EDITORIAL: What’s Happening In Residence Life and Why You Should Care

By: Rose Ferrie, Staff Reporter

You may or may not have heard that one of the issues currently facing Regis University resides in our SHaRE office on campus, specifically with the Resident Assistants (RAs). Many of us know RAs, whether they are friends or peers these fellow students have been dealing with a lot of change and job instability throughout this fall semester. Around the second of school, their contracts were violated by putting stipends toward their scholarships which presented many problems for RAs including changes their work-study funds, being charged for things like meal plans, and feeling unheard by superiors and administration.

When they initially signed their contracts around April of 2019, the contract specificied their stipend like this: Room and board, roughly $650-$675 dollars for the semester, which comes out to around $72-$75 biweekly pay periods (estimate from the initial contract).

Many students budget their stipends toward paying for school, groceries, gas, spending money, food, and more. The loss of that biweekly income disrupted many RAs’ financial plans and, in many situations, making their financial situations worse. In some more serious cases, adding the stipend money to their scholarships offset loan payments so some RAs were informed that they must take out another loan or pay out of pocket, essentially making them pay for being an RA. In other words, people had unforeseen payments because their RA scholarships were changed so they had to pay more.

On top of this loss of stipends, RA duties were increased. They have to run five programs for their residence hall per semester which includes planning and budgeting paperwork, advertising the event, taking attendance, and program reflection. They are trained to handle issues like suicidal ideation, alcohol and drug incidents, violence prevention, roommate issues, emotional distress, homesickness, Title IX, programming, duty protocol (FERPA, active shooter, etc), and more

Now, what is being done? RAs are supposed to be offered a revised contract on November 1st, they will look over it and decide whether they will agree to the terms and sign or choose not to sign. The contents of that contract are to be determined and The Highlander will follow up as events progress.

“Lack of leadership in overseeing that the people who take care of the residents were not being taken care of, we felt we were unimportant and not being heard. No one was looking out for us,” said one RA who asked to remain anonymous.

What it comes down to is this: the RAs are seen more as employees rather than students on campus, they are forced to prioritize work over academics because of their workload and are not being rewarded for doing so. Every RA the Highlander spoke with for this article cares a lot for their residents, but it comes to a point where they have to think about all the pressure they are under as students, employees, and mentors. That pressure is overwhelming and unacceptable for people who are students first.