For those who are not aware, Residential Success Representatives (RSRs) are the students seated in the booths right at the entrance of each dorm building on campus. You have undoubtedly interacted with them before, whether you’ve had to sign in a guest, or perhaps forgotten your Hofstra University ID and needed help getting into the building you live in. It’s effectively “front desk security.” The job is pretty straightforward, but I also have some wild stories from it.

Whenever I share stories from my experiences working as an RSR, I like to make a comparison to a YouTube channel called Cart Narcs. The premise is simple: they walk around grocery store parking lots, and upon spotting a person who actively chose not to return their shopping cart, the Cart Narcs will ask them to return it. Maybe they’ll call them a “lazybones,” and at the absolute worst, put a magnet on a person’s car that reads “I don’t return my shopping cart.” This simple interaction, more often than not, leaves people absolutely furious, and I have found that to perfectly sum up the RSR experience.

To give the students that live on campus credit, a vast majority of them are reasonable if I have to call after them for failing to tap their ID card or sign in a guest. Then, on the other side of the coin, you have the time where I got called a fascist for daring to so much as look up at people when they entered the dorm building I was in. That is not to mention the number of one-sided rivalries I have had as well, where students have decided to have what feels like blood feuds over the smallest incidents. I have been met with a tirade of insults and curses that I cannot repeat here for informing someone they cannot swipe someone else in with their own ID. That same individual went on to give me the middle finger every time they entered and exited the building for four weeks straight – but of course, not while their girlfriend was with them.

I have had people banging on the glass and yelling because they didn’t have their ID on them. I have gotten the whole “I live here! You KNOW I live here!” spiel, and people sometimes resorting to directly threatening me. These scenarios are all over being asked to take five seconds out of their day to tap their ID or me having the audacity to do my job and make sure people sign their guests in.

I suppose it is to that point where I have to wonder: What compels people to act like this – to feel like they need to enter some sort of feud over the smallest inconvenience? I simply cannot wrap my head around how people get violent over something small and only waste more time in doing so.

I understand that it can be a pain if you need to wait for public safety to escort you into your own dorm building in the circumstance that you forgot to have any form of ID on you, but it is also important to understand that the whole point of the RSR is to keep residents safe. Even if I wasn’t an RSR, I would feel safer knowing that there is any sort of screening process to make sure that people who do not belong in the building cannot get in.

Whatever the reason may be, I think people ultimately need to get over themselves, as acting entitled reflects negatively on their character. It is the same deal with people who lash out at customer service workers or towards people in the food industry. We are not your enemy, nor do we have a vendetta against you, we are just doing our jobs. Just remember, you can take five seconds to swipe your ID, or you can take 20 minutes throwing a temper tantrum. Act your age, both for our sake and for your dignity’s.