Penn RA union members voice frustrations with financial aid office, lack of support from union

Members of Penn's undergraduate and graduate resident advisor union are facing challenges with financial aid following the ratification of their first contract, with some alleging a lack of support from the union itself. 

After 56 undergraduate RAs — all members of United RAs at Penn — were informed at the start of the fall semester that their financial aid packages were being reduced to no longer cover the cost of their dining plans, the union filed a federal lawsuit against Penn through the National Labor Relations Board. The aid reductions increased tuition costs nearly $6,000 yearly, several affected union members told The Daily Pennsylvanian. The impacted members alleged that the union did not fully support their efforts to work through the issues with Penn. 

A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

“For us, it’s a unique Penn issue," Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153 organizer and 2016 Graduate School of Education graduate Scott Williams told the DP. "We don’t have the same problem at Fordham, Wesleyan, Tufts, Georgetown, or Temple. We view all the things that Penn is doing as vindictively trying to turn people against this decision to form a union, and trying to poison the well so people don’t trust the organization they have built." 

However, according to two union members who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation, the RA union did not support them through their efforts to reduce their tuition costs. 

"The union has all been talk, they have done nothing about this," one union member told the DP. "They did not help in any way. I went to them, I emailed them, I contacted them. Either no response, or they would just tell me to go to the next union meeting. So I obviously was not even a priority." 

The union member added that they continuously visited the financial aid office to work through the issues and receive answers and was later told that the financial aid office had "probably just missed it" when reallocating aid packages.

Although some Penn students become RAs to reduce their tuition, the financial aid issues have posed challenges to this. 

“They raised my cost of attendance to match what it was last semester when I wasn’t an RA, so there was no financial benefit," another union member, who was also granted anonymity due to fear of retaliation, told the DP. "I resigned as an RA days before they adjusted my tuition because the costs were too much, but I ran back to my house director begging for my job back once it was fixed. Luckily, I was rehired." 

Another union member, also granted anonymity due to fear of retaliation, told the DP that they were affected by the sudden increase in tuition and still have to pay some of the new charges.

“Scott sent us an email saying that we could go to the financial aid office to get additional assistance," they said, adding that even with the assistance, they still have to pay an additional $1,000 in tuition. 

"Maybe they assumed the stipend from the union would cancel the costs out to make it even again,” they added.

Union members also reported a large disconnect from the University and an increase in disciplinary action against RAs throughout this semester. 

"What's been happening is that Penn has been violating our contract," Williams told the DP, explaining that the "progressive discipline" process outlined in the contract says that disciplinary proceedings should start with a verbal warning, then progress to written warnings and probation.  

"Penn has been immediately going to the higher levels of discipline time and time again, and it's not clear to us that they even know that they're supposed to start with a written warning," Williams said. "So house directors are unfairly disciplining our members." 

Union members also said that the University has gotten stricter about union members' absences from mandatory trainings since the contract was ratified. 

“Requests to miss RA training were denied unless you were tied to Penn athletics or a Penn internship. They denied my request to miss a few days for a children’s summer camp through Penn, even as a returning RA who had been through all the training,” a union member told the DP.   

"Less than 40% of graduate and undergraduate resident advisors returned this year," Williams said, noting that just 89 of Penn's 220 RAs and GRAs have served in the position before. 

Penn RAs and GRAs first filed to unionize in March 2023 in response to being “undervalued and underpaid,” citing limitations of the meal plan and expectations to perform tasks that fall outside an RA’s job description. In a 142-22 vote, Penn RAs voted to form a union in late September 2023 and officially formed United RAs at Penn. 

The union's contract, which was ratified in June and represented one of the first RA union contracts in the country, increased RAs’ meal plans, granted them larger stipends, and increased rights and support for any grievance, arbitration, or disciplinary processes. The agreement also explicitly stated that there were no limits on holding multiple campus jobs — a clause that some graduate residential advisors accused the University of violating in August. 

One union member told the DP that they just became an RA this year and "didn't even have a chance to vote on the union," making challenges like the financial aid issues more significant. 

"The way the union works is that you're either in the union and you're an RA, or you're just not an RA," they said. "You can't be an RA and not be in the union."