A residence hall’s resident assistant (RA) bulletin board is the first piece of the massive puzzle that makes up your semester. You’ll see it every time you enter the lounge, cook in the kitchen or wait to take the elevator. It’s inescapable. Even though a bad board doesn’t necessarily detract from the dorm experience, a good one can add a lot. As such, I chose to find the best boards on campus. Here are my top five.
5: VANDER POEL FLOOR 8
This is certainly one of the weirder RA boards. There’s no better way to describe this board other than “chronically online.” Though incredibly busy and overwhelming at first, its little details make it a campus highlight.
The board looks like a YouTube page, complete with large red circles and arrows, clickbait titles like “TOP 10 Hof-Cats!! #4 Will SHOCK you,” a YouTube logo (though, here it’s called “Floor8Tube”) and even a few pictures of digital creator Jerma985. The massive drawn hands on both sides of the board are another highlight; they bring it together and make the board feel more like a tablet.
4: ESTABROOK FLOOR 10
This board feels like a real-life Pinterest board. Although it’s difficult to pick up on a coherent theme other than “girl,” I think that works well for it. The board features a collage of pictures of Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde,” Rory Gilmore from “Gilmore Girls,” some affirmations and, of course, a lot of pink.
This board is louder than most others, and that’s a good thing. Its design from the bottom-up screams personality, and that’s intensely important when dealing with the stress any semester brings.
3: VANDER POEL FLOOR 10
This board is simply adorable. Everything about it is uniquely inviting and certainly took a good amount of work. The border is comprised of individual paper leaf cutouts. Paper versions depicting the faces of a lion and tiger are on the top right and bottom left, respectively, and two thin brown lines act as a branch where flyers can hang. That said, the best part about it is the paper monkey smiling and hanging from the top left corner.
Plus, the caption, “Welcome To The Pride Lands,” combines Hofstra University with the floor’s jungle theme, giving this board a massive boost.
2: SUFFOLK FLOOR 1
This board is simply breathtaking. The artwork is fantastic. The butterfly’s wings are a vivid blue gradient, the cocoon and caterpillar are insanely detailed and the tree branch extending from the left looks so good that it’s hard to believe it’s all just paper.
The aspect signifying the care put into this board is how the borders change color. Though it’s a small and seemingly insignificant detail, it does a lot to make this board pop. An element like that makes me jealous of the residents who get to see this marvel every day.
1: ALLIANCE FLOOR 4
A facet of any good bulletin board is working within its limitations and pushing the boundaries. This board does both in strides – so well that I can’t stop looking at it.
The left side is one of the prettiest things I’ve seen in a Hofstra residence hall. It’s the façade of a small house, complete with 11 rows of orange and red borders representing a Spanish tile roof, an open window and some drawn-in and taped-on vines – all combining to make the house feel abandoned and lived-in at the same time.
This board pushes the limits of what’s possible, and its color, character and life raise the bar for every other bulletin board.
