An Interview with a Member of the RA Alliance
Natalie Mintz ‘24
Courtesy of @slcra_alliance on Instagram
On February 7, the Resident Advisors Alliance delivered a set of demands to the Office of Residence Life and the Dean of Studies and Student Life, Daniel Trujillo.
The RA Alliance, made up of 29 Residence Advisors, calls attention to the importance of the job. RAs are expected to mitigate housing conflicts, help draft living agreements, keep students up to date on campus events, plan events, and are expected to foster a good environment for their residents. The Alliance has drafted a list of demands. These include an increase in pay, tuition credit for a meal plan and the full cost of housing, the creation of a housing committee with RAs as key members, and hazard pay for work done during the Covid-19 pandemic.
RAs have had more communication with the administration in the past. In fact, most of the demands the RA Alliance asked for stems from previous responsibilities and perks of the job.
“We’re not asking for anything the office has not done previously,'' stated a member of the RA Alliance.
The student has been an RA for two years now, and admits that they might not return to the job if they were not graduating this year. They also made it clear that the views expressed in this interview do not represent each individual member of the Alliance, but are an expression of their perspective on the job and purpose of the Alliance.
Particularly in the past year, RAs have not been able to communicate their concerns with college administrators.
“The conversation ends as soon as it is started,'' they said.
RAs have been “repeatedly been told that [they] are an important part of the community.” However, the members of the RA Alliance argue that they are not treated like it.
After delivering demands to Daniel Trujillo, Dean of Studies and Student Life, the group began exchanging emails with school officials. In these emails, they were told that the school would not recognize the RA Alliance as a representative for the community of RAs. They also would not recognize their demands.
After a month of trying to set up a meeting, school officials finally agreed. The primary function of this meeting is to set up the path to negotiating a new contract. An updated contract would solidify the college’s acceptance of the Alliance’s demands, holding them responsible for enforcing changes.
The first meeting with administrators will occur on Wednesday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. Students are allowed—and encouraged—to come.
“We are asked to do a whole lot of work and our physical well being, our mental well being and our well being in general are not taken into consideration,” stated the student.
This has been particularly true during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why they are asking for hazard pay for the time worked over the course of these last few years.
Many of the RAs come from low income backgrounds and find the job appealing because of the stipend and the guarantee and lower cost of housing. Additionally, RAs have the opportunity to work a second job.
“This job targets people who need extra [help] to stay at this school,'' said the student.
However, the RA Alliance believes that the Office of Residence Life is not honest with potential RAs. The RAs are also not told what roles they are going to be asked to fulfill in the job.
“I don’t think you can ever really fully prepare yourself for the things you have to be involved in,” said the student.
They also admitted that they did not think the Office of Residence Life had been clear in regards to the responsibilities of the job. One aspect of this is the increasing demand on RAs to act in partnership with — and in place of — campus security. While they admit that there are times when it is best for an RA to respond to issues — such as mental health crises — RAs should not “look like police officers.”
Next year, RAs are expected to do rounds and will have on-call duties. It has not been made clear to potential RAs what either of these new demands, which are typically only performed by graduate students, actually entail.
“I was a part of the interview process for new RAs, and I don’t think that the Office of Residence knows what the new duties will look like,” the student said.
One aspect of this is that having housing paid for, or partially paid for, can impact the amount of financial aid an RA receives. This is why the RA Alliance demands tuition compensation for both meal plans and housing. Currently, they are only offered housing and partial meal plans as a form of tuition credit. Due to federal caps on financial aid, this shifts aid from general tuition credit to credit for RA related credits. Otherwise, that aid would come out of their overall financial aid package — specifically if those students are on need-based aid.
“Now that [RAs are given credit for housing], the [Office of Financial Aid] can give you less financial aid because they are both aid packages,” they clarified.
The Office of Residence Life has claimed that they were unaware of the issues RAs were facing.
“The demands came as a shock to [the administration]. I don’t think they understand anything about what an RA does or what an RA role looks like on campus. I don’t think they care to understand,” they stated. They also pointed out that, “one of the ways you incentivise the job is by allowing us to become leaders in our community.”
The combination of these factors resulted in RAs both being asked to take on too much, while also not being able to fully fulfill their roles.
Additionally, the Office of Residence Life does not provide enough money for RAs to host events. Each RA receives $1.23 semester for events. This is especially difficult for Hill House RAs, where residents often complain about feeling isolated.
“I’m completely out of event money for the semester,” they said.
The RA Alliance, continuing a long legacy of student activism on campus, has been embraced by the student body.
“We went live because the Office of Residence Life, Danny Trujillo, etc. weren’t going to take us seriously,” they stated when asked about the alliance's social media presence.
When organizing social media posts, the alliance looked to other student organizations at colleges throughout the country for inspiration. However, they often found that many of these accounts did not make their demands readily available to the public.
Within a month, the RA Alliance gained over 500 followers on Instagram. Students have reposted their demands to their personal Instagram stories and left comments asking how to help.
Seeing student support was “a lot of fun,” the student said.
Former RAs have also reached out in support, expressing surprise at how current RAs are being treated. The passionate response to the alliance proved that the administration could not ignore the demands. However, the social media presence has caused some expected misinformation.
“We are not unionizing or striking,” the student clarified.
The Alliance has received some criticism from faculty and parents. Some parents have accused them of just not wanting to do the work that comes with the job. However, the Alliance actually wants to take on a bigger role on campus.
“If you look at our demands, we’re actually asking for more work.”
One aspect of this is asking for a place on the Housing Committee. With a committee in place, RAs would be able to voice concerns about housing on campus — including any proposed changes to housing plans. They could also speak with other students to formulate ideas about housing to present to the administration.
This could prevent any changes which would upset the student body, like the recent decision to move upperclassmen to outer campus residences like Hill House and give priority to those who submit housing applications first.
While they admit that they cannot change housing as it is “not in [their] power,” the RA Alliance understands the frustration in regards to the new housing plans. They were presented the plans earlier this year, and had expressed their disapproval to the administration then.
“Every single concern that people brought up at housing meetings [in February and March] were mirrored in concerns that we brought up in January,” they stated.
Ultimately, the RA Alliance comes from a place of love for the students and the school.
They want to create an environment where students are active on campus, feel included, and want to stay at the college.
“[The administration] has little to no care for the student experience on campus. If they did, they would listen to student concerns,” they said.
When asked about the next steps for the alliance, they point to the importance of continuing to put pressure on the administration. However, the Alliance warns students not to be too zealous.
“Trying to get to too many issues at once can be harmful.”
Additionally, while they care about student’s housing concerns, they want to ensure that those issues are not conflated with the goal of the RA Alliance. They view those as “totally separate issues.”
For now, the best thing students can do is to continue to utilize social media by sharing posts, as well as talking to friends and family about the
Ultimately, “the point is to show the school that we are not 29 singular people who have nothing behind us. There is an entire community behind us.”