It is generally agreed upon that RCs in freshman dorms do a very good job. Both residents and RCs alike understand the job of freshman RCs: to help first-years adjust to residential life at the College and to foster a sense of community. This very clear understanding is one of the reasons why RCs in freshman dorms tend to be more visible and better appreciated than the rest of the RC staff.
By contrast, RCs in upperclass dorms, with the exception of the theme houses, have a murkier purpose. Oftentimes it seems that their job is merely to allocate dorm damage, hold one or two events per semester and also to provide counseling support for their residents-support that tends to be underutilized. The purpose of upperclass RCs should be examined more closely and some sort of list should be formulated to help RCs and residents alike. Such a list would make it clearer when RCs are not doing their jobs, and also when they are doing their jobs well.
If the job of upperclass RCs is as vastly different from that of the freshman RCs as it appears, then the Office of Residential Life should explore either a raise in remuneration for RCs in freshman dorms or a deduction from the salaries of upperclass RCs. However, we are hesitant to take this route and would rather improve the upperclass RC system.
Major allocations of RC funds usually occur at the end of the semester as RCs scramble to spend the money allotted to them. A good example is the Toys for Tots event tonight, sponsored by the social dorm RCs. Rather than semester allocations, monthly allocations are an easy way to solve this problem. Spending a vast proportion of seven dorms' funds on one evening's worth of food appears to be spending money for the sake of spending.
RCs also need to be more available in all upperclass dorms. While many are often available, there is no uniformity; there are no "open door" hours and most RCs do not make their presence felt beyond the occasional e-mail. We are not advocating a suffocating or intrusive presence, and there is a fine line between friendly neighbor and intruder, but at the moment upperclass RC presence is close to non-existent.
Fostering a sense of community in upperclass dorms, particularly the social dorms, is difficult. The duty should not be that of the RCs alone to improve dorm community, but rather that of the residential life program as a whole. Better guidelines and a change in allocations would be the first steps to improving this aspect of dorm living.