URCHA Negotiations Begin, Slowly
On Thursday, February 29, the Union of Reed College Housing Advisors (URCHA), which was officially recognized as a union represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 11 last October, met with members of the administration – notably Human Resources Director Heather Quinn-Barron and Dean of Students Chris Toutain – to negotiate in hopes of creating changes to their job contract. This comes as part of a series of meetings, which began on February 15 and will continue throughout the semester. Attempts are being made to address the grievances outlined at their September 22 protest last semester, including what URCHA Lead Organizer Eli Rall ‘26 describes as a “big three”: issues with compensation, training, and the new policy of rounds.
“Overall,” says Rall, “the process has been going slow [...] Despite the fact that we've tried to keep very open communications with the college, they just haven't been very good about reaching back out and doing counter-proposals.” In the Thursday meeting, URCHA proposed nearly the entirety of their ideal contract, up until compensation.
When asked to comment, Quinn-Barron directed the Quest to the HA Union Information page on the reed.edu website, which addresses concerns about compensation, the GPA requirement, and rounds.
In proposing a compensation plan, URCHA compared HA compensation at Reed with another university with a similar cost of attendance, Johns Hopkins University. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) lists the annual cost of Johns Hopkins to be $80,800, close to Reed’s annual cost of $83,310. However, while Reed pays their house advisors just enough to cover room and board plan B, $16,440 annually before taxes, Hopkins HAs make $22,500, which is roughly $10,000 more than the average cost of on-campus living for Hopkins. A meal plan cost is also waived for Hopkins HAs, and not deducted from their compensation. URCHA plans to continue discussing compensation agreements in further meetings.
In discussing potential changes to training, Rall explains that URCHA has “suggested some ways that HAs and ResLife can work together, but none of those things have necessarily been agreed to yet by the college, despite the fact that they've had it for a month.” URCHA plans to re-address these changes by the end of the academic year, along with “all kinds of job duties” in order to prepare for the following year.
HA rounds were also discussed at the meeting, a job responsibility that was introduced this academic year and has since gained controversy due to safety and redundancy concerns. While no changes have been agreed upon yet, the idea of potentially stipending rounds has been introduced. Rall explains that URCHA is “moving forward with the idea that if the school wants to impose rounds that they should at least be paying us for those rounds.”
In terms of increasing the safety of rounds, a “brief conversation” was had with administrators, according to Rall. “The only things that were discussed was the potential of a CSO walking with students, but that wasn't very seriously explored,” they said. Rall intends to talk with CSOs about such a possibility, and potentially make a CSO accompaniment a more scheduled event, “so that [...] no one is waiting on a CSO to come and get them to do their job and they're making an HA wait another 30 minutes when this could just be a planned event that happens at, say, 7:30, for example.”
The HA Union Information page notes changes to rounds that took place after “discussions during training in August 2023,” including localizing rounds in building clusters. It also states that “our Community Safety Officers are fully prepared to accompany HAs, who already operate in pairs for safety, as they navigate between buildings” and that “we are not tasking HAs with taking on the role of security personnel. Instead, we are entrusting them with the responsibility of actively engaging with the community and promptly reporting any concerns they observe.”
Other concerns addressed by HAs at the September protest, such as hiring practices including the minimum GPA requirement introduced this academic year, have not yet been discussed by URCHA at their meetings with administrators. These concerns are “something that will likely be discussed. From my understanding, that is something that the college needs to figure out amongst themselves and propose,” explains Rall.
The HA Union Information page argues that “Requiring HAs to maintain a 2.4 GPA is both reasonable and critical to their ability to fulfill their HA responsibilities. If an HA faces difficulties in achieving academic success, Student Life will work with them to redirect their focus toward their academic pursuits. In some cases, maintaining satisfactory academic progress may require a student to discontinue their work as an HA.”
Overall, Rall says that they “wouldn’t expect any significant job changes,” and that “nothing has been agreed to. The union has proposed nearly the entire contract, but the college has neither counterproposed, nor have they straight up agreed to any of the propositions that the union has made over the course of bargaining in the last month.” However, this is not the end of planned meetings with administrators. URCHA is scheduled to meet with the college again on April 16, 19, and 24.