthly Updates
I wanted to make sure everyone knows what to expect from me in regards to regular hall updates. By the 5th of each month I will post an update to the Updates section and send an email alerting you that the update is live. These posts will include recaps of the past few weeks on hall, updates on major hall and campus events, reminders about upcoming events and deadlines, and photos of the student experience on campus.
Roommates
For many students their time at NCSSM will be the first time they have experienced sharing a room with someone. It is natural for there to be some growing pains as students adjust their habits and learn to live together. For this reason, we encourage students to spend their first few weeks getting to know one another and discussing their sleep habits, study preferences, and what makes them feel comfortable in their shared space. The roommates will work together to craft a roommate agreement during that time; this agreement will outline how they will respect one another’s space, accommodate each other's sleep and study habits, what they can borrow and share with each other, and how they will keep their room clean. The agreement is a living document and can be revisited as needed throughout the year.
While we hope that all students will get along well, it is possible that your students develop a conflict with their roommate that they have trouble navigating on their own. If this occurs, you or your student should let their CC know. We will work with the students to mediate the conflict and work towards a mutual resolution. It is imperative that you speak only to your student about any conflict they are having, do not contact the other student or their family. If the conflict continues the CC may ask that the students work with either the Assistant Director or Director of Student Life to continue working towards a solution. NCSSM operates at full occupancy; therefore, room changes are not easy to accommodate. No room changes will be approved during the 1st quarter of the school year. Changing rooms is considered only if all conflict resolution options have been exhausted, a space is available, and the move is considered a positive step for all parties involved. For these reasons, a room change should not be viewed as a likely outcome to resolve a conflict.
CCs and Security Staff On-Call
CCs are available 24 hours a day to assist your students. The Residence Hall CC desk is staffed each day from 7:30am to 12:30am Sunday-Thursday and 8:30am-1:30am Friday and Saturday. Outside of these hours there will always be a CC on call while students are on campus. The contact numbers for the on-call CCs are posted at each CC desk and can be viewed here. If your student has an emergency they are encouraged to reach out to the on-duty CCs.
NCSSM also has Campus Safety and Security Officers available 24 hours. They can be contacted in non-emergencies at 828-347-9106. In emergencies, please contact Broughton police by calling 911 or their dispatch number 828-608-4444.
The Clinic
Student Health Services, often referred to as the Clinic, is located on the first floor of the Residence Hall. The Clinic is staffed and equipped to manage most acute and chronic illnesses that occur while students reside at NCSSM. Common over-the-counter medications, bandages, splints, and crutches are dispensed at no additional charge to students. Prescriptions, if required, can be picked up from a local pharmacy. Some problems may require additional care, in which case students are referred to area professionals. Families will be notified if this referral is necessary.
Students are prohibited from keeping certain types of prescription medications in their rooms (e.g., narcotics, psychotropics, stimulants). These medications must be retained and distributed by the Clinic. Students may keep over-the-counter medications in their rooms for their personal use (e.g., pain relievers, cold medications, stomach remedies, herbal remedies, vitamins, etc.).
The clinic is open Monday - Friday from 8:00am to 4:00pm. After hours and on the weekends students can reach out to CCs on duty for help; the CCs will contact a 24 hour telephone nursing service called Healthlink to seek advice on how to aid your student.
Sign Out
This year, we have switched to Orah as our electronic signout platform. We ran a trial of this platform with a few halls on both campuses last year and it seemed to do a solid job of meeting our staff needs while also simplifying the signout process for students and families.
For students, the signout process is fairly straightforward:
Using the Orah app on your smartphone or via app.orah.com in your web browser, select New and then Pass.
You then choose the appropriate pass type for your trip off-campus:
Day/Local -- if you are returning to campus before check and are not traveling more than 30+ miles from campus. You don’t need to do any additional steps after submitting this pass, you are good to go!
Travel 30+ Miles -- if you are returning to before check and are traveling more than 30+ miles from campus. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with. You will need to sign out with a CC on duty when it is time for you to leave for this pass.
Missing Curfew -- if you are going to miss curfew but return to campus before in-building curfew. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once your submit it. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with.
Overnight -- if you will be gone overnight. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with.
If someone other than your legal guardians are picking you up for Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight travel, your family will need to approve your pass request before you can sign out with the CC on duty. Please submit those passes 24-48 hours in advance.
When it is time for you to leave for Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight travel, you will sign out at the CC office with the person who was approved to pick you up for that pass or your legal guardians. They will need to show their ID so we can confirm that they are who they say they are.
After your trip, when you get back to campus, you can end a Day/Local pass from the app or website, but the other pass types require you checking in with a CC on duty or by scanning your smartphone along one of the Orah NFC tiles around campus.
For families, your part of the signout process is even easier:
If your student submits a Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight pass, you will receive an email at your NCSSM school account with a link to the pass request and you decide whether to approve or to deny the pass request. Previously, NCSSM required a verbal confirmation from families to confirm these types of signout requests, but we are hoping this change streamlines the signout process for families, students, and staff. With that said, we strongly encourage you not to share your NCSSM account login credentials with your students or allow them access to devices or browsers that have stored those login credentials.
You do not need to install the Orah app to approve or to deny the requests. You’ll get those options right in your inbox.
If you change your mind about approving or denying a pass request after submitting it, please contact the CC on duty.
If you are the person picking up your student for a Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight pass, you shouldn’t receive the email notification. You will still need to bring your ID to check them out with the CC on duty.
Like I said, we ran an Orah trial this past spring and learned a lot of what settings to tweak to make it work well for our campus and community. We are still making adjustments as we get used to using this platform across both campuses with almost 1,000 students and their families. If you have any issues or questions or feel frustrated by something being clunky or not working well, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jainny Estrada (jainny.estrada@ncssm.edu), Assistant Director of Student Services at NCSSM-Morganton, or Justin Plummer (plummer@ncssm.edu), Associate Director of Student Services at NCSSM-Durham, who are working closely with the team at Orah to keep things running smoothly. You can also check out the electronic signout at NCSSM site that we put together which has additional details, like where students can find the NFC tiles on their campuses and Orah-created resources on getting started with the app for students and families. We’ll update the site with frequently asked questions or common issues and how to solve them as we go!
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