"All undergrad RAs are supervised by full-time residential staff at some level. "
Yeah, and at some colleges, there are adults living in every entryway, and that’s better.
“The RA knows how to get in touch with the on-call dean, the 24-hour nurse, the rape crisis hotline, the 5 nearest emergency rooms, the appropriate police precinct…”
I’m chuckling over here. YOU knew all those things, which is awesome, but all RAs do not. Do you really think undergrad RA is the only profession in the world that is free of incompetent people?
“The RA is always the right person to go to, because even if s/he can’t solve her/himself it that night, s/he has access to a broad range of services/networks that can help him/her solve it along with or for your student.”
I can’t imagine why you would have this level of confidence about every RA at every college in the country. If there’s a safety issue with my kid, I’m talking to an adult with some power to fix it. The RA may be a great way to figure out who the right person is, or they may be worse than useless and stand in the way. Some may blame you for provoking the crazy roommate’s rages. Maybe the RA is part of the problem on that hall.
Let’s just say I’ve been there firsthand at a college where there really weren’t any adults in charge – “self-government” was the word of the day. We called public safety to report our hallmate’s abusive boyfriend. The RAs were scared of this girl and her boyfriend, so they were hiding in their rooms like everybody else. There should have been an ADULT around to deal with that.