NEW DORM DUTY
On college campuses, resident assistants given extra responsibility: COVID cop
Breaking up parties, confiscating booze and answering noise complaints — being a resident adviser in a college dorm always has required a willingness to be the “bad guy” and uphold university policy despite the protests of friends and peers.
Now, there’s a new element to the job description: COVID cop.
The worst part of his job as a resident adviser and dormitory hall security manager is verifying residents’ ID cards in the evening and dealing with the mask policy, said Marco Maldonado. But the positions help him afford his $20,000 tuition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Almost every night, he said, at least one person tries to enter the building without a mask. While most will take advantage of the box of disposable masks at the security desk, “Every once in a while, you’ll meet someone who’s, like, ‘Oh, it’s all bulls—. Stop — I don’t want to hear it,’ ” said Maldonado, 20, a political science and legal studies double major.
Sometimes, people get aggressive. “Pardon my French, but they could say, ‘Who the f— do you think you are? Get the f— out of here!’ ”
It can be frightening and even dangerous to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing. Public tantrums and physical assaults on employees enforcing COVID-19 policies prompted federal officials to issue guidance for retail workers on how to de-escalate situations and avoid violence.
It’s particularly tricky for students whose job involves monitoring their peers. Residential staff members, including security monitors and resident assistants, represent the front line of enforcement in dormitories.
Many say they are struggling with a lack of communication and unrealistic expectations from their institutions. They feel caught between competing interests: connecting with their fellow students, protecting their health and being able to afford their education. Maldonado is clear about his priorities. “When it comes to my personal health, I’m concerned but not afraid,” Maldonado said. “I’m more afraid of losing my housing and my ability to go to school.”
The position of resident assistant or adviser, RA for short, is a sought-after college job — not just for the free or discounted housing and meal plans that are often offered as compensation but also because of the builtin community and mentorship opportunities and the chance to showcase leadership on a résumé.
This fall, though, RAs are balancing the perquisites of the job with the difficulties of doing it.
Resident assistants from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Washington University in St. Louis and other schools wrote letters and submitted petitions to their administrations to raise concerns about the risk the virus posed to them as students and staffers returning to campus this fall.
“While we concede that there is a need to verify that our private residences are up to standard,” said a petition from Stony Brook University in New York, “we feel that having an RA carry out these checks brings up a number of logistic[al] health concerns,” such as a higher risk of exposure to coronavirus, they wrote.
Despite these pleas, some RAs at institutions that welcomed students back to campus are finding that the perks — like community building and mentorship — are scant, while risk, frustration and fractured relationships are plentiful. For them, the job is no longer worth it.
Kenny Leon, 21, flew to New York City in mid-August from Miami, his hometown, for RA training at New York University, where he’s a senior. He was required to get tested for the coronavirus and then wait in isolation in his dorm until he received his results. The university was responsible for bringing him meals.
The first two days of isolation passed with no problems, Leon said. On the third day, he said, he didn’t receive his first meal until about 9 p.m. The next day, it arrived around 5 p.m. On the fifth day of isolation, Leon said, he sent his resignation email.
“If they had months to plan for this, and they still managed to completely blunder it, I can only imagine how they were going to blunder a potential response to COVID or an outbreak on campus,” Leon said.
Such outbreaks have been common at reopened campuses. The University of North