RAs at Drexel say the pay ‘is not worth it.’ They’re trying to unionize like Penn RAs did.
The Drexel resident assistants, if successful, would be the third group of Philadelphia-area RAs to unionize in less than a year.
Drexel University’s 102 resident assistants could be the next group of Philadelphia student employees to unionize, following in the footsteps of RAs at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College.
RAs from Drexel submitted a petition to university president John Fry this week, asking for voluntary recognition of their union. About 80% of RAs signed the petition, according to the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153, which has organized RAs at 11 other colleges.
A spokesperson for Drexel said the university is reviewing the petition.
“Drexel deeply values the contributions of resident assistants to the university and is committed to providing them with an outstanding experience, a sense of community, belonging and support, and opportunities for ongoing personal and professional development,” the university added in a statement.
Each resident assistant at Drexel oversees between 20 and 50 students who live in campus housing. The duties of the part-time position include weekly staff meetings, 12-hour on-call shifts on weekdays and 24-hour shifts on weekends, attending training before fall and winter move-in, assisting with resident move-in and move-out, and holding programs for students.
In exchange for their work, the RAs get free housing on campus, usually without a roommate, as well as a partial meal plan and a $1,000 stipend distributed over 10 months.
Grace Knauss, a third-year RA at Drexel, said the compensation offered by the school “is not worth it.”
“I dedicated a lot of my time in my college career towards this job because it truly made me happy, but putting your all into an organization who doesn’t reciprocate that same dedication into you is disheartening,” said Knauss, who plans on graduating this year.
Along with compensation, the RAs are seeking change in how their housing is determined. Returning RAs do not have control over where they will be placed to live and work in the following year, the union said, and once they are placed they have five days to accept or reject for the following year.
“Although immensely rewarding … the RA position can also be tremendously taxing amid a disorienting lack of transparency and consistency, anxiety in the absence of job and housing security, and, ultimately, a disheartening sense that our concerns have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears,” said Haleigh Purich, who became an RA last fall.
A 2016 National Labor Relations Board ruling paved the way for student workers at private colleges to unionize. Those at many public colleges already had that right under state laws.
In the past few years, under President Joe Biden’s union-friendly federal labor board, organizing activity has picked up among these student workers.