In Support of The University of Delaware Office of Residence Life

November 2, 2007

Dear President Harker,

I am a recent graduate and former Resident Assistant from the University of Delaware. The recent vilification of the goals of Residence Life, by an outside organization nonetheless, has left me in a state of shock.

I spent from August 2004 until May 2007 as a Resident Assistant (RA) in the Russell Complex. What you may not know is that my first year as an RA took place the before a curricular approach was instituted in the Office of Residence Life. As a Resident Assistant in a non-curricular approach, I often felt more like a combination between a police force and a camp counselor. Diversity programs consisted of eating foods or playing games from other cultures, and barely ever looked at the reality of it all. There wasn’t any clear purpose to programming, and often it seemed to be a waste of time and effort. In terms of being educational, it usually was not.

In 2005, The Office of Residence Life instituted a curricular approach to residence hall living. This for returning RAs meant an abundant increase in workload, but also a change in roles. Yes, we still enforced and upheld the policies of the university, but we no longer were using a checklist programming model. This curricular approach challenged RAs to challenge our residents to think freely and to exchange ideas about social justice issues. It also allowed us, the RA staff, to encourage our students to be introspective—to dare to see that perhaps they still had something, whether big or small, to learn about themselves and others. At no point did the curriculum attempt to brainwash or indoctrinate students with a new set of beliefs; I do, however, expect that many residents left their freshmen year with new passions, ideals, and attitudes in relation to social justice issues simply because they were given the chance to explore the world inside and outside of their own identities.

I am a Roman Catholic Christian and hold many ideals that society may deem to be conservative, which often led to my residents questioning why I was pro diversity education. I may hold many beliefs that seemingly clash with what my role as an RA entailed, but something that my faith holds fast to is the dignity of every human life. This is a tenant that does not allow for discrimination and that more than allowed me to develop a passion for social justice. For many of my residents who also had strong religious backgrounds, the curriculum initially seemed to be troubling. When I asked them why they thought so, they responded that they thought they were supposed to come out of freshmen year pro gay marriage, pro-choice, and anti everything they held true as a Christian. This initial discomfort with the curriculum opened a dialogue that soared to unimaginable heights. We talked about how the curriculum had not been designed to dissuade them from their Christian identity, but to embrace it. It also opened their eyes to the reality of the workplace during and after college. I was able to discuss with residents one on one and in a group setting that even though they may hold a personal conviction that being gay is wrong or that having a disability makes a person useless, that we still have to live and work in a world that is filled with people who identify as gay or have a disability, and this awareness of the struggles and triumphs of another community can be used a directive as to how we as individuals can learn to live and work in harmony with others. I often reminded residents that none of us lives in a bubble. With this in mind, residents were able to both develop passions for many issues of social justice and to come to terms with those for which they found no passion—doing all of this without losing themselves or, in many cases, their faith.

If Residence Life is being accused of changing residents’ beliefs and attitudes, the accusation stands true, but it is not due to force, brainwashing, or indoctrination of any kind. It is due to the passionate people who open dialogues and allow for free thinking in a safe and supportive living space. Even then, the amazing changes are not for Residence Life to claim, they are for the residents past and present to hold and take ownership of, as they are the ones who given the right environment were able to change, grow and develop as citizens of both the university and of the world.

In closing, I implore you to support the Office of Residence Life and their well designed curriculum. That which is good is almost always persecuted, but that in no way makes it wrong. Please use your role as president of the University of Delaware to support student growth and development by supporting the people on campus who work the most closely with students—the Office of Residence Life.

Sincerely,
Siné Callanan
Class of 2007