“I was very honest about what happened” – Edgar Vasquez
by Dave Waddell
College is supposed to be full of lessons. This semester, Chico State junior Edgar Vasquez is learning a particularly painful one that has left him homeless and losing weight.
Vasquez, 21, says he was one of about two dozen university resident advisers who were fired en masse in early March after they attended an off-campus party at which some drank alcohol. With the firings, the university forced the RAs out of their dorm rooms and off their meals plans. Vasquez valued the economic hit to him at between $2,000 and $2,500.
According to another fired RA who asked not to be identified, a total 23 RAs were terminated, including 16 from Whitney Hall, a nine-story dorm that houses exclusively freshmen and has a reputation for rowdiness. The remaining seven RAs came from the Shasta, Lassen, University Village and North Campus dormitories, she said. Some of those terminated have been rehired as resident advisers for the 2017-18 academic year, she said.