Resident Assistants, or RAs, are foundational to a first-year college student's transition to college. They host programs, dispute conflicts, facilitate bonding, secure the building, and overall create a sense of community for residents in a dormitory. They act as the friendly faces of UC Santa Barbara who welcome new students and work tirelessly to promote those students' growth. RAs at UCSB are not paid fair wages given the amount of time and effort they put into the role. Once or twice a week RAs are "on call" from 5pm to 9am the next day. That is 16 hours of work. Preparatory work and the execution of ONE event can amount to 6+ hours. These numbers do not account for the day-to-day, unprecedented situations that RAs must respond to. Minimum wage in Santa Barbara county is $15. This means that RAs should be receiving at least $330 a week. In reality, they receive $40 biweekly. RAs are told that free room and board makes up for this insufficient pay. Bills need to be paid with real money yet there is no action towards giving higher wages to RAs. Most RAs pick up a 2nd––or even a 3rd––job to make end's meet. This is on top of their workload as a full-time RA and a full-time student. Failure to properly monetize RAs an amount that aligns with the work they do is unethical. In addition, RAs are not explicitly told all that the job entails before signing the contract. They should not have to go out of their way to find that information. 

I call on UCSB's Executive Director of Residential & Community Living (R&CL) to reevaluate the structures in place that affect on-campus and off-campus housing and accommodate its staff members, specifically the RAs, justly. At this point in time, R&CL is searching for an individual to replace UCSB's Executive Chair. Who is supervising the department while the position is vacant? When will a new Executive Chair be chosen? How will they support Resident Assistants at UCSB? This individual should be fighting for the allocation of university funds to its university workers. In an ideal world, RAs would be paid more and would not have to work extra jobs. Thus, they would have more free time to support their first-year residents and overall have a more confident, energetic work ethic because they would be less stressed. RAs do not deserve to be treated this way and their mental health should not be at risk due to a lack of financial security––a seemingly resolvable issue that has been ignored for years. Resident Assistants at UC Santa Barbara are one of the most influential figures in a student's college life. They are upstanding members of the UCSB community who serve first through fourth year students, international students, graduate students, and students' families. The pay should match the work put in. $20 a week for an emotionally and physically taxing and time-consuming role is a disservice.