Students protest RA firings

Students at Collins Living-Learning Center are protesting the recent termination of three of the center's resident assistants, following alleged violations of a verbal request to stay in the dorm during the Final Four Tournament.\nAdorned with buttons saying "I want my RAs back," the students are circulating a petition in favor of reinstating the terminated RAs.\nSophomore Joanna Pollack, a Collins resident, is upset by the decision of Residential Programs and Services and says she will miss her RA.\n"It's just really sad because he's our friend," she said. "It's not fair to him or the other RAs that now have to take over his responsibility."\nThe closed campus policy originally states that all RAs must stay in the Bloomington area during the Final Four Tournament, but was verbally adjusted when Residential Programs and Services decided to tell all RAs they must stay in the dorms during particular hours, specific to each residence hall.\nCollins' RAs were told they must remain in the hall from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. for Saturday's game and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday. But senior Jim Brown and graduate student T.J. Thomson, resident assistants, said that this sudden addition to the rules was unfair.\nAfter completing their duty Monday evening, the two RAs, both of legal drinking age, left for approximately an hour to drink a few beers off-campus, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thomson estimated. They were back at the dorm for game time, but Graduate Supervisor Katie Wilburn smelled alcohol on their breath and reported the violation.\nFollowing a meeting with RPS representatives from Collins, the two RAs were fired and told they must move off campus by the middle of next week.\nSenior RA Darren Transue's mother was in a car accident prior to the tournament. Although he called RPS and asked if it was possible for him to leave that weekend in order to care for his mother, he was told by RPS his absence would not be excused and he would be allowed to leave, but must return Saturday by 4 p.m. for the game. \nTransue made the decision to go home regardless of the possible consequences and stayed throughout the entire weekend. Upon his return to campus, he was notified of his termination.\nUnder the section titled "student staff time away" in the contract that all RAs must sign prior to their employment it is stated that "with the permission of the Associate Director, Resident Managers may excuse one staff member per center from closed weekend coverage." Contrary to RPS' denial of Transue's request, the resident manager at Collins had not already excused another staff member for the weekend.\nThomson and Brown are frustrated about their termination. \n"We expected to receive some type of punishment, but nothing like this zero tolerance policy," Thomson said.\nBrown agreed the punishment didn't fit the crime and said he had expected to be reprimanded by his manager or receive a cut in pay, but not to be fired.\nThomson and Brown plan to seek legal counsel and feel they have been wronged by the system -- the same system they plan to change.\n"Now what I want to do is change some of the things I thought were wrong with the system long before this," Brown said.\nBrown said all he really wants is fair labor practices from RPS, as rumors have circulated about the same violations occurring in other residence halls around campus, but lesser consequences were incurred.\nThe RA staff at Collins is currently banding together in support of their former co-workers, discussion buzzing about their own resignations if something isn't done to correct the injustice.\nSophomore Phoebe Spier, Collins RA, said she is considering resignation and feels the decision for termination was unfair.\n"I understand that RPS has a policy and that policy was broken, but I believe the punishment was too harsh," Spier said.\nEven if the RAs did receive their jobs back, they aren't sure they would feel comfortable re-entering a system that disappointed them.\n"I feel kind of let down by the system so I don't even know at this point if I would want to stay," Thomson said. "I've put in two years of good service and not one blemish on my record and it has all gone down the drain"