Housing and Residence Life: Community & Engagement | Competencies & Learning | Care & Case Management | Assessment
We gather here today to mourn the inbox. What started as a tool to manage communication has become a never-ending graveyard of emails. Let’s have a moment of silence for the unread messages, the reply-all disasters, and the ones “marked as high importance,” that make you question the average person’s sense of urgency. You know... Continue Reading →
Intentional conversations are a powerful tool student staff can use to foster meaningful relationships in their communities. These one-on-one dialogues, when approached with intention, provide insight into students’ lived experiences, help staff identify emerging needs, and build trust that can carry across a student’s college journey. Over time, however, conversation guides can grow stale. The... Continue Reading →
My current role involves shepherding our residential curriculum and training and advising our professional staff on our goals, outcomes, and strategies. Every year I plan for the fall in the spring and vice versa, aided by an active and resourceful group of individuals on our curriculum committee. During the summer, I tweak a few things... Continue Reading →
Click to reveal your ResLife fortune...
Around this time of year, it used to be common to see different curated lists that speak to what this incoming first-year class has experienced during their 18 years or so on this Earth. These lists would include little historical and social factoids like “these students have always lived with e-books” or “most of these... Continue Reading →
Residence life professionals know that our days (and nights) are filled with intense moments that demand presence, clarity, and care. Tea, in its diverse forms, has been a quiet companion to humans for millennia, offering calm, focus, or celebration depending on what the moment calls for. Here are six varieties of tea to pair with... Continue Reading →
Other duties as assigned. We see this catch-all in every job description, and within Residence Life we know all too well how true it tends to be. I used to think that this notion was included to protect departments from backlash when needing to give special projects and tasks to staff outside of their day-to-day... Continue Reading →
Blank stares. Awkward transitions. Forced ice breakers. A general air of dread. If that sounds like your training sessions or staff meetings, you’re probably not alone. Every year, thousands of residence life professionals roll into a new academic cycle with PowerPoints, printouts, and prayers as they facilitate these. While some chaos is to be expected,... Continue Reading →
In the world of residence life, we spend a lot of time encouraging students to “get involved,” “build community,” and “live their values.” We organize programming, lead dialogues, and guide residents toward civic engagement with the hope that these experiences will help shape them into thoughtful, connected members of the broader society. But how often... Continue Reading →
It’s seemingly a tried-and-true Housing and Residence Life tradition for departments across the country – Behind Closed Doors – the part of student staff training that new Resident Assistants tend to dread, returners – who sometimes get more into the acting than learning – tend to love. This tradition leaves professionals feeling drained, and usually... Continue Reading →
In residence life, building community is foundational. Yet, achieving it necessitates cultivating an environment where students and staff feel psychologically safe. Psychological safety, a concept rooted in organizational behavior and leadership theory, refers to an environment of rewarded vulnerability. It is a culture where individuals feel safe to speak up, take risks, and be themselves... Continue Reading →
Some of us Residence Life and Student Affairs folks came up through “the system” as residence assistants and orientation leaders before becoming resident directors or student support staff. And then there are those of us who entered this field via another route: we had former lives as teachers, librarians, or in my case, as an... Continue Reading →
You say you’re just being supportive. Available. Helpful. You tell yourself it’s what good leaders do. But when you zoom in, your staff treats GroupMe like a lifeline, you check your email like its social media, you’re one RA’s missed deadline away from crashing out. This blog post is for the supervisors who feel themselves... Continue Reading →
Student conduct work sits at the intersection of policy enforcement, education, and community building. At its best, the conduct process is a developmental opportunity that fosters student growth, accountability, and integrity. But even with the clearest policies and best intentions, ethical challenges often arise, particularly around bias, privilege, and the interpretation of policy. For entry... Continue Reading →
In residence life, the selection of student leaders such as resident assistants (RAs) is a critical task that often requires significant time and resources. Yet, despite the rigor of these processes, much of the data collected during recruitment (particularly from interviews) remains underutilized. With a strategic shift in perspective, this data can serve as a... Continue Reading →
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. DING. SWOOSH. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. On the eve of RA training one year, many of my colleagues stopped by my office to see where that boisterous clicking sound was coming from. “Is that what I think it is?” a colleague asked. “A typewriter? Yes, it is!” I replied in a... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, I was chatting with my supervisor about Residence Life Student Staff Training. I was in the planning stages of drafting everything for July and August and she was gushing about how it was her favorite time of the year. I remember looking at her deadpan in the face and saying, “Really,... Continue Reading →
In their influential work Reframing Organizations, Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal describe four frames through which organizations can be understood. In previous articles we’ve explored the three of these frames. In this final post, we will be discussing the Symbolic Frame. Through the Symbolic Frame, we see how college housing is less about logistics and... Continue Reading →
