This punishment went too far.
I understand that being an RA is difficult, and believe me when I say I’ve been there in the worst of times. I’ve been there when students tried to commit suicide and had more drunken people bang down my door than I can count. I’ve had my share of issues, but I would NEVER make students write lines as a punishment.
Yes, the words were offensive and wrong, and what that person wrote made UT look bad, but people need to realize that being in a position of power does not give you the right, nor the privilege, to force students to write of all things lines.
It is Student Conduct’s job to distribute punishment and I know Mike Gilmer would have helped if asked. Parents, students, keep in mind that Conduct are the ones who have the power to distribute punishments.
Any Incident reports or security reports go to the Judicial coordinator for further action. ResLife should have handed the job to Student Conduct before taking actions or at least consulted people who are trained to give creative and constructive sanctions. Mike, Gina, and Kyra get paid to do that.
An RA’s job is simply to protect and create a safe community for residents while maintaining and upholding University Policies. Read your RA manual.
RAs are underpaid and under-respected, that is true. They call the life as an RA a “bubble existence” in the RA manual. Students can be rude and it’s hard for an RA because of the fear that someone else, even another RA or their Area Coordinator, will get them fired. I’ve seen the best RAs quit or get fired over something dumb.
But as an RA your job is to deal with it and care for the safety and community of your floor; so you do your job and pray that maybe next semester you can quit and be free of the politics and the problems. There have been a thousand RAs before you and more to come if you leave.
But trust me, residents will always remember cruel RAs, and they target them. Residents are the ones who live on your floor with you and go to the same classes with you, not parents, not necessarily Area Coordinators, and definitely not the directors of ResLife. You need the students respect and understanding. You don’t have to be cruel and demand respect, but you have to be firm and understand that sometimes you just can’t win. With a students respect and understanding life is easier, you can sleep again and go to class without feeling like the world is against you.
I loved my job and my residents so don’t tell me I’m bitter. I apologize if it comes off that way and I’m sure I will hear all about this later. The truth is that I am is angered that these RAs who I had great respect for, and some who I even recommended for the job, would go so far as to degrade their students to a punishment not seen since the sixth grade.
Instead, why wasn’t a community service imposed, such as making the violator (whom you can find using the cameras and having anonymous tips) clean the floors or school or work for Sodexho.
Furthermore, do not tell people to shut up, it’s the worst thing you can say to a person because now you have taken away the First Amendment, and you do not have the power to take it as an RA. Listen to your students and learn. I have never had an employer tell me to shut up. Not to mention, I work with guests everyday. We do not tell them to shut up.
You simply wait for an opening, say, “I understand what you need” and then proceed with your comments. It’s called Guest Service, a tactic that has been tried for many institutions and would work wonders for ResLife. You get far further with kindness than with anger and threats.
People, RAs are not gods, they are students like you. Students with flaws and issues. Don’t be intimidated. They are there for you and are not supposed to work against you.
Yes, a floor meeting would have been necessary to explain and to tell students that it was not good to violate the dorms which is something notorious in Vaughn. I can understand that, and yes, I know it can be a nuisance.
But I support your abhorrence towards lines; lines are 1950s Catholic school punishment. I saw a lot of different sanctions in Conduct, including some strange ones. But lines was never one of them.
Oh, by the way, who said it was even someone on that floor who did it, ResLife?
Whose to say it wasn’t someone from Brevard or even Stadium Center which has happened before.
Was there proof?
Was there evidence?
So if it was someone else, you just punished the wrong people, people who had nothing to do with it. Boy, then you really owe the 7th floor an apology, and an apology to the school for making a huge mistake.
If you know it was someone on the floor why did you not isolate that person yourself, which you could have done if you had asked the right resources?
I tell you, students, that there is no way that they could have taken your housing. According to ResLife if you miss one floor meeting you get a warning. That does not institute a termination of housing for students who had nothing to do with the crime at hand — which in truth was not even a crime but a basic statement of a universal collegiate truth.
Anyone knows that. Even RAs are guilty of some of those truths. I’ve never seen someone lose housing for missing a floor meeting. Never.
If you were innocent, you should have walked out. There was nothing they could do to you. In the United States you are innocent until proven guilty. Same goes in Conduct, who unfortunately, according to this story, don’t seem to have been involved.
People, read your student conduct book which you can go get at the office of Student Conduct and exercise your rights and know what the school can and cannot do to you.
For those who are still outraged, go to the Student Conduct and then have your parents complain to ResLife.
Trust me, I had parents complain about my floor meeting and had to write a letter of apology.
This punishment does not happen in the real world so whoever tells you this is wrong. Want to tell me I’m wrong, go ahead. I work for a fortune one hundred company. The violators in any other company would be found and fired, that’s it. A whole division does not get lines if someone writes something bad.
Expect this story to make headlines.