Collegiate Times

A view of room 985 in Slusher Tower where Reilly O'Connor, freshman psychology major, shares a room with her RA, Amber Ballard.

In the beginning of the school year, 167 students at Virginia Tech were placed in temporary housing.

Of the students temporarily housed, 129 became roommates of RAs while the rest were placed in converted lounges.  As of Nov. 12, there were 24 students still rooming with resident advisors, while some in the process of being offered standard spaces, said Kenneth Belcher, associate director for occupancy management.

Belcher said that students receive a list of rooms available in different residence halls and are then able to choose where they'd like to move when offered standard spaces.

"I understand that that's the only place that they could put displaced students," said one RA, who wished to remain anonymous. "So, I understand the situation and that the housing office can't do much and are doing the best they can."

 One problem RAs have encountered while in a temporary housing situation is that their roommates have access to the master key of their hall, which is located in a closet of the RA's room.

"We are working on the issue as we speak," said Leon McClinton, director of residence life. "And have plans to address the problem."

Another issue that is apparent to several RAs is that residents may hesitate to approach them with any personal concerns when someone else is present and living in the room with them.

John Ryding, a resident advisor in Vawter Hall, explained that he's run into this problem before, and has found it necessary to bring residents to a storage closet on his hall when talking.

"We definitely want to provide a setting where they can have private conversations and it's a priority to us," McClinton said.  "When you consider all the factors, we aren't able to provide our RAs with a private room, and that's out of our control. I can understand and appreciate the concern and issue about RAs with roommates because it can impact how they do their job."

When displaced students room with RAs, a result is a loss of personal space. One resident advisor has felt this issue has taken away from doing his job.

"I think it's a great experience, to inspire and be a leader for a group of my peers, but (having a roommate) has taken away from my job," Ryding, a junior computer engineering major, said.

The primary concern for residence life is removing students from resident advisors' rooms, and then removing students in converted lounges, where many former members of the Corps had been placed.

"At the beginning of the semester, during move-in, I was checking people in and someone came in with a piece of paper and had moved out of the lounge in this hall," Ryding said. "They were moving to another building instead of getting someone out of an RA's room."

The overcrowding on-campus has become a recurring issue with which Residence Life deals.

"We plan to do this every year," Belcher said. "With a university of our size we lose students at the beginning of the school year, and we plan to have 100 to 150 students in temporary housing."

Any student still living in temporary housing after Oct. 20 was eligible for a refund that increases with each week until they have received an offer for permanent housing. Resident advisors receive a check, and residents see the amount subtracted from the cost of their housing contract.

The first week (Oct. 20 to Oct. 26), students still in the temporary housing situation would receive $46, and the following week would receive $92.  By the semester's end, the amount will rise to $413, and housing expects that all temporary residents will be addressed by this time.

"I wouldn't say that the compensation is fair," the RA who chose to remain anonymous said. "We weren't paid for the first two months we had roommates, but it's manageable."

Resident advisors were made aware when they were selected and during their training that in the event of overflow housing, they may be placed with a roommate, Belcher said.

"The experience is what you make it," Ryding said. "And like all jobs, there is stuff that you have problems with, but I've had a fun experience."