LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Resident life department needs reform

Residential Life is the least supervised and most isolated department at FIU. I think it is due to the inherent structure built on the need to satisfy appearances and juggle liabilities. It has become the department where the least amount of necessary information goes up the ladder of superiors. The current Housing and Residential Life department is now lacking in spirit, progression and dynamic.

This fall semester has seen already instances of a misguided Residential Life department and the skewed association the department has with its student employees. A rise in [Resident Assistant] duties, including additional night time building rounds, volunteer committee participation becoming mandatory, inability to take Summer B or C courses due to training, and planned mandatory Thursday all-staff meetings (for no specific goal as of yet) at [the Modesto Maidique Campus] which make it difficult, if not impossible, for the staff at Bay Vista Housing to attend classes on Tuesday or Thursdays.

Just bringing up the BVH staff experience last Spring semester alone showcases the lack of positive assertion and lack of open communication that Residential Life exhibits.

Regina Grimner a senior Hospitality Management major who was an RA at BVH last year shares her experience: “I have seen nothing but good intentions behind President Rosenberg’s interest in our students and our school in general. It is quite unfortunate however, that the Housing department would make him appear like he doesn’t care, especially to new students living at [BVH]. It was during our Spring 2010 meeting with President Rosenberg that numerous issues with the living facility was brought to his attention. He showed nothing but genuine concern for the students and appointed various departments to ensure specific requests were met.”

“It was during that meeting that the issue of the poor wi-fi service within the building was brought to President Rosenberg’s attention. He asked the Housing department to take care of the issue immediately. A year later the BVH building still had the same terrible wi-fi signal. Finally, in Spring 2011, I brought the issue up again to our department ‘leaders’ who would have easily dismissed it had

I not threatened to take the matter up with President Rosenberg. Two short weeks after my threat, we had a substantial wi-fi signal throughout the building. It took one year and a threat to report the department to the President for the Housing Department to install proper wi-fi at BVH. Had President Rosenberg’s name not been brought up, it would have been dusted under the mat like all the other issues students have been requesting at BVH for Jah knows how long.”

Of course most of this relates to the RA experience, the department’s most restless, attentive and affected employees. They are the 24-hour employees paid on a stipend, whose performance and relationship with their superiors maintains or strips away their earnings, home and, occasionally, meal plans. If there is something wrong, or seems wrong, to RAs then it is indicative of a much larger problem in the Residential Life department. There should be a system set in place in order to allow RAs to communicate anonymously and wholeheartedly.

FIU has made it a point to establish a “World’s Ahead” attitude, but the current climate of silent smiles in Residential Life finds the housing quad unable to live up to it. The addition of two residential buildings (scheduled to break ground in 2013 and 2014, respectively) may be enough to change this. Alternatively it also may marginalize the problem even further as a distraction in the standstill department. A department that is perceived to function outwardly but, in reality, not inwardly is not just a lie, but an inevitability of failure.

Residential Life has some of the hardest working people on campus. Some who exhibit such genuine welcoming attitudes that it can represent the beginning of a great year for a resident. However, the direction that Residential Life is now taking is keeping great staff from participating and feeling a lifelong connection to FIU. Soon, it will be having the same effect on residents. The Residential Life department we envision should be one that challenges its notions every year, one who accepts liability and who can be more than just a friendly face.

-Daniel Flores,
Former Resident Assistant