Last semester, the Cost of Attendance Committee set plans in motion to reduce the room and board compensation for resident assistants to $5,000. Student Residence Life Staff, as well as many others on campus, were extremely upset and have been looking for explanations as to what induced this change.
While many questioned whether this was another reduction due to the financial crisis, Grand Marshal Kara Chesal ’09 confirmed in the Senate meeting last week that, according to the faculty on the Cost of Attendance Committee, this is not a result of the economic hardship. “The reduced compensation has nothing to do with financial instability and it is independent of the current financial situation RPI finds itself in,” Chesal stated.
The topic of RA compensation at last week’s Senate meeting was brought up with a motion to approve a statement in support of the current year’s RA compensation. Senator Andrew Neidhardt ’11 said that this statement from the Senate, in addition to showing its support for the RAs, also highlighted the fact that “this is not just RAs that are upset about the new compensation, but that a large portion of the student body feels that the RAs are going to be put at a huge and unfair disadvantage for the work that they do, and, as a result, damage the quality of residence life on campus.”
An hour-long discussion among senators ensued after the proposal of this statement, with most expressing their dissatisfaction with both the new compensation and its implications. One senator believes that the debate “should be about the fact that this is really a statement of how much RPI values their RAs.” Upon further questioning, it was confirmed by Neidhardt that one person on the Cost of Attendance Committee said that the reduced compensation is “what I think the RAs are worth.”
Vice President of Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles disagreed with the assumption that the administration undervalues the RAs, stating, “That is not true and that is not just with RAs. That is also not true when it comes to our [learning assistants], [Student Orientation] advisers, and any number of student positions and student systems across campus. We certainly recognize that the RAs are worth way more than we could ever pay them for. They are a priceless component of our student life that do an immeasurable amount for our residents.
He added, “Trying to put a dollar amount to an RA is an equation that doesn’t make sense.”
Senators also voiced concern over the fact that RAs—after having their compensation reduced—will still be required to live on campus and have a meal plan. Many on the Senate noted that in certain situations, RAs would actually have to pay more to do their job when they could be saving by living off campus or not having a meal plan.
Senator Corey Andrew Stall ’10 stated that RAs could put the same amount of hours into another job and be paid much more. Although Associate Dean of Residence Life Amanda Bingel mentioned that “RAs should never do their job for the money, and if they apply with that as their main motivator in mind, they are not fit for the jobs,” Senators felt that even with the right motivations, the new compensation just may not be financially plausible for some current and potential RAs. They feel that this would thus force these students to take alternative steps, and, as a result, could weed out potential RAs as a result of money.
Knowles will be personally meeting with the RAs today, to help further explain the situation and answer any questions or concerns they might have. In addition, a financial aid officer will also be present to answer any questions. According to Knowles, “The Financial Aid Office stands ready to provide students with that assistance. We know the whole dynamic of room and board is an important aspect of how people manage their obligations. We don’t want any of our students to wind up with a financial aid hardship.”
The outlash against the reduced RA compensation from the student body has been magnified by benchmarking with 42 other top schools. Only a select few are incurring the same reduced compensations for their RAs, putting RPI at the bottom 8 percent of these top universities—most of which are not reducing their RA compensations at all. However, the Cost of Attendance Committee and other involved administration have stated that, unlike other universities, RPI is doing this for reasons entirely unrelated to the economic hardships.
Knowles clarified that this is a transition for the Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students: “We are in the process of working on the CLASS initiative, which will appropriate more adult staff in the residence life halls and thus reduce the responsibility of the RAs, more accurately reflecting the new compensation. The people involved with the CLASS initiative have really taken a close look at the magnitude and level of responsibility RAs have in comparison with other schools.”
Knowles shared some insight on the long-term motivations for reducing RA compensation. “This is not at all a reflection of how we value the RAs. We are changing the model with the Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students Initiative. There will be more adult professional staff living in residence halls, bringing faculty into the mix with the whole idea of having cluster deans who are senior faculty members. It is going to change the dynamic of the expectations in terms of what RAs will do. There will be much more professional staff and faculty involved. So from that vantage point, we are actually going to rebalance what the requirements and expectation are for our RAs.”
In response to the popular statistic from benchmarking, Knowles said that the administration had also taken that into account. “We have really done some in-depth evaluations, with benchmarking in mind, and from tours to five other schools who we are patterning our new Residence Life after, and in our evaluations, we have questioned whether we have placed maybe too much responsibility (not to say that our RAs have not done a great job) in terms of to what extent are we placing more burden on our RAs than we should.”
Knowles also said that, “The rebalancing of responsibility and roles RAs and new Residence Life staff have will be more reflective of the new compensation for RAs, and we feel that overall this new plan will be more fair to RAs and thus the student life as a whole.” Bingel’s comments reflected Knowles’ statements that the reduced compensation is one part in a larger transition. “We have been doing our best to keep our RAs informed throughout the compensation process, beginning with their notification during winter training that there would be a reduction in compensation, even though we did not know how much at that point. Residence Life initially tried to see if the current RAs could be grandfathered into the initial full room and board compensation.
“However, given that they must undergo the compensation in addition to incoming RAs, we have been working on their behalf to bridge the gap between Residence Life and Financial Aid as Dr. Knowles has said.”
In regard to some of the points the Senate brought up, Bingel said, “We think our staff is worth a million dollars and that they provide an invaluable service to our campus.”
Bingel also mentioned that “It has not been easy to go about the transition, and we have contemplated all of the issues brought up in the Senate meeting, including whether meal plans should continue to be provided or not. We have really questioned what the priorities should be for an RA with the reduced compensation and made sure that all of these things were considered in light of the new compensation.”
Residence Life did not make the decision to reduce RA compensation; it carries out the decisions of the administration. However, given the proposed reduced compensation, Residence Life has been working with Financial Aid and the Committee of Cost Attendance to iron out these details and make the changes as easy for RAs as possible, according to Bingel. In addition, consideration for financial aid as an RA will not affect the student’s potential for financial aid as a regular student, meaning there will be no trade-offs between both aspects of financial consideration as long as the total amount does not exceed the total cost of attendance. However, many senators feel that the core issue is how much the RAs are valued.
Neidhardt shed light on the value RAs have, in noting during the Senate meeting that, “It is also important to realize that in addition to the relatively large and hands-on amount of responsibility being an RA at RPI. It requires a certain amount of dedication that cannot be calculated in hours because of how much RAs are involved with their residence life. It also goes without saying that as an RA, you must live up to that standard 100 percent of the time.”
Neidhardt also stated that, “It is just expected that RAs—that we —make certain life choices and act a certain way in certain situations that are pretty demanding for a student in college. Taking on that kind of commitment and dedication includes an entire life change that RAs are willing to do, and that is just something you cannot quantify in terms of job description.”
Before approving the Senate statement supporting the RAs’ and the general student body’s sentiments toward the new RA compensation, graduate student Dan Horvath ’08 wrapped up the discussion with his comments.
“This is a job for which RAs are putting in a lot of time,” Horvath said. “This is not a work study position where you can do your homework while working; this is a real and huge responsibility that I honestly feel like the administration is undervaluing. When you are an RA during the first couple of weeks with new freshmen, there are countless things that could potentially go wrong and your head is on the line.”
Correlating the position to a full-time job, Horvath stated, “Any employer would give their employees the tools necessary to do their job, and having a room in the residence hall and a meal plan because you are required to live and dine with your students on a regular basis are the tools that are necessary to do their job, and they are being taken away from the RAs. So I feel that RAs asking to retain their current compensation is not an unreasonable request. This is not an award. This is not a scholarship they won; this is a position for which they work and sacrifice.”
