On Aug. 12, 2024, the University of Oregon initially proposed a restructure of the Resident Assistant role, splitting it into two positions: a “Community Builder” and “On-Call RA” role. 

Since then, UO put forth a bargaining proposal on Sept. 25, 2024, and a non-binding mediation proposal on Feb. 12, 2025. Current RAs have pushed back on this change, citing concerns for their financial and personal well-being. 

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Cuauh Samano-Chavez, a first-year RA, said on the sentiment of other student workers. 

The Community Builder roles would focus on resident engagement, event planning and fostering community. Fifty percent of their housing will be covered by the university, leaving them to cover the remaining portion. 

On-Call RAs would handle security, lockouts and conduct enforcement during nights, receiving 75% housing coverage.

This change is akin to “paying to work,” Ryan Campbell, third-year RA and UO Student Workers bargaining team member, said.

“Right now, RAs get a stipend every month, but it’s not enough to actually buy groceries or cover other expenses,” Campbell said. “If this change goes through, RAs would actually pay out of pocket for part of their housing instead of receiving a stipend. They would receive no additional monetary compensation.”

Taliah Johnson, a third-year RA, not only loves their job but said they are also motivated by the financial benefit.

“A lot of RAs do this job because we like it, but also because having free room and board and the meal plan is a big cost saver for us,” Johnson said. “Having that potentially be eliminated would be disastrous for RAs who need this job to be able to afford going to school.”

Johnson feels that this change will place financial pressure on RAs.

“This could lead to more RAs potentially taking up second jobs, which would be really detrimental in our ability to support our residents,” Johnson said.

According to all three RAs, the change would also assign RAs roommates. From Campbell’s three years of experience as an RA, he predicted that this would be a “major problem in their model.”

On the topic of the Community Builders position, Campbell raised concerns about confidentiality. 

“As a Community Builder, you’d have to kick your roommate out every time you had a confidential conversation with a resident or go somewhere else,” Campbell said. “If a resident knocks on your door in (a) crisis, you can’t just say, ‘Hold on, let me get my roommate to leave.’ That would hurt the role.”

According to Campbell, for On-Call RAs, the late-hour requirements of the job make cohabitation a challenge.

“If On-Call RAs had roommates, imagine getting woken up at 3 a.m. because your roommate is handling a lockout. That’s not sustainable,” Campbell said.

Proposed solutions by the university continue to raise concerns for Campbell.

“The university’s reasoning was that RAs with roommates could just schedule shifts together, but that’s even worse. You’d just be constantly waking each other up on those days,” Campbell said.

While RAs feel that the restructuring would hurt their jobs, Samano-Chavez has concerns for the residents, as well.

“It’s like a bad cop, good cop situation,” Samano-Chavez said. “People in the dorms are still going to be living with the On-Call RAs, and to know specifically which RA is the ‘On-Call’ one, they’re obviously going to treat that person differently.”

Samano-Chavez feels that the division of labor will lead to an unclear dynamic between residents and their RAs.

“If someone comes up to the Community Builder because they feel more comfortable with them and starts describing a timeline of a situation, the Community Builder might have to take a step back because that’s not their duty or role,” Samano-Chavez said. 

Johnson emphasized the various roles that RAs play and how they work together.

“One of the main things we do is support our residents, and we do that through a variety of ways,” Johnson said.

“My favorite part of this job (is) just checking in on residents and seeing how they’re doing and being able to support them,” Johnson said. “We also do community connections… where we host events that allow residents to bond with each other through a variety of means.”

However, safety is a main priority for Johnson.

“The biggest part of the job is on-call shifts, where we check to see if the building is secure and check to see if residents are safe and doing all right,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that dividing the two responsibilities would create “confusion” and could “cause problems.” 

Rather than splitting the role, many RAs argue that the university should focus on better mental health support, pay and working conditions.

“The university says the split is meant to reduce RA stress by separating responsibilities,” Campbell said. “But in reality, specialized RAs are not the answer. It’s the lack of mental health support and low pay that make the job difficult.”

To mitigate these challenges, Campbell has worked within the bargaining process to propose methods like counseling services that increase resources available to RAs.

“If there was (a professional) in the building to help RAs with stress and de-escalation techniques, it would make the job much more sustainable,” Campbell said.

RAs have also “pushed for fair contract negotiations,” but Campbell says the university has “refused to discuss RA pay as part of the broader student worker contract.” 

“They’ve proposed this separate RA article three times, and we’ve (UOSW) denied it three times because it fundamentally changes the role beyond just wages,” Campbell said.

UOSW has been a direct line of communication for student workers, according to Samano-Chavez, who feels as though he has not “been informed directly by the administration.”

“Most of the information I’ve gotten has been from union meetings or emails,” Samano-Chavez said. 

According to Eric Howald, assistant director of issues management, the university does not have a comment at this time. 

“The concerns you asked about are part of the active bargaining/mediation efforts and the university is not commenting on the matters outside of those efforts,” Howald said.

Campbell, a bargaining team member for UOSW, hopes to reach a middle ground with the university. 

“I don’t expect to get everything proposed, and I know they won’t get everything they want,” Campbell said.