Resident Assistants Fighting for Tomorrow

From a previous RA:

lol at The Evergreen State College and Residential and Dinning Services for charging me an "improper check-out fee" I literally checked out because I was receiving death threats and people had my address. Evergreen wants to take the money that I don't have rather than support their students. But we knew this already.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is what came from negotiations

May 30th, 2017
To Whom it May Concern,

RAFTies enter negotiations!

On Tuesday, May 30th, Resident Assistants Fighting for Tomorrow (RAFT) entered the first round of negotiations on the list of demands submitted by RAFT to the professional staff (ProStaff) of Residential and Dining Services (RAD). The meeting was attended by the seven-person RAFT negotiation team, the Director of RAD, and the Executive Associate to the Vice President (EAVP) for Student Affairs. Each of the Resident Directors of RAD were addressed in the document and invited to the negotiations, though none chose to accept.

The negotiation process consisted of moving through the document as the RAFT negotiation team answered questions, expanded on the significance of each point, and gave examples for certain points detailed in the document. At the end of the negotiations, the EAVP informed RAFT that the school does not recognize RAFT as a collective bargaining unit due to the fact that RAFT is not registered with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC). The RAFT legal team later discovered that the school may be able to voluntarily recognize RAFT, and is choosing not to.

RAFT was asked to end the work stoppage and return to work, or else face loss of pay; in the case of Resident Assistants, loss of pay includes loss of meal plan, loss of stipend, and loss of housing. RAFT requested a 24-hour period to weigh the options presented to them before any form of discipline is taken, and this request was granted. After discussions with the entirety of RAFT, the unit decided to continue striking until presented with a robust action plan; the earliest this may occur is Friday, June 2nd.

Our next meeting is scheduled for June 2nd at 3pm on the second floor of ‘A’ dorm.

To read the full list of demands, or for more information, visit RAFT on Facebook and Twitter at

COPY/PASTE
RAFT PRESS RELEASE

May 26, 2017
To whom it may concern,

Resident Assistants on strike!

On Friday, May 26th at 7:00pm a group of Resident Assistant of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA went on strike as the group RAFT (Resident Assistants Fighting for Tomorrow).

On Wednesday, May 24, 2017 a group of Resident Assistants (RAs) submitted a list of demands as the group RAFT, just before noon to offices on the third floor of ‘A’ dorm. The demands were delivered to the Residential and Dining Professional staff (ProStaff) including Resident Directors (RDs), Associate Director (AD), and Director of RAD. The strike was initiated after the ProStaff of RAD did not meet the first deadline detailed in the list of demands. The first deadline stated that the RAFTies would need to receive “written and signed confirmation that all personnel listed in the preface to these demands have read and agree to have conversations regarding these issues.”

The time was specified through an email exchange with the Director of RAD as 5pm. The director called a white member of RAFT to ask to meet one-on-one to discuss concerns. RAFTies found this contact choice notable, given that half of the RAFT negotiation team are People of Color (PoC). The contacted RAFT member refused, and after contacting others in the group, several RAFTies attended this meeting. The deadline was extended from 5:00pm to 7:00pm to accommodate complaints about full workloads from the professional staff, and changed from requiring written confirmation and signatures to requiring email confirmation from all except the one Resident Director (RD) on vacation at the time. This negotiated deadline was not met. At 7:03pm the RAFTies submitted an email stating that the strike had begun.

The list of demands was prompted by RAs experiencing and recognizing inequities, injustices and clear discrimination coming from the ProStaff and other campus administration over the years. Specifically, the list includes points on limiting RA involvement with the police, bringing Student Wellness Services to lower campus, RA working conditions, and ProStaff accountability measures. The full demands can be read on RAFT social media, listed at the bottom.

RAFTies are still engaging in their communities by participating in student-based groups like Community Watch (CW), ensuring residents have access to support services on campus, and maintaining interpersonal relationships with residents. The first round of negotiations will be taking place on Tuesday, May 30th, at 1 pm, on the 2nd floor of ‘A’ dorm.

To read the full list of demands, or for more information, visit RAFT on Facebook and Twitter at

The Collective Demands of the Resident Assistants for the Administration of Residential and Dining Services

On behalf of the Resident Assistants of The Evergreen State College, we hereby present the following list of demands to the ResLife personnel Director, Associate Director, Resident Directors.

Demands

Affiliations with Police Services:
-RAD Services will limit our affiliations with police services in the following ways:
-Police officers will no longer sit with any RAD Services employee at on-campus eating establishments, nor will any RD sit with the RAs unless asked
-Police officers will not attend RA sponsored events without an explicit invitation from all RAs involved
-Police officers will no longer accompany RAs on rounds without explicit consent from all on-duty staff
-RAs will also reserve the right to dismiss officers during conduct confrontations at any point, without question, except as required by State or Federal Law
-Because the RA staff will inevitably be required to continue working with police services in some capacity, the police officers will undergo more consistent social justice based training
-RAs will also be provided with specific information on what the officers have been trained on for accountability purposes

Accountability Process:
-RAD Services will implement an accountability process for interactions between both RDs and RAs, as well as within the RA staff itself
-There will be consistent opportunities to provide constructive feedback for both RDs and RAs
-Feedback will be provided in written form each quarter or when explicitly asked for by either party
-RDs will allow for RAs to pick up another RA’s duty shift when necessary without necessitating a duty switch
-This will be done without questions as to why an RA needs to drop a shift
-RAs will devise their own accountability process for this new policy
-The RDs will provide space for RAs to privately hold one another accountable during in-services on a bi-weekly, 20 minute basis

Student Wellness Services Support:
-RAD Services will create a system that offers Student Wellness Services directly to residents living in on-campus housing
-Counseling office(s) will be added to lower campus to better meet the needs of our housing community (That includes weekends)
-24/7 services that support residents after business hours and on the weekends (that are not the RD on-call) will be provided
-This will be an additional position added to the ResLife prostaff
-RAs will be involved in the hiring process for this position
-If 911 is called and Evergreen police respond, RAD staff on site will have the prerogative to decide whether or not it is appropriate for police to enter the space except as required by state or Federal Law
-Student Wellness Services will become more accessible to RAs, especially in regards to counseling services and other mental health care
-Additional fees charged to RA student accounts will be covered by RAD Services and will not come out of RA compensation

Compensation:
-The RA contract will be changed to more accurately reflect the specific work we, as RAs, are expected to do on a weekly basis (including on-duty hours, weekly reports/1:1s, in-service trainings, etc.)
-RAs for the 2017-2018 school year will be asked to re-sign new contracts
-The RA contract will explicitly describe what “other duties as assigned” includes and what limits exist on this provision
-The structure for this compensation will be outlined in the contract

RAD Administration:
-RAD Services will critically examine the current positions of employees in ResLife
-The following professional staff will be held accountable for actions transcribed in the section entitled “Complaints Against Reslife Professional Staff”:
-We demand a specific action plan on how these people will be held accountable
-The RAD hiring process will include the voices of all RAD employees in some form (prioritizing the voices of people of color and those most multiply marginalized within the hiring committee)
-Specifically, RAs will become more involved in the RD hiring process
-More than one RA of multiple marginalities, with at least one of these RAs being a person of color, will be on the hiring process for conduct officers.
-All RAD employees will undergo social justice training, specifically on issues of race and gender, throughout the course of the academic year by outside organizations
-Caucusing and affinity groups will be maintained throughout this process (i.e. SURJ will provide training for white folx, etc.)
-The RDs will be expected to maintain professionalism at all times in work environments and clear boundaries will be established between RAs and RDs

RA Responsibilities:
-RAs will have more autonomy within certain aspects of this role
-RAs will be recognized as students first and the RA role will not impede on our academic responsibilities
-RAs will no longer be asked to alter class schedules to accommodate the RA duty scheduling process
-1:1s will be optional and with the RD of the RA’s choice according to with whom they feel the most comfortable interacting
-The RAs will no longer complete the required 5:00pm-7:00pm desk shift when on-duty; the RAD front office will close at 5:00pm on Monday-Friday
-This will not be replaced with other duties
-The engagement model will be removed in order to allow more freedom for RAs when programming within their specific communities
-If RAs are required to submit PRFs at least seven days in advance, the RDs will be expected to approve said PRFs at least seven days in advance as well
-Additionally, if a program does not require monetary funds, the PRF needs to be submitted at least 2 days in advance
-White folx will no longer have the privileges that are denied to people of color
-RAs will have access to the Duty Calendar at least a week prior to each academic quarter
-All duty calendars will be updated immediately after changes are approved
-Changes will be approved or denied within 24 hours of an email being sent
-RAs will no longer be required to do work for the Greener Organization
-Additional work will be optional and compensated appropriately
-RAs will have a private space in which to engage in self-care
-It will be acceptable to not complete all duties on time when caring for one’s mental health.
- A protocol will be developed during discussions between RAs and pro-staff.

Training:
-RAs will have say and autonomy over the training process during the summer and throughout the year
-Training around race, class, gender, disability, etc., will be included
-Previous trainings will be utilized and re-emphasized throughout the course of the academic year