In November 2025, Colorado State University’s Housing & Dining Services announced changes to residence hall student staff positions to be implemented in fall 2026 in an effort to better support campus residents and student staff. Now, with the 2026-27 academic year underway, residents and student staff have displayed mixed reactions to the changes.
This change reassigned staff responsibilities and phased out some roles while introducing new ones. For example, the resident assistant — a live-in student staff member who was tasked with building community in their halls, addressing interpersonal needs, completing regular walks and check-ins and being on call overnight — has been removed.
In the new model, the bulk of these responsibilities have shifted to live-in student staff called community assistants. However, they no longer conduct walks of the halls or remain on call overnight. Instead, hourly student employees called operation assistants staff the front desk of each building, conducting regular walks and attending to the overnight needs of residents in addition to the clerical work previously completed by community coordinators and desk assistants. Notably, operation assistants are compensated at a rate of $19 an hour and are not required to live on campus, while community assistants are only provided room and board for their positions…