For this story, an interview was conducted with an RA anonymously. Throughout the article, the anonymous source is referred to as Jamie Smith and given “they/them” pronouns in order to maintain anonymity.
Residential assistants have begun to gear up for a second term of remote learning in the dorms with cautious outlooks on how dorm policies are going to affect students who are living on campus.
Since the beginning of fall term, RAs have expressed their concerns about the safety and policies put in place around the dorms during COVID-19.
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“It was so much at the beginning [of fall term]. It was so overwhelming,” Jamie Smith, an RA on campus who asked to go by a pseudonym, said. “It was so bad that I didn’t even want to leave my room.”
Smith said they heard similar concerns from other RAs. Residents in the halls were not listening to the RAs when they were reminded to wear a mask or abide by social distancing and max capacity protocols, they said.
Smith also expressed their surprise and displeasure at both the lack of responsibility taken by students in the dorms and the decisions that were made by UO Housing around dorm policy.
“If issues from students happen multiple times, they go through what we call a Residence Life Resolution Process,” Anna Schmidt-MacKenzie, director of residence life, said. “So it’s pretty much a parallel process for the sake of COVID violations.”
Approximately 20% of residents in the dorms have had a first-time warning, Schmidt said. While not all of these violations can be attributed to COVID-19, the percentage is higher than previous years.
In the past, cases of deferred eviction due to residents’ violations of community guidelines were around 1% or 2% per year, Schmidt-MacKenzie said. A recorded 12 deferred evictions have occurred in fall term alone, 10 of which were attributed to repeated COVID-19 violations.
Write-ups have always been a way to punish residents who were not abiding by the rules. Since the beginning of fall term, RAs have been writing students up for COVID-19 violations as well.
The violations had become concerningly frequent, Smith said. They were concerned that the constant write-ups created a wall of resentment between RAs and their residents.
“The policy that upper housing came up with that we had to enforce just was not feasible in actual practice,” Smith said. “They wrote these policies expecting the best of everybody, which I understand, but they did not take into account the perspective of the RA. The people who are writing these policies aren’t having interactions with students on a daily basis.”
Individuals were being written up five to 10 times a week, Smith said. Despite the numerous write-ups, Smith said nothing about the residents’ behavior changed.
Amy Marie Miller walks in front of Fenton Hall. The University of Oregon’s campus operations are following protocols to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The first week of winter term was offered remotely. The following week classes will resume primarily remote and online instruction, with some in-person labs, studio experiences, and other small classes. Students, staff and faculty are encouraged to stay home unless they require service on campus. (Kevin Wang/ Daily Emerald)
