Resident assistants (RAs) are the foundation of student life at DU. They are community builders, crisis resources, policy enforcers and supporters for students transitioning into college or out of it. But in the next academic year, their role will change. Instead of one job, the RA position will become three.
Currently, RAs are student staff members responsible for facilitating a positive learning and living environment for students on campus. In addition to acting as a resource for students seeking assistance or guidance, developing residential communities, and enforcing campus policies, RAs are required to be on-call to address any problems or emergencies that students may have.
Next year, the responsibilities will be split among three positions: resident mentors, apartment managers and community assistants. Resident mentors will take over relationship-building and community development within residence halls. Apartment managers’ roles will be more tailored towards supporting third- and fourth-year students as they transition into living independently.
While resident mentors will continue to be able to live in the dorms with the students, community assistants will no longer be required to. That’s because DU is also changing how these roles are compensated.
Traditionally, RAs at the university have had their housing and meal plan covered. For resident mentors and apartment managers, housing will still be covered, but instead of receiving a free meal plan, they’ll be given a quarterly $1600 stipend. Community assistants will receive hourly wages.
Dr. Detric Robinson, director of residential education, explained that the shifts in positions and compensation are in response to data collected by Housing & Residential Education (HRE) at DU over the last few years, as well as national trends indicating that RAs are facing unprecedented struggles.
The COVID-19 pandemic put RAs in difficult positions, from having to break up large groups of students while simultaneously creating community, to being first responders for students in crisis.
The Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health noted in its 2014-15 study that 20% of college students were dealing with depression. However, their report in 2022-23 showed that the percentage doubled to 41%. College students experiencing “major depression” went from 12% to 20%.
The rising need for support means rising pressure on RAs. So it’s not surprising, Robinson explained, that RAs are experiencing mental health issues and burnout in institutions across the country. He fears that RAs at DU, who are often high-achieving students, might not initially recognize that they need support.
“We want to focus on not overextending our student staff,” Robinson said. He hopes that by separating the functions of RAs into distinct positions, students won’t be as overwhelmed, and clearer boundaries will help support their academic, social and emotional needs.
Robinson acknowledged that, while the services that RAs provide are crucial, they shouldn’t come at the expense of their health.
“Especially with the support needs of our students, I don’t want to sacrifice the wellness and wellbeing of our RAs. I would rather be on the preventative end to say that if, using our data, this outcome is a potential based on the structure of the role, let’s switch it up,” Robinson said.
Students living off-campus will also now have expanded employment opportunities, as they can apply to be community assistants, who will be on-call to help students. While they won’t be required to live in the dorms like resident mentors and apartment managers, they will still be required to respond to a situation within a certain number of minutes.
Robinson explained that this response radius isn’t new for on-call professional staff members and campus safety, who are emergency points of contact for RAs. That isn’t changing next year. In fact, connecting student responders with other staff members is part of a national effort to better support RAs experiencing secondary trauma from responding to emergencies. They might be first responders but they’re not the only responders.
“We don’t anticipate resident support decreasing,” Robinson said.
As for the way the positions will be paid, Robinson said that DU will be very competitive with its peer institutions. HRE looked at job postings across the country to benchmark quarterly stipends for resident mentors and apartment managers, which will be replacing paid meal plans.
“Using our data, we saw that lots of staff members didn’t exceed their meal plan usage,” Robinson said. “We want the best compensation structure.”
RAs at private colleges and universities like DU have only been recognized as workers as well as students by the National Labor Relations Board since 2017. Robinson is optimistic about the changes but noted that in order to keep them sustainable, HRE may have to make adjustments in the future.
“The goal is always to continually assess, so that if there are pieces that can be improved as we move forward, we will,” Robinson said. “We hope that it has the positive impact that we’re imagining it will have.”
For students seeking more information about the new positions, Robinson encouraged them to reach out to him at detric.robinson@du.edu.
