BU to Suspend Free Room and Meals for Striking Student RAs
Those resident assistants on strike will get advance notice to help avert financial hardship
BU will charge striking resident assistants for their rooms, and in some cases for meals, while they don’t fulfill their duties.
BU to Suspend Free Room and Meals for Striking Student RAs
Those resident assistants on strike will get advance notice to help avert financial hardship
The striking members of Boston University’s Residence Life Union will be charged for their room, and in some cases for meals, while they remain off the job and are not fulfilling their duties as campus RAs, BU told the union members in a letter Thursday after the latest bargaining session.
Compensation for resident assistants, or RAs, includes free housing, valued at about $11,000 to $20,000 at BU. Some also receive free or discounted meal plans, which can be worth an additional several thousand dollars. (Specifically, RAs in residence halls receive free or discounted meals, while those working with students in non-dorm housing do not.) RAs are sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students who are chosen for their ability to lead and build community. They are often the first responders for problems such as student or roommate conflicts and campus crises, and their responsibilities include addressing residence hall rules and building a tight-knit community among students.
Of the 300 members of the union, approximately 75 have been participating in a strike since this past weekend, while the remaining union members have been fulfilling their RA duties. The union, part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 509, is made up of RAs, graduate resident assistants (GRAs), and graduate hall assistants (GHAs). University officials alerted the union to the suspended room-and-board payments at a bargaining session on September 5. The walkout began August 31, amid student Move-in for the fall semester, to protest stalled contract talks with the University.
BU Today discussed the University’s position with Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students.
Q&A
With Jason Campbell-Foster
BU Today: Why have you decided to stop compensating the striking RAs with free room and board?
Campbell-Foster: Our stance is that employees who withhold their labor are not entitled to receive compensation. It’s a question of fundamental fairness. We are taking an approach that will allow the student employee an opportunity to consider the personal impact this will have on them before declaring their formal intent to continue to withhold labor.
We also recognize that this is an educational experience for students. They are not accustomed to formalized labor relations, and this is one of the impacts of choosing not to work: that there’s an actual cost associated. And therefore, there’s a question that we [the University] have to answer of whether or not it’s fair to continue to provide that compensation if work is not being performed.
BU Today: They can still live in the rooms they are assigned, correct?
Campbell-Foster: I want to make this clear: we are not, under any circumstances, telling them they cannot have access to their room and board even while they strike. We are not going to lock them out of their rooms. We are not going to deny them access to meals.
BU Today: How will this payment system during the strike work?
Campbell-Foster: RAs, GRAS, and GHAs are awarded a scholarship that covers the costs of room and in some cases board (meals) on their student accounts. So an RA would log into their student account, and they would see the room and board is charged, but then they would see a scholarship applied that zeroes out that charge. For those on strike, we would withhold the disbursement of the scholarship until the end of the semester or when the strike ends, whichever happens first. Then, we would disperse the adjusted rate from the scholarship, leaving the balance owed for the days not worked. The student would be able to consult with Financial Assistance to discuss personal options for covering that cost. That could come either through private pay options or from reassessment of the aid package provided by the University.
BU Today: Will BU make arrangements for those striking RAs who might have a financial hardship from losing their room and board?
Campbell-Foster: We’re providing students with the opportunity to consider their own personal circumstances before determining whether to continue withholding labor or not. We do not intend to retroactively charge them if they participated in the stoppage since last Friday. A notification went out to the bargaining unit today [Thursday], indicating that any RA striking from that point on would not be compensated with free room and board. Student employees will be asked to attest to their intention to withhold labor.
BU Today: I have to assume this was a difficult decision for BU to reach?
Campbell-Foster: Of course. Our hope has been not to ever have to be in this situation. We considered this decision carefully and weighed the consequences at the individual level, from the employer standpoint, and from the bargaining unit standpoint. We recognize it’s going to affect people differently, which is why we’ve chosen this considerate approach of delaying when the withholding of their compensation will commence, until we have a chance to educate the students. While it was a difficult decision for us, it had to happen in the interest of fairness and consistency across the board.
BU Today: BU is also dealing with graduate students who are on strike. Is the approach with the RAs different from how the University has treated striking graduate students?
Campbell-Foster: The same approach applies there as well. You are only compensated for work that you perform.
BU Today: Can you provide an update on the status of contract negotiations with the RAs?
Campbell-Foster: We’ve met regularly, in earnest, since December. Today, September 5, was our 16th bargaining session. We’ve made solid progress on some amendments to the contract; we even have some that have moved to a tentative agreement. We finished the bargaining session today [Thursday] still awaiting responses on 12 outstanding articles.
BU Today: In some of their public statements and social media posts, the union has charged that the University was delinquent in coming to the bargaining table. Can you talk about that?
Campbell-Foster: We’ve had several sessions scheduled over the summer, and there was very little that the union brought to the table during those sessions. We were geared up, ready to negotiate, and there was very little movement during the summer months. So we were somewhat taken aback by the stance that we were not being responsive. That’s not our assessment of what’s been happening. Our team meets regularly to advance various articles and counterproposals. There is a narrative out there that we declined to meet with them over the last few days, and therefore we were not being responsive. That is false. While facilitating Move-in, the Residence Life staff was unable to carve out time to meet any earlier than the previously scheduled session on September 5. Sessions are scheduled when mutually agreeable to both parties. This should not be seen as a stall tactic.
We have approached the negotiations of this contract in good faith and with a seriousness of purpose and a careful attention to the impact of any agreements—both economic and non-economic—on the institution. All of the proposed Articles require careful deliberation and do take time, because we’re looking at reconfiguring systems or whether we can compensate at the level of union requests. Labor negotiations notoriously take over a year in order to get a contract. The same could be said for the union side as well. There’s been a number of proposals on the table since February that we have not heard back from the union on.
BU Today: In addition to the room and board, what else has the University offered to the union?
Campbell-Foster: We have offered to continue to provide the housing fee waiver for all students in the bargaining unit. We’ve also offered all employees access to a meal plan. So that would equalize the board stipend and compensation that’s given to every RA. GHAs and RAs would earn $1,000 per semester, and $1,000 if they work during the summer months with supervisory responsibilities. Students with supervisory responsibilities (GRAs) would earn an additional $500 stipend.
The union’s previous response to our offer is they want $4,500 per semester plus the meal plans, on top of the free housing. We are still far apart, but the union reduced their stipend demand to $2,300 per semester. We also have agreement in some areas. We’ve agreed to expand access to training. And we are moving closer to a resolution on how we evaluate the performance of RAs, a standardized form that would be used across the unit.
BU Today: Are you hopeful that this step the University is taking will help lead to an end of the strike?
Campbell-Foster: Employees have the lawful right to strike, and the University respects that right. We also need to do what is fair to everyone within our community, and if employees are withholding labor, they are no longer entitled to compensation that other employees who are performing their jobs receive. Separately, I want everyone to get back to work. I want us to work together at the table. At the same time, my goal is to educate everybody in the bargaining unit on the effects of withholding labor during negotiations or at any point in their role. We’ve heard from many RAs who are confused about what this means; they’re not getting clear communication. We need to provide that educational moment.
BU Today: Did the strike have an impact during Move-in? How are the professional staff that have to deal with the strike doing?
Campbell-Foster: I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Residence Life professional staff, having been one myself early in my career. I know just how hard they work on a regular basis, notwithstanding a strike. There are areas that are without an adequate number of working RAs, and that does add additional burdens to the professional staff. Despite those challenges, they have risen to the occasion. They have supported one another. I’m proud to call them my colleagues.
Folks outside Residence Life, other University professionals, have answered our call for assistance and jumped in to provide support for Move-in so that parents and students had a positive and smooth experience joining our community. From our view, there was very little disruption to Move-in itself, but we can’t disregard the impact that it did have on the professional staff, who still worked incredibly hard to make sure that we delivered a consistent, high-quality experience to everyone.
We deeply respect the work that our RAs do in the halls. I just spoke with them at training a number of weeks ago and told them how much they matter and how important their role is to helping every resident—in particular, maybe that one resident who really needs the support—and how critical they are to making sure that people feel connected to this institution and supported while they’re here. Despite what happens in negotiations, the underlying respect we have for the Residence Life student staff is still there. We look forward to the day when there’s a contract so that we can get back to work and be one as a workforce.
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