A recent decision by the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission granted residential advisors at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst an unprecedented right to unionize, but it appears unlikely that the push for unionization of undergraduate students will spread to Dartmouth anytime soon.
UMass-Amherst RAs are pushing to unionize in response to low wages, a problem not significant for Dartmouth's undergraduate advisors.
Jeff DeWitt, Dartmouth's Assistant Director of Residential Education, described the push for undergraduate unions as a limited phenomenon dealing with "a very specific situation."
There has been no talk of unionization among the UGAs at Dartmouth, according to UGA Virginia King '04.
"My experience has been that the pay is very sufficient, and they definitely provide us with enough support," King said.
Unlike residential advisors at other colleges, Dartmouth's UGAs do not have the primary responsibility of dealing with disciplinary issues in their residence halls.
Instead, their main roles are as "resources and advisors to their residents," DeWitt said.
"They are responsible for taking a leadership role in taking care of any community issues that arise," DeWitt said. "We want students resolving student issues" -- except in "more serious situations."
At UMass-Amherst, however, senior RA Chris Fierro described his main responsibility as "enforcing policy."
Like Dartmouth UGAs, Fierro's responsibilities also include acting as peer advisors and role models for individual students, programming social events and building a sense of community within the residence halls, in addition to handling discipline problems.
Residential advisors at UMass-Amherst each oversee 35 undergraduates who reside in the university's residence halls. RAs are expected to work 20 hours a week.
The RAs serve "primarily as student support personnel", according to Michael Gilbert, UMass' director of housing services. "In my experience, it's a very traditional RA position."
There are also perks to being an UGA or RA. At Dartmouth, for example, UGAs are paid approximately $1,000 per term.
Two years ago, the administration made the decision to increase this amount from $350 per term. "We really substantially increased their compensation," DeWitt said. In addition to the money, all UGAs receive a single room.
As compensation for their work, residential advisors at UMass live alone in double rooms for free and are provided with a stipend that averages $50 a week. For many, however, that is not enough.
"We get paid less than minimum wage," said Fierro. He pointed out that RAs can be fired without the right to appeal, a claim which the University denies.
Citing these grievances, the RAs attempted to communicate their concerns through the RA Council, which Fierro referred to as "our voice to make changes." When this failed to prompt action from the University, the RAs decided to organize and pursue unionization.
The result of that move was the Jan. 23 decision by the state labor board recognizing residential advisors' right to organize.
While Fierro expressed excitement over the decision, University officials did not.
"We do not think that the law in the state should apply to full-time students," Gilbert said.
The administration has said that it will review the decision and determine how to proceed from there.
"The University is disappointed with the ruling because it had opposed the unionization of the residential advisors," said Barbara Pitoniak, a UMass spokeswoman. "The administration will abide by the ruling and anticipates a union election this semester."
According to Fierro, that election, which will require that a majority of the current RAs approve the union, will be held toward the end of February. Fierro said that he was "very confident" that the unionization proposal will receive the needed votes.
