Student Workers Demand Better Treatment

The anonymous RA added that they believe this call to unionize is a “long time coming” and noted a collective feeling among RAs regarding how ResLife communicates with their staff.

“I think RAs feel very ignored and disrespected by ResLife administration,” they said. “I think we feel like they don’t care about us at all, that we’re kind of just bodies in the buildings. They know that they’ll be able to find another one, so I don’t really think there’s an incentive to kind of keep people on and give them a reason to do it (the job).”

Peter Wolff, FCRH ’23, a senior RA in Martyr’s Court and an organizer for the FRH RA union, oversees the staff of RAs in the two residence halls that make up Martyr’s Court: LaLande/ Goupil and Jogues. Wolff was also one of the RAs who presented the papers to the Office of the President on Feb. 1 detailing the RAs’ plan to unionize.

J.D., spoke to RAs and ResLife in August and said that the distribution of contraceptives will likely remain unchanged due to Fordham’s Catholic alumni and donors. According to the anonymous RA, following the publication of the article, the complaint was passed down to Clency.

Wolff and the anonymous RA noted that Clency made it explicitly clear that RAs are not supposed to speak on the record about any issues concerning ResLife. On this issue, Wolff noted that a shared feeling among some FRH RAs is fear of retaliation.

Wolff added that Clency framed his notice using the example that RAs would not “critique your boss” and that RAs should not speak, write or publish about any matters pertaining to their position.

“You can publish things and use your voice as a student, but not as an RA,” Wolff said, recalling Clency’s message. “But I am an RA, and I have been an RA for three years, and the way I interact with students is as an RA.

I have a lot of experience as an RA that I think I should have the right to share.”

Clency has not responded to The Observer’s request for comment.

Rose Hill RAs Reflect on Their Jobs

“I think the bigger thing that frustrates me about communication is it’s always one way,” he said. “Anytime you try to go in and talk to them about something, it almost feels like they’re trying to talk to you like a child, almost, and there’s no desire to listen to what you have to say.”

Regarding communication, Tarchithaa Chandra Sekharan, FCRH ’24 and another RA in Martyr’s Court, noted that she was never given a handbook that outlined her responsibilities and the rules that come with accepting her position as an RA.

Chandra Sekharan added that she knows of another RA who was hired later than her and received an outdated handbook.

“We’ve been trying to find a handbook every single time they tell us that something we do is against the handbook,” she said.

Chandra Sekharan added that if ResLife does provide RAs with a handbook, it is a copy of the 2020 edition that has dates from 2016. On a similar note, Wolff also mentioned that the outdated handbooks include errors in the positions of the listed contacts as well as incorrect phone numbers.

Both Wolff and the anonymous RA recalled a notice from Charles Clency, assistant dean of students and director of ResLife at Rose Hill, during the spring training session pertaining to RAs speaking to the press about matters that concern ResLife or their positions as RAs. His speech came after an article written by Sam Minear, a FRH RA and a features editor at The Fordham Ram was published detailing student reactions to the university’s standing on certain political issues.

These issues included commentary on Chris Rogers, dean of students at Rose Hill, and student perspectives on the university’s stances on issues such as abortion and the provision of contraceptives.

According to The Ram, University President Tania Tetlow,

Similar to the anonymous RA, Wolff shared that one of the main reasons the RAs are unionizing is for “respect.” He explained that there have been several instances where it has been obvious that ResLife and members of the administration have placed RAs in challenging and high-stress situations and said that RAs are not receiving adequate support in certain situations.

Wolff noted that he is unable to provide specific details of a situation because of his position as an RA but mentioned a case in which he had to report an instance of discrimination in his building but lacked resources and responses from ResLife.

“They’re putting us in the situation where we are forced to talk to students about this very blatant situation of discrimination, but they’re not giving us the resources,” he said. “They’re not giving us the support to handle the students who have been affected by this.”

In addition to communication, Wolff also noted professionalism as another demand made by the RA union to ResLife.

The anonymous RA expressed that having a local union representing the FRH RAs makes them feel more secure. Wolff echoed this sentiment and shared that the union has been able to clarify to the FRH RAs what some of their rights are, including not being fired for unionizing.

The anonymous RA shared that events that transpired in the preceding months motivated them to consider forming a union. They believe that a representative will improve retention and job satisfaction amongst RAs.

The petition posted by the FRH RA union also mentioned the effects the “RA Award” has on their financial aid. Wolff and Chandra Sekharan both spoke on the perks that they receive as RAs, which include a meal plan if they do not live in an apartment-style dorm or a meal check if they do live in an apartment-style dorm, housing free of charge, and an additional award that is added to their financial aid.

According to Chandra Sekharan, salary compensation has been a topic that arose in her conversations with other RAs. She explained that job benefits that come with being an RA are applied directly toward an RA’s financial aid, which impacts the amount of need-based aid they receive.

In the letter underneath the petition, Chandra Sekharan shared that she is aware of RAs who have received “little to no compensation for working because they lost most of their aid.”

According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications and special adviser to the president, the university received the RA petition and intends on responding this week. He declined to comment further.

Wolff, Chandra Sekharan and the anonymous RA all said that they love their positions as FRH RAs but believe that they need to be compensated for the amount of work they do.

Wolff emphasized that although the Rose Hill RAs are fighting for their rights, they are not against ResLife or the university. He shared that each organization has the same goals in mind: to improve the experience of being an RA and update the existing practices.

“Through improving the RA experience, we’re improving policies, procedures and situations within residential life that we’ve been dealing with and that we think will get better by everything that can come out of forming this union,” he said.

The anonymous RA described the job as “wonderful” and listed the programming, the staff, their fellow RAs and their residents as examples of aspects that they enjoy. Despite this, they noted that they have had “so many negative encounters with the ResLife administration” that it was necessary to form a union.

Chandra Sekharan echoed this sentiment and noted that although she and her fellow RAs love their positions, they should be appropriately compensated.

“I have some people who want to be an RA and love being an RA, and so they’re willing to do this job for practically free, but they shouldn’t have to,” she said. “And that is the key here, is that no one should be doing a job for no compensation.”

FRH RAs Comment on Including LC RAs

Wolff, Chandra Sekharan and the anonymous RA all noted that the union is specific to Rose Hill RAs. Wolff shared that RAs from Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) have reached out to the union following the announcement, because the two campuses operate under different ResLife offices.

“It is the same university, but it’s a very different residential life,” Wolff said. “And I think it’s very, very important that we keep the movement separate.”

Chandra Sekharan shared that she believed it was not plausible for the Rose Hill RAs to work with the FLC RAs because it was difficult to gauge who would be interested in forming a union. She added that having the LC RAs join the union was a factor of consideration that was always on the mind of the union’s student organizers.

“They should feel free to reach out,” she said. “Obviously we’ve got their back. All the other unions clearly have our back too.”

Union Calls on University

Following their announcement establishing the union, the Fordham RAs advertised a “solidarity rally” held on Feb. 3 to “celebrate FRH Resident Assistants and show support.”

The rally took place in Keating First and included speakers from the Fordham Graduate Student Workers union, Fordham Faculty United, and RAs from Barnard College who came to speak about their own union.

Wolff and Chandra Sekharan were among the FRH RAs to speak at the rally and noted the importance of the union to them as well as their hopes of establishing better communication and gaining compensation.

The FRH RA union gave Tetlow until the end of business day on Feb. 7 to recognize their union. The president did not recognize their union and, in response, the FRH RA union posted on their Instagram that they would now file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board to win and gain recognition.

“Once we vote for the union, the school legally has to recognize us,” Wolff said.