Photo courtesy of Jacob Davick
Student Development has implemented a new policy to “provide support” for Residence Assistants (RAs) as they regulate hall group chats to ensure conversations “contribute to a healthy residential community” (Student Handbook 26–27). Under this new system, Resident Directors (RDs) will conduct regular verbal check-ins with each RA concerning the chats. Additionally, RDs will receive access to hall group chats once a semester to confirm the conversations are aligned with the college’s biblical values and community standards.
Though Student Development believes the policy is “not really changing anything substantive,” some students feel otherwise.
“It breaks trust between students and the administration,” Corban Tolle ’27 says.
Other students suggest that this policy mirrors a national increase in intrusion of privacy. Pushback against monitoring technology (Flock cameras, AI data brokerage, etc.) has been especially pronounced among America’s younger population.
“I get where the college is coming from,” Catacombs RA Kai Radke ’29 says.“Guys just create separate group chats… and it gets worse.”
He understands how group chats can easily become unhealthy. Even so, he’s not convinced this policy will do much to solve the problem.
Balcony RA Mackenzie Protos ’28 feels that the policy seems to be “a sort of breach of privacy” that encroaches on halls unnecessarily. However, she understands that certain halls may need the occasional check-in to support their RA in keeping residents accountable.
Protos remarks that many students are confused as to why they were not informed of this new policy.
“They’re finding out through the grapevine — it would be nice knowing [about it] going into things.”
She suggests that it might be prudent for Student Development to inform students about the policy in the future to minimize pushback and potentially false rumors.
“I would not be opposed to that; it would probably be a good thing to do,” acknowledges Si Mitchell, Associate Dean of Students for Residence Life.
He emphasizes that Student Development had no desire to blindside students or to breach their privacy when implementing this policy. He simply realized that Student Development “has a responsibility not to just create this thing but also provide some support or accountability” to RAs as they operate hall group chats.
“With these kinds of changes, it’s always a judgement call of ‘is this noteworthy to announce?’” Mitchell explains.
While the handbook has been updated to explicitly include group chats under digital communities that should be faithfully used, he notes that hall groups chats have always been a facet of residence life in some way. Chats are created by RAs and, while used for various nonofficial purposes, are also used to convey important information for cleaning days, mandatory meetings, and other official events.
“It would be totally inconsistent with every other part of res life… if the work that we’re asking [RAs] to do doesn’t fall under the support of an RD,” Maclellan Hall RD Mattie Hunt says.
As Mitchell explains, there is a tension between providing adult residents with absolute freedom and maintaining the college’s values. In light of this, Student Development is open to changes that may need to be made as they hear feedback from the RAs and residents this policy seeks to assist.