Resident assistants will no longer be required to collect the $25 in floor funds from students living in on-campus housing starting next academic year. The Office of Residential Living will provide RAs and hall community directors with a budget sourced from University operating expenses rather than taking the programming funds directly from students’ pockets.
According to Director of Residential Life Stephanie Lynch, the policy of floor funds put residential staff and students in an “awkward position.”
“Advantages [of ending floor funds] include providing for a process which avoids nickel and diming students, removes peers from collecting money, and does not make students unintentionally disclose their socio-economic status,” she wrote in an email to the Voice.
According to Lynch, the University compared itself to multiple Jesuit and D.C. schools in addition to institutions in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, an organization of 31 private colleges and universities that support each other on financial and academic issues, of which Georgetown is a member.
“This information, in conjunction with a previous external review and feedback from student and professional staff, confirmed the process of collecting floor funds should discontinue,” she wrote.
According to Senior Director of Finance and Administration Patrick Durbin, Director of Residential Education Ed Gilhool will determine how much funding RAs and community directors will receive under the new scheme early next month. Gilhool did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls for comment by the Voice.
When asked, Durbin was unable to estimate the monetary impact the change will have on residential programming or on the University’s financial situation, but said he does not anticipate that it will affect University budgeting.
