In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, Crystal sits down with Ryan Taylor-Gonzales, Assistant Director of Learning and Assessment at CSU Monterey Bay, to talk about the transition from hall director to mid-level leader in housing. Ryan reflects on the growth, identity shifts, and leadership lessons that come with stepping into broader responsibility.
Guest: Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales (he/they), Assistant Director of Residential Life for Learning & Assessment
Host: Crystal Lay
Listen to the Podcast:
Watch the Video:
Show Notes:
- The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace after the Great Resignation by Kevin R. McClure
- ACPA Mid-Level Community of Practice
- ACPA Bourassa Mid-Level Institute
- ACUHO-U James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute
- The Mid-Level Manager in Student Affairs: Strategies for Success
- In the Middle: Leading as a Mid-Level Professional in Student Affairs
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Crystal Lay:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Roompact’s Res Ed Chat Podcast. This is a platform where we highlight cool people who do cool things in residence life and college student housing. I am your host, Crystal Lay, and I use a she/her series pronouns. Today we’re going to talk about something that is pretty dear to me because I had the opportunity to support mid-level leaders and managers in some different spaces, but I always think about what is it like to go from being entry level to mid-level because I don’t have that vantage point anymore. It’s been years for me. And so I was very, very fortunate to find someone who is more recently transitioning into being a mid-level leader who could tell us about what it’s been like for them, and then we can share that story with you. So with that, I would love to have our guests introduce themselves.
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Hi, folks. Thank you so much, Dr. Lay for inviting me. I really appreciate the invitation and being present and being able to offer my voice in this space as well. My name is Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzalez. I use he/him and they/them series pronouns, and I am one of the assistant directors of residential life at California State University, Monterey Bay, particularly focusing on my specialty as learning and assessment. So curriculum, assessment, those are my faves and I’m super, super overjoyed and thrilled to be here and present with you all.
Crystal Lay:
And thank you. Talking about transition or changes personally or professionally, I think can be exciting, but also very personal, if you will. And so please feel free to share as much as you feel comfortable sharing as we go through, again, your transition from going from an entry-level hall director to now being an assistant director specifically in residential life. So my question for you, when you moved from being a hall director to an assistant director, Ryan, what surprised you the most about your role? And then also, did your professional identity change at all?
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Yeah. That’s a really great question. I think for me, what was the most surprising was just understanding how quickly that I needed to adapt. As soon as my hall director career started, I knew that I wanted to be an assistant director at some point in my career. And I don’t think that I realized fully that it comes, but it comes fast. It definitely comes with its underpinnings of imposter syndrome, thinking about, am I ready? Am I ready to be an assistant director? Do I know the hall director role perfectly? But I think that that is one of those questions that we need to deconstruct for ourselves as an entry-level professional. Perfection is not the goal. And I think what we have to think about too is when you’re a hall director, your days are so inconsistent. They are so unscripted and anything happens at the drop of a dime. We’re supporting students. We are situating ourselves in the support of our students and our residential population. And now as an assistant director, what I’ve realized is my days look a little bit more consistent, but I think with that consistency comes the reckoning of I have a specialty now.
I knew as a hall director that I loved curriculum, I loved assessment, I loved recruitment, and now I get to do those on an everyday basis. But I think it looks very, very different from my passion areas when I was a hall director. I think looking back on my time as a hall director, you see residential education at six foot. You’re right above the ground, you’re looking down at it and you’re seeing like, oh, this is the operations piece of my hall coordinator role. This is the supervision of student leader part of my hall director role. And now I think my professional identity … And this is no exaggeration, I see Res Ed now at maybe like I’m on a flight and I’m 35,000 feet in the air and I’m looking down on it. And now seeing that my RLCs and my hall directors are able to do this work and I’m almost passing the baton in many ways. And I think it’s a beautiful experience, but also I think that there is a moment that I had to navigate through myself of I had to shed the skin of my hall director identity and realize that it’s okay to let go. It’s okay to pass that baton. We see the community, we see the engagement every day and those development of student leaders but now as an assistant director, I’m able to see it at such a different level.
You hear when you’re a hall director, “Oh, being an AD is so much different than being a hall director.” And yes, that’s 100% true, but I also think seeing the beauty in now you’re advocating for RLCs or your hall directors in a different way than you were able to when you were one and now you’re advocating for students in such a different way than when you were potentially a student leader or that you were able to advocate for them when you were a hall director. And now I think what I look back on, you have to let go of the expectation that everything is going to be consistent. Even as an AD, nothing is consistent, but I think it does bring a lot more consistency than when I was a hall director, but it is that adjustment period.
I think year one of being a mid-level manager, it is challenging. You are learning so many different things about your supervisory identity. You are learning how to situate yourself in this new role because you are truly leading from the middle. And I think that growth doesn’t all just happen at once. It happens at different stages. But then when you realize, oh, looking back, I supervise my student leaders very differently than how I supervise professionals. But I think too, you can’t perfect the mid-level manager role either. You are going to be in it. It is messy. It’s very challenging at many different times of the year, but ultimately it’s a beautiful challenge.
I love the role. I knew that I wanted, like I mentioned, I wanted to be an AD. And I think it’s a lot what I anticipated, but also there were those moments of reflection that, wow, no one taught me or no one told me that this was going to be this way in a mid-level manager role. But also I think it’s the beauty of the unexpected and thinking about how can I now critically think about this particular part of my job that I thought differently about when I was a hall director. But now how do I pass that baton? Like I mentioned, how do you pass that baton to your hall directors and say, “You get to do this work now. It’s so impactful. You get to shine and I’m so excited to invest and see you shine in this work too.”?
Crystal Lay:
So there’s a lot of pieces you covered there. I think you talked about the scope is different. You talked about maybe I was hovering over a building and now I’m zooming out and have more of this … Sometimes we call it this bird’s eye view or that plain view. You also talked about, you knew very early on in your career that you wanted to be an assistant director. I’m not sure if that’s everyone. And so I’m hearing this, your plan was to achieve this next step. And so I imagine there are things that you did to make sure that this could be the next piece of your path. I might also hear that supervising students is very different than supervising full-time staff members. We’re talking pay, benefits, professional development. There’s a different type of accountability, and so I’m very appreciative of the things that you named. I want to go a little bit further and see if there’s anything else. When you look back at your time as a live-in professional, are there parts that you didn’t understand about the assistant director role or you didn’t fully understand until you’re in the seat right now?
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Oh yeah, that’s another beautiful question. I think the first thing that I think about is how I manage my time as a hall director. I think you’re so used to scheduling the conduct meeting, scheduling the student support meetings, scheduling the facilities and the building walkthroughs. And now that I’m in the seat of being an AD, I look at my calendar. And of course, 100%, I color code my calendar, but the pieces and the meetings on my calendar look so different. Especially I mentioned previously that I oversee different specialties in my current role, and I didn’t get that piece when I was a hall director. I think I experienced them in practice and in theory, but I don’t think that I facilitated them. I was part of the committees, I did the work, but now I oversee and I champion that work. And I think that’s very, very different.
I mentioned that predictability factor. My schedule now is very predictable, but of course there’s going to be those moments that just happen. We work in Res Ed. I think there’s going to be those, “Oh no, there’s going to be a fire right now that we have to put out.” Not literally, hopefully not literally. I think too, the scope of oversight now that I look back on and I think about now that I’m in this seat, instead of a residential community of 200 humans, I’m now overseeing the humans that oversee these communities. And that means I’m indirectly having oversight over a thousand students that live on campus. And I think in many ways, I always look back and I reflect on … And to be really vulnerable, I still haven’t figured it out all the way. And I think too, in any position that you’re in higher ed and student affairs, you’re never going to perfect it. You’re never going to see that I have this done and I know exactly what to expect every single moment of the day. But I think too, there’s beauty in that. I think that’s what keeps the work fresh and innovative, but also keeps us really on our toes and really situated in critical thinking, just to be prepared for what students might need support, what professional staff will need from us at any given point.
I think now what’s really resonant with me is looking at generational lines. I look back at what I experienced as a hall director. My own hall directors currently experience a lot of similar things that I did. And I think that was really … I think the word that I will use is empowering for me because now I get to have those critical conversations and guide folks in, “This is also something that I experienced. We are both different humans, but here’s the way that I’ve navigated it and you can of course adapt it, but let me help you navigate through this too.” I want to make sure that I’m giving what I learned in my own hall director season to you so now that you can navigate and be successful and support our students that I was able to do when I was a hall director too.
I think now to what I look at very differently, and you mentioned it earlier, professional development. Thinking as now a mid-level manager, pro divo no longer looks like those small activities that you facilitate in an RA or community advisor team meeting. It looks like sitting down with hall directors and thinking about, have you been to ACPA? Have you been to NASPA? Have you been to NACADA? Have you been to ASCA? What are those experiences that are exciting for you? I think sometimes we see folks in the field say, “Oh, you should go to NASPA, you should go to ACPA,” which is beautiful. And of course, honestly, I’m one of those same professionals, but also what I do now with my hall directors is we sit down and in our one-on-ones, we talk about what does professional development look like for you? I don’t want to prescribe it. I don’t want to be the supervisor that says, “You should do this.” But I want to be the supervisor and the manager that says, “What do you need to be successful? What brings you joy and what sustains you in this work? How can we be intentional about creating a plan for you that makes sense, but also hits that passion area, but also hits the development area too?” I think those are really critical pieces that I’ve learned now.
I look back on my time as a hall director and think about, I facilitated these small exercises in my 7:30 PM on a Thursday night staff meeting, and now that looks different. I meet with my hall directors one-on-one and I also meet with them as an entire group and we process through what trends are they noticing, how do they want to develop, but also how can I help them do that with the resources that I’ve gained during my season as a hall director but now even building on that from my experience as being a mid-level manager, how can we create an experience that sustains them, but also sets them up for success and can contribute to their development and maybe, hey, they want to become a mid-level manager later and let’s get them to that point where they can continue to grow to do so and meet their goals.
Crystal Lay:
So I was curious about how your supervision may have shifted going from entry level to now supervise at entry level. And I think I heard some nuggets of it in your last response that you gave, Ryan. I’m hearing this piece about delegation. How do you create opportunities for you all to work together to co-create, not just on task or projects, but also professional development. What is your path? I think I also heard in there, this is potentially their career and even if it’s just for now. And that’s a different conversation than what you’re having with student staff because you can have a student staff human who their major is engineering and they’re an RA. And so now you’re talking about our entry level folks who have chosen this to be their job and/or potential career path. So I heard that in your response. I think something you also named that I want to challenge just a little bit, you have an experience being a hall director and you’re able to impart that onto your hall directors and say, “Hey, here’s some places where I can help based on prior knowledge and our field is shifting.” I think we see more and more leaders and managers at every level who may not have a housing background.
And so I just think something to note is what is our responsibility to make sure that all our mid-level leaders have an understanding or awareness of things that are signature to our field? So that way, even if they don’t have or they can’t say, “I understand because I’ve done it,” they have the tools to support that person in their role. So I really like that. Now I want to go into, what did you have to let go of? Because you used that language earlier. What did you have to let go of from your hall director role in order to be successful as an assistant director? And if you have more supervision stuff to throw in there, please do so.
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Absolutely. I think when I became an assistant director, a lot of the learning came from unlearning. A lot of these systems, and particularly no matter my supervision style, it’s important to be in alignment with your co-ADs as well. I think when we look at the hall director role, there’s going to be that notion of you live with your colleagues in many ways. When I was a hall director, I was 45 steps away from my neighbor who was another hall director. And that was the fun nights that you get, you’re like, “Oh, who wants to go get ice cream? Who wants to go get dinner at the local Denny’s, et cetera?” Those were the moments that you remember. And I think that looks very different when you navigate to an assistant director role because the community gets fewer and fewer. But I think that’s why it’s so important to think critically about how are you all in alignment to make sure that your hall directors truly get an experience that is meaningful.
It is rooted in community and that community is so important when you are a hall director, but it’s also so important when you’re an assistant director. And I think when I look back on this as well, something that I let go of is needing a specific roadmap that tells me, “Here’s how to do this part of my job. Here’s how this should be facilitated X, Y, and Z.” Those decision trees that I remember so vividly as a hall director, but I do also want to share a name, those decision trees are so important no matter what level you are. What scope of authority do you have or scope of autonomy do you have as an assistant director, as a hall director, that it can inform what decisions you make, but also how you manage upward, how you manage your hall directors, how you supervise them too. I think it works both ways, but I had to unlearn that there is not always going to be that decision tree now as the mid-level manager.
I mentioned the predictability factor of the assistant director role. I think too, in that same frame of thinking, the AD role is still dense. It’s still layered. There are so many moving parts from day-to-day, and I think, and I lean onto my specialties a lot. Curriculum changes, we assess it, we identify that there are different needs now every year based on our student population that we need to address. We need to assess it and be able to say that we can support our students based on this data. How do we use that data to make sure that they are supported? But there’s so many moving parts to it. I think that the roadmapping is particularly more challenging as you move upward in student affairs. And I think when I was a hall director, I felt year one, it was me learning it. It was me thinking about who am I in this work? I was a GA the year before, and now who am I year one? How am I supervising? How is my supervision style adapting? How am I supporting my student leaders? And now I see myself operating in the same way, but at a different level. I think that’s where my mind goes at a different level.
And letting go of there is going to be A plus B equals this outcome. Sometimes there’s going to be A, sub one is truly plus B sub one is going to lead to a different outcome. And I think that’s what I lean into because there is that uncertainty. The hall directors that I supervise, they will navigate very similar experiences, but I think too, we have to be critical. As you mentioned, students are different year to year, and so are our professionals. So we have to be mindful and really innovative how we show up and support them. And I think now looking back on it, my supervision style, what I reflect on a lot is the human identity of the human that I’m supervising. I think my supervision style has changed a lot since I was a hall director because Dr. Lay, you mentioned the professional development aspects of it. You are supervising students as a hall director. And of course, sometimes that might come with supervising a grad student. I also think that full-time professionals, they deserve such care and such attention because their roles are so unique. They are navigating being in complex situations, being on call. One of the pieces of my one-on-one note-taking document is actually labeled RLC care and support. How do I show up and advocate for my hall directors as their supervisor?
Whether this means that I’m just facilitating a general check-in, but also hearing what they’re doing for their weekend. What are they doing to prioritize their wellness and their care for themselves? I think that’s so important. That is actually one question that’s remained similar from when I was a grad to now. What are you doing to take care of yourself and prioritize joy? This work is hard. It is challenging. And I think making sure that hall directors know that you are cared about, you are supported. I’m here to support and uplift you and advocate for you when you need it.
I think leaving behind the piece of, oh, the hall director role is so uncertain. It is so vastly different day-to-day. I’ve had to leave that behind because now what my goal is as an assistant director is to make sure I can still provide my hall directors a level of certainty, a level of care that they so deserve, and also a level of stability that they feel that they can do this job confidently, know that they are cared for, but still make sure that they can prioritize their holistic identity and their holistic wellness outside of work too.
Crystal Lay:
I love that you talked about in a role that can vary from day-to-day, or I say every day feels like a case study. What am I going to learn today? What are we going to work through? The role of a mid-level leader, mid-level human can be the stability. That’s what I heard you say. How can we as supervisors make it feel less volatile? And so I really appreciate that. You also talked about the importance of … You said managing up, and there’s also the managing down. And so when you’re in the middle, you’re translating up, you’re translating down. I had a colleague that posted on LinkedIn and they said, “As a mid-level leader, it’s important for you to think about, do you want to be the captain of the boat or do you want to be the lighthouse?” And so I think that’s a part of that as you talk about your supervision style and then the things that you’ve left behind, what is your role as you engage with the folks that are on your team? And I love the care piece. So I want to ask you next, what has been the most growth producing lesson in your first year, Ryan, or maybe something that stretched you professionally?
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Well, there’s so many of them that I can draw from. I think for me, something that has been on the forefront of my mind a lot this year is just to slow down. I believe this even when I was in my season as a hall director, I think the work is important, but so are you. You are so important. Your health is important holistically, and to not leave that on the back burner at all. The work will be there tomorrow, so we need you here tomorrow. And I think I look back with a lot of pause and reflection on my first year in my season as an AD. There’s been so many things this year that I’ve had to navigate. We’re building a curriculum and it’s so beautiful. And also at the same time, recruitment doesn’t stop and training doesn’t stop, assessment doesn’t stop. And I think I have so many of these ideas and we look at and we ideate, we contribute, we develop these different experiences that hopefully support our professional staff team that will ultimately support our students.
But I think that there is an element of pausing and being okay with, let me step away for a moment and think about, is this a moment that I’m looking to implement right now or can I continue to think about and just ruminate on it for a while? Does it need to be right in this moment? And I think that there is a lot of discretion that’s had with that because we’re able to identify what needs to be right now, what is that highest priority? Or maybe can we think about that maybe as a summer project? Can we think about that maybe next semester? How are we being critical with our time and how are we using it to make sure that we are maintaining our own wellness, but also those changes can be volatile. I think how are we making sure that we’re protecting our team’s wellness too? I think when we jump into these roles, we’re so ready. I think you hear a lot in this field that you shouldn’t be a hall director for more than three to five years. And coming into this field, that is the perception that I had.
And I look back on my time and my season as a hall director and I think about there are humans that love that role and they love that role. They love it for what it is, for what it continues to be, and for what it will be. And I am now at a stage in my career that if you love the role, you love the work that you do, why are we putting a constraint on it? I think you can move from being a hall director to an AD in three to five years, 100%. But if the hall director role sustains you and what you get continually what you need out of it’s a beautiful season to be in. And I think that’s also something that I reflect on a lot. And those moments that I’ve had to unlearn a lot of the pieces that I’ve learned previously has been really challenging. And reconceptualizing what I knew before as moving from entry level to mid-level, that’s stretched me so much.
I think too, something that’s also stretched me a lot in the past year is the concept of training mid-level folks. Oftentimes you hear mid-level humans don’t get trained. And I think in many ways the training looks different across different levels of staff. And I think too, it provides me a lot of moment or it provides me moments where I am reflecting on that is true, but also how do we undo that and how do we commit ourselves to a really quality training experience for staff at all levels, not just entry level, not just mid-level. What does senior level training look like as well? Year one in any role, you are practicing it, you are learning it. Year two is really you understanding it and you soaking up all this knowledge and implementing it into your practice. Year three, you’ve gotten a handle on it. You are ready to go. You are like, I am ready to continue to do this work. And I think that’s so true across all positions that we have and that we see in student affairs.
Any timeline too, just being mindful of you have three to five years to become an assistant director, you have three to five years to become an associate director. I think those moments are important that you chat about with your direct supervisor too, to ensure that you have those ongoing conversations. I think when I look back on my own lessons, a lot of them have come from this year, but I also reflect on my mentor’s experiences transitioning from entry level to mid-level because they have shared so much wisdom with me that it allowed me to realize maybe I should consider putting in an application for this assistant director role because you never know until you try. You never know until you make that leap of faith thinking, can I do this? But maybe just think, I can do this and you will get nos and that’s okay. I think those nos are just redirection into thinking about how can we continue to develop and grow ourselves to know that we’re taking this feedback, we’re soaking it in and we’re applying it in the future and what we do currently in this current role that we’re in, but then how do we continue to apply it when we finally reach that point that we are ready and that we have been selected to be an AD?
Crystal Lay:
So I’m hearing the transition from entry to mid-level was the stretch. And then there’s all the lessons that you’re learning about who you are in this season of your career. I love that you mentioned that you have a mentor, you’ve been able to check in with them and really talk through what has been their journey and what are some things you can pull that can help inform yours or help you sort through. And I think that earlier you talked about it being a beautiful challenge. And so I hear this piece about discovery, who am I as I do this work? I also hear timeline. And there is research that shows that in that third year of a role, you’re just getting it. You feel comfortable and confident, you’re finding your stride. And so I think if someone is saying, “I am here to serve, serve students, serve my peers, serve this institution,” and they’re showing up and doing good work, they’re still in alignment because that can be tricky too. Then I think that’s something for individual departments to consider as they think about what’s the lifecycle of this role and what are we doing to prepare folks to get to the next level? What’s the pipeline?
As you talked about professional development earlier, I think that’s an opportunity to say, if we do have a timeline of three to four years in this role, how are we making sure that folks are ready to go to the next level when they leave our program?
So now I want to bring it to you for entry level staff who may be tuning into this or supervisors of entry level staff and they’re thinking about moving into a mid-level role or they’re wanting to support someone who’s just moved into a role, what do you wish someone had told you before you made this transition?
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
I think what I really wish someone told me … And maybe this is more of not a one-time conversation, but more of threads throughout my one-on-ones when I was a hall director is ways that I can improve. I think a lot of times when we think about moving to mid-level, what differentiates the skillsets between entry level and mid-level? Of course, there’s more strategic thinking at mid-level than there is from the entry-level experience, but also having those critical conversations of here’s where you currently are in your hall director season and here are some skills that are going to be so helpful for you when you want to make that transition to mid-level.
I’m so fortunate to have had … I mentioned my community of mentors having those conversations with me and also supervisors in this field that have been really intentional about sharing where I am or where I was as a hall director and how I can continue to move forward. But I also say too, something that I wish that was considered when it was shared with me is that you can do it. Let’s get you here. Let’s get you to the point and let’s develop you in this way. Because I think it’s not enough to say, here’s these skills that you have, here’s how they will be applied, but also here’s these skills. Let’s continue to work on them and see where you can continue to develop and grow in. So we get you to that point where you are 100%, maybe not 100%, but a higher percentage ready to start submitting these applications for these mid-level manager, whether that’s assistant director, area coordinator, whatever that classification might look like. How do we make you confident in yourself?
Because I think that there is always going to be that component of imposter syndrome looking at this position description, “Ooh, I’m not ready for that. Ooh, I don’t know how I’m going to supervise entry-level staff members.” It can be scary. And I say scary intentionally because it is. You start your day one as an AD and you meet your entry-level hall directors and you’re like, “Hey, I was just the hall director myself.” And it is scary and you build those relationships with them, but I think that you have to have folks that believe in you and you have to have folks that are ready to develop you and share right now at your current level, you have such wonderful potential. There are these few ideas that I think that we can continue to work on and grow in, but let’s talk about how we can be actionable and get you to that space.
I think too, everyone grows at their own pace. And I think that that should be also normalized in our conversations, whether it’s the assistant director having those conversations with our hall director and looking back on my own experience as a hall director, having those conversations about growth, realizing that … I remember I came into my hall director role telling my associate director, “I want to be an assistant director at year three. I only want to be a hall director for three years.” And I put a timestamp on it. And in many ways, I look back and I’m so grateful for where I am now, but I wish that I wouldn’t have put a timestamp on it because I think it put so much pressure on me too. And I was in this interview process one time and it was for another entry level position and it was a lateral move.
And I will never forget what the hiring manager said. Enjoy this season as a hall director. It happens, but once you move up, you don’t realize that you do miss it when that season is over. And I think that’s true. I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for where I am now. And I love being an assistant director, but I do also think that there does come a mourning period for when you are no longer serving a community in the same way as being on the front, having these community standards meetings, supporting these residents through such challenging experiences, supervising RAs and thinking about, “Oh, how are you planning your class schedule for the next semester?” Those are such fun and beautiful moments to share with students.
And I think this year too, one of the pieces that I have reflected on and that I have been shared now, as an AD, those moments become less frequent, but they don’t have to. I’ve learned to, through such beautiful conversations this year that ADs, and no matter you can be an assistant director, you can be a vice president of student affairs, you can be the president, you make the time to connect with students, you make the time to support them, you make the time to have those conversations with them because they still value you. They just have to know what you do. They just have to know that I’m still advocating for you. You might not see it directly, but behind the scenes know that I am sharing what I’m able to and what I’ve learned, whether that’s through experience, my grad program, et cetera, whatever, the literature that I’ve read, the scholarly articles that I’ve immersed myself in, I’m still advocating. I’m still making these processes better. I’m still making sure that you have a wonderful experience. It’s just in a different way.
And I wish someone would’ve shared that with me before I jumped into this role because I do think that oftentimes the work that we do as mid-level managers sometimes is behind the scenes and it’s not as forward-facing as what I experienced when I was a hall director because my RAs did see the work that I did. And now I have these beautiful moments with RAs now where I’m still able to have those really beautiful moments with them, sharing with them, “Here’s what I do and here’s why I do it because you are why I do it. I care about you. I care about your experience and I want you to have a wonderful one. And also, if you ever want to have those conversations with me, I’m always available to have those conversations too.” Now, I will not take the place of your supervisor because there are supervisory lines for a reason, but I’m still 100% open to getting to know RAs and making sure that they still know I care. I just came from supervising you all on your level, so I still situate myself in that care, but also I put myself in that mindset again because I’m able to use that mindset still, but still at a different way.
Crystal Lay:
Yes. And you might have gone from having 10 to 12 RAs and now you have 50 and you can’t have 50 weekly or biweekly one-on-ones. And so there’s structures for a reason. And within that structure, how do you make sure that you make serving students a priority? From time to time, Ryan, I’ll still make a door deck for my team. I will take RAs to get coffee. Now, it’s not 10 a week. It might be 10 in the semester. And so it’s really, how do you find the time to be respectful of supervisory levels and structure and also still get out there and get an understanding of who our students are and every level of staff. I think we lean too much into the higher up you go, the less contact you have. I think there’s a way to do it without burning yourself out and also not losing touch with the student experience. So as we close out our time, Ryan, are there resources … And I’m thinking books, conferences, tools that you would recommend to anyone who wanted to learn more about going from entry level to mid-level?
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Absolutely. I will always lean into my nerd identity. I’m a reader, and maybe sometimes I should just read some fiction, but we’re here. I think when I transitioned into a mid-level manager role, one of the books that had just been released was The Caring University by Kevin McClure. It’s helped me think about how I’m critical about expressing care for my hall director folks, but also making sure that I’m caring for myself. I think that has been super, super valuable to me to identify what are strategies that keep my supervision fresh, innovative, but also that enhances support for my folks, but also for me too. So that’s been a really beautiful read. So I would definitely recommend that particular book. Next, I know Robert Ackerman wrote a book about mid-level managers. I want to say The Mid-level Manager in Student Affairs: Strategies for Success published by NASPA in I want to say the mid 2000s. That has been a really great read as well. But I do also think NASPA just came out with not a newer edition, but a new book about mid-level management. And it actually just came out two days ago or published two days ago, which is beautiful. So I would definitely look into that. I have not read it because it just came out, but that’s something that’s on my list as well.
I think conferences and institutes have been really, really pivotal for me. Something that I’m really excited about and fortunate to attend is the National Housing Training Institute, part of the 2026 cohort. So what I will share about this particular experience, although I have not immersed myself and I have not attended just yet, I’ve heard wonderful and just beautiful things about this immersive experience. When you are an entry level looking to make the leap to mid-level or you are a mid-level human like me that is looking to build upon your skillset as a student affairs educator, this is one of those premier professional development opportunities to do so. So I’m really, really privileged and fortunate to be able to be a part of that cohort. So I really want to share that resource as well. I also know … Actually before I go into another one, I really want to express that this is via ACUHO-I. So ACUHO-I places this institute every year, generally in the summer, and it’s cohort-based. So you have to apply to navigate through the application process and you are notified about selection in about February.
The last one that I will mention, ACPA is Mid-level Management Institute that happens every spring. Generally March or April, I want to say, is something that I’ve also looked into. I have not had the opportunity to attend just yet, but it’s definitely in my to hopefully attend portfolio conferences that I’m interested in. So those are some resources that I have really immersed myself in, looked into, and also that I’m hopefully going to hopefully attend in the future.
But I really encourage folks that are interested in making that leap to really look at those, but also connect with your supervisor and your mentor or your mentor community. And I definitely recommend those resources too, because those are humans that will challenge you, that they will make sure that you feel supported, feel heard, but also that you’ll feel ready and that you’ll feel that you have value in no matter what role you’re in too.
Crystal Lay:
Ryan, you have given so much sage advice. I’m going to say it, a year in, and I just feel all the seasoning, you’re doing great. So thank you for sharing what you did. We will make sure that those resources you shared get added to the show notes so folks can go ahead and look those up or look into them. I am so grateful for you spending time with us today.
Ryan W. Taylor-Gonzales:
Awesome. Thank you.
Crystal Lay:
All right. So if you have an idea for a topic or a human that you would like to have on the show, please connect with us at Roompact. Thank you for hanging out with us today and take care.
