Student workers make up a significant portion of the American University student body. They are your resident assistants (RAs), desk coordinators, desk receptionists (DRs), library attendants, Dav cafe baristas and more. AU employs 3,339 students over the course of a year. That is 3,339 students balancing work, school, social lives, internships and personal health.
AU Student Government President Sasha Gilthorpe recently released a report on the rights of student workers at AU, specifically those employed by Housing & Dining Programs (HDP). Data and information was collected through interviews with seven HDP student workers and through a survey with over 70 RA participants, conducted over the 2014-2015 academic year.
The report, though from a small and not random sample, is a comprehensive look at how student workers feel about their jobs, their benefits and their difficulties. According to the report, “student workers…are treated in a manner that warrants reform. They carry the weight of immense responsibilities and burdensome schedules. Their job descriptions include clauses that leave room for mistreatment or exploitation of labor. The student workers interviewed view their job trainings as inefficient and ineffective.”
One of the key points highlighted is the burden of responsibilities shouldered by RAs and program associates (PAs). Their work schedules are described as being “taxing, unpredictable, and incongruous with student life.” One of the RAs interviewed for the report explained that the hours they work are not under their control; rather, work varies depending on the needs of residents and cannot be quantified in an exact number, even though the contract specifies a 20 hour per week time commitment.
An RA who was interviewed for this article, and elected to remain anonymous, agreed with the issue of working extra hours. “Each month our stipend includes working 12 hours at the front desk, which is $126. We are technically then only getting paid $174 for our RA duties, which isn’t fair at all; the $300/month stipend shouldn’t include working at the desk – that compensation should be separate from regular floor duties.”
Standards of employment are also addressed as an issue in the state of student worker rights. The lack of adequate training for the kind of high-stress and high responsibility jobs that HDP student workers hold creates difficulty in performing well. The report highlights the lack of performance reviews as well, and as the anonymous RA said, “We meet bi-weekly with our supervisors and 90% of the time I find the meetings to be completely useless and unproductive.”
Since the release of the report, HDP implemented across-the-board semester performance reviews for RAs and PAs. The issue of supervisor approachability is also addressed in the report. Students do not feel comfortable approaching their supervisors, or they feel that there is a strong sense of favoritism. The anonymous RA corroborated this claim: “I don’t feel comfortable [approaching my supervisors] at all. I see discrepancies between supervisors, and there is no norm or set of standards that makes me feel secure enough to speak my opinion to my supervisor.”
Not all student workers, however, feel such a sense of alignment with Gilthorpe’s report. One such example is student Alanna Holstein, who has worked for HDP for three years, as a desk receptionist, student receptionist, and desk coordinator. “I don’t think the statement by Student Government is effective but that’s because I believe the statement isn’t entirely accurate. They point out in the very beginning that the selection of who they talked to isn’t random. That to me indicated a huge problem. They also didn’t talk to more than a few people and certainly no one outside of desk receptionists, program assistants and resident assistants, leaving out student receptionists, Perch/Hatch coordinators, desk coordinators and residence maintenance crew. We also have opinions and have had experiences working within Housing and Dining but were not offered a space in this piece to discuss it.”
Holstein expressed that while she has occasionally experienced frustration with her job, overall she has had a wonderful experience and has loved working for HDP. “Anonymous writing can be powerful and can invoke change but only if what’s being written is less accusatory and general. [It felt like] a huge generalization of issues and no valid solution outside of what these specific student staff members wanted. I do have hopes that this will open up more narrative between professional staff and student staff members and that over time more changes will happen, but that’s the key. Policies and procedures are changing but it takes time.”
A diverse range of perspectives allows us to see what changes need to be implemented overall versus what is an individualized issue; the report released by Student Government highlights important issues that affect members of our community every day. These are issues that present barriers to the success of these students, who work hard for their peers, for AU and for themselves. However, the lack of diversity of the report does create a murky filter over whether or not the issues are substantive.
In this vein, Student Government Executive Director of Student Workers Matt Waskiewicz also commented on the report: “Since August, Sasha and I have been committed to working with administrators toward addressing the recommendations provided in the report. Now that the report has been released, we will be focusing on items such as the creation of a Bill of Student Worker Rights, a best-practices guide of student worker policies at peer institutions that we can present to administration, and a campus-wide survey of all student workers. In the spring, we will publish a second report that highlights new data, includes more kinds of student workers, and details the changes accomplished and the work still to be done.” The release of a second report, with different student workers, will certainly help the lack of diversity and open up a wider diaspora.
At AU, we are lucky to have a community of passionate, committed and dedicated students who work to empower and support each other. With the release of this Student Government report, we can only hope that AU students will continue to speak up for each other to ensure the success and justice of every member of our community.