Creating a Residence Life Alumni Base

My assumption is that this is the case for many reunion weekends and Homecomings alike. Involvement with residence life sits in a weird in-between – it’s a job, yes, but it is so consuming, and paramount to many student experiences. In a way, it feels like a club. When you meet other RA alumni, you have that deep shared bond together from that experience. It’s easy for me to say that being an RA was one of the biggest and impactful parts of my time in college, given my career trajectory, but I know many past RAs on different career paths who share a deep fondness for that part of their college experience. 

In my current role, I’ve been working on ways to keep our alumni invested with our department once they move on. It has been a deeply rewarding component of my work, and has become one of my favorite parts of my role. Along the way, I have come to find that engaging your RA alumni base isn’t as huge of a lift as you may think. Below are some practices you might consider engaging in if you’re looking for a way to start creating an alumni base!

Building a Database

• The best place to start is building a database to house alumni information. An easy thing you can do is send an optional survey to your graduating seniors to gather their contact information. You can collect information like permanent emails, phone numbers, intended post-graduation plans, etc. It provides an easy way to know how to contact your alumni, and it helps you keep a running database of who your alumni are.

Creating Social Platforms

• A few years ago, my current institution built a LinkedIn page exclusively for our residence life alumni. The space provides an opportunity for us to keep our alumni in the loop on what we are doing, and a space to provide opportunities for alumni to volunteer with our current efforts. We also encourage our alumni to post opportunities we can pass along to our current student staff (internship opportunities, workshops, etc.). It’s easy to build the page up, and it doesn’t require too much maintenance once it is live. The hardest parts are normalizing use of the space once it is up, and capturing alumni who have been out for a few years. We’ve been encouraging the current alumni in that space to invite other alumni they know! We use LinkedIn now, but in the past we used Facebook.

Invite Alumni to Speak

• Think of how meaningful it can be for a past RA to be invited back to campus to speak to current RAs and reflect on their experiences. At my current institution, we’ve invited alumni back to speak at various end of year celebrations, and it has always proven to be a hit. Current RAs love to hear from folks who have done the work they are doing, and the speakers have a great time being reintroduced to residence life. Beyond just celebrations, we’ve also had alumni panels where past RAs spoke to how they used their residence life skill sets in job searches, interviews, and more. Depending on where the alum is located, we’ve hosted alumni in-person, for folks who are still around the area, and we’ve hosted folks via Zoom. Alternatively, you can even have alumni submit pre-recorded videos if a full speaking role isn’t in the cards for them. Think of how impactful even just a warm welcome from a grad can be!

Host an Alumni Gathering

• If your institution hosts a reunion weekend, homecoming, or any sort of alumni celebration, consider hosting an RA reunion gathering. It can be a great way for past RAs to hear about what’s happening in the department now, connect with other past RAs, meet current RAs and staff, and share stories (we all know res life folks have some of the best stories). I myself have had opportunities to hear past RAs speak about their experiences, and it’s always so cool to hear things like how roles changed through the years and how buildings have changed (is anyone else fascinated to hear how being an RA worked without cell phones or internet?).

Senior Mentorship Program

• Perhaps the most impactful way my current institution has engaged RA alumni is through our Senior Mentorship Program. At the beginning of the academic year, our seniors are invited to fill out a form with their intended career pursuits, where they might want to move to, and what their passions are. We send a similar survey to our alumni to capture what they’re doing now, where they are located, and some of their passions. We then match each senior with alumni based upon mutual interests. We introduce them via email and then let the pairings decide how they want to engage moving forward. The program is entirely optional, but we get a sizable amount of seniors and alumni who partake every year. The program has been a big success, and it has provided a great way to keep our alumni connected with our current student base. The program has even helped some of our students get their foot in the door at various companies and industries. It is a relatively easy program to manage, and something that is easily feasible for most institutions to undertake.

Stay in Touch!

• Of course one of the best things you can do is stay in touch with your RAs once they graduate! It’s such a rewarding experience seeing these students come into their own as graduates and professionals once they leave the institution. These connections allow for mutual mentorship and growth on both sides. I have a number of past RAs that I still talk to, and I am so grateful for these continued connections. At the end of the year, you can offer how you might stay connected (social media connections, email), and create the opportunity for things like recommendation letters or just future life check-ins.

July is here and soon we will be kicking full gear into creating meaningful and impactful experiences for our incoming students and RAs. But, let’s not forget about those who are leaving the role behind and moving on. I hope you consider taking some time to make sure you are laying the groundwork to keep your past students involved!