Hi,
This is an interesting question. Congratulations to JinKim65 on your new job status. I'm bringing a new perspective to all this so might be some good news for those who think they were downgraded from Research Fellow to Research Associate. In the school were I trained, one of the top schools in the country, a research associate and research fellow are basically considered to be the same. Only difference is that an associate previously had an association with the school e.g. was an employee in another capacity or a recent graduate from one of the school's program. A fellow on the other hand is usually someone who comes to do the same work usually from another country and maybe on a J1 visa. Seems to me to be just a matter of semantics. The responsibilities given to the person depends on his/her prior experience. For e.g. one RA could be doing much more advanced research in one department compared to an RF in another department! God bless