University to cut six RCA positions next year

The University will eliminate one RCA position from each residential college next year due to budget cuts, administrators began telling current RCAs this week.

“The masters made this decision together with their staffs after a careful analysis of the RCA zones in each dorm and the location of RCA rooms within those zones,” Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan said in an e-mail. “They determined that by reconfiguring the zones and by repositioning some of the RCA rooms within those zones, they could actually make more uniform the size of RCA groups and locate RCAs in closer proximity to more of their ’zees [advisees].”

Deignan added that the change is “one example of where the need to trim our budgets actually presented an opportunity to improve our system in a way we might not have examined had we not been faced with the need to reduce costs.”

Each of the six colleges currently has between 13 and 16 RCAs, selected by college staff through an application process that starts each fall.

“A lot of it [came from] higher up,” Mathey College Director of Student Life Matt Frawley said of the change. “Initially, we were asked whether it was possible, and if it wasn’t possible, we wouldn’t have done it. The overriding concern was the support that the RCAs provide to all their zees, be they freshmen or sophomores, or juniors or seniors in the four-year colleges. And we felt like we could do it.”

“A great deal of discussion and forethought was dedicated to this decision” Associate Dean Hilary Herbold GS ’97 said in an e-mail. “We are confident that the quality of the RCA program, and of its benefits to first- and second-year students, will remain extremely high.”

But some RCAs expressed concern that an increase in the number of advisees under their care would limit their ability to effectively fulfill their duties.

“I understand that there’s cuts all over the University for many departments and for many reasons, and we’re really noticing a lot of that, but at the same time I feel that people don’t really realize all the things that RCAs do for the residential colleges,” a Mathey RCA explained. “A lot of it is behind the scenes.” The names of all of the RCAs interviewed for this article are being withheld because they were not authorized to discuss the changes.

“I know that the people up top who are in charge of looking at it on paper might see it as a great way to cut money,” the Mathey RCA said. “But RCAs are already students, and we already have those responsibilities … and then at the same time we have these students who can come to us any time of day with their problems.”

Other RCAs, however, were more understanding of the cutbacks, saying they thought the change could be implemented in ways that would limit its impact, particularly because there are large discrepancies in the number of advisees assigned to each RCA.

“I think it just depends on which section they cut from, because right now I only have 10 freshmen, while one of my other classmates has 26,” a Rockefeller College RCA said. “If they had cut someone else near me and I ended up with 20, I would have the same load.”

Other students said they were confident there would continue to be sufficient financial support for RCAs, even after the cuts.

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“I’m actually not really worried about it,” a Wilson College RCA explained. “I think the Wilson number is going from 16 to 15, which isn’t that big of a deal to me.”