by Mike Schilling, Ph.D.
As a millennial student affairs practitioner—and more so as the millennial parent of a toddler—generational changes are often on my mind. I see how students engage with our residential environments, I see how my kiddo already understands how to “swipe” on a phone, and I know we need to continue to change to meet this rising generation. I see us needing to consider three factors in making these changes: being real, lowering the energy, and removing the filter.
(Note: I’m using the term “the rising generation” to encompass both “Gen Z” and “Gen Alpha,” as depending on how you break them down, Gen Z is still matriculating for a few years, while Gen Alpha is just beginning to trickle in.)
This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, “How is the rising generation of college students changing residence life practice?”
Being real is essential
The rising generation seeks out and expects authenticity from those around them, including their colleges and universities. They have spent their lives navigating the porous boundaries between digital and real worlds, so their detectors for inauthentic content are well-honed. Values of transparency, vulnerability, and realness at a higher level than we’ve seen in generations past. More importantly, their ability to filter out the fake is how they meet their holistic wellbeing goals; they maintain psychological safety by staying close to what they know is real.
One way Residence Life practice can “be real” is through getting back to the basics and not trying to be what we are not. We have a tendency for scope creep; it’s okay to admit that, because it’s hard to avoid when you hold responsibility for where students live. That said, before we say “yes” to the next thing, we should double check our stated mission, vision, and goals for clear alignment, because the rising generation is going to sense better than we will if we are stretching beyond those statements.
We should also look at how we are bringing our real selves into our interactions with students. Let’s examine how we can introduce some more of ourselves, be a little more vulnerable, and open enough to build trust and connection without crossing boundaries that protect our own wellbeing. Then let’s coach the staff we supervise to do the same and create spaces where students can bring their real selves in turn. I’d argue this is where sharing more of our “why” and what paths we have taken to our work can come in For the rising generation, that story may be key to engaging in a real interaction.
Lower energy is safer
The rising generation reports higher levels of stress in their lives than those before. This stress arises from many different factors, such as the deluge of upsetting world events crossing their screens, layered atop the consistent need to question if what’s on that screen is real. Consequently, the rising generation seeks spaces where they can protect their wellbeing and reduce stress—calmer, lower-energy spaces that can restore the internal resources the world asks them to expend just to live in it. Such spaces empower the evaluation for authenticity mentioned above. Another way the rising generation acts on this is by keeping to a small pod of close friends, seeking to be “together alone” with those smaller social groups rather than in large crowds of acquaintances. Again, such a small group allows for the genuine, more vulnerable interactions they crave.
Depending on when and how you’ve “grown up” in the field, it could be difficult to hear that a shift towards lower-energy engagement is necessary. Speaking for myself as a former undergraduate greeted by cheer squads of orientation leaders and RAs, and later a late night programming chair renting several inflatables at a time…it’s hard to shake off those instincts for bold, loud, and high-energy events. But I can’t ignore the trend I’ve seen over time of more students hanging out (together) on the outskirts of events to evaluate whether it’s a safe space for their smaller group to be. So, I believe Residence Life needs to think more about how we can work the following into engagement:
- Spaces for small groups of students to engage “together alone” (stations, tables, same event across multiple lounges, etc.)
- Lower-energy events (dinners, studying, crafting, “lo-fi” music, etc.) or at least multi-modality engagement opportunities within the same event (choose your adventure-style)
- Low-sensory spaces at events that still enable engagement in the core outcomes
Over-polished is overwhelming
The carefully crafted message comes across as inauthentic to the rising generation, and the big butcher-block posters and impressive door decs with loud colors are simply too much. This all builds from the points above. They are seeking real, so polished perfection sends messages of performance. They are seeking low energy, so all the decorations and posters may push them away rather than pull them in. And speaking of posters—any message written on paper will continue to be drowned out by the unfiltered voices this rising generation can easily find on social media.
So, where does this leave us in Residence Life, especially if our institution has published brand standards with HEX codes and tone guidelines? We shouldn’t go off-brand and create confusion for our students, but we can shift how we create the visual environment and messaging. We can move beyond the Cri-cuts and 12-color packs of construction paper; let’s instead consider how softer, muted, and simpler door decorations may create a more welcoming space. Or let’s take it further and consider how we can utilize decorations for facilitating connections, allowing students living next to each other to learn something about each other and thus adding some “real” to their environment. And while I’m sure we have all moved some messaging to social media, I’d challenge us to continue to ask how we can leverage real, unpolished student voices to get others to events and share important information rather than the filtered, polished video or poster that may just be lost in the noisy, albeit on-brand, ether.
Change is difficult. It’s scary, especially when it forces you to look in a mirror. But if we intentionally make changes that increase our authenticity, turn down the energy even slightly, and remove some of the filters from our messaging, I think we will meet the moment in a way that creates safer and more engaging spaces for the rising generation.
