Being a Resident Assistant or Peer Mentor is a true honor. In our roles as RAs and PMs over the years, we have built meaningful relationships with dozens of residents and fostered living-learning communities. Thanks to our status as unionized workers, we are able to collectively bargain for dignified working conditions and wages.
But we want to be clear: this job is not worth dying for. And that is essentially what the University of Massachusetts is asking us to do in its reopening plan.
The UMass reopening plan allows any student with an existing housing reservation to choose to return to campus, despite most courses being conducted online. At an online Residential Life forum held on July 9, it was revealed that more than 50 percent of the residential population intends to return. As such, Residential Life is calling for all 500 RAs and PMs to return to campus in some capacity.
RAs and PMs will be expected to police students and help enforce the “UMass Agreement” which outlines strict social distancing policies. It is impossible for an RA or PM to safely enforce these guidelines without risking exposure to COVID-19, not to mention that this is an unprecedented increase in the position’s workload. How can RAs or PMs even enforce this agreement? What if residents refuse to comply? Calling the UMass Police Department won’t help – the many problems with law enforcement aside, you can’t police the spread of a virus.
On top of these unrealistic expectations, UMass refuses to offer RAs or PMs hazard pay, let alone allow them the option to work remotely and escape the petri dish that our campus is about to become.
This reopening plan is extremely dangerous. Approximately 6,000 to 7,000 students will be living in close quarters during a pandemic while the United States may be on track to see 100,000 new cases per day. Even in Massachusetts, the rate of infection spread has risen to 1.07, meaning cases will likely increase. If UMass chooses to reopen as planned, students will likely get sick. Do not be under the illusion that young people are immune to this virus. A student at Penn State has already died.
With the recent resurgence of the coronavirus, some universities are already reversing their foolish reopening plans. If UMass continues this course, an outbreak is bound to occur, and RAs and PMs will be caught in the middle of it.
The above picture is an apt description of UMass’ reopening plan. This plan is a gimmick meant to ensure that UMass continues receiving housing and meal plan payments. That this plan adequately accommodates student safety is wishful thinking. RAs and PMs are not pandemic police. Those who return to campus to work should be given hazard pay (either increased wages or free housing on top of their wages), while those who want to work remotely should be able to do so.
Our federal government has gone to great lengths to normalize mass death and sickness. As the co-chairs of the Resident Assistant/Peer Mentor Union, we refuse to normalize putting the University’s profit over student lives. We demand that RAs and PMs be given the option to work remotely, that those who work on-site be given hazard pay, and that UMass seriously consider reversing a reopening plan that will only worsen this pandemic.
Nat Luftman, Alice Troop, James Cordero
Resident Assistant/Peer Mentor Union
Lara Keohane • Jul 20, 2020 at 7:25 pm
Keep our RA’s and PM’s safe!
Melissa • Jul 20, 2020 at 9:35 am
At the very least RAs should be given ppe.
Davis Jones • Jul 19, 2020 at 11:39 pm
You’re the biggest university in the state. You cripple students and staff alike with insane parking fees while charging an arm and a leg for parking lot access. You had enough money to buy colleges in Boston and almost buy Hampshire.
Be a leader. Take a pay cut and provide protective equipment for your students who pay your salary.
Carol Marquis • Jul 19, 2020 at 1:36 pm
The university should absolutely be providing hazard pay as well as PPE. If students are not wearing masks or socially distancing they should not be expecting these RA to go within 6 ft. They should be allowed to write these kids up from a safe distance and if written up at all the students not following the rules should be immediately sent home. This needs to be a zero tolerance issue
Carol Marquis • Jul 19, 2020 at 1:11 pm
I agree the university should have made the decision to allow only the students who have in person classes and necessary labs back. I also agree these RA’s and PM’s should be allowed the decision to be remote and not lose their pay. It will force students who are RA’s for financial reasons no option but to choose to return for a job. The ones who do return should absolutely be getting hazard pay. None of us should have the illusion all these students will be following the rules. And now the RA’s need to be breaking up anyone not socially distancing or properly masking? Yeah UMASS did stop the ball here picking financial decisions over a better plan
Roger • Jul 19, 2020 at 12:44 pm
Are you kidding me. You don’t have to be an RA if your worried about risk. The risk for a healthy college student isn’t much more than walking down University Avenue on a Saturday night.By the way, have you eaten food, gotten gas or been reassured that you’d be taken care of at a hospital in the last 4 months. Other people have taken “risk”, all for you.
Linda Harvey • Jul 19, 2020 at 10:21 am
This article is illustrative of money over health . I support the Resident Assistants and Peer Mentors. As an alumna and parent of a student (who has chosen remote learning) , I am very disappointed in the reopening plan. I expected more .
Martine Perrin • Jul 18, 2020 at 7:16 pm
If RA’s don’t feel safe than they shouldn’t go back but the option of remote makes no sense because the campus is open and students will be on the floors . While hazard pay or other incentives seem reasonable , doing the job from a remote location doesn’t. New students will need the support on site and returning studies may need the extra support . That can be done while social distancing in the dorm.