Community Fellows will replace Resident Assistants (RAs) in the Vera Hackman Apartments, Schreiber Quadrangle and Featherton Crossing Apartments starting in the 2018-2019 academic year. The application period to become a Community Fellow closed Friday, April 6.
Community Fellows have some of the same duties as RAs, including making door decorations and closing buildings before breaks. However, they cannot let locked-out students into their rooms and cannot mediate conflicts between residents.
For those issues, Independent Living Unit (ILU) residents will have to call Campus Security or Residence Life.
ILU Area Coordinator Dominick DiLoreto announced the new position in an email Monday, March 26, over a week after ILU housing selection.
“ILU residents do want to have a more independent living experience to help them transition into life beyond Etown, so we’ll be making efforts to educate those folks,” he said.
That education will come from weekly programs hosted by Community Fellows. The programs focus on “adulting,” developing skills needed to succeed in the post-college world. This series stems from events DiLoreto hosted throughout April. Topics included handling personal finances and developing an adult mindset.
“This is a new opportunity to further educate our students in a new way,” DiLoreto said. We’re excited to move forward and to provide the best living and educational experience we can for our students.”
The position developed from a combination of focus groups, surveys and observations. Residence Life staff discussed the idea with different student groups, including various students who live on campus and Student Senate classes.
Junior Becca Coder works with Residence Life as the Honors LLC Coordinator in Schlosser Residence Hall, planning events for Schlosser residents in the Honors program.
“I love the flexibility of being an LLC Coordinator,” she said. “I’ve always looked at what RAs do and said, ‘I can’t do that. That’s out of my comfort zone.’”
When she first heard about Community Fellows, Coder planned to apply for the position, assuming the duties were similar to those of her current ones. When she heard it was more similar to the RA position and involved mandatory planning of weekly events, she was unsure whether the position and pay were worth the effort.
While RAs and Community Fellows share some duties, some logistical differences separate the two positions. Community Fellows receive hourly pay instead of the free room and stipend RAs receive. DiLoreto estimates Community Fellows will work five to ten hours per week.
Coder decided not to apply.
“I think they took away some things that matter [about Residence Life positions] and kept the things that don’t,” she said.
She also did not think upperclassmen would regularly attend the weekly adulting conversations.
“Juniors and seniors are usually as involved as they want to get, and when they want to find things to do in their free time they know how to do it,” Coder said. “Residence Life doesn’t have to supply that for them at this point, and that’s what the Community Fellows do.”
Since Community Fellows cannot resolve conflicts or let students into their rooms, Campus Security may see an increase in the number of lockouts they must deal with. However, DiLoreto said that increase will be nominal because there were very few lockouts in the ILUs in the first place.
Residence Life is keeping Campus Security informed about the position change.
Residence Life, and specifically DiLoreto, will also be students’ first resource to contact should conflict arise.
“[ILU students] are still part of the residential campus,” DiLoreto said. “We’re just educating for living beyond Etown. Residence Life is still here for our residents 100 percent.”
Residence Life will seek student feedback during the 2018-2019 academic year to see what residents think works well and what can be improved about the Community Fellow position.
Coder suggested compensating longtime RAs who hoped to hold the same position in an ILU.
Her other idea involved giving Community Fellows a discount on rooming costs since they do several things RAs also do.
“Such a drastic change should have been announced two years in advance so students who would be senior RAs would have time to plan,” she said.
ILU residents will receive a formal email detailing what Community Fellows can and cannot do over the summer.
Residence Life staff will also add information on the position to the Elizabethtown College website.
“I wish I could predict the future and know how this would roll out so we could plan for it,” DiLoreto said. “For now, we’re using current feedback and data and moving forward with that in a thoughtful manner.”
