Roles of the RA

Roles of the RA

By Gelila Lulseged (Femi) and Taylor Prescott (Eliot)

Purpose

The theme of our project highlights the role of Residence Life and the RAs and significance of their interactions with queer students on campus. Its relation to queer theory is very simple: making sure to provide safe spaces for students, helping the general student population understand that perceptions of gender and sexuality vary, and making sure to respect the personal beliefs of individuals. By identifying the various ways in which Reslife reaches out to queer students, we connected the relationships that must be built amongst this office, the Dean of Students Office, and the Wellness Center. We are not suggesting that other offices on campus are not important in how they interact with queer students, however these offices affect students more directly. We interviewed: Kijua McMurtry, Dean of Students; Joy Griggs, Director of Residence Life; Holly Byrd, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services; as well as two resident assistants and a former resident assistant. (Dean Kijua and Holly both serve on the Safe Zone committee, which provides the LGBTQIQ advocacy training that is mandatory for Wellness Center and Reslife staff).

Roles of Reslife and RAs

The office of Residence Life and the Resident Assistants (RAs) play an important role in campus life. Their interactions with students are particularly important because they are aimed at providing safe spaces for queer students as well as a healthy campus life for all students. The interactions with the Dean of Students office and the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) office in the Wellness Center are just as important because the three offices work together to host Safe Zone training sessions and provide health information and services for queer students.

The Wellness Center and its connection with ResLife

By restructuring the methods of counseling and treatment, the Wellness Center works with queer students to make sure that their individual needs are met such as:

- Providing support services for students who are coming out
- Providing support for students transitioning from female to male or male to female
- Providing special chiropractic support for people who choose to bind when transitioning from female to male
- Providing assistance to students seeking to start hormone therapy (though the Wellness Center does not currently prescribe hormones like testosterone, they are working with the Feminist Women’s Health Center to provide a direct connection for students, and they will assist students with injections)
- Providing information and protection for safe queer sex
- Writing letters of recommendation for students who want to undergo the actual surgery
- Helping students figure out technical issues such as arranging their financial aid situation with the college

The Wellness Center also has a bathroom for students that is gender-neutral.

Safe Zone Training and its role in making Reslife queer-friendly

Safe Zone training is mandatory for all RAs and Wellness Center staff. This session is aimed at educating the campus about LGBT issues, reconstructing language to challenge the dominant heterosexual norms, making students aware of offensive language, helping students who do not identify as queer understand the issues of coming out, and creating overall safe spaces for queer or questioning students in all aspects of campus life. The training also provides a safe space for individuals (who are not queer) to ask questions without judgement. While working on the project, I had the opportunity to go through the training and educate myself on the ways in which I can contribute to creating safe spaces.

Safe Zone training is broken up into 4 different exercises.

There is an exercises that reviews all of the letters in the "Alphabet Soup": L(Lesbian)-G(Gay)-B(Bisexual)-
T(Transgender)-Q(Questioning)-I(Intersex)-Q(Queer)-A(Androgynous)-GQ(Gender Queer)-P(Pansexual)-T(Transsexual)-DQ(Drag Queen)-DK(Drag King)-A(Asexual)

The second part of the training is an exercise that discusses gender and sexuality and how these binaries do not allow much room for understanding and accepting the queer identity. By discussing these binaries, we discuss how they perpetuate homophobia. The emphasis here is on the fluidity of gender and sexuality, which means that we do not accept the binary that there is just male and female, man and woman, but many forms of gender and sexuality in between.

With the third exercise, trainees examine the difficulty or ease of coming out on the Agnes campus. By evaluating the perceptions about different circles within and outside of the campus community, trainees are encouraged to think about the difficulties questioning students may encounter when trying to come out to friends and family.

In the last part of the training, trainees review different labels and terms that are grouped into negative and positive categories. By understanding that all queer people do not identify with one common label, there is an emphasis on asking individuals what they identify to avoid offensive labeling or generalizations.

Making Safe Zone safer

In previous years, everyone who completed Safe Zone training would get a sticker which would sometimes falsely indicate that they were "safe". This policy was changed in order to ensure that students could go to trainers who would be ready to handle a situation in the case of a crisis. Now, faculty, staff and students who receive stickers are selected based on the trainers’ own evaluation of who will make the best advocates.

Interviews with Previous and Current RAs

Unfortunately, concerns about confidentiality (because of Agnes Scott’s small campus) meant that we were unable to survey all of the current RAs. However, we did reach out to people we knew on staff for more in-depth interviews about how they felt Reslife goes about handling the unique issues of queer residents.

Interviews were with:
-CB (RA for two years, currently not working for Reslife)
-BP (second year as an RA, hoping to be an RD next year)
-MS (first year as an RA)

When asked what Reslife is doing right, everyone we interviewed quickly reiterated what we knew of Safe Zone. CB pointed out especially that Safe Zone is valuable in showing those students who may not have any experience with queer issues how it might feel to have to come out or deal with being queer in hostile surroundings, through scenarios and role-playing, by making them emotionally connect to those experiences. BP emphasized the value of SafeZone’s providing resources specifically tailored to the needs of RAs working with queer or questioning students.

CB did mention that during her time on staff, she attempted to discuss the issue of gender-neutral bathrooms with the administration. During this time she reports being told by the director of Reslife that something would happen “next semester”, but that nothing changed in that time. However, she was glad to learn that Joy Griggs is taking part in the Trans Policy group. She acknowledged that the issue is complicated, and pointed out that one alternative being considered--having one of the two restrooms on each hall designated as gender-neutral, and the other kept as a women’s room--may even create more problems by “marking” those students who go out of their way to use it as trans or genderqueer to people they may not wish to be out to. BP has served as RA of Hopkins Hall (which only has one bathroom). We asked about the reactions of her residents to Hopkins’ unique “10 Minute Rule” (which opens the bathrooms to all genders for the first ten minutes of every hour), and she said that while she never heard of negative feedback or experiences from her residents, she also thought that residents and guests rarely ended up in the small hall’s bathroom at the same time.

As far as her experiences with fellow RAs, CB felt that nobody was judgemental or insensitive to her after she came out. She stated that while she knew that some of her fellow RAs held rather conservative personal beliefs, she had never heard of homophobia or transphobia causing problems for anyone in a work setting. She did note that, from her own observation, queer students seemed most comfortable talking to RAs who were also queer when it came to personal problems or issues. MS stated that since she was currently in a heterosexual relationship, she didn’t consider her queerness something that was particularly noticed by her residents, although she did mention that her just being “alternative” was apparent and probably noticed by her residents. BP mentioned that Reslife staff currently seem to lean towards two extremes, of the very alternative student or the very rule-oriented “goody two shoes” type. She said she hoped this trend wouldn’t last, because for better or worse students who are perceived as perfectionists are sometimes more difficult to relate to, and, as she noted, it’s an RA’s job to be approachable.

When asked how or if she reached out to her queer residents in particular, CB mentioned that she always tried to signal her openness by displaying “something rainbow” on her door (RAs’ doors are frequently used to communicate their schedules and availability, as well as notices for the hall). She also mentioned that when her residents were obviously and openly queer, she made it a point to make sure they were finding a comfortable space on campus, though that was, of course, her goal in working with all of her residents.

CB did state that she was sometimes uncomfortable advertising her own queerness to her residents, however. There is a “pervasive belief” that personal life should stay personal, which was difficult to balance when bringing her off-campus girlfriend to her room. She even felt uncomfortable when just walking with a date on campus. She explained that a large part of an RA’s perceived role is to be a neutral party with whom residents can talk about anything, and that unfortunately, “neutral” is frequently conflated with “straight”. She did mention however that this was not an actual policy, and both she and BP pointed out that Reslife hires students and other staff who are visibly queer.

When asked what she wished Reslife had dealt with in a better way, CB mentioned wanting to see training or resources for helping a student whose family were cutting them off after coming out (something she had to deal with while on staff). However, everyone we spoke to felt confident recommending campus resources like CAPS, the Chaplain’s office, Public Safety and OIA for students who might be in need of assistance.
When asked if Reslife ever organized programming with clubs like Affinity and Collective (because she is a board member of Collective), CB mentioned that Reslife itself generally does not work with student organizations, but that RAs are encouraged to when making their own programming. She stated that if there is a lack of programming with these clubs, it may be because of the way that the campus can attribute a perceived political stance to these clubs, and (as stated before) most RAs try to remain neutral figures. BP again stressed the importance of keeping personal issues out of her work, although she did acknowledge that this balance can be extremely difficult for an RA because they actually live where they work. She said that while she wanted students to feel comfortable entering her space to talk to her, she was always very careful to keep the conversation focused on their issues, and not insert too much of her own opinions or thoughts.

CB noted wryly that Reslife does have one policy regarding queer students--namely, they discourage students from rooming with their romantic partners. However, this is a policy that would probably apply to coed dorms, too, and one that makes sense for the students in case of a breakup.

Interview with Joy Griggs, Director of Reslife

As Director of Reslife, Joy Griggs oversees all of the residences on campus, including Avery Glen. This includes coordinating programming, employing and managing the RAs and RDs as well as the Graduate Hall Directors, and working with facilities to maintain the residence halls and apartments. Joy stated that the biggest way administration could be there for queer students was primarily through conversations; namely, they can be supportive by communicating openly, providing a listening ear, and through the counseling and support services offered by CAPS. Joy currently serves on the Trans Policy Committee and expressed that it was important to her to continue educating herself to meet the changing needs of the student body.

In our conversation, she stated that a large issue in attempting to be supportive and welcoming to queer students was the “physicality” of the buildings, especially with bathrooms for trans or genderqueer students. She said that depending on where the student personally was (as in, if they were transitioning, or if they did not “self-identify” with any gender) they could come and speak with her about options for residence accommodations ranging from a private bathroom--some rooms come with attached, single baths, though it is not well-known or publicized on campus, and they are usually kept empty unless a special condition exists--to a single room--if they fear negative feedback from their roommates--or an apartment with roommates they choose. She mentioned that the primary delay in making gender-neutral bathrooms more widely available on campus was a lack of funding. The “10 Minute Rule” in Hopkins is reportedly being discussed as a possibility for other halls, and may be put up to a vote for students (either by hall or as a campus-wide issue) in an attempt to empower student voices (though she seemed to acknowledge that it may give more of a feeling of solidarity to trans and genderqueer students if the administration simply enacts the rule without appearing uncertain). She did say that the ultimate goal for the campus was to have completely new, gender-neutral bathroom facilities, although funding issues make that a distant possibility. She mentioned that she would be presenting about the possible options for bathrooms (along with Tim Blankenship) to the Trans Policy committee in the near future, at which point a more concrete plan for specific changes may come into effect.

The main issue that Joy mentioned specifically encountering with Reslife was that of roommate conflicts arising from homophobia due to “personal beliefs”. In those cases, Reslife frequently recommends mediation to work on making the relationship live-able, but if the student doesn’t feel safe or comfortable, they will arrange for a new roommate. This is especially a concern, Joy mentioned, for students who are preparing to transition.

As a member of Trans Policy, she noted that the administration can have an important role as a resource for transitioning students. This can include working to make sure that they are issued new student IDs with their preferred name and gender, and making sure their information is current and correct on OPD--the Online Phone Directory--as well as working through the Wellness Center to help them with the medical hurdles of transitioning. She pointed out that because Agnes Scott is a women’s college, graduates who transition may face challenges when they apply for jobs as men while listing a degree from Agnes Scott on their resume. She mentioned writing recommendation letters that avoid pronouns as an example of something faculty can do to help trans students with their future prospects. She also mentioned that the Wellness Center and other advocates on staff can help students to communicate their preferred pronouns and names to professors, if they wish, though she emphasized the importance of not outing people who aren’t ready or don’t want it.

Conclusion

By evaluating how Residence Life and other aspects of campus life are important in creating safe spaces for queer students, we hope to further the goals of queer theory by restructuring language, educating on the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and eliminating homophobia.