Resident Assistants Voice Discontent as Pay is Slashed
Cal Dooley | February 4, 2025
Resident Assistants (RAs) at Warren Wilson College (WWC), who provide a range of services to make dorm life easier, are frustrated that their pay has been slashed by half for this academic year. The change came alongside high turnover and understaffing which have raised their workload.
WWC's administration announced the decision at the end of 2023, citing overspending as a justification for the move that dropped the previous scholarship of $6,305 per semester to just $3,262 a semester.
Some RAs interviewed said that their concerns about the decision were met with inflexibility. Emily Cobb, a second-year RA noted that housing administrators explained the change was made to reflect pay at other colleges.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the hourly mean wage for RAs at just shy of $20/hr. However, the hourly rate at WWC can be difficult to calculate due to the RA’s broad range of responsibilities.
RAs at WWC organize community events, spend nights on call for residents from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., assist students with maintenance requests, assist with room changes, perform health and safety inspections, assist Public Safety, train new RAs, manage housing rosters and provide mental health support to students. Cobb estimates that RA work can occupy 15 hours of work on a light week and only goes up from there — rounding out to around $8.5-$10/hr.
The pay slash lessened the support some students rely on to shoulder the cost of food and housing. As cost remains the biggest barrier to higher education in the United States, the change limits an opportunity for greater accessibility. Liza Thomas, a third-year RA felt the increased financial strain following the change.
“I quit my job off campus for one semester because getting that RA scholarship enabled me to be able just be a student,…” Thomas said. “But the second that that scholarship got cut, I had to start working again. A lot of other RAs have had to take out extra loans because of it… A lot of us are pretty financially vulnerable and have to just keep doing it no matter what, and it feels like they [administration] know that.”
The workload for RAs and administrators has increased recently as several staff positions have been left vacant. The workload is added on top of that for work crews and course loads.
“I'm probably doing about 30% more work than I was doing last year due to us having no area coordinators,” Cobb said.
Cobb also credited the extra workload to a lack of defined roles between Public Safety and Housing. Ellie Teweles, a second-year RA noted that responsibilities more suited to Public Safety had been pushed onto them as an RA.
“We are told during training that, once we are in danger, we must exit the situation,” Tewles said. “But of course, it's really hard to determine that. I've been asked by public safety to do their job for them and to do things that are not in my job description.”
Some RAs see the pay cut as a move that will negatively impact the quality of Student’s experience by lowering the incentive for the challenging position.
“I think you are going to get what you pay for,” Teweles said.