On Friday afternoon, the Student Senate held an emergency meeting the day after the protest now known on campus as “Uprise at Five” to discuss further plans to push for transparency in the administrative process. While Senate meetings are typically open to the student body and the press, many students, including resident assistants, showed up at the meeting, and because of the nature and reason of the meeting, the visitors were encouraged to express their opinions.
The Senate assembled four student groups with Grand Marshal-appointed leaders to help organize collaboration on its push for transparency. August Fietkau ’09 was appointed to lead the fact-finding group, students charged with answering questions and collecting facts from various students, student government members, and administrators.
Michael Zwack ’11 was appointed to head up a student group in charge of compiling a report outlining what the student body wants improved to attain their goal of transparency and improve communication between the administration and the students. Josh Greenman ’09 was assigned to head up a group to write a press release as necessary. One RA was assigned to lead the other RAs who wanted to be involved in whatever direction they felt they should take at this point, given the circumstances, with the support of the Senate.
At the time of the Friday meeting, the deadline for accepted RAs to sign their contracts was Monday, and many of the RAs present expressed concerns regarding whether they would have time to ensure that being an RA was financially feasible for them and their families. Many were waiting to see how many RAs Financial Aid could see and how much they could help RAs individually, based on financial gaps that may have occurred due to the reduced compensation before the end of Monday. The deadline has since been extended to Thursday at 5 pm. RAs are currently working on ensuring their financial aid situations and deciding whether to be RAs. Some said that they felt “disrespected,” according to Julie Hawkins ’11, by the administration due to the miscommunication about freshman RA applications and untimely notification of the reduced compensation.
Jordan Hagaman ’09, a current learning assistant coordinator who has been working closely with the Senate and RAs for the past couple of weeks, noted that many RAs felt that no matter what happened, they would still want to sign because they felt a heavy and sincere since of duty. Many reasoned that it would not be fair to students on campus for them to leave because they cannot afford to be RAs or because they feel that the reductions could possibly create more work for them as the remaining RAs. This situation is especially likely given that there are already five vacancies in RA positions because Residence Life did not hire freshmen this year, and potentially more from upperclassmen.
