Residence life is one of the most change-saturated environments on a college campus. Students arrive during moments of transition, staff juggle evolving expectations, and institutions regularly introduce new priorities, policies, and pressures. In this context, change can either feel intentional and supportive or confusing and destabilizing, often simultaneously.
Change models provide residence life professionals with a way to design change alongside students, rather than just around them. A particularly useful framework that I’ve used for many years is John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model. This model helps us attend to both the mechanics of change and the lived student experience of that change.
Using Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model in Residence Life
Kotter’s model is especially helpful when residence life departments are implementing department-wide or cultural shifts, such as a new residential curriculum, revised conduct philosophy, or reimagined RA role.
Create a Sense of Urgency
In residence life, urgency should never be manufactured through fear. Instead, it can be grounded in student experience data, such as retention trends, climate surveys, incident reports, or qualitative feedback from students. For example, noticing a rise in reports of loneliness among first-year students allows leaders to frame change as a response to real student needs, not an administrative whim. When urgency is rooted in care, students experience the change as an investment in their wellbeing rather than a reactionary overhaul.
Build a Guiding Coalition
Change is stronger when the people most affected help guide it. In residence life, a guiding coalition might include professional staff, RAs, hall council leaders, and campus partners. This collaborative approach ensures that multiple student identities, hall cultures, and access needs are represented. For students, this means decisions feel relational and inclusive, increasing trust in residence life staff and confidence that their voices matter. As a res lifer, I have often felt the pressure to just “get it done” but it’s better to follow the adage “if something is worth being done, it’s worth being done right.”
Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives
A clear vision translates abstract values into tangible outcomes for students. Instead of a vague goal like “increase engagement,” a residence life vision might emphasize belonging, connection, or care within the first six weeks of the semester. Initiatives such as structured RA check-ins or intentional micro-programming help students understand what is changing and why. The student experience becomes more coherent and purposeful, rather than fragmented across disconnected programs.
Enlist a Volunteer Army
Residence life relies heavily on student staff, and meaningful change requires their active involvement and buy-in. Inviting RAs to pilot new strategies, share feedback, and adapt approaches based on their floor dynamics respects their expertise. When RAs feel ownership over change, their interactions with residents become more authentic and energized, resulting in students experiencing genuine connection rather than scripted engagement. In my experience, it has helped manage the negative reactions I have received during RA training by being able to share that the change was made in response to a specific piece of feedback from peers.
Enable Action by Removing Barriers
Even the best ideas fail when systems get in the way. In residence life, barriers might include overly rigid programming requirements, cumbersome documentation processes, or limited access to resources. Removing these obstacles empowers RAs to respond quickly and creatively to student needs. For residents, this translates into timely support, relevant programming, and a sense that their environment can adapt to them, not the other way around. Honestly, if someone can point to how my work will be easier, or that they’ve been thoughtful of making the work easier, I’m already more inclined to support the change.
Generate Short-Term Wins
Early wins are especially important for students, who experience residence life in short cycles. Highlighting early successes, such as increased attendance, positive feedback on the floor climate, or improved first-year satisfaction, builds confidence that the change is working. Students benefit from immediate improvements in their living environment, while staff gain momentum to continue refining their approach.
(See this blog post for some ways you can shift in the middle of the year).
Sustain Acceleration
Once initial success is visible, residence life can deepen and expand change by integrating new practices into ongoing training, supervision, and assessment. Peer mentoring among RAs and regular reflection spaces help sustain progress. For students, this means that improved experiences are no longer limited to one semester or one building. Instead, they become more consistent across the entire residential system.
Institute Change
Lasting change is embedded in culture, not just policy. When new practices are reflected in departmental philosophy statements, learning outcomes, and evaluation processes, students benefit from long-term stability and clarity. Their residence hall experience becomes predictably supportive, even as staff or leadership changes over time. This part can feel extra difficult because change is a way of being in residence life, so embedding any change can feel like a fool’s errand. However, if we keep focused on the student experience, any positive impact is worth it, right?
