staff photo
Matt Holmes was next to feel the smash of the Residence Life hammer with his dismissal on Tuesday, April 18.
“They told me I was fired Tuesday morning and then told me I had to be out by Thursday,” Holmes said.
Holmes is a senior English/communications major and was an RA in Xavier Halls.
When asked about why he was let go from his position, he stated that he “did something stupid,” but did not think it warranted him “to be necessarily fired.”
“It didn’t affect me as much because I had an apartment and a job lined up already for when I graduate,” Holmes said. “But I can only imagine how hard it would be for someone who didn’t have anywhere to go.” Holmes refers to the handful of RAs who have been dismissed from their duties during these last weeks of the semester.
“There have been reasons for people to be fired though,” Holmes said, “But firing everyone does not make things any better. I think it’s really unfair to do this to the current RAs because they now have to do all their work plus our work. It seems that Residence Life is just making their job harder.
Kevin Quaglia, junior early childhood education major, feels that the Residence Life staff has been taking the hits like a team and each have been stepping up to take on the additional responsibilities. “We each picked up two more days to make up for the open shifts,” Quaglia said. Quaglia has made sacrifices like the rest of the staff and has offered to work the “Hat and Tie” and the Honors Convocation, which he is being honored at for making the dean’s list for five consecutive semesters.
“My parents are pretty upset that I can’t go now,” Quaglia said, “but this is part of working on a team.”
Alex Conynham, freshman computer major and Xavier Hall resident, lived next door to Holmes. Conynham was involved in the incident which caused Holmes to be fired, but he does not blame Holmes for items that were stolen out of his room, which were a Play Station system, Play Station games and a graphing calculator.
“It was just a simple mistake,” Conynham said about the incident. “I think you should be able to leave your door unlocked for an hour and not have to worry about this happening. The lack of safety on campus is to blame, not [Holmes].”
Conynham said, “Holmes was the best RA. He was so cool and easy to talk to. He was a bit more approachable than others. We could talk to him and he would do stuff about it. He’d hold hall meetings to talk about the problems. I think it’s ridiculous to just fire him. It does not solve anything and just leaves my hall with no RA and craziness.”
Holmes was not happy with the short amount of time he was given to clean out his belongings on top of his regular schoolwork and schedule. “I spent three days just moving out and had to inconvenience my friends.”
