Resident Assistants face rising COVID-19 cases and dwindling university support

By Molly Wagner

“We got that from the Dean of Students about maybe 4 minutes before it was sent to the whole university," said Alex Hicks, a GVSU junior and Mentor RA. “Whereas I know for a fact that Student Senate Cabinet had received that information the night before.”

The Ottawa County Department of Public Health issued the two-week “Staying in Place” order for GVSU students in Allendale Township on September 16. The Resident Assistants, GVSU students in charge of enforcing all housing-related COVID-19 policies, learned about the Staying in Place Order just four minutes before the rest of the university was notified.

Housing leadership said they didn’t know why RAs weren’t notified sooner. “That was above and outside of Housing,” said Assistant Director of Recruitment & Training Kristen Evans. “Housing administration was not pleased with that decision."

The Resident Assistants at Grand Valley have watched their role change drastically from community builder to rule enforcer due to COVID-19. But as the university gives them more responsibilities, they find themselves subject to poor communication from administration, diminished program funding and mental health support, as well as a restrictive contract that limits their ability to speak publicly about the challenges they encounter. To address these issues and facilitate better communication with housing leadership, RAs created a council that equally represents each of the 12 residence communities.

Two RAs say the miscommunication of the “Staying in Place” order was just one example of the lack of transparent communication between Housing and Residence Life, Living Center Directors and themselves.

“Last year and at the beginning of this year, if you email a housing team leader, they might not email you back,” said Gracie Barrett, a GVSU Resident Assistant and member of the new RA council.

Assistant Director Evans said that housing leadership has not identified this as a widespread issue. She acknowledges that it must have happened occasionally, and RAs didn’t get answers. “I wouldn’t put it past any of us in housing leadership, particularly between March and July with the way things were that things get lost at the bottom of an inbox,” Evans said.

The line of communication from housing leadership to the RAs created issues as well. There are three tiers of communication: the housing leadership team; living center directors; and resident assistants. Some RAs were receiving different information depending on the community staff of which they were a part.

“We were finding that information was not trickling down in a consistent matter,” said Barrett.

Assistant Director Evans said they were sharing information with RAs as soon as leadership received it.

“I think that in some cases there’s a belief among the RAs that housing leadership has a lot more power at the institution than we really do,” Evans said. “As it relates to COVID, housing was in more of a response mode than a creation mode, so policies were created at a state level, a national level, or at the Grand Valley level and we had to enact them.”

Part of this lack of transparency stemmed from the training the RAs received at the beginning of the year. Evans said the COVID guide for the RA position that leadership drafted in August explained the typical protocol done in normal years and how it was modified for COVID. RAs went through socially distanced scenario-based training on a range of topics from facilities to the new guest policy.

Though they were getting COVID training, Barrett said that leadership wasn’t transparent about the reasoning behind those policies. “It was basically here’s how to modify our policy for COVID-19, and not really any explanation of the science or how the safety protocols are accommodating of the science on how COVID-19 is being spread and how you contract it. It was the minimum for our job,” said Barrett.

Evans emphasized that RAs were given a large amount of information during training, including the scientific explanations behind the COVID-19 policies. She said they may just not be remembering that it was provided to them.

RAs form representative council

As COVID-19 cases rose at Grand Valley, Resident Assistants formed a representative council to address a divide in communication between themselves and Housing and Residence Life leadership. Two RAs from each housing community can be representatives on the council. The council demands representation in all housing meetings and the ability to give statements on behalf of the RAs.

The formation of the RA council had been discussed in past years, but it never became a priority.

Alex Hicks explained that the RAs formed the council internally because they didn’t think that leadership would make it a priority.

Housing leadership has been open about communicating with the RA council since its formation. Associate Director Evans was excited about working closely with the council.

“For me personally, it’s been great,” said Evans. “We just launched a standardized weekly staff meeting agenda to address the discrepancies in the information that each community was receiving. It’s been COVID-19 heavy this semester, but as it moves forward as this advisory board, it will be great to bounce ideas off of.”

RAs face diminished program funding

Though communication has improved, RAs continue to face financial challenges. Housing and Residence life typically allocates $3-5 per resident in a programming budget for RAs to use to host community events and programs. But due to COVID-19 and lower occupancy, Housing eliminated this budget.

The Residence Housing Association, RHA, created an RA fund to replace the budget but at a significantly smaller scale. RHA has allocated up to $180 to each of the 12 residence communities this semester. RAs can request a portion of this funding for community programs. Next semester they will receive $.50 per resident, a significantly smaller amount than in past years.

On-campus housing saw an 18% decrease in occupancy from 5876 students living on campus in the 2019 Fall semester to 4774 students this semester. With a budget of $3-5 per resident, RAs would have had at least $17,628 in the programming budget last fall to split among the 12 communities. This year they are only working with a collective $2160 from the RHA fund. If they receive $.50 per resident next semester, RAs will still receive over $15,000 less than they did last fall to create community events and programming for their residents.

Hicks says that these financial issues in addition to the inability to hold in-person events has made building community difficult.

In years past, RAs’ main role was to build community in their dorms with in-person events. This year, RAs have become an agent of the university to enforce COVID-19 policies.

RAs struggle with mental health challenges

Beyond financial challenges, RAs find themselves struggling with the mental health challenges that come with being a college student and Resident Assistant during a pandemic. The RA council advocated for more time to discuss RA health and wellness at their monthly in-service meetings with housing leadership, but Barrett says that these discussions don’t center mental health enough.

“We’re talking about RA health and wellness but not in terms of how COVID is impacting the RA job and the stress that comes with the RA job,” said Barrett.

Evans recognizes this struggle, particularly for Mentor RAs: “This is a very different experience for first vs second year RAs. For First years, they know no different. Mentor RAs are struggling because they went through that in March, and it was hard. We recognize that there is harm and pain and loss of trust, and all we can do is continue to listen and do what we can.”

Contract prevents RAs from speaking out

In addition to the mental health challenges, RAs are prevented from openly speaking about their challenges by their restrictive contract. In the Professionalism section of the contract, RAs are “expected to demonstrate support and respect for all HRL and University staff and constituents” and should “refrain from activities which reflect negatively or compromise the integrity of the position, department, or University.”

Some RAs say that they have interpreted this language to mean that they are cannot speak negatively about housing and the university for fear of being fired. Because of this, some RAs, including the chairperson and vice chairperson of the RA council, have been uncomfortable speaking publicly about their experiences this semester.