The sophomore housing has been under fire recently for a lack of RA supervision. Photo by Joseph Lachance.
Although several students have expressed concerns that it is difficult to contact their Residential Advisors (RAs), the University of Rhode Island office of Housing and Residential Life (HRL) wants them to know that RAs are students too.
“It’s a great leadership opportunity for students,” Frankie Minor, director of HRL said. “It’s also a job that has certain responsibilities. So that’s why we look for students who can juggle working about 20 hours a week and also still be a really good student. That said, so they should be readily available to students within their community.”
This concern has mainly been voiced from students living in sophomore dormitories. Dorr Hall Resident Lauren Itzler said that on Oct. 20, 2018, around 10:30 p.m., she was in her room and she heard a group of boys attempt to try and open her, and her suitemates door. They did this by continuously banging and knocking on the doors. Itzler proceeded to try and contact the RA on-call.
“I attempted to call the RA phone number and it went straight to voicemail three times,” Itzler said. “An RA should have picked up because there is an RA on call at that time.”
Itzler, with help of her suitemates, decided it would then be best to inform their RA and the hall director over email since no one answered her calls. Itzler and her suitemates met with both their RA and hall director within the next week and said there wasn’t anything they could do about the situation.
“Our RA and hall director met with us within that week and they did not seem concerned at all,” Itzler said. “They said there was nothing they could do to help us other than for us to look at who’s at our door before opening the door.”
Minor wants students to recognize that they can go to any of the RAs in their building or in another building if two dorms share RAs. If there’s ever an issue contacting them he advises students to reach out to their hall director with details on the concerning incident that took place.
“Being responsive is part of their responsibility,” said Minor. “If they’re having concerns, they need to make sure that somebody knows they can get messages to the RA office, but details are helpful. Saying ‘my RA is never around,’ doesn’t help us. Saying, ‘I tried on these particular times, I tried in these particular ways’ helps us try to figure out if there’s going to be a situation that can be improved there.”
Other students have expressed frustration when it comes to needing more toilet paper in their bathrooms. It is up to residents to make sure there is toilet paper in their own bathrooms, however, the dormitory buildings do provide it for students.
The toilet paper is stored in the RA office. It has been said by residents that there often is none left out and with the limited office hours it’s difficult to obtain toilet paper when they’ve needed it.
“One day we [my suitemates and I] completely ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom without any of us noticing before,” said Dominique Dufour, a Dorr Hall resident. “I went down to the office and it was locked with no one in there. I called the RA on-call number and they did not pick up. So we had to knock on our suitemates door to borrow toilet paper from their bathroom.”
Dufour said this occurred during a weeknight evening. In each building the RA office has posted the office hours for each RA. This is supposed to help students find a time to be able to access anything they may need an RAs assistance for.
Ellery Hall resident, Lauren Von Holten, said that her RA refused to report a wasp problem in her room when she alerted them about this issue.
“During fire checks [my RA] and another RA came in to check my room and I told them wasps keep coming in [and to] please report it,” Von Holten said. “They said, ‘It’s fine. They’ll die soon.’”
If a resident has a maintenance issue they are supposed to notify a staff member so they can submit a work order.
“We also want to find, and are coming up with a more convenient [way] to report the information to Facility Services, and that’s the real challenge,” Minor said. “We can put the information into the system, but we have the Facility Services staff to come fix and repair [the issue].”
Not all students have had issues contacting their RA when needed. Hopkins Hall resident Danny Freitas said that his RAs are always around.
“They’re really helpful when I need it and super chill,” Freitas said.
Despite the wasp incident, Von Holten said that since her RA is one of her suitemates, she’s never had an issue contacting them.
Becoming an RA can be competitive, as HRL often receives a large pool of applicants. According to Kayla Mosko, assistant director of residential education qualifications that are often looked for in applicants include being able to connect with other students, being a leader and having the ability to be responsible.
Students who are selected to become an RA go through training in August to prepare to take on their position once the academic year starts up.