A resolution passed during last night’s Student Assembly meeting will change the way resident assistants receive funding for hall programs. The resolution maintains that since Residential Life mandates that RAs run a set number of programs each year in order to keep their positions, the Residential Life office should pay for these programs.

The Student Association distributes funds to each housing community, which currently distribute money to RAs for their programs.

“This is currently an unfunded mandate which the SA is paying for,” said Peter Spaet, SA academic vice president-elect, who co-authored the resolution along with Assembly Chair Eric Katz and Hinman representative Mary Leonardo.

The resolution passed 15 to four.

Critics of the action, like College-in-the-Woods Council President Danielle Rovito, feel the new policy will change the dynamic of council hall programs.

“RAs and councils have a friendly relationship; they work together on programs to make them successful,” she said.

Mountainview representative Jeremy Vogt echoed Rovito’s sentiments and said he felt the current process worked well.

“The system is not broken,” he said. “Why are we fixing it? Some council halls even have surplus money at the end of they year … we can fix this on local levels.”

Supporters, like the current treasurer of CIW Adam Amit, who will also be an resident assistant in Hillside next year, said he had personal experience with the delays RAs must go through in order to be reimbursed for program costs, and agreed with the change.

“The resolution will increase the speed RAs are reimbursed,” he said.

Vice President for Academic Affairs-Elect Peter Spaet agreed with Amit.

“Sometimes RAs pay out of pocket for a program and can not be reimbursed due to a technicality,” Spaet said. “Other times it could take almost a month.”

With the resolution, RAs can still receive funds from communities for programs, as long as those programs are not counted towards their quota.

“They would be running a program just as any other student can, not as an RA,” Spaet said of the reasoning.

Schools such as Rutgers University, Cornell University and Syracuse University also use residential life budgets to pay for mandated RA programs.

Katz said that after speaking with Vice President for Student Affairs Brian T. Rose, he was assured that the measure would not lead to increased residential rates. Rose and Terry Webb, BU’s director of Residential Life, have both seen the resolution and agree with it.

However, Katz did note the possibility that rates may increase over the next two years for other reasons.

Council Budgets will not change from the $11 per student.