For many on the outside, being a Resident Assistant (RA) sounds like a sweet deal. Free room and board for keeping tabs on the students of your floor. A few proctor shifts here, a “lost my keys call” there, but overall, it has been worth it for most who sign up.

That is, until two weeks ago.

That’s when Residential Life distributed the new RA contract, which will require the RAs to perform two overnight proctoring shifts a month. The contract made no mention of a winter break or any time off, and mandated RA meetings on Tuesday nights, making it difficult for RAs to join other student groups. RAs also complained that RAs who do not live near dining halls aren’t able to receive dining dollars in place of numbered meals plans.

The contract was written without consulting RAs, a fact that was made obvious by the uproarious reaction.

The biggest complaint came down to the fact that being a Resident Assistant is a title, a job and, sometimes, a privilege — RA or not, they are all students.

Can you imagine coming home from a co-op job at 6 p.m., then being required to work swiping cards from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.? How can anyone expect to function as a student with, technically, two full-time jobs, when they are getting less than four hours of sleep?

The answer is simple, at least in the eyes of ResLife: