When Offenhauer desk clerk Raven Ellis received her fall shift schedule, she breathed a sigh of relief and “smiled ear to ear.”

Ellis said she fears other desk clerks might not be so lucky, due to changes in the resident adviser stipend process for Fall 2011.

“I received an email last week and got all the shifts I wanted for next year,” the junior said. “I’m relieved, but I hope it worked out for everyone else, too.”

Earlier this semester, the Office of Residence Life announced a decision to reduce all RA stipends to $560. Stipend money is an RA’s salary, in addition to a free room and bronze meal plan.

Currently, first-year RAs receive $700, second-year RAs receive $800, and third-and fourth-year RAs receive $900.

“The whole University has been asked to look at our budgets and where we’re spending money,” said Tim Shaal, associate director of Residence Life. “We had to make different cuts across the board and this is one area where we did that.”

The decision, however, comes with a new opportunity for RAs.

“One of the ways we decided to allow them to make up that stipend they would be losing was to work paid desk clerk hours,” he said. “If an RA doesn’t want to work the front desk, they don’t have to. But if they want to, they can choose to do that.”

Starting this fall, first-year RAs will be guaranteed four hours per week and returning RAs will be guaranteed six hours per week, both at minimum wage, Shaal said. RAs will be limited to 8 a.m. to midnight shifts, while desk clerks will be limited to midnight to 8 a.m. shifts.

“RAs’ schedules are dictated by many things that come with the position,” Shaal said. “We had to set limits and we still wanted to keep some positions open for students who aren’t working for our offices to provide hours for them, too.”

But for student desk clerks like Ellis, this change limits the opportunity to be selective with shifts, she said.

“I was a little concerned at first — we were all really scared,” she said. “At the meeting someone joked, ‘We should get the RAs,’ but I think there might have been some truth in that. We felt like they were taking the good hours.”

Now the air is clear, Ellis said, especially since some Offenhauer night shifts are still up for grabs.

“I’m a night person and I’ve always worked the late shifts, so I didn’t suffer, but if I wasn’t a night person I might look for a different job,” she said. “But I feel bad for the RAs, too. I’m sure they depended on that extra stipend money, so I understand that they need to work at the desk to make up for that.”

Many resident advisers and desk clerks have begun signing up for hours and the process is running smoothly so far, said Steve Syoen, hall director for Harshman Chapman-Dunbar and Kreischer Compton-Darrow residence halls.

“Any time there’s a shift in how things are done, there’s some sensitivity to that,” he said. “A lot of people have an open mind, see why things are happening and are glad to just have a job. They’re willing to stick with us while we figure it out.”

The change in desk hours may also benefit students, said senior resident adviser Claire Bailey.

“It’s a good opportunity for RAs to get to know people and learn names and faces, and that face time is important,” she said. “A lot of desk clerks are already RAs anyway … so this may seem like a big change now, but in a year or so, people probably won’t know the difference.”