RD on Duty, this is Jacki!

For those of you unfamiliar with the role and responsibilities of a Residence Director, let me introduce you to the act of being on duty. Here at ASU, Residence Directors get the lovely opportunity to carry around this lovely black flip phone for a week at a time. Anytime a major incident occurs, Resident Assistants will contact the RD on Duty on this cellular device and you get to be the person in charge to assist in the situation. There are all sorts of different incidents you could be responding to. To use some wisdom from Forrest Gump - it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Now for most new RDs, being on duty is very stressful and anxiety producing. Sometime it feels that as soon as you get the duty phone in your hands, that annoying ring that always gets stuck in your head and also the one that can give you a heart attack will go off at any moment. But most likely you'll hear the lovely ring tone around 2 o'clock in the morning. 

Since such responsibility is given to us when we are acting as the RD on Duty, there is of course, rules that must be obeyed. First we are not allowed to be more than 15 minutes away from campus. Also, we are not allowed to consume alcohol. Another is that from 5pm on Friday night until 8am Monday morning, the phone must be turned on and with you at all times. At the end of a duty week comes a certain sense of freedom and there is nothing I enjoy more than handing that devilish phone off to the next lucky RD on Duty. So you may guess that this role is a thorn in my side or the bane of my existence. However, let me set the record straight...I secretly love being on duty! Now, sometimes there are those call with really difficult situations that you'd rather not have to deal with. But most of the time, the situations you deal with are often peculiar and entertaining. And anytime ASU Police is involved, you can be sure it will be a good time. I happen to be on duty tonight and I have spent most my night shooting the breeze with some of the cops while finding a half gallon bottle of cheap liquor in a resident's room as well as roaming through the halls of my old hotel trying to find the breakers that will turn the lights back on in certain parts of my building. Sure I may be up most nights until 2am in the morning, but it's always an adventure! So now, instead of loathing the role of being the RD on Duty, I have been finding a new sense of excitement by being on duty and often catch myself humming and dancing to the ring tone!

So if you're ever in a bind, you know who to call. The RD on Duty is on your side!