Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol 49, No. 1 - 79

Working-Class Resident Advisors
Without a clear lens on social class and classism, the financial gain
provided by the RA position may be viewed as sufficient without
a clear understanding of the full range of barriers working-class
students may face.
college, removing the small safety net he had been able to establish. Subsequently, the
positions became " jobs that I had to do or else I could not be a student here, " taking
time and energy away from his ability to " find my passions. "
Moreover, even though the RA job offered a substantial financial benefit, it did
not always offer enough to help working-class students cover their expenses. Several
participants worked multiple jobs in addition to the RA position. Lauren commented
that residence life was not always supportive of her need to work multiple jobs, which
created complications:
Res life's policy is that the RA job comes right after academics and will supersede any
other job. I had an issue with scheduling a staff meeting because it conflicted with
my work/study job and there was not a lot of flexibility, which was a little hard because
I can't really rely on just the RA income.
Some of the financial limitations were furthered by the mixed feelings regarding payment
within residence life. MU had a vibrant history of student activism related to
labor on campus. As a result, students like Guillame were quick to note that while the
RA position paid higher than other positions, it was limited given the overall scope
of work. As he noted, " If you break down the stipend, you're not making minimum
wage. " Without a clear lens on social class and classism, the financial gain provided by
the RA position may be viewed as sufficient without a clear understanding of the full
range of barriers working-class students may face.
Residential Life Is Focused on Social Justice, but Rarely on Social Class
Compared with other communities and programs on campus, participants perceived
residence life to be a hub for examining social justice, which came up in multiple
facets of the position, such as the semester-long required course for prospective resident
advisor candidates at MU to become eligible to apply for the position. However,
social class was largely absent from these conversations about social justice. Guillame
described residence life as " the worst at talking about class. "
I've always loved being an RA [but] year after year, there's less conversation about class.
Now I live in [building] and my first year as a student I felt that there was more conversation
about class. Last year, not as much. This year, still not so much . . . even with my RA staff,
I don't think they talk about class very often. They do bring up a lot of social identities, they
bring up a lot of important points, but it is very rare that we talk about class.
76 The Journal of College and University Student Housing
Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol 49, No. 1

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