By: Petty Labelle and Petty Wap, Staff Writers
“Being a Resident Assistant is great,” Village Resident Assistant (RA) Morgan Camp says. “I love being able to create a sense of community for my residents.”
Camp claims that many of her co-workers feel the same way, but does anyone wonder what RAs do not like about their jobs? Do they dislike some things so much that they feel like they want to quit?
Just recently, rumors have floated around campus that the RAs are planning to go on strike for one collective pet peeve. They plan to petition to the Dean of Residence life, and their directors, for rule changes. These changes are desired due to the frustration that each area’s residents are causing. Some RAs were glad to give statements confirming these rumors.
“Umm. Well long story short—we’re fed up,” Carlisle RA Marcus Jones says. “I just am tired of lockouts if anything. If it happens one time, I understand because it happens to anyone. However, every holiday closing each RA does room checks and locks all rooms on the hall. We notify our residents of this each time, but many do not listen and never take their keys with them. To us, that’s saying ‘I don’t care about the e-mail. I’ll take advantage of them having to unlock my door not because I locked myself out on accident, but because I never use my key anyways.”
DuPre RA Joey Weather adds in, “I had duty on a Sunday that the residence halls opened back up, and I had so many calls from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. the following Monday morning! None of them took their keys home because they don’t read, or don’t pay attention to their e-mails! Also all of my residents do not lock their doors like they should and probably have no idea where their key is!”
“I don’t even have to be on duty some days,” Shipp RA Amber Yellow says, “and people bang on my door asking me to unlock theirs. I am a student, too. I have homework, and a life. That’s why I have the RA on duty cell number by my door, because I am not on duty every day of each week.”
In response to their complaints, RAs have come up with ideas to lower the rates of these issues.
“These ideas are actually being heavily considered by the office of Residence life,” Demario Joules-Over-Seconds, assistant director says. “RAs are supposed to unlock doors during their duty hours, but the amount of lockouts this year are getting out of hand. I don’t like to see my RAs being frustrated over lockouts.”
A new system made to track how many times each number calls the duty phone regarding lockouts will be implemented.
Joules-Over-Seconds says these are the new rules being considered as followed:
- If multiple lockout calls are being made during the same time period, there may be a 30 minute to an hour waiting period for the RA to show up.
- The second lockout offense from the same room will be a $30 fine. A $30 fine will be given to the person calling each time they are locked out.
“I really hope these new rules are enforced,” Wightman RA Jurnee Road says. “Because if not, I may just start ignoring some lockout calls if lockouts get out of hand on that day. I know other RAs would agree with me. Though I’m sure that if we all rebel against these students being irresponsible, then Res life will send a mass email saying what we want them to say. If not, they won’t have any RAs, meaning Campus Safety will then enjoy the aggravation of unlocking so many doors.”
Shipp and DuPre RAs hold their master keys, threatening to keep the keys to themselves if students aren’t more careful about locking themselves out.
Disclaimer: This is a satirical article of pure fiction for our April edition, The Old Black & Blue
