Residential Life prepares for downsizing

Department's loss of eight positions leaves structure up in the air

The Office of Residential Life and Services was hit hard by the budget cuts to the Student Life offices this year. Student Life and Services cut $600,000 from its budget for next year.

Because of the elimination of eight positions in the department of residential life, Residential Life faces questions of restructuring. Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk said that the structure of residential life will be determined in summer staff meetings.

The positions cut were two administrative assistants, four commons coordinators (CC) and two assistant coordinators (AC). According to Dye the people who held the administrative assistant positions will be reassigned to a new area. She stressed that they had not lost their jobs.

The cuts of the CCs and ACs were announced in March, but the administrative assistants were announced in early May.

"I thought all the cuts were completed in March so I was surprised [by the eliminations of the administrative assistants]. I didn't expect additional cuts," Tracene Marshall, Longman commons coordinator (CC) said. Marshall is leaving next year.

Deb McNish, director of residential life, said that the remaining CCs will see an increase in responsibility. Instead of being responsible for 200 to 300 students, CCs next year will be responsible for 500 students.

With this downsizing comes an end to the commons system that Residential Life has been organized under in the past. According to three-year Resident Coordinator (RC) Doria Phelps-Braun, a senior, the ACs and CCs functioned as go-betweens for the RCs and the central Residential Life office.

With the elimination of these professional positions, the structure of Residential Life and the roles of RCs will change. McNish said that RCs will experience an "intensification of current responsibilities." She said that they will have more paperwork and will also be directly accountable to the central office.

CC Ehrai Adams said that RCs who currently fulfill the responsibilities structured in the job will not experience an increase in duties. McNish said there will be no increase in salary for the RCs because the department does not have adequet funds.

"I think we already do way more than we are told in the job description," Phelps-Braun said.

Elizabeth Kemper, a sophomore RC in Barrows Hall, said that the department is emphasizing an increase in accountability rather than responsibility for RCs.

Phelps-Braun said that the central office and the RCs will have to increase their stability in order to compensate for the loss of the CCs. But with the elimination of the two administrative assistants and changes in the hiring process for next year's RCs, some in the department feel that there will not be increased stability.

"I don't get a sense of confidence or security and I see people floundering and not knowing what to do," Phelps-Braun said.

"I as an RC feel extremely unsupported by the administration because they are taking everything away from us," Kemper said. She also said that she did not think there was any waste in the department before the cuts. "Obviously I think it was unfair. I feel like it is impractical," she said.

With the elimination of the two administrative assistants, the structure of the office of Residential Life is up in the air. McNish said, "I will talk to my supervisor and hopefully figure out how to restructure." Adams said, "We're all unsure."

According to Marshall the administrative assistants supported the Residential Life staff, supported the other workers, helped with committees and worked with the budget.

The RCs are unsure of how the office will work without the two administrative assistants. "I don't see how the department can function," Phelps-Braun said.

The hiring process for next year's RCs was also fundamentally different from those of previous years. With the elimination of the commons structure, the process was centralized instead of being carried out by the different commons. Under the commons system individual commons interviewed and chose their own RCs.

This year the process was centralized through the department office. "The commons concept was no longer in effect," Adams said. "We wanted to look for people who wanted to be RCs, not people who wanted to work in this particular building or with these people."

Adams went on to say that next year's RCs would be devoted to the department and the position rather than their staff team. She added that this should not cut down on the teamwork.

Kemper said that the new structure would force the RCs to depend on each other a lot. "We'll see how it goes. We know the logistical and practical plans, but we don't know the actual effects," she said.