The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 83

Resident Assistants as Rule Enforcers

Interviews and answers to open-ended questionnaire items yielded further insights into RAs’ experience of role conflict and their difficulty confronting friends for rule violations. Almost 41% of the survey participants were aware of the dilemma created by their dual roles as rule enforcers and friends, as illustrated by these comments: • “When a resident who is a friend breaks a policy, I don’t want to write her up [i.e., document the incident].” • “It is difficult to write up my friends; it is hard to draw the line.” • “Because I have such close relationships with many of my residents, it is sometimes difficult to enforce rules about drinking [when they come back to the hall drunk]. I like that my residents trust me enough to tell me what their social habits are; however, I am often torn between maintaining that trust and writing them up for breaking a [residential life] rule.” Interviewees also had difficulty writing incident reports when certain residents were involved, as noted in these remarks: • “It’s a lot easier to write up a student that I don’t know well.” • “I want to be their friend, even though I’m trying to correct them.” • “[I] give [residents who are friends] breaks because I know them.” However, 37.5% of the questionnaire respondents mentioned that they had no problems enforcing the rules, despite friendships with residents, as revealed by these statements: • “I explained to the residents at our first hall meeting that there are times when I will be professional and other times, your friend. I

have already filled out incident reports and have no problem doing so. They know the rules, and I take my job very seriously.” • “Write-ups involve emotions. I feel like I am writing up my sister, but [that] will not stop me [from writing an incident report]. If I wouldn’t have written her [i.e., a resident] up, she would have thought it was ok [to violate the policy].” • “At the beginning of the semester, I explained to my residents that, though we might form friendships, my job will always be to enforce rules and make policy violations known.” • “I explain to my friends that I am an RA and that there are certain rules that I must follow.” • “I’m friends with residents, but my RA job is one of the reasons I can afford [to attend this university]. Although friendships are important to me, I’m not nice enough to slack on rules.” • “I do not show favoritism to my friends.” These results and RAs’ comments reveal that, although many of the RAs wrestled with their dual statuses as university agents of social control and friends, vis-à-vis their residents, an almost equal number asserted that they were able to set aside their personal relationships and follow procedures for handling policy violations.

DISCuSSION
Summary and Conclusions
According to the residential life office, RAs have authority over residents, and both RAs and residents are contractually obligated to uphold policies and follow official procedures regarding students’ conduct. Furthermore, RAs are expected to treat all residents who violate a given policy alike and to enforce the

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2
