If you are an Undergraduate Advisor or Student Intern at the Office of Residential Life, sign our union card here.

JANUARY 25, 2024 (HANOVER, NH)

Open Letter to Dartmouth College Administration from Undergraduate Advisors (UGAs), Organizing Under the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth (DDS)

To Dartmouth’s Office of Residential Life, leadership, and the broader community:

Dartmouth’s Undergraduate Advisors (UGAs) are organizing for comprehensive and fair compensation without disrupting financial aid packages, frequent and improved training, and standardized, transparent hiring processes.

UGAs are often the first responders to student mental health and sexual assault and harassment crises, yet receive no more than a day’s worth of in-person training on mental health care and suicide prevention. Additionally, UGAs are given inadequate training in providing resources geared towards sexual assault prevention and support. This negligence forces UGAs to refer students to subpar places, like the Pregnancy Center of the Upper Valley (which poses as an abortion center).  At best, they provide unsatisfactory services, and at worst, they commit psychological and physical harm against students. This crisis comes in addition to our usual duties such as conducting walk-throughs, weekly floor meetings, assisting with move-in and dorm closing, planning and executing floor programming, and assisting with house programming–responsibilities that are not described clearly during the hiring process. 

These are unacceptable conditions for our workforce. Therefore, we have made the decision to organize with the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth (SWCD) to achieve the following:

I.Compensation

The compensation structure must include room and board coverage, meal plan coverage, and an improved stipend. Currently, first-time UGAs receive a stipend of $6,000 yearly ($2000 termly), returners receive $6,300 ($2,100 termly), and all UGAs receive credit for the 80-block meal plan ($2,130) and are guaranteed a single dorm. No considerable changes have been made to the UGA stipend since previous all-campus minimum wage increases, and the cost of living in Hanover has risen. As a comparison, universities like Stanford, Columbia, and Princeton currently make between $8,000 - $13,000 and guaranteed housing.

We demand the compensation model to:

  1. Offer room and board credit for all UGAs on and working during the academic year

  2. Increase the stipend following suit with Dartmouth’s previous wage increase for other student employees

  3. Implement a raise structure depending on tuition increase.

  4. Maintain full benefits without disrupting financial aid packages.

  5. Provide a stipend for students attending fall training, which is two weeks of required participation on campus, compared to 1 to 3 days in the winter or spring.

    • Currently, meals at 53 Commons are covered but change to the stipend, regardless of UGA attendance.

II.Frequent & Improved Training

    1. Offer frequent mental health and sexual assault training; at least three opportunities a term with specialists from the Counselling Office and relevant, qualified specialists depending on the training situation.

      • Further training on situations including but not limited to bias incidents, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, etc.

      • Provide clear, written, and transparent training descriptions to UGAs before sessions.

        • Especially Behind Closed Doors, and the expectations for returners acting and first-time UGAs responding.

    2. Provide updated, meaningful, comprehensively researched, verified resources to address the following:

      • Trans and genderqueer affirming care and protection from family rejection, stalking, and/or harassment.

      • Students seeking abortion funds, sexual health, and other reproductive health resources.

      • Students struggling with food insecurity (the current food pantry below Dick’s House is resourced by Upper Valley communal support).

      • Greater financial/emergency aid support for students temporarily or currently unhoused.

III.Standardized & Transparent Hiring Processes

    1. Aim to eliminate discrepancies between housing communities in rehiring,

    2. Provide an accessible and comprehensive job description, including details about duties, big weekend responsibilities, walkthrough standardization, and a warning system, provided with the job offer.

IV.Facilitation and Workplace

    1. Increase communication between all House communities and their respective Assistant Directors (AD) and UGAs to share the knowledge and increase transparency between houses UGAs and ADs.

      • Offer at least one open-to-staff Assistant Director and upper-management meeting so UGAs can be involved in higher-level decision-making.

    2. Ensure adequate management through increased hiring and training of ADs to oversee the functioning of Residential Life.


This list is subject to expansion and/or change according to the needs of our workforce.

UGAs and Residential Advisors nationwide are organizing around similar demands and workplace issues. At UCSC, students are also organizing to increase support for victims of sexual assault and harassment, and at Columbia, residential advisors working to address similar concerns won their union election. The fight for fair wages and adequate resources for residential advisors through unionizing is also being waged at Boston University, Swarthmore College, Smith College, Tufts, Emerson College, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. It is long overdue for UGAs at Dartmouth to unionize and join the nationwide struggle to fight for fair working conditions and the compensation we deserve.

In solidarity, 

Dartmouth Undergraduate Advisors and the SWCD