Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohio University resident assistants, or RAs, have clashed with Housing and Residence Life over job expectations, compensation, personal protections and more, past and present RAs have said.
As students, faculty and staff return to OU to start a new semester, those issues remain intact.
On Saturday, one RA, who spoke with The Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job, led a walkout of a small group of RAs to call attention to the problems they faced in their positions. Adam Hering, a senior studying biochemistry and Spanish and a former RA, joined his peers in the walkout.
“Everybody who was out there was really passionate,” Hering said. “They were just fed up and really wanted to say what was on their minds.”
Hering said about 10 people joined in the walkout and thought confusion about the details of the walkout led some to misunderstand when and where it was being held. He also acknowledged the possibility of RAs being fired for walking out, saying some may not be able to take the risk of losing the free housing component of the RA position.
The RA who planned the walkout is among those who fear punishment from the university, though they have taken on the responsibility of speaking out about their grievances because they don’t rely on the benefits of the job as much as others.
“I know that there are people who are less fortunate than me and have to have this job in order to make ends meet,” the RA said. “If I lose my job, so be it, but I just want … to be able to show people that they have a voice, too.”
RAs have cited a lack of pay and little to no protections from verbal or physical harassment by residents due to OU's COVID-19 policies as issues.
The anonymous RA said they get paid $3 per hour for an expected 10 to 20 hours per week. RAs also get free housing, but that is not factored into their compensation, the RA said.
In regards to mistreatment, the RA said other RAs of color are especially vulnerable to racial slurs, which they feel the university has done very little to punish. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent university health protocols, the RA said harassment has increased across the board.
“I have met plenty of RAs who've just had difficult residents … especially some now with COVID, you can say ‘Hey, can you please put on a mask?’ And you're lucky if you get off with a side glance,” Hering said.
Hannah Barnes, a fifth-year studying communication sciences and disorders and a former RA, said she believes the issues RAs face stem from Housing and Residence Life being detached from reality.
“I think sometimes they lost the perspective that I am a 20-year-old college student who is mommying 30 other 20-year-old college students,” Barnes said. “I'm just as busy with classes and all this stuff, so I think they lost perspective of that and I don't think they realize how isolating the job really is.”
Carly Leatherwood, a university spokesperson, said Housing and Residence Life has been engaging in conversations with RAs to discover how to best support them.
Despite those efforts, an “emergency meeting” on Jan. 6 left many questions the RAs had unanswered and made the anonymous RA feel ignored by Housing and Residence Life leadership.
Even with all of the issues surrounding the RA position, Barnes said she still views it as a good opportunity for students. Still, she would like to see improvements in the ways Housing and Residence Life handles issues that RAs experience.
“I would say being an RA is a really good opportunity if it's handled correctly, and the OU Housing and Residence Life doesn’t always handle things correctly,” Barnes said. “It makes things pretty difficult at times, and it makes the job pretty difficult, and the job becomes your life. So sometimes it just makes your life pretty difficult.”
