In our technical writing course, we had to create an unsolicited proposal, addressing a problem with our current job, and sending a solution to our boss. My proposal was to the Director of University Residences, written while I was a resident adviser.

1. Western
Washington
University
Residences
FROM:
Ajane
Burnley
TO:
John
Purdie
DATE:
February
28,
2013
SUBJECT:
Proposal
for
RA
duty
alternative
I
have
enjoyed
my
time
working
as
a
resident
advisor
(RA)
but
I
feel
it
could
be
a
less
stressful,
and
more
enjoyable
experience
if
RAs
completed
their
rounds
in
a
community
that
they
don’t
live
in.
Ignition:
the
Issue
Late
at
night,
a
girl
is
scrambling
to
find
an
RA
to
help
her
friend
who
has
just
tried
to
commit
suicide.
She
doesn’t
go
to
the
RA
of
the
ailing
young
woman,
who
is
the
nearest,
but
instead
ends
up
in
Delta
to
get
another
RA
to
help
with
the
situation.
Her
friend
didn’t
trust
her
own
RA;
she
had
to
find
someone
else
to
help
them.
Should
residents
feel
like
they
can’t
trust
their
own
RAs?
Should
residents
risk
making
a
dangerous
situation
more
risky
by
wasting
precious
time
chasing
down
other
RAs
to
help
them
in
these
moments?
Another
resident
is
talking
to
his
friends
in
a
group
about
an
encounter
he
had
with
his
RA.
His
RA
asked
him
why
he
didn’t
want
to
have
a
one-­‐on-­‐one
with
him.
The
resident
said
he
told
his
RA
he
didn’t
know
and
got
away
from
him
as
quickly
as
possible.
The
resident
told
his
friends
that
he
wouldn’t
share
personal
information
with
someone
who
had
written
him
up.
Will
this
resident
turn
to
his
RA
in
a
serious
time
of
need?
Probably
not.
It
all
boils
down
to
trust,
and
the
main
factor
in
losing
the
trust
of
residents
is
an
RA
writing
them
up
for
conduct.
I
have
a
plan
that
will
not
only
address
the
issue
of
residents
not
being
able
to
trust
in
their
RAs,
but
will
address
other
issues.
Launch:
the
Objectives
• Residents
will
feel
more
comfortable
around
their
RAs;
the
relationship
between
the
resident
and
the
RA
will
less
likely
be
in
a
state
of
conflict
• More
objectivity
for
RAs
during
conduct
situations
and
less
people
getting
off
due
to
RAs
not
wanting
to
rock
the
boat
• Higher
returning
RA
rates
since
a
big
stressor
of
the
job
is
reduced
(feeling
like
residents
won’t
connect
with
you)
• Relief
for
the
overworked
Kappa
RAs
(which
would
also
produce
a
higher
returner
rate
since
they
have
a
more
positive
experience
working
for
Reslife)
• More
greater
region
awareness
and
inter-­‐staff
communication
Engine
Burnout:
the
Solution
One
way
to
foster
trust
in
the
relationships
of
RAs
and
residents
is
to
have
RAs
do
their
rounds
and
duty
shifts
in
a
community
they
don’t
live
in.
This
will
keep
the
social
dynamic
and
a
more
negative
dynamic
(conduct)
separate.
Residents
will
feel
more
comfortable
around
their
RA
because
they
won’t
feel
like
they
have
to
walk
on
eggshells.
They
will
be
more
inclined
to
talk
with
RAs
and
share
things
in
one-­‐on-­‐ones
because
they
won’t
have
the
constant
fear
looming
over
their
heads

2. that
they
will
get
in
trouble
for
it.
RAs
and
Residents
will
less
likely
have
conflict
since
a
major
cause
of
conflict
are
conduct
situations
and
RAs
wouldn’t
have
conduct
in
their
community,
unless
by
happenstance
since
they
do
rounds
in
a
separate
community.
Since
RAs
will
be
doing
rounds
in
a
different
community,
they
will
be
more
objective
in
conduct
situations.
They
won’t
know
the
residents
or
know
them
well,
which
will
make
the
RAs
impartial
since
they
can
only
make
note
of
the
situation
at
hand
without
any
outside
factors
or
knowledge
about
the
residents
involved
in
the
conduct.
Are
RAs
really
capable
of
being
completely
subjective
in
conduct
situations?
How
many
colleagues
have
you
had
that
manage
to
get
by
despite
producing
subpar
work
because
everyone
really
liked
that
colleague?
Unless
it’s
a
serve
situation,
I’d
argue
8/10
we
will
let
things
slide
not
to
rock
the
boat
with
our
friends
and
the
people
we
work
with
because
we
still
must
deal
with
these
people
outside
of
outside
circumstances.
We
still
need
to
see
them
every
day
and
in
the
case
of
an
RA,
live
with
them
for
the
duration
of
the
school
year;
maybe
even
have
a
class
with
them.
If
the
goal
of
Reslife
is
for
residents
to
learn
about
their
impact
in
the
community,
how
can
they
ever
get
this
lesson
if
RAs
never
write
them
up
for
the
negative
things
they
do
in
the
community
for
the
risk
of
compromising
their
relationship;
or
worse
to
show
favoritism
by
writing
up
residents
easily
that
they
don’t
know
well
in
the
community,
which
causes
fairness
to
come
into
play.
My
proposal
will
allow
for
RAs
to
be
completely
subjective
in
conduct
situations
and
report
things
as
the
see
them
without
hesitation
and
gives
the
residents
a
chance
to
grow
from
their
mistakes.
Coasting
Phase:
the
Method
and
Management
Based
on
region,
each
RA
staff
will
be
assigned
a
community
for
duty
for
the
entire
year.
For
north
campus
residence
halls,
the
Edens-­‐Higginson
staff
would
perform
rounds
in
Mathes,
Mathes
in
Nash
and
Nash
in
Edens-­‐Higginson.
For
south
campus,
Fairhaven
will
swap
with
Buchanan
Towers.
For
the
Ridgeway,
SHADO
RAs
will
do
rounds
in
Kappa,
Beta/Gamma
RAs
will
do
rounds
in
SHADO,
and
Kappa
will
do
rounds
in
SHADO.
Since
the
number
of
RAs
on
Kappa’s
staff
is
low
compared
to
the
others
in
this
area,
the
duty
change
will
provide
an
added
bonus.
Reslife
has
currently
been
making
ammendments
to
Kappa’s
duty
by
impleting
a
policy
where
they
can
call
RAs
from
the
Beta/Gamma
and
SHADO
staffs
if
they
need
assistance
when
they
are
on
duty
so
other
Kappa
RAs
don’t
need
to
be
on
call
all
the
time.
The
inter-­‐staff
work
is
already
starting
to
come
into
affect
and
my
proposal
will
address
an
issue
you
are
actively
trying
to
find
a
solution
for.
Since
Beta/Gamma
has
a
staff
of
12,
3
of
them
will
join
Kappa
in
doing
rounds
for
SHADO.
This
will
allow
Kappa
to
have
less
weekend
duties;
currently
the
Kappa
RAs
on
duty
4
weekends
a
quarter
each,
making
it
nearly
every
other
weekend
they
are
on
duty.
With
this
plan
implemented
every
RA
will
be
on
duty
only
2
weekends
a
quarter
and
then
4
randomly
selected
RAs
will
have
an
additional
weekend
for
the
quarter
and
will
be
taken
out
of
the
drawing
for
the
next
quarter.
Each
Beta/Gamma
RA
will
have
2
weekends
of
duty
per
quarter
and
only
2
RAs
will
have
to
be
randomly
selected
for
an
extra
weekend
duty.
SHADO
RAs
will
not
have
an
extra
weekend
duty.

3. Once
my
proposal
is
implemented,
RA
duty
will
continue
to
be
managed
by
the
resident
directors
(RDs).
They
already
are
responsible
for
scheduling
duty
and
training
RAs
for
rounds.
It
will
be
a
simple
change
to
implement
since
it’s
not
a
complete
overhaul
of
the
system.
The
RD
of
SHADO
would
show
the
Kappa
and
three
Beta/Gamma
RAs
how
rounds
are
done
in
that
community
as
would
the
RDs
of
Beta/Gamma
and
Kappa.
Duty
wouldn’t
be
anymore
difficult
to
schedule
than
in
the
past,
nor
should
there
be
any
extra
time
for
meetings.
Instead
of
having
2-­‐hour
meetings,
they
would
be
split
between
the
host
RD
and
the
duty
RD.
During
one
of
the
duty
meetings,
the
duty
RD
will
schedule
the
duty
for
the
entire
quarter,
like
RDs
already
currently
do.
RDs
will
send
out
inter-­‐staff
memos
to
keep
everyone
in
the
loop,
which
takes
minutes
to
complete
and
only
once
a
week.
RDs
already
produce
memos
for
their
staffs
so
they
can
just
print
out
a
couple
extra
couples
to
send
out.
This
will
help
spread
community
awareness
since
RAs
will
know
what’s
going
on
all
around
the
region.
Apogee:
the
Cost
and
Resources
No
new
resources
would
be
necessary
and
minimal
extra
cost.
RAs
would
just
need
an
access
key
and
office
key
to
get
to
the
duty
phone
and
backpack
only
used
for
Duty
purposes.
Keys
can
be
duplicated
for
as
cheaply
as
$1.25.
RAs
wouldn’t
need
any
extra
training
than
in
the
past
because
they
are
doing
essentially
the
same
thing,
just
splitting
the
job
between
two
communities.
There
is
potential
for
cost
reduction
as
well
as
a
result
of
less
training
required.
Since
returning
RA
rates
would
be
higher,
there
would
be
fewer
new-­‐hires
and
less
people
to
train.
Training
is
a
full
two
weeks
that
is
paid
and
includes
meals.
In
the
future,
new-­‐hires
may
have
a
different,
lower-­‐cost
training.
Recovery:
I
am
very
excited
to
have
the
opportunity
to
help
a
department
that
does
so
much
to
help
Residents
living
on
Western’s
campus.
We
have
broken
the
mold
in
our
department,
being
the
first
university
to
develop
the
Residence
Education
Model
(REM),
including
one-­‐on-­‐ones
with
residents
to
see
how
they
are
learning
in
their
first
year.
Lets
continue
to
evolve
they
way
living
and
working
in
residence
halls
functions.