Resident Assistants at U. Chicago Claim School Laid Them Off Without Telling Them
“no official announcement”
It is starting to look like there is going to be a lot of legal fallout from the sudden closure of so many schools.
The College Fix reports:
University of Chicago lays off resident assistants without telling them
Some workers whose jobs are tied to physical places are still getting paid during the coronavirus outbreak, even though they can’t be on site.
Not the University of Chicago’s resident assistants in campus housing, however.
The Chicago Maroon reports that the RAs received “no official announcement” that they wouldn’t be paid for spring quarter, but rather they “cobbled together enough information to realize” they had been effectively laid off.
Students were ordered to leave the dorms by March 22 in line with the university’s move to online learning for spring quarter.
Residential Life administrators broke the news to resident deans and resident heads in a videoconference that excluded RAs themselves, according to an RA briefed by some resident heads. Some administrators told RAs “one-on-one” before the videoconference that they wouldn’t get their spring stipend of $3,404, though:
“Any information we had was accumulated by individual RAs texting and emailing directors in Housing and sharing it among us,” said RA Gabbie Griffen. “The only reason we even knew that the Housing Office was meeting with RDs and RHs was a conference call link accidentally sent to us.”
Related to a warning from a law professor on the legal consequences of kicking students out of housing due to coronavirus fears, another RA told the Maroon the university might be in breach of contract…
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Comments
Disorganized and impolite but that happens in emergencies. Probably, the school will offer them a small settlement (and hopefully an apology). If they have any brains, they’ll take it.