University of Florida Inter-Residence Hall Association
# University of Florida Inter-Residence Hall Association

The University of Florida Inter-Residence Hall Association (UF IRHA) is a student organization of the University of Florida that acts as an association of on-campus undergraduate residents and represents them to the university housing department. IRHA is a residence hall association (RHA) and is the exclusive such organization for University of Florida undergraduates. The organization is one of the largest student organizations on campus.

IRHA's headquarters are provided by the university's housing department and are located on campus at Rawlings Hall.

IRHA sponsors a chapter of National Residence Hall Honorary and is a member of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls, the national association of RHAs.

## History

### 20th Century

Predecessor organization to UF IRHA, the Interhall Council, was established and operating since at least 1964. This organization was made up of two different organizations segregated by gender, until around 1973, when the organizations were merged into one co-ed organizations. The Interhall Council became IRHA in 1978.

Individual residence hall areas are represented by area governments (abbreviated as AGs) who are responsible for representing residents in that area to IRHA and the housing department, as well as organizing events for residents of the area. Since its founding, IRHA has been heavily involved in student involvement and runs programming and events for residents and students in-general.

IRHA has supported efforts to prevent sexual assault on the university's campus. In 1984, the organizations made efforts to establish working committees to prevent such crimes. IRHA funded on-campus buses and shuttles operating at night (now known as the SNAP shuttles and Later Gator program). IRHA continued to fund it into sometime in the 21st century when student government took over funding and operations.

In 1986, IRHA led the University of Florida's branch of a widely publicized statewide campaign to limit drunk driving and excessive alcohol consumption over the winter break of the academic year.

IRHA has written guides for new students coming to the University of Florida, which they have done since at least 1987.

Since at least 1991, AGs have arranged for "permanent improvements," physical improvements to the amenities and facilities of their residence hall area.

### 21st Century

UF IRHA has been running its signature "Writing on the Wall" event since 2002. Writing on the Wall is an event program where participants are encouraged to write the disparaging words spoken to them throughout the years on a temporary wall that is publicly destroyed at the end of the week as part of its closing ceremonies. The event has received both local and national coverage and has inspired a number of similar events held in other universities in the United States.

In 2016, the senior director of the university housing department that typically oversees IRHA was charged for embezzling money from the university using an account that had been earmarked for the organization's funding. The scandal involved the dismissal of seven employees of the department and two criminal charges. Despite IRHA not actually being involved in the scandal, heavy financial restrictions, funding limitations, and operations restrictions were placed by the new housing administration on the organization and the AGs, which as of 2023, still remain in place. IRHA's leadership and the AGs have since had difficulty working with other departments of the university operationally.

IRHA's advocacy operations were slowed in the after-math of the COVID-19 pandemic, only beginning to return in 2023.

## Organization

### Leadership

The organization is made up of a general body and an executive board. The general body is made up of the members of the area governments' executive boards, members-at-large who apply to join and are accepted by vote of the general body, and directors appointed by the president of the organization.

The executive board is made up of the top leadership of the organization and is elected for the next academic year by the members of the general body. There are six positions on the executive board: President, Vice President, Auditor, Parliamentarian, Operations Manager, and Communications

Coordinator-NCC.

A staff member of the housing department (usually a residence director) is tasked with being the staff advisor of the organization and a graduate student is tasked with being the graduate advisor of the organization.

### Area Governments

IRHA acts as a central organization where a number of smaller organizations representing residents from individual residence hall areas take part in. Each area government has its own office near its respective area desk office. As of Spring 2023, there are 11 AGs representing individual collections of undergraduate residence halls on campus:

* Beaty Towers Area Government (BTAG)
* Broward-Rawlings Area Government (BRAG)
* Graham Area Council (GAC)
* Hume Area Council (HAC)
* Infinity Council (INC)
* Jennings Area Government (JAG)
* Lakeside Area Residential Council (LARC)
* Murphree Area Council (MAC)
* Springs-Keys Council on Residential Experience (SKCORE)
* Tolbert Area Council (TAC)
* Yulee Area Council (YAC)

### National Residence Hall Honorary

UF IRHA sponsors the University of Florida's chapter (the the James C. Grimm Chapter) of the National Residence Hall Honorary.

