This year, Resident Advisors (RAs) at Pomona will accept a decreased pay from previous years. The pay cut is not major, but it is part of an Office of Campus Life (OCL) initiative that has been in the works for almost a decade.
Dean of Campus Life Ric Townes, who oversees the RA program, explained that in order to balance OCL’s budget, some funding was redirected toward the hiring of a new full-time staff member in the office, which caused an RA wage cut.
According to Townes, before he began working at Pomona, his predecessor envisioned the employment of three permanent Campus Life Coordinators (CLC) who would be assigned to the three campus “zones” (North Campus, Smiley-Oldenborg-Mudd-Gibson, and Harwood-Wig-Lyon). Two years ago, OCL brought on Jacqueline DuBose to join Andrew “Froggy” Castro as the second CLC. This year, the office hired Brigette Washington PO ’11 as the third and final CLC.
“Pomona is unique because unlike other schools, we have full-time staff in these positions,” Townes said. “That didn’t exist until this year, though,” referring to Washington’s appointment.
In previous years, RAs were given a stipend to compensate for their services and a credit, which paid for half of the cost of room and board. This year, the credit only covers half of room fees. Townes explained that although the credit covers a smaller proportion of fees, RAs are still receiving a net credit compared to that of previous years because the cost of rooming has increased significantly this year.
“We only needed to ‘shave’ off a little, not make any drastic cuts,” he said.