This guest column is the first in a two-part series.

Content warning: The following guest column contains details of sexual harassment and imagery some may find distressing.

When MU hires residential advisors, the student employees are guaranteed a few forms of compensation. One of these guaranteed benefits is a private, single room that is assigned at the discretion of Residential Life.

Students should know that while a single room is guaranteed, it is not always given. Last year, Residential Life assigned jack-and-jill style suites to myself and some of my peers in our time as residential advisors. Thus, some members of Residential Life staff, myself included, were forced to share bathrooms with our residents in makeshift single rooms, while other RAs of the building lived in true single rooms with full privacy.

MU Residential Life should not assign residential advisors into suites they share with their residents. While a shared bathroom may seem like a small detail, this deception places both residential advisors and their residents into compromising positions. This assignment causes a range of privacy concerns while also stirring the potential for uncomfortable tensions between the two parties.

To function properly, a suite’s conjoining bathroom must remain unlocked so both rooms can access it. This creates a pathway for residents to enter into the residential advisor’s room without permission, and vice versa. The two bathroom doors can only lock from the inside.

Residential advisors are mandated reporters, which means that they must record and report all instances of discrimination and harassment to the university, and may keep sensitive, FERPA-protected files in their rooms. These files contain private resident information that should not be accessible to the general student body. And most residents, likely freshmen, want to make friends and do not want to share a suite with an older authority figure.

When I first moved into my suite last year, I felt shortchanged. My room wasn’t a true single, but rather a makeshift single with suitemates. However, my excitement for the new position outweighed any negative feelings I felt, and I figured the living situation wouldn’t be much of a problem.

I was mistaken.

During my time as a residential advisor in Excellence Hall, a belligerently drunk and undressed resident wandered freely into my room last spring and crawled into bed next to my half-naked, sleeping body.

As a guest of my freshmen residents, he was able to do so by coming in through the suite bathroom as I slept.

When I awoke and my fellow RAs called MUPD, an officer asked me one glaring, bad-faith question:

“Why was your door unlocked?”

Aside from the distress and unnecessary shame this question — which implied that the situation was somehow my fault — caused me, I had to wonder: Why?

The answer: Residential Life. Simply put, I did not have a choice in the matter. If I locked the bathroom door, my residents could not use the bathroom they were paying for.

Upon learning of the incident, my Residential Life supervisor offered me a room change, which I declined. I didn’t want to uproot my entire living space and isolate myself from all of my friends just because something bad happened to me. Why should the burden of moving rest on the affected party?

To me, Residential Life’s room change offer last spring is indicative of the department’s awareness of this issue yet unwillingness to change until the worst-case scenario happens — until my experience happened. Even so, the offer was a bandage on a bullet wound.

If assigning residential advisors true single rooms is not possible, then Residential Life must work to be more transparent with student employees about the housing situations they are guaranteed. If a student is promised a single, it should be disclosed whether that single room is a true single, or rather, a makeshift single within a suite. Residential Life creates disproportionate compensation by assigning some RAs to true single rooms while some are not given the same living situation for the same work.

Further, MU should find a way to make suite-style living more secure to prevent break-ins by unwanted guests. Suite bathrooms should be reformed to allow locking without compromising either rooms’ ability to use the restroom. Residents living in suites should never have to fear a break-in in the comfort of their own room.

Lastly, I want to emphasize that had I not dropped the residential advisor position this year, this column might not exist. Residential advisors are generally barred from speaking with any news outlets or media. I write about this issue because of my experiences and because peers of mine are affected by this but cannot speak publicly without risking their job with the university.