Western’s Eden’s Hall which is home to the On-Campus Housing Central Office, and a residence hall.
By MacKenzie Dexter
Western laid off Resident Advisors [RA] at the beginning of spring quarter because of the lack of student residents living on campus due to the university moving classes online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many RAs have been met with extra stressors with classes being held online, finding housing and saying goodbye to residents and peers.
Brenden Murphy, former RA and third-year student, said that after spending his second year as an RA, he’s had to move home without any compensation from Western.
“My housing was provided on campus in Bellingham, but because of the layoff, I had to move back to Oregon,” Murphy said in an email. “Bellingham has always been my space for academics and a place to spend time with friends.”
Murphy said he’s upset with how Western handled the situation. He said he wishes Western would have been quicker and more decisive with on-campus living and the RAs role in it. Murphy said that prior to the layoffs, Western told RAs that classes would take place online until April 28 and then would continue on campus, which would allow students to live on campus and make RAs necessary.
“Once the decision was made that the whole quarter would be online, residents started moving out of the dorms,” Murphy said in an email. “During finals week of winter quarter, Reslife [Residence Life] had RAs gather data about which residents were moving out and it took them weeks before they finally made a decision about what to do, which ended up being laying off all student staff positions.”
According to Vicki Vanderwerf, associate director of residence life, 10 RAs were hired from the previous staff and retitled as Housing Assistants.
According to Vanderwerf, ResLife layed off the majority of RAs on April 1, five days before spring quarter started.
“The layoffs put a lot of RAs in positions of stress because their housing and source of income is now gone,” Murphy said in an email. “If RAs were significantly relying on the job to support them, they were now out of housing and had no compensation for it.”
Murphy said that if Western and Residence Life would have been quicker with the decisions, RAs would have been less exposed to COVID-19 and could have moved out over the break, instead of returning to gather their belongings. It also would have made winter quarter finals and preparations for online classes less stressful.
Sebastian Zgirski, a former RA and fifth-year student at Western, said even though the situation and layoffs are difficult, he understands it’s necessary. Since the majority of residents moved off campus the University Residences lost money because of the lack of students. He also said that there was a risk COVID-19 would have been spread through the residency halls upon the return from the break.
However, Zgirski said that the layoff of almost all RAs took most of them by surprise, especially since they were initially told they would be returning for spring quarter.
“I wish there was more clarity about the decision being a possibility, and I wish it was made earlier,” Zgirski said in an email. “We had about a week and a half of radio silence after being told not to worry about our jobs, then we got an emailing saying we had to be back at work, and then bam we were all let go a few days later.”
While a few RAs were able to apply to stay on campus for the limited number of students living in the dorms, Zgirski said he and other RAs did not receive the email until hours before the deadline was due, which left RAs scrambling to meet the deadline.
Zgirski said that he did not struggle to find housing, he just moved back home with his parents. However, some of his co-workers struggled to find a place to live for the quarter.
For Zgirski, the hardest part about losing his job is losing his income.
“For the first time in three years, I’m no longer making my own money and my family doesn’t really have the resources to support me financially,” Zgirski said in an email. “Thankfully, I do still have some money left in my account to support myself so I can stay at home and focus on school, but I will need to find a new job eventually.”
Zgirski said he became an RA to build an inclusive and inviting space and being without that community is another hard part of losing his job.
“I’m definitely disappointed at the loss of potential for community bonding, and at not being able to support my residents through the last quarter of the academic year,” Zgirski said in an email.
Emily Gerhardt, AS VP for student services, is working with RAs and providing them resources on campus and in the community along with emotional support.
“These student employees are losing much more than a source of income– they’re also losing their housing and food,” Gerhardt said in an email. “It frustrates me that there has been very minimal compassion from University Residences.”
Gerhardt said that lack of transparency has been challenging for RAs and their duties as campus employees during spring quarter.
“The way on-campus housing has been addressed has been very up in the air for student employees as well as residents,” Gerhardt said in an email. “It has definitely caused some stress and fear that could have easily been avoided if the information was relayed appropriately and compassionately to students and student staff.”
Gerhardt said that Western, specifically University Residences, should be looking for options for emergency housing for RAs impacted by layoffs.
“From my understanding, free housing cannot be offered because they would have to utilize state funding and the university is unable to “gift” that money,” Gerhardt said in an email. “While I understand that this state funding goes beyond the University’s control, it should be Residence Life’s goal to find viable living arrangements for students that they have severely disenfranchised.”
Changes in housing have impacted housing on and off campus across the state.
On April 16, Governor Jay Inslee expanded the eviction moratorium due to COVID-19, which “prohibits landlord from assessing (or threatening to assess) rent for housing/parcel where the tenants access or use was prevented as a result of COVID.” This includes college housing closures.
Gerhardt said Western students can show their support to RAs by letting them know how they’ve done a great job in their positions, especially under the circumstances of COVID-19.
“Being an RA is often a thankless job, and I think being recognized for their efforts is really important,” Gerhardt said. “If students have the funding or ability, I would recommend reaching out to these students and offering meals and/or groceries.”
Gerhardt said that if students have employment concerns, questions or need resources to reach out to her as as.vp.studentservices@wwu.edu.