A group of residential life students from the University of Missouri-Rolla has been selected to host the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) National Information Center. This national office was awarded during the organization’s 2005 Conference, held in Syracuse, N.Y.

The National Information Center serves as a clearing house of information for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada that are affiliated with the national residence hall association. It houses documents like bid proposals, end-of-year reports, a resource file index and videos from the organizations’ annual conferences. The students staffing the center will also be responsible for coordination regional and national affiliation and will handle all affiliation fees and paperwork.

Led by advisor, Martin Kofsky, students Chris Crowell, Phil Ross, Erin Long, Asher Leff, Aaron Beck, Matt Hawkins, Aaron Schmitt and Aimee Rea will staff the National Information Center. Student elections will be held each year to fill the staff positions at the center.

UMR will host the National Information Center for at least three years, although it will be renewable for up to six years. The office was previously held by the University of Florida-Gainesville.

“Schools, advisors and students across the nation will know UMR’s name because of this office and the need to contact us for files or affiliation,” says Tina Sheppard, director of residential life at UMR.

“The NIC requires a certain amount of space,” she adds. “Our students will work out of five offices in Farrar Hall. We will minimally furnish these spaces, while the NIC will provide funding for the extras like computers, scanners, and the other necessary accommodations needed to maintain an office of this capacity.

“Our students worked many hours to prepare the bid that was reviewed and ultimately chosen at the NACURH conference,” says Sheppard. “Any university out of the 50 United States and Canada could have been chosen – many of these schools being much larger and with a much larger residence hall population than UMR. The fact that we were chosen speaks highly of our university and our commitment to our students.”

“A school in Australia has recently affiliated with NACURH. This is an opportunity for our students to connect with students across the United States and with other countries as well,” says Martin Kofsky, advisor to the new office.

The goal of bringing the NIC to UMR is to make the center more electronic, by scanning documents and sending files electronically instead of photocopying and mailing paper copies. This will minimize the paper and time usage and make the office more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Other recent awards earned by residential life include School of the Year and the NACURH Golden Anniversary Service Award.