Opinion

RAs get no respect

Job has little benefits for hard workers

By Sean O'Mara

Posted on Oct. 19, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

They are some of the first people a resident meets when they move into a hall. They interact regularly with the students in their building, whether they are freshmen or seniors. Resident assistants and resident directors are an important factor in whether someone enjoys living on campus or attending UMaine.

The RAs decide how much noise is acceptable, which can have a huge effect on the study and sleep habits of residents. There is also a lot that RAs do that students aren’t aware of. They are on duty late at night when residents get locked out, or if someone is drunk and out of control, or even when someone attempts suicide. All of this, in addition to the part they play in acclimating freshmen to college life, shows the necessity of having competent and sociable people in these positions. This does not, however, appear to be a priority for Residence Life.

When RAs conduct interviews with RA candidates, they rate them on a scale from “must hire” to “should hire” to “hire with reservations” to “do not hire.” After conducting interviews with RAs, I discovered that in many halls, Res Life hired people from the “hire with reservations” and “do not hire” categories. The reason for hiring those who were rated as poor candidates is that there aren’t enough people applying. This became even more alarming to me when most of the RAs I interviewed told me they planned on leaving Res Life if the conditions don’t improve.

The conditions they were referring to range from big problems to minor annoyances. The biggest issue appears to be the increased emphasis on the RA position being a job. While it is a job with pay comparable to other campuses and off-campus jobs of similar time consumption, this position must never be more important than schoolwork.

Most of the people who take these positions don’t want a full time job, as their course load is already enough. Some of them said they were behind on their studies because it’s hard to study while on duty with residents frequently interrupting them. This is especially true when the RA is on duty at the front desk, which is usually a distracting place to study due to the traffic. It’s even worse when the RA is forced to work extra weekends, because two RAs now have to be on duty during the weekends instead of one in the larger halls.

Other changes include the loss of their $50.00 laundry stipend, a points program for RA organized events and strict monthly bulletin board updates. They have lost the use of extra hall furniture for their rooms, which is a problem since they use their rooms to meet with residents. Another new policy is that only RAs from that building can be in the office, which is a pain if you are friends with RAs from other halls.

The way in which the changes were brought about was not direct, but in a trickle-down fashion. Some of these problems may seem small, but when compounded, they take the fun out of the position, which further discourages competent people from applying. Res Life’s new policy of treating RAs like every other student while at the same time insisting they assume the responsibilities of a full-time job is hurting the campus community and must be addressed.

Sean O’Mara is third-year psychology major.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.