Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 25

and campus housing departments
cautious.
The very nature of ACA and its
requirements means that the RA
position will likely change. How can
you adjust but maintain a rich student
experience? For Clemson, Evinger
says the key is focusing on "What are
you really trying to accomplish?" In an
effort to keep RA hours at 13.5 most
weeks, Clemson's residential living staff
decided that student interaction is
critical to the RA role, so they trimmed
other duties - among them overnight
rounds and desk duties - in order to
maintain time for RAs to meet with
residents. These other tasks are now
accomplished by professional staff and
other student staff.
Terry Tumbarello, associate
director of university housing at the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
has also been considering how the RA
position is structured. "In September
of 2014, I said to my supervisors, 'This
is going to be an issue.' Once we got
to the interpretation, I said 'Yup, we
have to do something.'" University
of Wisconsin-Whitewater RAs were
required to complete "very detailed"
time sheets in 2015 so Tumbarello and
his staff could determine how they
spent their time and ways to increase
efficiency. "We thought a lot about how
we can cut this job down to 15 hours,"
Tumbarello says.
Though duty hours took up much
of RAs' time, most of those hours
didn't involve high-quality student
contact. Tumbarello's unit looked to
the campus police department, with
which housing has a close and positive
relationship: Their departments share
an administrative building. Together,
housing and campus security are
planning to institute student security
patrols overnight beginning in the
2016-17 academic year. RAs' duty
hours will end at midnight or 1 a.m.,
and student security patrols will take
the duty phones. The campus security

student employees will be able to call
supervisors and the floor's resident
assistant if needed, but, based on
the timesheet data, this will rarely
be necessary. "Most duty hour calls
are lockouts," Tumbarello says. The
arrangement is beneficial for both
departments: "We both viewed this
as a win-win; it gets us out of a bind
with ACA, they get to hire more
staff, and housing will help fund it.
Overnight their force will double."
Housing will coordinate and fund
training for the student security staff,
and the increased student staff will
allow campus security to expand their
operations. "They can do some things
that have been on their wish list for a
while," Tumbarello says.
Tracking hours has become a habit
at Georgia Southern University in
Statesboro as well. "We started two
years ago. It was before [ACA] went
into effect because we knew we needed
to plan," says Tierza Watts, director of
residence education. Given the nature
of Georgia Southern's community
leader (CL) role, asking CLs to track
their working hours is easy, but the
execution is difficult. Watts says it is
important to be very specific, and offer
examples, when discussing what to
count and what not to count. Evinger
echoes this. "Our staff only track
things that feel like 'work,'" so initially
their RAs were under-counting their
hours. Generally, Clemson's RAs are
expected to work about 13.5 hours a
week.
Georgia Southern's CLs
have weekly meetings with their
supervisors, and most take that
opportunity to discuss their time
sheets and talk about what should be
tracked and what isn't. They also talk
about how to plan for the weeks ahead.
"Part of the learning the RA is going
through is how to plan your work,"
Watts says. CLs have several long-term
tasks, including talking to each of
their community members about their

Rethinking the RA:
What to Remember
Consider priorities: What are your
goals for your department and, by
extension, the RAs? How do RAs
help extend the mission of the
department to the students? Which
of their duties are essential in light
of departmental goals?
Track hours: Looking at how your
RAs spend their time and manage
their duties will provide useful data
as you consider how to manage
their hours. This will also help you
determine your RAs' priorities in
light of your department's priorities
and goals. RAs should work closely
with their supervisors so they know
what to track and how to note their
duties correctly.
Be aware: Some nice-to-have but
nonessential duties may fall by the
wayside or be done less often.
Also the act of tracking hours and
duties can change the RAs' mindset
toward the position.
Consider alternatives: If there
are duties your RAs will shed in
order to focus on other priorities,
are there other ways these things
can be accomplished? Can other
student positions take on some
of these duties? Perhaps more
opportunities for students can be
created in light of the "new RA."
For information about the FLSA,
see https://www.dol.gov/featured/
overtime.

community learning outcomes. All
of these chats can't be accomplished
within a one-week tracking cycle,
so CLs must plan ahead, with the
assistance of their supervisors, to
determine how to get them all done
while keeping their hours in check

JULY + AUGUST 2016

25


https://www.dol.gov/featured/overtime https://www.dol.gov/featured/overtime

Talking Stick - July/August 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - July/August 2016

Talking Stick - July/August 2016
Contents
Vision
Just In
Calendar
Your ACUHO-I
Transitions
Res Life
Special Focus
Regroup
ACUHO-I Awards
Thinking Ahead
Working Overtime
Conversations
First Takes
Around Student Affairs
New Members
Snapshot
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Intro
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - BB1
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - BB2
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Talking Stick - July/August 2016
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Cover2
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 1
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 2
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Contents
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 4
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 5
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 6
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 7
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Vision
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 9
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Just In
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 11
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 12
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 12a
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 12b
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 13
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 14
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 15
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 16
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 17
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Calendar
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 19
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Your ACUHO-I
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 21
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Transitions
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 23
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Res Life
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 25
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 26
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 27
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Special Focus
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 29
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 30
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 31
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Regroup
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 33
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 34
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - ACUHO-I Awards
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 36
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 37
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 38
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 39
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 40
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 41
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 42
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 43
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Thinking Ahead
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 45
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 46
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 47
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 48
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 49
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 50
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 51
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Working Overtime
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 53
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 54
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 55
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 56
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 57
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 58
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 59
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Conversations
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 61
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 62
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 63
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - First Takes
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Around Student Affairs
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 66
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - New Members
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Snapshot
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Cover3
Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - Cover4
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