The Proctoring Requirement: how Northeastern University uses RAs for unpaid labor

Motion graphic of resident assistant and proctor pay.

Students scrambling for a way to pay the more than $70,000 cost of attendence, opt for the resident assistant position. RAs are student workers who have their room and board covered by the university along with a free meal plan. One of the duties of an RA is to proctor—checking residents into their buildings. The Residential Security Office refrains from paying RAs who proctor yet pays employees who proctor through RSO $13-17 per hour. RAs make nothing for proctoring unless they work additional hours on top of their required hours.

Northeastern University Residential Life, which is in charge of student housing, requires RAs to proctor four (4) hours per week for the entirety of the semester. Proctors scan residents into their buildings, and proctoring stations are located in most lobbies in residence halls across campus.

RSO uses proctors as a means to monitor the access control system. Proctors employed through RSO are responsible for the access control system which allows students to scan their ID and access their residential building.

“(Proctoring entails) sitting at a proctor station for 4 hours and letting people in and signing in guests. As RAs, if we work more than our 13 shifts, we're allowed to get paid. But 13 of those are required as part of our job as an RA,” an anonymous RA said.ResLife has little incentive to end the proctoring requirement because of the lack of checks and balances within the organization. RAs who speak out or complain about mistreatment are not rehired. Speaking to the press about their work environment is also forbidden according to their memorandum of understanding.

page four of the RA memorandum of understanding

In December 2020, ResLife administration hosted open office hours via zoom giving RAs the chance to voice their concerns. At this time, some were worried about the guest policy which Northeastern University put in place during the pandemic. The guest policy prohibited non-Northeastern residents from going into dorms.

“The guest policy was extremely isolating because we work and live in the dorms, and we couldn’t have guests at our place of residence. I explained that to (ResLife administration) and they kind of responded with ‘I know it’s really hard, we have it hard too because we can’t visit relatives’,” a former RA who quit after one year of working at ResLife said, “nothing really changed after that meeting.”

A similar outcome arose at a later zoom meeting. In January 2022, a meeting occurred with RAs; Brie McCormick, the senior director of residential life and education; and others. RAs wanted to discuss the announcement of the end of COVID housing which was university-provided housing for students to quarantine in.

After this incident, RAs were sent an email informing them that they were required to write three essays to reapply for the RA position.

“I know people who weren't rehired who had been speaking out against ResLife, and they said, ‘Oh, it was because of your essays’,” a current freshman RA explained.

For RAs, losing their job would mean not being able to attend Northeastern University. Free room and board and a free meal plan cut the annual cost of attendance to around $55,452.

“If I lose this job, I lose my ability to attend Northeastern, and (ResLife) knows that,” a current freshman RA explained again.

Some RAs enjoy the leadership role along with other benefits of the RA position and just want the proctoring requirement to end.

“I think the job would be a lot more (...) enjoyable without the proctoring requirement,” an RA in their last year said.

Universities nearby like Boston University and Tufts University have no proctoring requirement. Other Boston universities provide each RA a stipend along with giving free room and board as well as a meal plan.

Some schools like the University of Massachusetts Amherst have unions for RAs. The university recognizes RAs as employees and pays them an additional stipend that is equal to $15/hour. In 2002, RAs at UMass Amherst won their case against the university to form a union with the Massachusetts Labor Relation Commission, now known as the Department of Labor Relations, siding with student RAs.

“It is well established that dual student/employee status does not bar students from exercising collective bargaining rights…” the MLRC board of trustees stated.

Northeastern does not pay RAs, so they do not have the benefits a union might be able to provide. The Northeastern Resident Assistant Cooperative, a group of student RAs, is the closest to a ‘union’ or to a chance for Northeastern RAs to collectively bargain. Currently, the NRAC website features a page with 45 grievances from different RAs. It also features a petition directed to 8 people including Alice Hallaran, the senior assistant director of residential life. It has garnered 139+ signatures in support of the NRAC.

With Northeastern RAs having little power, the future of the proctoring requirement will stay in the hands of ResLife and the RSO.