With Halloween just around the corner, the Residence Hall Association’s weekly meeting is expected to get spooky with its meeting’s members in costume to discuss an upcoming conference.

Dondre Keeler, the National and Illinois Communication Coordinator of RHA, said he will discuss how the Eastern delegation of select RHA members have prepared to attend the annual Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls Conference at Ball State University.

“All the people I will be taking with me will be going to programs to build their leadership skills on campus,” Keeler said. “They have to bring back information and tell people in their hall what they learned.”

According to The Great Lakes Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls’ website, it is a student run organization focused on improving on-campus programs across the country by providing skills and training for its members.

This year, the conference’s theme, “Make Your Mark,” will be art based.

“(The Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls) change the theme every year,” Keeler said. “It brings a lot more interest when people have to relate their school theme to the regional theme.”

Keeler said he will specifically discuss at the meeting the delegation’s designs for a banner displaying the delegation members’ names and Eastern and the Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls mascots in the form of a statue.

Several events on campus, such as Kids and Friends Weekend, have elements that RHA members first learned about by attending Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls conferences, Keeler said.

Keeler said the RHA first decided to add The Writing on the Wall project, in which students tear down a physical cinder block wall as symbolic gesture towards breaking intolerant behavior, to Social Justice and Diversity Week after attending a Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls conference.

Attending a Great Lakes Affiliate of Colleges and University Residence Halls conference is one way that RHA members can advance their position in the residence hall hierarchy on campus, Keeler said.

“A lot of people who have gone on to these conferences have gone on to bigger and better things,” Keeler said. “Some of them have gone up to higher positions, like becoming a (Resident Adviser) and some become part of (the National Residence Hall Honorary).”

Keeler said potential attendees of the conference were chosen based on both their past leadership experience, personal goals and how they planned to better Eastern.

“They had to fill out an application,” Keller said. “My adviser, the RHA president and myself sat down and went through who we thought would really be a great asset.”

RHA Vice President Andrew Lilec said residence hall representatives would also hopefully present in costume.

“We try to get RHA representatives to dress up at the meeting,” Lilec said. “It’s something goofy.”

Andrew Crivilare can be reached at 581-2582 or ajcrivilare@eiu.edu.