For general info, go to the housing website's official page for the Villa Alvarado Apartments. The page will give you basic information on VA and you can even take a virtual tour of one of the rooms!
The layout of Villa Alvarado is fairly simple. There is a main building with general facilities and a series of houses where the residents live.
The main building houses the following:
All the other buildings house:
VA's front desk is located directly to the left on the inside of the front entrance. When classes are in session, the desk is open from noon to 2:00am. There is only one desk assistant at the desk at any time.
The number for VA's desk is 4-2747 from an on-campus phone, (619)594-2747 from off-campus phones. When the desk is closed from 2:00am to noon all calls are redirected to Tenochca's desk.
A regular duty call is a smoke detector going off in Villa Alvarado. Typically this is due to someone burning food in their kitchen. The RHC or RHC on duty has to respond regardless of the severity of the alarm, but University Police almost always responds and shuts the alarm off before the RHC even arrives.
The I-House is an extremely popular living learning community that is planned and implemented each year with the help of the International Student Center. The Culture Nights (where residents give presentations on their home countries) are well-attended throughout the year and the end of the year Sunday Supper is a great tradition where residents celebrate and reflect back on the year's events.
VA has two separate check-ins. There is an early check-in for athletes and international students and a main check-in for the rest of the students. The check-in stations for the main check-in are set up inside the main lounge (located next to the front desk). There is plenty of room for residents and their family members, but you will want to ask people waiting in line to remain outside by the front desk and walkway. For more information on what you should have at each station refer to the annual report on the server under Tenochca.
At one point during the day you will have a parents' meeting. An agenda for the meeting will be e-mailed to you prior to opening. You will basically tell the parents a little about housing and Villa Alvarado and then field questions. Do not worry too much about this, other REO/OHA staff members will be present to help you with questions.
Intent to Vacates, Room Conditions and Express Check-out forms should be placed or filed at the front desk so that RAs and DAs can easily access them. The Express Check-out box is located on the left of the front desk (it's a large black box; you can't miss it). RAs should be given keys and packets of forms for each resident of his/her floor. You can collect all the keys and forms after you have done your final walk-thrus of each floor.
Special Note: Do not stress out too much about closing, there will be plenty of training on it at the end of the year. The closing checklist will also help you a great deal with closing, however if you would like to see how past VA RHCs handled closing you can refer to the old documents on the server under Villa Alvarado/Closing.
