Emerson Maps RAs' Political Affiliations

During their August training session, Emerson College told its resident assistants (RAs) to refrain from divulging any political opinions whatsoever. Now, ahead of their January training session, the college is questioning RAs about their personal politics.

The newest addition to RA training features Perspectives, a course created by the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI). According to its website, the curriculum aims to facilitate discourse across ideological differences. However, many RAs feel that this program is only the college’s latest tool to map its constituency. Others feel that it has no relevance to doing their job. As one RA remarked, “My main thought when I was doing the training was: how on earth does this pertain to my day-to-day duties as an RA?” 

The course begins with a questionnaire that asks respondents to share their personal political values. Each RA is posed with a list of political affiliations, then asked how willing they are  to participate in dialogue with individuals holding differing viewpoints, as well as to accept that their personal values could be wrong.

The program then presents respondents with specific examples. One question details a scenario in which an RA has an online conversation with an individual who believes that “the US should not invest more resources fighting the spread of terrorism.” The fictional online conversationalist states, "The US could shift their focus on more troubling issues (unemployment, our economy, and the current pandemic).” Every RAis required to formulate an open-ended response to this scenario. The training continues in a similar vein, the next section opening by justifying hypothetical anti-immigration rhetoric with an explanation that the fictional nativist participant was raised in a border town.

A look into the organization that created this module provides insight into its biases. CDI was founded by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and venture capitalist Caroline Mehl, who formerly worked as a research scholar under Haidt’s supervision. Over the course of the past year, Haidt has been vocal in his support for Israel. He has also repeatedly claimed that pro-Palestinian student protestors are responsible for a rise in antisemitism on college campuses.

Mehl has written articles addressing student activism, including one entitled “Navigating Campus Protests,”in which she states, “the aftermath of the October 7th attack on Israel made American universities, once again, the battleground for America’s cultural conflicts.” Both founders have contributed to published works providing guidance to university leadership, showing clear bias against pro-Palestinian student protestors.

But what do CDI and Emerson College plan to do with  information gathered from the RAs? The CDI website shares its report on campus protests, which includes the use of “large-scale quantitative data to identify the type of school that is prone to protest activity, and the type of student that is likely to be a protestor.” While RAs were allowed to opt out of providing their data, the program disclosed an individual’s response to quizzes to HRE administrators.

Overall, the data facilitates the mapping and profiling of respondents by institutional governing bodies. In the hands of authorities such as police departments and those with the power to target protestors — which Emerson administrators have repeatedly done — this information can be used against respondents. As the college continues to crack down on its constituents’ freedom of expression, the introduction of data collection mechanisms only augments its ability to monitor students rather than engage in community building and healing. As one RA stated, “It feels like a huge waste of time… and a way out of face-to-face conversations between higher-ups and RAs.”

Resident assistants have been used as a test group for trainings in the past, from OEO presentations to dialogue workshops. It appears clear that this new training is being assigned to them as part of an agenda for Emerson College students at large. “Expression necessary to evolution” has been limited through the silencing of personal opinions in August’s RA training and the imposition of neutrality in the CDI training module. Ironically, in asking student leaders to remain apolitical and neutral, Housing and Residential Education has made an inherently political choice.

Emerson’s 82 resident assistants play many pivotal roles on our campus. They are community builders and pillars of support, and they serve as liaisons between the administration and the student body. They are integral to the functioning of the college. Yet, time and again, RAs are given contradictory information regarding their roles and are expected to accept and disseminate administrators’ views without question.

The RA union recently authorized a collective action to refrain from completing the training module. At the time of writing, union leadership has not heard back from Housing and Residential Education.