In 2002, the Residential Assistant and Peer Mentor Union (RAPMU) at the University of Massachusetts was established, becoming the first complete undergraduate RA Union ever formed. Twenty-three years later, the RAPMU is still active with over 450 active members.

Residential Assistants (RA) and Peer Mentors (PM) are essential to residential life at UMass, living full-time in the dorms and assisting students with anything they need.

“My freshman year RA was so wonderful and so involved, and I saw how much of a difference that mentorship made for me,” Dani Wagner, a junior psychology major and second-year RA in Central, said. “College can be super chaotic, and I think it’s really helpful to have mentors and people who you know you can turn to.”

The application to become a RA or PM is competitive, as many students apply each year and only a select group are chosen. Residential Directors (RDs) choose their RAs and PMs after a questionnaire with paragraph responses and an interview.

Briana Myran, a junior public policy major and RA in Orchard Hill, explained the process as a “draft” for RDs to choose who they wanted in their cluster (a section of buildings on campus within the same location).

“Based on whoever interviews you, they’ll ask you the same few questions, and they’ll record the summary of your responses,” Myran said. “Based on that, it seemed like it was put into a huge sort of Excel or Google Sheet, where you’re scored on how you did, and then they mention like the few major things you talked about.”

The RD gets the final say on who leaves, stays and joins the cluster each year, although “there is a university policy that only 60 percent of a cluster staff can be returning, so they have to do the turnover. Even if you did a great job, you might get moved to Southwest and you don’t have a say in that,” Wagner said.

Choice in where you get placed or a general area is one of the initiatives the RAPMU bargaining team has pushed during its contract negotiations this year. Every three years, RAPMU must renegotiate its terms with the UMass administration, but because the negotiations occur every three years, there are usually no returning bargaining members on the RAPMU side.

Myran proposed there be a section to the application where applicants can say if they want a specific area or program. “When we first proposed it, [the UMass management] just wrote back ‘reject’ in all capital letters.” Myran said.

UMass administration had argued that if the option was given all applicants would choose the Honors residential area and none would choose the Southwest residential area.

Myran argued the opposite, saying she would choose Orchard Hill over any other and she knows of people who would want to live in Southwest. “I feel like these are like sort of generalizations on where they think, based on their own opinions, people would want to go.”

She said applicants could appeal their designations and can understand why they were put in those clusters.

Wagner wanted to be an RA in Gorman, but the RD told them that they “mostly look for Asian RAs because that’s living in the Hall, it’s like international students.”

“RDs get to pick based on what they think is going to represent their cluster, and you don’t really get a say,” Wagner said. “You can say, I want to work in a defined residential community, and they might do that. But they might also just assign you wherever and you have limited ability to be like, no, I actually don’t want to work in this building.”

Another issue the bargaining unit is trying to tackle is compensation. The RA and PM positions are live-in positions, but a portion of their paycheck goes back to UMass to pay for their housing.

“Yes, we do get the housing, quote, unquote, for free. But no, it’s not actually for free,” Aurelie Belinette, and senior biochemistry and molecular biology major and RA in the Honors College, said.

The RAPMU additionally asked for “some sort of meal plan” Myran said. The RAs and PMs are currently given 150 dining dollars, a change they were able to achieve in their last contract negotiations.

“[UMass administration] has been very reluctant to give us much of anything in terms of compensation,” Wagner said.

Last year the RDs decided they were going to work to the letter of the contract, in which they only work the designated hours they are assigned and no more. None of the RAs, RDs or PMs are given overtime despite having to be available around the clock.

Wagner said that early in the process, the UMass administration gave them a proposal that “would reduce the salary for returning peer mentors by several dollars instead of being a raise and we don’t think that’s acceptable.”

“[UMass administration] has been reluctant to work with us on making actual progress [and] handing us things back with ‘reject,’” Wagner said.

When asked for a comment on the current bargaining with the RAPMU, Melinda Rose, deputy director of news and media relations at UMass, said, “The university respects the contract bargaining process and is continuing to bargain in good faith with our union partners.”

Belinette said the negotiations are moving very slowly and are hard to schedule. “We are full-time student first and foremost. So, scheduling has been difficult because there are times that would work for a student where a typical person with a nine-to-five would not want to work.”

“RAPMU is here. We want to be here. We want to work towards a better living situation for all RAs and all peer mentors,” Wagner said.

RAPMU is holding its next bargaining session on Thursday, April 24.

Alexandra Hill can be reached at [email protected]