Resident assistants at Ohio University will receive an additional $500-a-year discount on their staff room rate, raising total compensation to at least $4,827 for the first year.
Before this increased compensation, RAs received a 50 percent discount on their rooms, which cost $4,374 per year, and a $713 stipend each quarter, amounting to at least $4,327 for the first year, according to www.ohio.edu/reslife/jobs.Judy Piercy, interim director of Residence Life, in December 2005 first began talking about increasing benefits with Facilities and Auxiliaries, the department that funds housing, after Residence Life's Staff Education and Development team proposed an increase in fall, according to a Feb. 9 Post article.An increase is a welcome change that will make it easier to pay for college, said Sarah Baker, an RA in Washington Hall. Baker added she is happy about the amount of compensation RAs receive.More money will help some RAs feel more appreciated, said Andrew Muntz, a former RA in James Hall.I think that we're underpaid compared with other universities
Muntz said. I feel that we're pushed to the side.Most of OU's peer universities give RAs a free single room and some include a free meal plan or a salary, according to Residence Life Web sites for OU's peer universities. Community Advisers at the University of Missouri, similar to RAs, receive a free single room, which costs about $4,700, and a 17-meal plan, adding up to at least $7,500 in compensation, according to reslife.missouri.edu/stustaff/stustaff.htm.Universities that give reduced room rates instead of a free room also give higher salaries. The University of Tennessee gives resident assistants a $500 discount on single rooms, normally costing about $4,000, and pay $580 monthly from September to April, amounting to approximately $5,140 in compensation, according to uthousing.utk.edu/RAcompensation.shtml.Other universities provide benefits such as free laundry and parking, discounts at bookstores, pizza and T-shirts. Similar benefits would help to lighten burdens for RAs, said Bobby Denny, a second-year RA in Pickering Hall.OU provides priority parking for resident assistants, but giving a discount on parking would sweeten the deal Denny said.Residence Life has investigated several of these methods of compensation, like meal plans and parking discounts, but the methods depend on the money provided by Facilities and Auxilaries, said Barbara Harrison, associate director of Residence Life.We currently do not have the money in the budget she said. The money it would use is already ear marked for other things.
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