The photo of the dormitories in Incheon Global Campus
It has been a controversial issue among students in charge of Resident Assistants (RA) that they have to pay their housing fee from this semester. At the beginning of Fall 2021, the Incheon Global Campus (IGC) Housing changed its RA contract. And it has brought up some critical problems for RA students: the burden of arranging money urgently, the uncertainty of refunding, and lack of communication between the IGC Housing and students. RA students have currently faced confusion and concerns, being perplexed with the changing measures.
“Resident assistants were made to promote a healthy and safe community in the IGC campus and to live in the IGC dormitory.”, said Yorgun Marcel, the Dean of University Life of George Mason University Korea (GMUK).
One of the benefits that Resident Assistants (RA) receive was being exempted from paying the housing fee. Until Summer 2021, RAs were admitted to living in the dormitory without any payment. However, since Fall 2021, RAs were asked to pay the housing fee, and they will get a refund after check-out only when they satisfy the responsibilities as RAs. This sudden change has evoked severe complaints, which bring rebellious thoughts, among RAs.
The leading cause of the conflict is that RAs of Fall 2021 were not notified of this RA policy change to the potential RA students in advance. The students applied to this position, expecting the same condition as previous semesters. However, the IGC Housing announced this change only two weeks prior to the Fall 2021 RA check-in period. “It was definitely frustrating. They [IGC] should have told us the contract change before the recruitment, or at least before signing the contract. We [RAs] were embarrassed by the unexpected change but had no choice. We have to feel from anxiety that we may not get the money back even if we work hard.”, said Derek Viator (F2021 RA, GMUK, Global Affairs, ‘23). In the situation that the students did not realize they had to pay the housing fee, the request from the IGC Housing to make a full fee in just two weeks did place some of them in a great burden, especially a financial quandary.
The Dean of University Life of GMUK, understanding both stands, reached out to the IGC Housing as a mediator. Dean Marcel suggested to the IGC Housing about postponing the introduction of this policy change to next semester. However, the IGC Housing enforced this change to be implemented immediately. “Matters related to the housing itself are the authority of the IGC Housing. We, GMUK, can suggest or express our stance, but it is fully on their ground to accept the suggestion. Coverage of RAs’ dormitory fee is basically the IGC foundation’s consideration and goodwill toward its students.”, Dean Marcel stated. Students might have a concern if GMUK could also manage the RA system independently like Utah Asia Campus. In that case, GMUK should set a separate budget to own the dormitory rooms for its students from IGC Housing. However, GMUK would provide more opportunities to support their students financially in various ways as they take the IGC housing’s grant preventing the possible expenses for dormitory.
The IGC Housing also has its own stance regarding this sudden change. The IGC Housing had covered the full housing fee payment based on trust for the IGC students in charge of RA. However, some RAs were irresponsible for their duties throughout the whole semester, so that apparently, the hardworking RAs received a burden instead of them. Therefore, the IGC Foundation had no choice but to adopt this change to manage a healthy housing community. The IGC Housing would track down RAs’ responsibility fulfillment based on their actual tasks by receiving the weekly report from RAs. And this measure will be the precise criteria for refunding housing fees.
The sudden change of policy for Resident Assistants has created a heated controversy among students in charge. This change was brought up from the reasonable stance of the IGC Housing, which is enhancing trust for its students. Nevertheless, it has still made the students in trouble as the IGC Housing did not notify them about the crucial change in advance, overlooking the significance of communication, especially in the announcement. Learning a lesson from this issue, the IGC Housing is supposed to be aware of ensuring the communication with its students as well as universities in Incheon Global Campus. Ultimately, both students and the IGC Housing should feel responsible for the position of Resident Assistants and the institution for the campus community. It would be the only way to keep the relationship based on actual trust.
Written by Gio (Goeun) Choi | staff writer & Yu Bin Kwon | managing editor
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