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ONO: Housing and Residence Life is unfair to low-income RAs

Forcing RAs to sacrifice financial aid creates less socioeconomically diverse staffs

<p>Kent Dorm</p>

Kent Dorm

When someone hears about the benefits and compensation of the resident advisor role at the University, they immediately think about the “free” room.

Life as a resident advisor is both rewarding and challenging. Tangible benefits include free room and board, 50 meal swipes and 130 plus dollars a semester. Intangible benefits include the opportunity to mentor students, educate yourself on the widely applicable Housing and Residence Life, or HRL, core values, develop leadership skills and learn how to work on a team. These are deep virtues.

However, HRL in many ways shortchanges its RAs, an issue which the editorial board explored previously this semester. The power imbalance between the employer and its employees is due partially to the long list of alternates who will readily and happily take those subpar benefits that current RAs may pass up on. There always seems to be a long list of grievances, but in this article I would like to start the conversation on the existing system that discourages students of lower socioeconomic statuses from applying to be a resident advisor.

According to the U.Va. housing website, “remunerations received by Resident Advisors may affect financial aid awards from the University.” I emailed Student Financial Services regarding the details for my situation as an out-of-state financial aid recipient. I was informed I could expect that my Perkins loan and subsidized loan would decrease dollar by dollar per the RA compensation. Additionally, SFS told me that if RA compensation exceeded these two loans, then my AccessUVA award would also decrease. The implications of this policy are such that if a student’s financial aid exceeds the approximately $6,800 in compensation, the student will pay the same amount of money out of pocket as if they were not a resident advisor. And because the University recognizes RA compensation as a form of financial aid, that increase in aid may disqualify some students from meaningful work study opportunities.

The University claims 33 percent of its students are on financial aid, but a minority of student households can comfortably pay around $61,000 per year out of their pocket. Socioeconomic disparities exacerbate the current compensation model, which in my experience has led to residence staffs composed by students from more privileged, wealthy homes. This surely is not consistent with HRL’s core values of inclusivity and empowerment, nor HRL’s professed mission to “[encourage] students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to apply for a position on staff.”

It’s no secret HRL creates this problem for students. HRL even encourages prospective RAs to research how their financial aid package will be impacted. And while HRL claims that “qualified [resident advisor] applicants will not be discriminated against based on their socioeconomic status,” HRL certainly does create an environment that discourages applicants with financial aid from applying. Unfortunately, this is not an issue unique to the University. The Virginia Tech HRL page mentions that “earnings may affect the amount of aid a student receives for the academic year. In addition, the room scholarship is similar to any other scholarship and may impact a student's financial aid package.”

As mentioned earlier, there are reasons why people like me still decide to pursue the RA position even though it is essentially free labor. It is a testament to how much value and impact the opportunity means to an RA. Despite this, we cannot treat the position like an additional financial aid package; rather, it is a job. It requires commitment, responsibility and sacrifice like any other part-time job. The University should recognize this and not treat it the same as a grant from AccessUVA, or at the least not decrease the financial aid package dollar for dollar.

Shota Ono is a fourth-year Engineering student.

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