Resident assistants at Hampton University want more than just a single room

Kneppmel29, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The following story is a hard news story written during a news writing and reporting class. Resident assistants at Hampton University are not pleased with their working conditions or pay and they want their voices heard.

HAMPTON, VA- Hampton University resident assistants (RAs) say they are tired of being overworked and not paid enough. They want their voices to be heard.

“It takes a village to run a residence hall and keep it functioning, but if the RAs aren't being compensated for their work, that village will dwindle down,” said president of Hampton’s Resident Assistant Association Amira Manes. “We are a very important, influential part in many Hamptonian's lives and we deserve better.”

For the 2019 through 2020 academic year, Hampton pays its RAs $350 per semester and provides a single room, according to Hampton University Residence Life. Students who become RAs have to pay the room and board prices of living with a roommate but get the benefit of living in a single room. As full time students, Hampton’s RAs are expected to be on call 24- hours a day, according to the university’s website.

The RAs at Hampton University are required to work 10 to 12 hours a week at the front desk and put on four educational programs a month collectively. The stipend that Hampton gives its RAs is low compared to the national average. In May 2018 RAs had an hourly mean wage of $14.37, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“When tuition is consistently rising each year to attend Hampton but the compensation is still the same there is a problem,” Manes said. “Most schools offer room and board being fully paid for or just the room being paid for along with a modest stipend.”

Old Dominion University in Norfolk gives its RAs a yearly stipend of $7,500, according to Old Dominion’s University Life requirements. Students who work as RAs are expected to maintain a 2.5 grade point average. However, students who became RA’s at Old Dominion are not guaranteed a single room, according to Old Dominion’s University Life requirements.

Virginia State University (VSU) offers its RAs a single room and $500 that goes towards an on- campus meal plan, according to VSU’s RA Selection Committee.

Being on call 24 hours a day is stressful plus, it takes a great deal of time to plan weekly programs, put up decorations and work desk shifts. All that should be should be considered in compensation, according to members of Hampton’s RA Association.

“There should be a better way to work with our schedules,” said sophomore RA Christina Buie. “I like our rotating schedule, but I also feel like it puts me in a box, cause if I wanna go out next week I don’t know when I have desk.”

Buie is willing to take on more responsibilities if leaders of the RA association become more flexible with scheduling. The responsibilities of being a full time student should be considered in RA compensation, according to Bouie.

“For us, working 12 hours is a lot; the cap should be 10,” Bouie said. “If we got more money, then sure I’d work more hours, but we paid eight cents an hour maybe, but who knows because they never give us a report of the money.”

Buie feels as though part of the reason why RAs are not seeing change despite putting in complaints is due to the way Hampton administration views change.

“I think that Hampton and the judicial affairs people think that the ways things are fine because it works, but just because it works doesn’t mean that it works well,” Buie said.

When low pay and a strict schedule are a part of the job, RAs have trouble seeing the benefits of working in dorms.

“All the RAs usually do it for a year and then they quit because they realize that the benefits aren’t really there,” Bouie said.

RAs at Hampton believe that their school pays less because of a disconnect between students and administration, but some sources believe that the University being a private institution is the cause of RAs’ low payments.

“Working nights here it’s not compensated,” said night monitor in Hampton’s Virginia Cleveland Hall Donessa Arapi.

Part of Arapi’s job is working a dorm’s front desk when RAs are not scheduled to work. Arapi works from 12am to 8am as a night monitor in a freshman dorm.

Low pay is an issue for Hampton’s faculty and staff not just RAs, according to Arapi.

“At other places, if you work nights you get paid more, so we’re not getting it and you guys aren’t getting it and I can only think it’s because it’s a private institution in a sense,” Arapi said.

Hampton staff members with lots of experience working in dorms expressed that RAs should be more effective in how they communicate with administration. Finding the proper ways to work through solutions with administration is the first step towards solving Hampton RAs’ problems.

“I feel like it should be an open communication between the authorities and the RA’s,” said a Hampton residence hall night monitor. “If you have a problem, or you’re dissatisfied with that’s going on, you should go to the head and let them know your feelings and what you’re frustrated about.”

Despite half of the academic year not being over, some RAs have already made up their minds about working in dorms next fall.

“If I were to continue to do this I would have to work another job next year,” said sophomore RA Alexandria Witherspoon.

In order to be an RA at Hampton, you have to want to work in dorms out of the kindness of your heart and not look solely at benefits, according to Witherspoon.

“You’re not doing it for free room and board, you’re not doing it so that you can make a little bit of money during your semester because neither one of those things is going to happen, at least not right now,” Whitherspoon said.