Anonymous letter, written and co-signed by 25 Resident Assistants
Meet the newest course at The College of Wooster: Residence Life Staff Practicum. “Resident Assistant (RA) class” aims to “provide a foundation for the RA staff to build thriving, engaging and supportive communities with our residential spaces… [and] be introduced to the skills, perspectives and resources they need to be successful in their role.” After reading this course description, it would seem that this would perhaps be a beneficial course for new RAs who are still unfamiliar with the nitty gritty of community building and programming. However, to returning RAs who are already applying these skills in their daily lives, this class seems redundant and unnecessary. Yet therein lies the catch — except for those graduating this year, this class is required for all RAs, even those who have been RAs for more than a year. In exchange for taking this class, RAs would receive one quarter credit for the semester — we would not be compensated in our already-underpaid jobs for an extra several hours devoted each week to learning the skills we already know. Residence Life (directed by the Dean of Students Office) has argued that this quarter credit can be a point on our resumes showing that we have incorporated RA principles into academic spaces as well. However, when the RA position is already on our resumes and is necessarily housed within the collegiate setting, this is a meager incentive to overload even more than we already are and give up the little time for self-care that we may or may not even have.
Another “selling point” for this class was that it would significantly reduce the amount of time we spend in training, which is typically two weeks of a nine to five schedule at the beginning of each academic year, and another one to two days mid-year. This would seem to be a good goal for those who start the academic year already burnt out by this much time in one classroom (or this past year, in Teams calls). However, in truth, we RAs have learned that Residence Life only plans to chip off two days from this yearly training, which does not even come close to compensating for the amount of time RA class will take up. Focusing this class on community-building skills (something returning RAs have already been doing for years) is a misguided attempt to scapegoat RAs for general sentiments that community is not strong enough at Wooster — a rather confusing standpoint for a campus that appears rather tight-knit and constantly emphasizes community. Residence Life and Dean of Students Myrna Hernández have also consistently blamed RAs for a perceived lack of community that apparently leads to a less-than-perfect retention rate at Wooster, when perhaps in reality it is more so the inordinate tuition rate, rigorous academics and current pandemic. Forcing RAs to take on even more work during said pandemic is apathetic to the needs of the RAs who are essential to the “vibrant community” that Wooster prizes. If Residence Life and Dean Hernández truly wanted to improve our community building, they would allow us to use the time we would be in RA class to sleep, eat and practice self care in a time when our mental health and physical well-being are already so tenuous and yet so necessary to our performance as RAs.
However, Residence Life has completely sidelined the RAs when it comes to making this decision (among many others). When meeting in November with RA Council, a group of several RAs who advocate for the needs of the entire RA staff, Nathan Fein, director of Residence Life, waited until the last few minutes of the meeting to bring up the topic of the RA practicum course — forcing the RA Council members to either be late to class or miss the chance to provide input on this big new change, which is supposed to be the purpose of their position. Yet those who did manage to give their perspectives were ignored and told by Fein that they had a “piss-poor attitude.” Many other RAs have said that they did not even know about the class until near the end of January, at which point, when they asked questions and brought forth their concerns, they were told that it was “too late to do anything.” On Thursday, Feb. 4, Fein refused to schedule an all-staff meeting so that he could avoid hearing any RAs’ perspectives on this issue. This behavior is entirely unprofessional and callous on the part of the director of Residence Life.
Multiple RAs have indicated that they are considering quitting because they simply do not have time for this class, and at least one RA has already notified us that they are not returning next year. This is absolutely devastating and should be a wake up call to the professional staff of Residence Life. RAs should not be driven out of jobs that they need to be able to afford college, jobs that many would otherwise love, simply because they cannot add any more work to their already-full plates. This is especially detrimental to First-Generation and Limited Income (FGLI) students who rely on the position to help mitigate the inordinate cost of room and board at Wooster. As numerous RAs could not afford to finish their education at Wooster without this job, and as we are passionate about the rights and well-being of our fellow students (which, we must remember, RAs are too), it is unconscionable to us that Nathan Fein and Dean Myrna Hernández would put RAs into this position and force them to sacrifice their academics, mental health and well-being during a time as difficult as this.
To make a compromise, we as the RA staff propose that either this course is made optional for all RAs, or that it is only required for new RAs and optional for returners who feel that they would be able to incorporate it into their schedules and benefit from it. This option would both support the returning RAs and should satisfy the desires of Residence Life to move RA work into the academic realm, as well as build community in ways that are healthier and more sustainable for the community itself.