RAs in the towers voice concern over being responsible for two floors. // Photo courtesy of Antony-22.
*Disclaimer: RAs interviewed for this article chose to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation from Hofstra University.
A resident assistant (RA) helps residents with issues ranging from answering questions about campus life to emergency situations, but it leaves many to wonder how an RA can be responsible for a floor they do not live on.
Prior to the pandemic, most floors in the residential tower buildings had a single RA, with the exception of senior RAs who were typically assigned to two top floors with fewer residents. Upon returning in the fall of 2021, the residential community was reduced, which decreased the number of RAs.
“We are starting to build back our resident community, and we’re really excited about that,” said Jessica Eads, the vice president for student enrollment, engagement and success. “That’s why one of the first things we’re going to be looking at is the staffing needs that come with building back our resident community. We have not gotten back to pre-pandemic levels as of yet.”
Regardless of how many residential students are on campus, RAs in the towers have voiced concerns over being responsible for two floors, claiming it adds more work and stress to an already stressful job.
“I believe it creates more work for me when it shouldn’t,” said an RA in Estabrook Hall. “Each RA should be responsible for a single floor, because in addition to fostering community, each RA will also need to address the problems that accompany each floor. Having two problematic floors can create quite an issue when it comes to balancing workload. I don’t think it can be dangerous, but I do think it can be problematic. Sometimes there will be issues brewing that are completely unbeknownst to the RA of that floor.”
RAs in the towers were also left to assume that they would be responsible for two floors at once after getting the job.
“The RAs have a pre-service meeting in April where they meet with their future staff and with their resident director, and they would have learned their buildings at that point,” said Russ Smith, director of residential education. “So it’s safe to assume that if you were an RA in a building in a tower, you would see that there were less RAs than there are floors in the tower. So they would have known realistically that they could have been one of the RAs with multiple floors.”
An RA in Bill of Rights Hall stated they had the summer to prepare after learning they would have two floors but faced unexpected challenges.
“I did have all summer to prepare to have two floors, like planning out my door decorations and my signs and my bulletin boards, but it’s a lot more challenging emotionally than I thought it would be,” the RA said. “It adds emotional stress because I don’t like feeling like I’m not living right next door to my residents. If they have a problem, and I don’t hear about it and then I find out weeks later, I’m like, ‘Oh, you didn’t tell me.’”
The RA in Bill of Rights is concerned that an emergency situation could occur and they would not be present on the floor when it happens.
Typically, RAs only go on rounds, where they walk through every floor in the building, between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. on weekends.
“When I’m doing rounds and I go through all the different floors, and I go to my second floor, I’m looking around [and] I don’t even see half of these people on a daily basis,” the RA said. “I am worried that something’s going on in their lives that I don’t know about or they don’t feel comfortable enough to tell me about because we’re not as close.”
Eads said that the administration will continue to look at the ratio of RAs to the number of students at other institutions.
“We’re certainly looking at this, and we want to make sure what we’re doing is appropriate. I met with the RAs when they first joined campus over the summer. I have a group text that I have with the RAs every single Sunday,” Eads said. “They have lots of opportunities to come and share concerns with us, and I would encourage them to use those options so we can hear about this.”
Community is one of the most important aspects within a residence hall, and fostering community with people you don’t see everyday can be difficult, according to the RA in Bill of Rights.
“It’s important for residents and the Hofstra community to know that this isn’t just a paycheck for us. Most of the people who are RAs actually value community work and actually value the relationship that they make within the residence halls,” the RA said. “I can’t think of anybody in our building that doesn’t have two floors, actually. So it’s not just picking up the slack for others. It’s trying to build that community, where maybe if we had more people, it would have been easier.”