Take Action! Save students jobs!
By Ben Bull, UMass SLAP
On November 30th, students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were notified all Peer Mentor and Apartment Living Advisor (ALA) positions were to be eliminated at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. These cuts impact roughly 70 undergraduate employees and dozens of graduate employees who rely on these jobs as a source of income to pay for their education. The employees had received no warning of these cuts and were never consulted about the future of their jobs.
At UMass, Peer Mentors and ALAs provide crucial services to the student body. Peer Mentors reside in freshman year dormitories and provide academic and emotional support for first year students as they transition into college by acting as tutors, counselors, and advisors for a number of students. ALAs oversee students living in the university apartments, ensuring the safety of hundreds of students and providing community building events. Peer Mentors and ALAs work along side the traditional Resident Assistants to build a safe, supportive, and just campus community. The loss of these positions will be a tremendous loss to the overall environment of our community.
The firing of all Peer Mentors and ALAs is the first step in what is to be a tremendous overhaul of Residential Life at UMass. By eliminating the positions of Peer Mentors and ALAs, more work will be thrust upon the already overworked and underpaid RAs. While the RAs are currently unionized under UAW Local 2322, the hostility shown by the UMass administrative points toward an attempt in the future of busting the RA Union, the only undergraduate employee union in the country.
In the face of these cuts to student jobs and the threat of union busting, we need the support of our allies across the country. You can help now by calling key UMass officials and let them know that firing of all Peer Mentor and ALAs is unacceptable and UMass must respect student workers and their rights. Please call the following officials and tell them you stand in solidarity with Peer Mentors, ALAs, RAs, and all student workers!
-Eddie Hull – Director of Residential Life: 413-545-1964
-Enku Gelaye – Dean of Students: 413-545-2654
-Jean Kim – Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs: 413-545-2300
-Bob Holub – Chancellor of UMass Amherst: 413-545-2211
Another action you can take is signing this online petition here! Please forward it widely so we can show solidarity from around the country!
Balancing your budget on the backs of students with job cuts without notice is not what your institution should stand for. Do better. Be Better.
I could not imagine not having an RA to turn to when I was a freshmen in college. My two RA’s on the floor were not only someone to turn to in times when we needed advice on our problems but they were also our friends. To send new students out in that enviorment without the guidance of an RA is unthinkable.
The RA is someone who you see every day and can help you greatly with their experiences on campus as well as guidance on career paths. Most students rarel ever see their offical conselors, I know I never did. My RA on the other hand I saw almost every day. To take this valuable asset away from new students is idiotic to say the least.
My college had RA’s assigned to the upper classmen dorms as well as just freshmen as long as you stayed in the dorms.