Hey everyone,
I’d just like to rant about a job that has continually disappointed me since I first joined this academic year. I’m talking about the Resident Assistant job. For those interested in becoming one sometime in your college years, please read this.
Notice: I know this job can vary widely for everyone. Some people genuinely do have excellent experiences with being a RA. However, this is just my experience as well as a few of my peers, all from Big 10 schools.
Firstly, for those who don’t already know, a Resident Assistant (or Advisor depending on your school) is a fellow student who is essentially in charge of a given living area. Their purpose is to monitor the safety of residents, inspire/motivate residents, be a good role model, and provide residents with support/help throughout the entire academic year.
So lets go over the benefits that being a RA immediately provides (at least in most universities):
-Free room and choice of meal plan (including the highest one)
-Tuition stipend (~$6000+ yearly at my school)
-Roughly $2000 salary (yearly)
Totaling about $16,000-$20,000 saved yearly at my college. (Depending on your living space you are assigned)
Anyways, that sounds awesome right? This job has to be worth all the trouble, I mean about 20 grand come on – right? Wrong. Dead wrong.
Some reasons why this job sucks include but not limited to the following:
-Duty/Rounds, from about 7 pm to 7 am you MUST stay in your designated area, meaning no hanging out with the bros or gals outside your area. Period. You will be written up or even terminated if you are repeatedly caught sneaking out. So remember that when your friends are having fun, you’re sitting in your room watching Netflix for about half the week, every week.(Often times, you are assigned 3 or 4 times a week to be on Duty and patrol the halls (Rounds) even during the wee hours on school nights!! Yes, 2 am sometimes!) Dead serious, this sucks. The worst is yet to come.
-Holiday Duty/Rounds, similar to the one above, you are asked to stay on campus during a specific holiday season. No exceptions. For instance, some RAs may stay for a few days over Thanksgiving, some over Winter Break for up to a week. You won’t get to necessarily pick either.
-Busting people, this can be exciting or straight up annoying. It may feel awesome to have the authority to ‘boss people around’ or act as the ‘bad cop’ but in all seriousness, this part is my least favorite. The fact that college is known for alcohol, drugs, sex, etc. is a given…busting and interfering with all those situations takes this job to a whole new level. Residents will see you as that ‘a*hole’ and continually give you a hard time often into the wee times of the night. Sleep will become something you’ll be dying to have after you take this job. Not to mention, all the paperwork/computer documentation you have to do for each incident. Trust me, this can take a tremendous amount of time. Especially if you have a hall that continually smokes pot. *coughs Mine.
-Residents will inevitably stay away from you, this is the one thing that bugs me a whole lot. The whole purpose of me becoming a RA was to create friendships with my residents and sincerely provide a support structure for as many of them as possible. That being said, most of them saw me as a nuisance and didn’t even consider me to be their peer – despite my efforts of providing them with food/love. Granted, I do have several residents who hang out with me but a vast majority don’t seem to ever even be around. Creating a strong hall or building bond between residents is virtually impossible. Not to mention, female RAs typically have it harder, so thankfully I don’t have to deal with the high school type drama they have go through.
-Bulletin Boards, Name Tags, Emails, Newsletters, Programs, etc. This seems like a great opportunity for you to get creative! Hahaha no. Typically you have restrictions on what you can put on each media. In addition, you have strict deadlines and frequently have to do several of these at least on a weekly basis. This can become rather time consuming especially if you’re taking a difficult major. (I’ll leave that to interpretation)
-Drama between other RAs, this is sadly something I NEVER expected. Too often, many RAs from several halls/residences as well as other universities will tell stories about how they were ‘back-stabbed’ by other RAs. For example, some RAs would go as far as to drink alcohol with you and the very next day, report you for having alcohol. This can go both ways of course, but typically an older RA will do this to a younger RA in hopes of getting the newbie into some sort of trouble. Also, there are those extreme----goody goody RAs who abide by literally every policy known to man. If one RA were to slip up, those particular RAs will do everything in their power to embarrass the other RA. Why? So that he/she can be recognized as being the better RA during the year end award ceremony (if your school does one) or get promoted to become some sort of administrator level (Staff Resident, in my school’s case).
-Lack in Administrators, this is unfortunately the reality of residential life at most universities. The average job lifespan for a Residential Educator Coordinator (REC) or an Area Coordinator (AC) is merely 3 years!! Too many adults thought they would love getting to work with RAs, SRs, and residents throughout the school year. Boy, were they wrong. To our misfortune, our bosses typically become burnt out due to all the paper work they have to do and their job turnover is at an all-time high. Also, they are compensated with only a $40,000** base salary; with their weekly hours running as high as 60-80 hours, especially towards the end of the year! In America, this is unheard of; just to put it into perspective of how many adults disliked their Res Life positions, this year alone at my university, we had 7/12 ACs leave for other jobs and 5/8 Assistant Directors (ADs) of Res Life leave as well! That is just absolutely absurd…I guess no one wants to deal with student’s dramatic issues.
Nonetheless, this is just a brief run down of what to expect if you or your friends ever decide to become an RA. Expect to dedicate a lot of time into this job, even if you don’t plan to take it seriously. Remember, this job isn’t all that bad if you are fortunate! Good luck, you’re going to need it.