Resident Minister, Hall Security Assistant Programs To End Due To Budget Problems
Image courtesy of Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
Catholic University is discontinuing the Resident Minister (RM) and Hall Security Assistant (HSA) programs at the end of the current semester. The move comes as the university continues to make spending cuts due to ongoing budget problems. Together, the two programs currently employ around 70 students.
HSAs are Residence Life student workers who assist in keeping residence halls safe and secure. They are responsible for keeping visitor logs, enforcing visitation hours, reporting suspicious activity to campus police, and assisting Resident Assistants (RAs) in their duties. Jon Sawyer, university dean of students, said there are around 40 HSAs. HSAs make $10 per hour.
Maruquel Tampe, a junior biology major, is Senior Team Leader for the HSA program, which means she’s the highest-ranking HSA and reports to a Res Life Community Director. She supervises the HSA Team Leads, who in turn supervise the HSAs in each neighborhood.
“It’s never good to be told that you’re not having a job next semester,” Tampe said when asked about the reaction among the HSAs. “I feel like none of us were really too surprised though, considering the budget cuts that had already been put into place, but it was not welcome news.”
Tampe said she’s worried about dorm security after the program ends.
“I am actually quite concerned about safety in the upcoming semesters,” she said. “HSAs are not just responsible for maintaining visitation hours. They’re also responsible for just keeping an eye out in the dorm, making sure there’s nobody who’s not supposed to be there.”
She added that often, HSAs are the first people to respond to incidents like overdoses, intoxicated students, and other potentially-life-threatening situations, all of which will now be solely the responsibility of RAs.
“That’s the scariest thing for me,” Tampe said. “Our students could be in possible health concerns, and it’ll be a lot harder for the RAs to find out about them, possibly before it’s too late.”
“The HSAs are, first and foremost, the first line of defense that we have against anything, both internally and externally,” Tampe continued. “And without that security feature, we are much more at risk of all kinds of safety concerns.”
There are currently no plans for replacing the HSA program, according to Tampe. Some HSAs are considering continuing their duties in an unofficial manner. Whether that will have any mitigating effect on security concerns is unclear.
Tampe made clear that visitation hours will continue to be in place and enforced by RAs, but is worried that without the HSAs, RAs will be unable to do that.
“For all intents and purposes, visitation hours are about to become a joke,” she said.
Junior music education major Anthony Curioso, who serves as an HSA, echoed that sentiment.
“I think getting rid of the HSAs is a terrible idea because they help make it easier to enforce the visitation hours policy, which is one of the most critically essential policies we have at CUA,” he said. “By removing the HSAs, the responsibility of visitation enforcement falls on the RAs which puts a lot of stress on their shoulders.” (Note: Curioso is also a copy editor and SGA correspondent with The Tower).
Additionally, four RA positions have already been eliminated, according to Sawyer. However, he said there are no plans to make further cuts to the RA program.
Resident Ministers are student employees of the Office of Campus Ministry who are responsible for ministry activities, serving primarily residential students. In an email, Julie Cilano, Associate Director of Campus Ministry, said there are currently 29 RMs. RMs receive room and board at no cost, which is why the program is being “cut as part of the overall university budget cuts,” according to Cilano.
Although the scholarships and RM positions are going away, Cilano said that Campus Ministry has big plans for next academic year.
“Campus Ministry had already been moving toward a more expansive and scalable leadership model, and we are now able to offer even more opportunities for ministry leadership,” she said. “For the 2025-2026 academic year, the Campus Ministry staff interviewed and placed 112 students in leadership roles, including Freshman Ministry Team, Small Group Leaders, Retreat Teams, Men’s and Women’s Ministry Teams, Liturgy Teams, Cardinal Service Corps, Events Teams, Communications Team and more.”
She said duties the RMs currently have will be absorbed into these new positions, adding, “Our hope is that through this new model we will continue to expand the opportunities for students to engage in the Catholic faith at CUA.”
The programs will officially terminate at the end of this semester.
