Residential assistants on campus are not satisfied with their overall compensation package, a survey conducted by Housing and Residential Life found.
RAs make up 179 students on URI’s Kingston campus, including resident academic mentors and senior resident assistants, according to data from HRL. Out of the 36% of RAs that responded to HRL’s survey, over half were in the first year of the program.
The responding staff ranked their satisfaction with the overall compensation package a 2.75 out of 5 on average, while they ranked their satisfaction with housing quality satisfaction slightly higher, at 3.5, according to the summarized survey results.
38% of survey respondents said their stipend positively impacted their financial stability.
SRAs receive a stipend of $5,800 per year, while RAs receive $4,800, according to the HRL survey. RAMs, who support first-year students in living and learning communities, receive no stipend. However, HRL places every RAM in singles room with a waiver to any housing fees, which the survey found to be the most valuable aspect of the compensation package.
Student senate President Argha Goswami, a fourth-year computer science major, said that a number of RAs confided in her about their dissatisfaction with their compensation, prompting her to incorporate it into her campaign.
“I feel like there is a discomfort among RAs to not express [concerns] openly, because for them, their room and board is at stake,” Goswami said.
Goswami, an RA herself over the summer, said she empathized with the RAs’ concerns.
She cited building assignments as a point of contention for the RAs she spoke to, stating she believed RAs placed in freshman dorms should be compensated for the additional management they do with first-year residents.
Another big ticket item on the RA form concerns their stipend in relation to the meal plans on campus. Some RAs expressed a desire for meal plans to become a part of their compensation package, while others expressed a desire for an opportunity to tweak the system, according to assistant vice president of HRL Thomas Cooley.
On campus meal plans, required for all HRL residents including RAs, range from $2,675 to $3,050, depending on the amount of dining dollars, guest swipes and ram account dollars included in each plan, according to the URI Dining Services website .
Flex meal plans range from $425 to $1,150 and are available to all off-campus students, as well as on-campus students living in the suite-style dorms of Brookside Hall, Garrahy Hall, University Gateway Apartments, Wiley Hall and the Talent Development Achievement House.
RAs assigned to all non-suite-style dorms are required to have the same campus meal plans as the residents they oversee, according to Dining Services. This means that they pay $1,125 more per semester than RAs assigned to suite-style dorms, even if they are doing the same job.
When RAs completed the survey, many did not believe that a meal plan should replace the stipend outright, according to the summarized survey results. No survey data outright supports this statement.
“My question is: does that come at the expense of the stipend or does it mean more stipend to cover it?” Cooley said.
HRL included a recommendation section in their survey, which stated that HRL should keep the room waiver and increase the stipend. This section does not mention changes to the dining plan. The recommendations also included a review of the RAM position and the note that many of them would like a stipend. These recommendations were specifically cited as “still in the review phase.”
At the time of her interview in mid-October, Goswami believed that about half the RAs on campus completed the survey, which made her concerned that dissatisfaction rates could be much higher. After the survey closed, over 60% of RAs had yet to voice their concerns to HRL.
“For example, if only 20 RAs are dissatisfied, but only half the staff filled [the survey] out, that’s not a great measure,” Goswami said.
Cooley was unavailable for further comment after the results of the survey were released.