 "Photo: Lennie Mahler")
Housing and Residential Education was not the place to be for theater majors looking for a job.
Last month, two theater majors who wanted to serve as resident advisers in student housing resigned because of conflicts with a few weekly staff meetings.
The weekly R.A. staff meetings occur every Monday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. R.A.s are also required to attend pre-semester training and participate in holiday duty during the semester.
Alison Vance, a senior in vocal performance, previously served five semesters as an R.A. and had been offered a position as R.A. of the Fine Arts House, an on-campus housing facility for junior and senior Fine Arts majors for the 2009-2010 school year.
But Vance was forced to resign because of a conflict with HRE's required pre-semester training. She was one of 80 students accepted out of nearly 700 applicants to attend a prestigious summer acting workshop in New York City. Vance’s decision to attend the workshop would have prevented her from returning on time for the beginning of pre-semester training Aug. 8.
Vance was informed that if she did not resign she would be fired for missing training. She said she does not intend to re-apply with HRE for future positions.
Max Gonzalez, one of the former R.A.s, was unable to attend a few meetings because of academic requirements for his major. As a junior stage management major in the theater department, Gonzalez is expected to attend a six-week period of rehearsals that run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Gonzalez was employed as an R.A. for a year before his resignation.
“I did my job,” Gonzalez said. His time-intensive major never prevented him from being available for students on his floor, he said, and his time commitments were not extra-curricular, but required for his major.
According to the HRE website, an R.A. is responsible for community development and policy enforcement on his or her assigned dormitory floor. R.A.s are compensated with a single room, a 19-meals-per-week meal plan, and waived Resident Hall Association financial dues. The position also requires that R.A.s “restrict extra-curricular and outside work to less than 15 hours per week with R.A. responsibilities taking priority.”
But Gonzalez believes a lack of flexibility from HRE limits them from getting the best men and women for the job.
“Fine Arts majors make the best R.A.s because they’re really used to working with people, which is a huge part of their job and major," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez was the assistant stage manager for Paula Poundstone when she spoke at Kingsbury Hall in October 2007. He referenced another R.A., also a Fine Arts major, who was able to accompany Bobby McFerrin when he visited the U in March, saying that these experiences make Fine Arts majors excellent examples for other students.
Representatives of HRE declined to comment.
r.stuart@chronicle.utah.edu
Editor's Note -- A previous version listed Alison Vance as a theater major. She is a vocal performance major.
What a poorly written response which in itself has the terrible stench of bias that you so vehemently speak out against. Clearly you have missed the boat, it is not about what major you are, it is about how inflexible and non-supportive HRE is for their employees. They have no desire to work with their employees, they simply fire them when they become a nuisance-illustrated beautifully when they unnecessarily fired EIGHT employees last year-no second chances. I hope they think long and hard the next time they decide it is completely impossible for an RA to miss one or two days of training.